He said naught for a moment. In truth, he seemed incapable of speech. Then he gave her a frown that was worthy of Warrick himself.
“Why do you tell me this, lady?”
That she had been reminded of Warrick gave her an answer. “I do not want to die, but my stepbrother will not listen to me. He is obsessed with killing Fulkhurst, and no wonder, for Fulkhurst has sworn to destroy him. But Gilbert does not know the man as I have come to know him as his prisoner. You will take his castle easily, aye, but you will never leave it alive, nor will I, for Gilbert will drag me back in there as well.”
“You make no sense, lady. We will have hostages, the man’s own daughters.”
“Think you that will matter to such a ruthless warlord? That is what I cannot make Gilbert understand, why he will not listen to me. His plan would work—against any other lord. But this lord has no care for his daughters or anyone else. He will sacrifice them, as well as his people, without any regrets. He will besiege his own castle, but no terms will be offered, no surrender accepted. All that man cares about is getting revenge against anyone who dares trespass against him.”
“What if you are wrong?”
“What if I am right, sirrah?” ’Twas not easy keeping exasperation from her tone. “Have you been promised so much that you will take the risk?”
“You expectmeto turn your brother from his goal?” he asked, aghast.
She was getting nowhere, and the others were starting to look their way, wondering what they were speaking of. Why did the man have to be so stalwart and dense? A coward was what she needed.
“Gilbert will not listen to you either, when all you can tell him is thatIwarned you. Like as not he will clout you for your trouble.” Then she sighed, as if in resignation. “I am sorry. I should not have spoken my fears to you, but I thought mayhap you might save yourself and any friends you might have at the other camp, since this is not your war, nor do you even belong here. I thought to ask you to take me with you if you are smart enough to leave, but now I realize you cannot help me. Gilbert’s men would stop you. Mayhap I can still convince him to send me to Ambray ere he enters the castle. Aye, I will do that.”
She turned her back on him, praying he would say naught to the others, at least not to Gilbert’s men. When she dared to glance around again, she saw him talking only to the other Kirkburough knight—in earnest.
Had she finally earned one small piece of luck? If those two would make excuse to return to the other camp, warn the Kirkburough men there, mayhap the army might actually disperse. If it happened soon enough, Gilbert would have warning of it and might give up his plan. He would rant and rave, and call the deserters cowards who knew only how to bully town merchants, but what could he do about it? Heknewhe had no right to use Lyons’ army. She would remind him of that if necessary—nay, she could not do that, or he would look to her for the reason they had departed.
She would confess instead that she had innocently referred to Fulkhurst as the dragon of the north, and that the man she spoke to had turned white as a shroud. She would then demand to know if Gilbert had not warned his men that Fulkhurst was the renowned dragon, that they had obviously heard of him as far south as Kirkburough, but had not made the connection ere then. Shewouldbe at fault, but innocently, so Gilbert would not blame hertoomuch—she hoped.
At any rate, he would not chase after those men if he were convinced they were cowards and would not now fight for him. He would have to come up with some other scheme to gain another army, and unfortunately, he had her again to do it. As soon as he realized that, he would not be so mad. But as soon as he realized it, she would be more heavily guarded. God’s mercy, was there no way out of this dilemma for herself?
But the man she had spoken to did not try to leave any time soon. She began to think he was too brave for his own good when one of the men who had gone with Gilbert returned to warn that several patrols had been sent out from the castle, likely to search for Rowena. She was inclined to agree. Whether she was runaway serf or escaped prisoner, the castle guards were obligated to find her or face Warrick’s wrath. But their search was not to Gilbert’s liking, for it put his plan in danger.
A man was to go and warn the other camp just in case the searchers went that deeply into the woods. If the army was sighted, they were to capture the men, for at no cost were tales of their presence to return to the castle. Both the Kirkburough men volunteered to go, then suggested they ride together in case they came upon one of the patrols.
’Twas all Rowena could do to keep from smiling.
Chapter 36
The afternoon dragged by with nerve-racking slowness. Rowena went through countless imaginings of what was going to happen, but the fact remained that unless the other camp was in the next shire, one of Gilbert’s men should have returned ere now to report that the Kirkburough men were departing—unless they were not departing.
That was, of course, possible. The two men who left here might not have bothered to stop to save their comrades from “certain death,” but merely decided to save themselves. Or she could have misconstrued their eagerness to leave with wishful thinking. For that matter, the man she spoke to might not have said aught of her tale to his friend. Their earnest talk could have been about something else entirely, her tale discounted since it came from a frightened woman.
She must have been mad to think a few words from her would panic a large army of men—nay, she had not hoped to panic them, merely to point out that they did not belong in this war, would not get paid for participating, and would be better served by returning to their rightful lord. Fat lot of good it had done her.
With rain still threatening, it had been impossible to tell when dusk was approaching. Suddenly ’twas just there, and so was Gilbert, riding pell-mell through the trees in his excitement, bringing his poor horse to a painful stop. He did not seem to notice that the number of men he had left behind had decreased, but mayhap he did not intend to use them all anyway. After all, the more men who rode with him, the less chance he would have of gaining entrance to a closed castle no matter his reasons.
He did not dismount, merely did he locate Rowena and hold out his hand to her. “I have decided to say I found you on the road, without escort, and as you would not tell me whence you came, I was forced to bring you with me. ’Tis my hope they will take you off my hands, as my business for the king is urgent and cannot be delayed even for so comely a lady.” Then he grinned widely to ask her, “Think you they will relieve me of the burden of you?”
“Since they were liable to be dismissed or severely whipped for letting me escape to begin with, aye, I do not doubt the drawbridge will be lowered.”
She made her voice as surly as possible, as if she despised the idea. It must have worked, for he laughed.
“Fret not, Rowena. You need endure that dungeon for only a few hours more, then never again. Is that not worth Fulkhurst’s downfall, after what he has done to you?”
She would not answer that. What Warrick had done to her was get even for what Gilbert had done to her. The one man she had not blamedtoomuch. He felt himself justified. The other she would blame forever.
“Ifyou succeed in your plan, Gilbert, will be soon enough to see what my imprisonment is worth.”
Since he had expected just such a response from her, he was not displeased. There was naught much thatcoulddisplease him right now, with the taste of victory so close. But Rowena’s surliness was not all feigned. She was glad that the doubts she had planted had borne fruit. She would be able to foil Gilbert’s scheme and get him captured in the process, whichwasworth whatever it cost her. But she would have preferred her other strategy to have worked instead, so she would not end up back in Warrick’s hands as she would now. The other would have left her with Gilbert, but before he could find a new use for her, shewouldhave found a way to be rid of him and his threats.
But ’twas not to be. She looked once toward the deeper woods ere they rode off, but there was still no sign of his men coming to warn that he had lost his army. Thrice more she looked back. There was still time. But all was quiet behind them.
