William held up a hand to ease his son. “I will return to Castle Questing with your mother and Caria first and collect a sizable army, one that will protect against a handful of reivers,” he said. “My army and I will travel to Kyloe and I will get to the bottom of these rumors about Lady Adelaide.”
“And if they are true?”
William sighed heavily. “You are not going to like this.”
Thomas frowned. “Why not?”
William was thoughtful as well as grim. “If there are witnesses to her madness, then by law, she can be arrested,” he said. “But if she is arrested before your marriage, Northumbria will revert to the crown and we will once again be apprehensive of who Edward will grant the earldom to. But if you marry her first…”
Thomas got his meaning right away. “Then I retain the earldom while she rots in the vault.”
“Exactly.”
Jordan’s hands flew to her mouth. “Nay,” she breathed. “Tommy has to marry that… thatkiller?”
William looked at his wife. “I realize that this sounds hard and calculating, but it is the reality of things,” he said. “Tommy marries her, I arrest her on the king’s authority as a murderess, and Tommy remains the Earl of Northumbria, never to see Adelaide again. We may even be able to have the marriage annulled while he retains the title. If Edward is in a generous mood, and the church is convinced that Adelaide is possessed with the devil or worships the devil, as she has professed not to believe in God, then that may be possible.”
It was complicated. So very complicated. But strangely, Thomas wasn’t opposed to it. He saw what his father was trying to do. If he could get the marriage annulled, that meant Thomas would be free to remarry.
And he knew just who he would choose.
Maitland would make a magnificent countess.
“Then we must do as we must, Papa,” Thomas said quietly. “I am with you.”
William reached out, putting a big hand on Thomas’ shoulder. “Good,” he said. “Meanwhile, we all depart at dawn. Mayhap you will come back to Castle Questing with us, Tommy?”
Thomas shrugged casually. “I was thinking of going to Northwood Castle,” he said. “I will go visit Uncle Paris for a few days. And then I may go to Edenside to see how my money has been spent. Des told me that Lady Bowlin has been doing remarkable things with the place.”
The part about Northwood Castle was a bit of a lie, to throw his father off of his train of thought, but he included the part about Edenside just so he wouldn’t be lying completely. Still, William was on to him. Knowing how Thomas felt about Lady Bowlin, he didn’t think that was a particularly good idea for the man to go to Edenside, not in the middle of this crisis, but he didn’t say so. Thomas was a grown man and he was capable of making his own decisions. The main thing now was that they clear out of Wark. Adelaide would be left alone, wondering where everyone had gone, but that couldn’t be helped.
No one wanted to be bottled up with a killer.
That night, William, Jordan, Thomas, and Caria slept behind a bolted door in the master’s chamber. While William and Jordan slept on the bed, Thomas slept in a big chair with Caria snuggled against him. No matter how much Jordan coaxed, the little girl wouldn’t come and sleep between her parents. She wanted to sleep in the chair with “her” Thomas.
It had been a tense night and no one but Caria seemed to get much sleep. But just before dawn, they moved out in silence, loading Jordan and Caria up in the fortified carriage while Thomas informed Desmond that he would be escorting his parents home. It was a lie, of course, but he did it for two reasons– he didn’t want the man tipped off about Adelaide’s ghastly character because he wanted him to behave normally with the woman, and he didn’t want the man tipped off to the fact that Thomas’ true destination was Edenside. Given their conversation the day before, he didn’t think Desmond would take that too well.
Therefore, as the sun began to rise in the east, the great gates of Wark Castle opened and the de Wolfe party headed out into the cold, gray dawn.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Edenside
“Tie up thegoat, Artus!” Maitland called to the boy. “Do not let it push you around!”
Artus was trying desperately not to fall victim to an aggressive nanny goat. He’d milked the goat every day for the past four days and thought he was doing a rather good job, but the goat must have thought otherwise. Maitland had shown him three times how to properly milk the goat, but he simply didn’t have the hang of it yet, whilst the girls, Marybelle and Nora, were doing a much better job of it. They had soft girl hands, or so Artus had been told, and the nanny goats liked them much better.
“She doesna like me,” Artus declared as the goat swung her head at him, clipping him on the arm. “Do I have tae milk it?”
Maitland had been standing a few feet away, watching the scene unfold with Artus and his enemies, the goats. They really didn’t like him much and Maitland had been trying to figure outwhy but, ultimately, she decided that Artus simply didn’t have a way with the animals like the others had. Therefore, she waved him off.
“Nay,” she said. “You’ll have to work in the kitchen with Tibelda, making the cheese. The others will do the milking. Go on, now, to the kitchen with you. Tibelda will be requiring your help.”
Defeated by the horned beasts, Artus walked past her, dejectedly, heading for the kitchen yard where Tibelda was boiling goat’s milk over a flaming hearth, making the cheese with the help of Renard, Roland, and little Dyana. The younger children remained in the kitchen with Tibelda while the older ones handled the herd, but now Artus was relegated to the kitchen and he wasn’t particularly thrilled about it.
While Marybelle and Nora continued to milk the nanny goats, at least the ones who were cooperating, Maitland turned away from the animal pen and headed for the kitchen to collect another bucket. They had eight nanny goats, three of which were pregnant, two with baby goats that produced the most milk so far, and one Billy goat who remained in another pen and away from the others. He was very mean, this goat, so mean that Maitland had given him the name of Addy.
It was short for Adelaide.
