“How about we wait until I am clear of the gallows before you call me heroic, there are many hours to go where this narrative might fall apart.” He looked down on his hands again, turning them over as if seeing the skin for the first time. “We could leave now? You could go get Sean?—”
“I would ask Liam, he is helpful and winna argue as much as one of my sons.”
“Ask Liam to let me go… we could leave and never return.”
“Aye, Wilfrey, we could. But I worry, if ye arna here tae answer tae John about what happened, he might begin looking elsewhere. What if he suspects Lizbeth? I think we need tae stay, at least until John hears yer story, so he winna hae a doubt, then I will get ye free, ye hae my word.” I looked around the dungeon.
He clenched his jaw. “I have your word?”
“Aye, I winna leave ye tae the gallows, tae the whims of John — ye think I might?”
“You have proven to be diabolical.”
“Tae others perhaps, but not tae ye. I am nae that black-hearted, and I like ye a great deal. And even if I dinna like ye much, I would never let John harm ye, ye are mine. He canna hae ye. I hae just been pleading with Magnus, he has assured me that he will do anything for yer cause. Nae one will let ye hang.”
He chuckled. “A king’s word, I suppose I will take that as a good sign.”
“He means it, he is grateful tae ye, his sister means a great deal tae him and now he has agreed tae produce yer movie. This is all verra good news.”
“My movie will be about a man who offers to take a fall without a plan. It will be a thriller.”
“I daena much like thrillers, I prefer movies with a good guy and a villain and car chases.”
He laughed.
I poured more wine in my glass. “It dawns on me that this is the problem with the Earl, he never understood his place in the hierarchy. I am much higher above him?—”
“Past tense, thatwasthe problem with the Earl.”
“Aye, I accepted his insults for forty years, trying the sensible approach. I daena recommend it. And tonight he has been ended. I would raise a toast, but twould be unseemly.”
He looked at me, then said, “I am sorry you had to deal with that for forty years. Someone should have stuck up for you.”
“Magnus did once, well… not Magnus, a branch of his older self, we called him Auld Magnus, he called my first husband out tae the courtyard tae fight over his treatment of me. My husband was dead soon after.”
“How did he die?”
Images flashed in my mind of Lowden, pressing on his chest and belching as he collapsed tae the ground. I shook my head of it. “Tis nae important, theonlyimportant thing was I was finally free. ForthatI can raise a glass.”
We both held up our glasses and took a sip.
He passed me his cup. “I probably should not drink anymore, I need to keep my wits.”
“I just daena ken what ye were thinking, ye had tae ken twould be a risk, ye had tae ken that this is life and death.”
“It did not cross my mind. I only wanted to help. I have the skills to help. Maybe I wanted to prove myself to King Magnus and… I am relieved he will keep me from the gallows.”
“He will do everything in his power?—”
“He is a king, I just saved his sister, he can definitely save me.”
“I daena ken, Magnus has little power here, he is called a bastard, he has been disrespected much of his life.”
“I should have known that before I did something this foolhardy.”
“Ye ought tae hae been wiser, aye, tis easy tae see that the Earl was the seat of power, and that my family has been powerless, here by his good grace. I told ye this, many times. Yet still ye…”
“I stepped in and took the fall for your daughter.”
