“He’s dead?”
“Aye.”
“How long?”
“Four months now.”
He made his way over to her, slowly, his gaze sweeping across the plain, gray tomb. There was nothing of decoration on it at all. Without remorse or emotion, he turned to his knights. “Open it.”
Nicola was horrified. “No! You mustn’t!”
“I must confirm your story, Madam. Surely you know that.”
“But… you cannot violate his tomb!”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “There is no name on this tomb. It could be empty for all I know and your husband could be halfway to Scotland by now. If he is not in here, your children will receive the punishment for your lies. You do realize that, of course.”
“Of course I do, I’m no fool,” she struggled not to become hysterical. “He is in there, I tell you. I would not lie with my children’s lives at stake.”
Gerik returned to the chapel bearing a heavy hammer. He marched straight to the sepulcher and raised the hammer above his head.
“Wait!” Nicola cried. “Please, hear me first before you smash it to bits and release this horrible secret!”
Gerik ignored her. He was in the process of bringing the hammer down when Kenton stopped him. His incredible strength halted what surely would have been a crushing blow. Kenton looked at the woman, his blue eyes hard.
“This is the second mention of such a secret. You will tell me now.”
“I will. But please… do not smash the tomb.”
Kenton sent Gerik aside, waiting with the hammer as a threat to her should she not do as she was told. The lady stood there a moment, distress etched on her lovely features.
“I am waiting, Madam.”
She knew that. Lord, she knew that. “The children do not know that he is dead.”
“Why not?”
She sighed heavily, claiming a seat on the nearest pew for support. There was lethargy in her manner, a resignation of someone who had been witness to far too much pain and suffering.
“I told them that he is away, fighting Edward’s war.”
“Why would you do that?”
The tears that had been on the surface since their introduction came forth and spilled down her creamy cheeks. Kenton felt a strange tugging in his chest, something he didn’t recognize. Until he felt it again later in his life, he did not realize that it was compassion. He watched her wipe at her cheeks and summon bravery.
“My husband was not a kind man, my lord,” she said quietly. “He… he would drink quite often and find delight in using me to alleviate his fury. My boys knew this, of course. One night, nearly six months ago, my husband was releasing his fury by taking his fists to me. Tab heard this and….”
“Tab?”
“My eldest son.”
“Continue.”
Nicola swallowed, her mouth dry with embarrassment and fear. “Tab heard what his father was doing to me. He raced into our chamber and drove a sword into his father’s back. No one knows where he got the sword; he never would tell me. More than likely he stole it from a soldier. In any case, it wasn’t a deep puncture, but it did wound him. But it wasn’t the injury that killed Gaylord; it was the infection. My husband succumbed to the fever as a result of Tab’s sword.”
The tugging in Kenton’s chest grew worse but he ignored it. “I still do not understand what the secret is.”
Nicola looked at him, then, deep sorrow in her eyes. “Tab killed his father, my lord. He didn’t mean to, but he was protecting me. Tab doesn’t know; we never told him. He knew his father was sick, but to explain Gaylord’s sudden absence, we told the boys that he recovered and went back to war. Tab cannot know that his father is dead, much less that he was the cause of it. If you smash this tomb to confirm that Gaylord is there, I do not know how I can keep it from him.”
