“I will decide what deserves punishment,” he warned her. “So do not think you can keep this from me as you have your brother’s name. I will have an answer or—”
“If you dare to threaten me after what I have been through,” she cut in furiously, “I swear I will lose what little food I ate today—which was army fare and rancid—right…on…your…foot! You would be better served by preparing for a siege—just in case—or is that not more important than one worthless prisoner who is going nowhere now, thanks to her accursed brother?Thenyou will have ample time, I doubt it not, to deal with my escape, my theft—my audacity!”
She whirled around and left him sitting there, too angry to care if she had enraged him beyond reason with her tirade. So she did not see the slow grin that came to his lips, or hear the laughter that followed. But his men did. And more than one wondered what he found so amusing whilst he issued orders that saw to the castle’s defenses.
Chapter 38
The noise coming from the Great Hall predicted the evening meal was still in progress. Rowena could hear it as she mounted the stairs to the hall, and her step slowed. Her temper cooled as well with the reminder of what she was about to face.
She had intended to go straight to the kitchen to rectify the scant amount of food she had eaten that day, but now she changed her mind. Only there was no placetogo that would not take her through that hall. Back outside, then? Nay, the first drops of the long-brewing storm had just started to fall as she had entered the tower. She had avoided being caught in it all day. She was not going back out in it now.
Warrick found her sitting dejectedly on the steps in the darkest shadows cast by the torches at both ends of the stairs. He waved on the few men who had entered with him, until only he stood over her. She would not look up at him, though he knew she was aware ’twas him. She was not forthcoming with an explanation for being there either.
He finally had to ask, “What do you here? I would have thought you would be replacing thatrancidmeal in your belly with more tempting viands from Master Blouet—that you will not be as likely to vomit.”
She still did not look up, but she did shrug. “I would have thought so, too, but I have to enter the hall to get to the kitchen.”
“So?”
“So I—I would like you with me if I am to be accused.”
Rowena could not imagine why that statement would cause Warrick to draw her up into his arms and kiss her, but that was what he did. He was soaking wet, but she did not care. She clung to him, noting the lack of passion in that kiss, and welcoming what was there instead: warmth, safety, his strength—and tenderness. She almost cried, to be given something like that after what she had been through.
When he set her back, his hand still caressed her cheek, and his smile added warmth to his eyes. “Come,” he said gently and led her up the stairs with an arm about her waist. “I will not have you blame me again if you feel the urge to empty your belly—or is it the babe?”
“Nay—leastwise I do not think so.”
“Then go eat,” he said, pushing her toward the kitchen stairs.
“What about you?”
“I am sure I can make do without your attendance this once, though when you have finished, you can bring me a bottle of my new wine—and order us a bath.”
’Twas not a slip of the tongue, that “us,” and Rowena was still blushing from it as she entered the kitchen moments later. Once she was there, everything seemed normal. Work did not come to a standstill at her appearance. Guards were not summoned. But Mary Blouet did notice her, and bore down on her like a war-horse in full charge.
“I ought to take a stick to ye, girl,” were her first words as she pulled Rowena into the stores room, away from other ears. “Where the devil have ye been? The whole castle was searched. They even sent out patrols.”
“Did—did aught happen yestereve that I should be concerned about?”
“Ah, so that be why ye hid,” Mary replied, only to frown. “But ye were hiding long before then. I looked for ye all afternoon, as it happens, but—well, I told no one ye was missing. Ye earned the respite, was the way I saw it, as hard as Lord Warrick had been working ye. Then when Lady Beatrix made such a ruckus over her missing pearls—it be no wonder ye did not come out of hiding.”
So that was why Beatrix had gone ahead with her plan. She had not known that Rowena had left the castle, because Mary felt she had needed a rest. ’Twas worth laughing over, but Rowena had turned cold with dread at Mary’s confirmation that she had a good reason to hide.
“Were the pearls found?”
“Aye, in Lord Warrick’s solar. It be strange, that. The guard Thomas said Lady Beatrix seemed to know right where those pearls would be, as if she had put them there herself. Yet Lady Beatrix claims ye be the one took them, since her sister says she saw you outside their chamber just before ’twas time to change for dinner.”
Rowena gasped. “When?”
“Before dinner,” Mary replied. “That was when they could not find the pearls, yet do they claim to have seen them just an hour earlier.”
“That wouldst be late afternoon when last they saw them?” Rowena asked excitedly.
“Aye, so they say.”
Rowena laughed. She almost hugged Mary Blouet; then her relief overcame her and she did hug her.
“Here now,” Mary grumbled, though not really displeased. “What was that for?”
