He lowered his gaze from hers. “I believe you. But Miss, you are married, whether you wish it to be so or not. What will you do when Rothbury is found?”
She looked toward Phillip and shrugged her shoulders. “Perhaps, he will not escape the next grave he finds himself in.”
The leader crooked his mouth at her and nodded as she walked away then motioned for his men to keep moving toward Edlingham.
The leader’s name was David Lawson. He was forty-four years old—about the same age as Berengaria. He had once been considered Edward Longshanks’ most fearsome warrior. When EdwardII took the throne, he dismissed his father’s generals and officers and put his personal friends in charge. Some of the original men had remained, some had not.
Lawson had given the second Edward his loyalty, but he soon discovered that when they went to war with the Scots, the new king always positioned Lawson and the others on the front line. He wanted to be rid of his father’s memory, including his father’s men. So finally, Lawson left. But he was still loyal to the throne. His mother was a relative of Louis Pratt’s grandmother.
The road back to Edlingham wasn’t long, so that was all Julianna could learn about the older warrior.
They entered the manor house but, astoundingly, the viscount was not where they left him. Julianna couldn’t be happier! But, if they didn’t find him soon and the men began to doubt her, there would be trouble.
She called out and led everyone to the keep, but he was found moments later in the tower, armed and close to death in the rushes.
She remained at his bedside for the next two days while Lawson and his men cleared the dead from the castle and buried them in the woods.
They locked Phillip away in the dungeon until Lawson decided what to do with him.
In the evening, she made certain the men, twelve in all, had something warm in their bellies. But she served no ale, wine, or whisky. Nothing to make the men more reckless, daring, defiant…no. No spirits.
She had one thing on her mind. Nicholas was alive. He’d been spotted in several inns, traveling with a woman.
Where was he now? Was he thinking of her? She saw him in her mind, so handsome, so rugged and resilient against the wind. Did he miss her? Did he know Phillip was alive? What would she do now that he was? The church would tell her she was still married. She didn’t care. She would be with Nicholas. She would never leave him or Elias.
“I’ve sent some of my men to Lismoor and Alnwick,” Mr. Lawson said, entering the viscount’s room.
Julianna turned to him with a grateful smile. “You have my gratitude.”
He dipped his head then smiled at her when he straightened. “We will find him.”
“Aye,” she agreed with a sigh. She was so grateful to him and to Louis for doing so much to help her, a woman they didn’t know, find a man they didn’t know. She would never forget. She brightened suddenly, remembering her news. “His fever broke about an hour ago!”
“Ah!” he said with a dimpled smile. “That is good news. My mother would never forgive me if he died in my care.”
“We will stop that from happening,” Julianna replied with a muffled laugh. “He should be waking up any moment now. He will be happy to see you.”
“Happier to see you, I’m sure.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed. “At first.”
When she looked away and yawned, he continued to talk, filling her ears with the droning, comforting sound of his voice—putting her to sleep in her chair.
She woke up twice, not completely, but somewhere close to the veil of awareness. She heard men laughing, saw the blurred image of someone golden-haired sitting up, propped on many pillows. He had a cup in one hand.
She smiled and breathed his name, “Louis?”
Nicholas was gettingtired of waiting for DeAvoy. If Phillip had Julianna, they should be back here by now. Where else would Phillip take her? He was a madman. Who knew what his mad thoughts told him to do? How long into his friendship with Julianna had Phillip known that the woman she loved so much was in his father’s pit, suffering unspeakable torment? It didn’t matter; what did matter was that he didn’t change it.
They had to leave. He’d talked it over with Simon and Margaret and they let him know that they trusted him. He hoped it would go as well with his mother.
She hadn’t shown any further signs of knowing him over the past pair of days. Despite sleeping beside her open door, she gave him no proof that she knew him. He didn’t care. Her not knowing strangely gave him a small bit of peace. She hadn’t left him because of anything he had done or hadn’t done.
The rest was horror, shame, and fury.
She’d been taken, absconded by Phillip’s family and tortured alone and in the dark because of what she knew. Their mother had been taken and kept in a pit. Who had comforted her when she cried? Not him. He’d pushed her from his thoughts because he hadn’t believed in her better, the way Julianna had after they discovered she was gone. He’d never searched for her the way Julianna had.
He wanted to be the one who reunited them.
