De Noble just looked at her, intently. One moment, he was standing there and in the next he was pulling Emllyn into a crushing embrace. His mouth came down on hers, brutally, but Emllyn slapped him so hard that the man lost his grip on her. As de Noble stumbled back, looking both startled and horrified, Emllyn threw open the solar door.
“Try that again and I shall ram my knee into your manhood so hard that you’ll be spitting blood for a week,” she snarled. “You are nothing but an old, silly fool, de Noble. Stay away from me!”
As she marched out into the foyer beyond, leaving de Noble in stunned silence, a soldier suddenly rushed in through the big, open entry. He looked around frantically in the dim light of the foyer and, spying de Noble in the doorway to his solar, he rushed the man.
“My lord!” he said swiftly. “We have sighted an incoming party.”
De Noble wiped at the corner of his mouth, slightly bloodied when Emllyn’s clip drove his soft cheek into his teeth. “Who are they?” he asked. “Can you tell?”
The sentry shook his head. “We are not sure, my lord,” he replied. “But they are coming from the north.”
Black Castle is to the north!Emllyn paused in her haste to leave de Noble, her heart leaping into her throat. De Noble didn’t even look at her as he walked past her and out into the ward beyond and Emllyn hardly cared; she was happy to have the man well away from her but more than that, she was thrilled with the prospect that Devlin might actually be returning.Was it possible?The mere idea swamped her until her pulse pounded and her breathing came in funny little gasps.
Knowing she would receive a much better view of the village and the subsequent outlying areas from the smaller third floor chamber that was usually kept available for visiting guests, Emllyn gathered her skirts and raced up the stairs.
Her heart was throbbing in her ears as she reached the third floor and bolted into the empty chamber with its naked bedframe and sparse furnishings. This chamber was situated so that it had a view of the north and west with a big oriel window much the same as the one Emllyn had. Eagerly, she climbed upon the windowsill as much as she dared and strained to catch a glimpse of the incoming party.
In nervous silence, she settled down to wait.
*
They could seethe de Cleveley settlement in the distance, a great spattering of stone and thatched buildings and the walls that enclosed them, and right in the middle was the tall and stately keep. As Devlin and Victor, leading the pack of Englishprisoners, drew close enough to the settlement to see the sentries on the walls, Devlin turned to Victor.
“Now,” he said, eyeing the village in the distance, “if my treacherous commander has made it here before me, then they will be waiting for me, I am sure. Since I do not wish to walk into a trap, you and your men will wait here and I will continue on to the gates where I will ask to speak with the commander. I am fairly certain at that point I will know if Frederick has made it here before me. De Noble’s reaction upon seeing me will tell me much.”
Victor, too, was eyeing the village in the distance. “And then what?” he said. “De Bermingham, all they need do is send out a group of men on horseback to capture you if that is the case. You cannot flee them on foot.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Victor nodded firmly. “I do,” he said. “Let me go to them and find out what I can. If your man has indeed made it here and betrayed both you and my daughter… I mean, the Lady Emllyn… then I will find out. If she is in the vault, then I will tell the commander that it is your wish to exchange thirty-three English prisoners for her life. You had better let me be the emissary because if you go near them and they know who you are, then both you and the Lady Emllyn will be in serious danger. I do not know if I will be able to get you out of it.”
Devlin looked rather amused. “You would try and get me out of danger?” he asked. “Why?”
Victor gave him a rather dead-pan look, although there wasn’t much weight behind it. It was an expression coming from a man who knew he had little choice in the matter.
“Because when you marry my daughter, you will become the only son I have,” he said, watching Devlin grin. “I cannot let my only son become fodder for de Cleveley, no matter if youareBlack Sword.”
Devlin couldn’t help but chuckle. “So you have come to terms with your only son, have you?”
“I have little choice.”
Devlin nodded in agreement, his humor fading. “That is true.”
Victor held his gaze a moment longer before waving him off in a somewhat light and dismissive gesture. “Moreover, you showed your English prisoners mercy you did not have to display,” he said quietly. “I at least owe you a measure of the same.”
“Even though it was I who destroyed Kildare’s fleet in the first place?”
Victor shrugged. “Such are the perils of war.”
Devlin’s gaze lingered on the man a moment. “Indeed they are,” he said, eyeing the settlement once more. “The situation being what it is, I will agree with your plans. You will go instead of me. However, if my commander has not come here and they still believe me to be John the farmer, then you will come back after contacting de Noble and bring us all in to the settlement. I will wait here with your men. You will tell de Noble that I rescued you from Black Sword’s dungeon and brought you here. That will give me much credibility in de Noble’s eyes.”
“Agreed.”
“One more thing; you should tell your men not to give away my true identity. That, too, will reflect badly on Emllyn. They must keep the secret if there is any chance of getting us all out of this situation unscathed.”
Victor nodded, glancing back at his collection of weary and worn men, including Trevor and his lover. The lover was an older man, a seasoned soldier, and along with William du Reims, whose health had suffered greatly in captivity, the three of them kept vigilant watch over the men. Victor eyed his group of weary and beaten men, now exhausted after a two day march south.
“I’ve not told them anything, you know,” he said quietly. “I was not going to say a word until you told me to.”
