His heart ached.
“This one is not dead!” a man called out somewhere to his left.
A few moments later another man rode up behind the cart and came close on horseback. “We have the earl and we have the bishop.”
Nicholas tried to remember to breathe. He kept his eyes closed, not caring if the man knew he was awake or not. Was the soldier going to say they had Julianna and his son?
“Tell the king that Lancaster was making deals with you,” the man said and came around to the side of the cart to look at Nicholas, “and I might let you live.”
“And who are you?” Nicholas asked him, opening his eyes.
The man smiled but there was nothing friendly about it. Nicholas narrowed his gaze. Where had he seen…no! He tried frantically to be free, but to no avail.
“I am the Defier of Death—”
“Phillip,” Nicholas stared at him, both horrified and stunned. Did he know Julianna was at Lismoor? Had he seen her? Did he have her? Nicholas’ heart drummed hard in his chest making him feel ill.
The man’s gaze hardened on him, no doubt wondering from where he knew Nicholas’ face. “Aye,” he said, “Phillip DeAvoy, Governor of Alnwick.” He stared for another moment and then his smile faded into disgust. “William. Well, I will be damned. You are William Stone, are you not?”
“You said it,” Nicholas replied with no trace of emotion is his voice, though his eyes blazed like all-consuming fires.
Phillip laughed and the sound brought back memories of how Phillip used to torment and harass him. Nicholas couldn’t hit him back then. There was nothing holding him back now—save that he could not move.
No! No, Phillip could not be alive!
“First,” he said, “you will tell me how a peasant became the Earl of Rothbury.”
“Where is the bishop?” Nicholas demanded. As much as he liked the bishop, it was Julianna and his son he wanted to know about. But if DeAvoy hadn’t seen her and he did not know she was at Lismoor, Nicholas didn’t want to clue him in.
“Second, you will tell me where I can find Julianna Feathers.”
Nicholas tried not to react to hearing Julianna’s name coming from his mouth. There was nothing he could do.
DeAvoy moved closer and bent to the cart. His smile was more like a snarl when he cast it on Nicholas. At least he didn’t have her. “You remember her, do you not, Stone? I know she ran to you. She could never wait to get back to you when we were young. She tried to kill me. Did you know that? She buried mealive! I woke up eating and breathing dirt! I clawed my way out of that hell and vowed that she would pay. So you will tell me where she is or I will personally kill the bishop when the king is done with him. But I promise you, I will find her.”
Nicholas wanted to beat him almost to death, and then finish what Julianna had begun with a shovel. “The last time I saw Julianna Feathers—”
DeAvoy turned and shouted to someone behind the cart. “Go back to Lismoor. Look for a woman with fiery red hair and—”
“She is there,” a man called out. “I met her almost a sennight ago. She was traveling alone to Lismoor. But she said her name was Julianna Fenly.”
Nicholas struggled to move.
DeAvoy watched him and smiled. “Bring her to Alnwick. And Bamburgh…”
“Aye?”
“Do not touch her or she will try to kill you.”
Bamburgh didn’t reply, but left on his horse.
DeAvoy grinned and peered down at Nicholas. “I’m not going to kill you right away, servant. I’m going to have you ripped apart while she watches and then, in an act of supreme domination, I’m going to castrate you and piss on your balls.”
With every bit of strength he had left, Nicholas pulled one arm free and snatched DeAvoy by the throat. Pain lanced through him in agonizing fire, but he held on and squeezed. For touching Julianna whether as a husband or a tyrant. For all the years he harassed Nicholas for no other reason than because he could.
But his might was weak and he blacked out just before DeAvoy did.
“Make him stopcrying or I will kill him!”
