“So he was a bit tactless,” Ranulf snorted. “What had the lady against Eric and Walter, or were they likewise offensive?”
“Not at all, which is why her manner was so strange.”
“Can you think of a reason why she might behave so?”
“I might.” This from the outlaw, not the least hesitant in gaining Ranulf’s attention again. “Rumor has it Louise de Burgh has set her affections on William Lionel, one of her household knights. With a husband firmly in mind, would she welcome other prospects?”
“How would you know this?” Ranulf demanded.
The man shrugged. “We have our ways of learning things, just as we knew of your first coming, just as we knew who it was you sent fleeing from Clydon that morn.”
“We already know who attacked Clydon.”
“Do you, my lord?”
It was said in such a way as to leave no doubt that the outlaw knew something that Ranulf did not, and Ranulf had never been one to enjoy being toyed with. In a trice, he had the man lifted by the front of his leather jerkin to bring them eye to eye.
“Best you spit it out right quickly, ere I recall why I had you summoned to me.”
“They fled to Warhurst!”
“You lie,” Ranulf hissed. “I have it on good authority the castellan there is an imbecile. Did he not prove it by accepting a message last eventide and acting on it without knowing from whom it came? The proof is that you are here.”
“He is as you say, but his lord is not, and Lord Richard was in Warhurst all that week, as well as on the road that morn with a large troop of men, none of whom wore his colors, nor did he. I saw him myself returning to Warhurst with a wound on his right shoulder. I am not like to mistake the man who had me outlawed for the simple reason that he coveted my wife.”
Ranulf slowly set the man down. Then to the bafflement of his men and their prisoners, he burst into laughter. Could his little general have erred that badly about the man she had hoped to wed? Could the lordling have erred that badly, wanting her, unaware that she wanted him, too, deciding to take her by force? Christ’s toes, that was rich!—if it was true. He sobered, eyes narrowing on the outlaw.
“You are a veritable font of information, Master Brigand.”
The man drew himself up stiffly now that color was returning to his cheeks. “What I know of the de Burgh widow is merely rumor and speculation. She is young and still a child in many ways. I would be the first to doubt she sent her men after yours. Yet I do know my men were not involved, and those who were came from the direction of Keigh Manor. The answer is no doubt simple—I just do not myself see it, or pretend to know it. What I know of Richard of Warhurst, however, is truth.”
“So you say, but you have yourself admitted to having good reason for blackening his name,” Ranulf pointed out.
“So I have—so does every man with me. He is a man with a powerful father, and so he thinks he is above the law. In Warhurst he is, for there are none to gainsay him. If anyone tries, they quickly find themselves joining our band.”
“You are saying you are all of Warhurst?”
“Aye, banished without fair hearing and denied our families. If not by Lord Richard, then by his castellan or those fat merchants in his favor, who all liken their ways to his, charging a man falsely because they want something of his or simply do not like him. And all that I have said can be proved by questioning anyone at Warhurst.”
“If that is so, then why did you never seek redress in the shire court?”
“Against a lord, and one who still holds our families within the walls of his town, subject to his whims?”
Ranulf grunted. He knew the power of petty tyrants firsthand. Montfort was one.
“You are no villein. What were you in Warhurst?”
“Lord Richard’s clerk,” he replied in disgust. “Not even my knowledge of his ill-gotten gains prevented him from getting rid of me.”
Ranulf’s brow rose. “Ill-gotten gains, as in stolen cattle and sheep?”
“Aye, that, too, among other things.”
“As inClydon’sstolen cattle and sheep?” Ranulf clarified.
“I know not where the stock came from, only that ’twas taken north for sale.”
“Tell me one thing more,” Ranulf demanded. “Why has no one in Clydon suspected this lordling’s tyranny, when they are such close neighbors?”
