Page 194 of The Daughters of Avalon
Our debt, he’d said.
And he’d smiled yet again, very fondly, at mention of Rosalynde. Much as it pained her, Seren resigned herself to their love, even as she found new cause to fear her own fate. How could she wed a member of the Palatine Guard? Those murderers were tasked with the execution of her grandmamau.Only how, in the name of the Goddess had her sister found it in her heart to accompany that odious man anywhere once she’d learned the truth?
Giles was a Paladin?
A Paladin!
“Seren,” Wilhelm entreated again, perhaps thinking her reticent. “If, indeed, the boy saw one of your mother’s ravens, I’d not put him at risk any more than we must. After what I have witnessed, I fear for the lad. He would be much safer at Neasham. Without you, he would be of no concern to your mother.”
It was impossible to argue. He was right. Jack was in far more danger traveling with them. And though she thanked Wilhelm for not mentioning the fact, she knew very well that the journey would be quicker as well. So much as she would love to linger in perpetuity with Wilhelm, she knew it was folly. He was not hers, and he would never be hers. But, in truth, her mother would kill them all if she found them, and how would Seren feel, if she were responsible for the deaths of both Wilhelm and the boy?
She peered once more at Jack, sleeping so peacefully, weary from travel, then nodded. “Very well.”
“We are agreed, then?”
“Aye,” she said. “We are agreed. We will leave him at Neasham.”
As for her heart, she apprised herself, she should abandon that as well. It would serve no one at all if she pined for this man, and neither could she encourage his attention. Until they arrived at Warkworth, she must harden her heart.
Chapter
Twenty-One
“Man’s mind is so formed …
it is more susceptible
to falsehood than truth.”
— Erasmus
Patchwork stone, blackened by age, ravaged by the elements, the very sight of Aldergh fills me with boundless rage.
Simply for your part in the killing of my birds, someday I will turn you stone by stone, until naught remains but rubble and ash.
Even now, Elspeth’s warding spell weaves boundary lines upon theaether, leaving me at the mercy of her gatekeepers, and nevertheless, if they wonder why their mistress returned, riding a stranger’s horse, they do not presume to ask. On sight, they raise the portcullis, but then, when, at last, the gate is open wide, I still cannot pass. Such is the nature ofmagik. I cannot not enter this place until I am bidden to do so—a small matter, to be sure.
I lift a hand to my brow as though to swoon.
“M’lady, art unwell?”
I do not answer. I waver a bit in the saddle.
“Go! Hurry! Get Cora!” the man shouts, and he disappears from the ramparts, scrambling down to the aid of his mistress. It comes as little surprise to me when he appears by my side.
“I am but weary,” I say in the sweetest of voices. “I rode all night long.”
“M’lady,” he says gravely. “My Lord Aldergh will be vexed. “Come,” he demands, as he steals the reins from my hands to lead my horse within. “At once, we will send word to Carlisle.”
“Nay,” I say. “Please, do not.”
I scarce can hide my joy. Aldergh’s lord is not in residence—but of course, he would never allow my daughter to travel without his protection. My sojourn here will go all the easier, and, with the lord and lady both absent, the courtyard is uncannily quiet, though the instant I enter, an elder woman flies out to greet me. “M’lady,” she shouts. “I had no inkling ye’d be returning so soon. Fie on ye,” she exclaims. “You’re e’en more stubborn than my daughters.”
“Don’t worry, Cora; I am fine,” I say, realizing this must be the woman Aldergh’s guard sought to bring to my aid. “I merely forgot…something.”
The elder woman gives me a toothy grin, one that feels entirely too familiar, and her voice softens when she speaks. “I ken what ye forgot,” she says coyly, and it is all I can do not to slap the impudent smirk from her face.
I force a smile and a singsong tone. “Do you?”
