Page 61 of The Trials of Alaric
“The obvious. Horsemanship, stamina, the ability to plan under pressure. But you also set up an opportunity to cheat and an obstacle where we had to choose between the race and helping someone in need. So, I think you were testing us for integrity and kindness.”
“Pall-mall?” Claddach asked.
“Teamwork, my lord. Also, sportsmanship. And whether a person would rather punish another than win.”
Claddach continued through the events, giving Alaric no hints as to whether his answers were acceptable. After that, he moved to questions about farming, animal husbandry, brewing, Alaric’s views on politics, family, Society, and world affairs.
Finally, he leaned back in his chair and said, “That is all satisfactory, Redhaven. Now for the treasure hunt. What have you learned from the treasure hunt?”
Alaric, who was feeling a little as though he’d been crushed to flour between a couple of millstones, took a moment to order his thoughts.
“Sir, the clues all took me to stories about love—good examples and bad. And lastly to the inner side of the cupboard doors in the watchtower, with the two previous Ladies of Claddach and their consorts. Two more love stories. Do you want to know whether I love your daughter? For I do, with all my heart. And I want you to know, if I am fortunate enough to win her, I shall spend my life in her service as her consort, and I will live in hope she shall one day love me, too.”
“Hmm,” said Claddach, not letting Alaric know if this answer about loving his daughter pleased him or not. “So, you found my room and the cupboards by the window seat. That is two keys, Redhaven. What of the third?”
“I do not know what the third key opens, my lord,” Alaric confessed.
“Then you have not completed the treasure hunt,” the earl told him. “I shall give you a clue, shall I? My daughter is, indeed, the Heart of Claddach, but that is only part of the answer. Keep looking. In the meantime, you may continue courting my daughter, Redhaven, but you do not yet have my permission to ask her to marry you. First, my boy, you must find the secret gold, which is not my daughter, though that was a good guess. Let me give you another clue: you will know it when you see it.”
He paused, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. To Alaric, he had always seemed like a force of nature—large, vital, powerful. But for just that moment, he seemed diminished, his fires banked. Alaric had never noticed how translucent his skin was, or how it seemed stretched over bones with no flesh between.
“Sir?” Alaric asked. “Are you well?”
Claddach opened his eyes. “No, Alaric. I am not well. I am, in fact, dying—I have a cancer eating my gut. I am trusting you not to speak of this to anyone except Beatrice, who understands she shall be Lady of Claddach sooner than she might have hoped.”
“I am sorry, sir,” Alaric managed to stammer. “Of course, I will say nothing.”
“This is why I am anxious to see my daughter married,” Claddach explained. “And married well, to a man who is worthy of her. It is why she agreed to the trials, rather than leave Claddach and go to London, on the off chance there might be a treasure amongst all the fribbles.” He straightened and seemed to shake himself. As if shrugging into a disguise, he once again seemed like the dominating man Alaric had first recognized, and he gave Alaric a stern smile. “Do not fear. My death is not imminent. I will live to see my daughter married.”
“I am glad to hear it, sir. Your daughter and her consort will need your guidance. And your daughter and your wife will be distraught when you go.”
The earl sighed. “I am sorry for it. I have yet to tell my wife, Alaric. It is something I must do once Beatrice is safely married.”
Why after Bea’s marriage? And why safely?Alaric did not feel he could ask. Or should.
“Enough of this,” Claddach decreed, closing his eyes again. “I am tired, and you have ruins to explore and a picnic to attend. Go and tell my daughter that you passed your twelfth trial, Alaric. Just find where the third key fits, and I shall be happy to accept you as my son. Pull the bell for my valet as you leave.”
Alaric obeyed, but paused in the doorway to say, “Thank you, sir. I will not let you down.”
The only answer he received was a smile. The man who came into the room through another door—Claddach’s valet—came to his master’s side muttering about sick old men who thought theywere twenty again, and Alaric backed away out into the passage and closed the door behind him.
The news of Claddach’s ill health had shaken him. He went up to his bedchamber to change into his borrowed riding boots—Tarquin had given him plenty of money since their reconciliation but had not brought the trunks of clothes he’d asked for.
Colyn wasn’t there, but Alaric managed to pull his boots on. From his window, he could see the northern watchtower. Was the third keyhole there? Or perhaps a hint to its location on the panels showing the ladies and consorts of Claddach?
He couldn’t wait, and a few minutes’ delay would not matter, since Bea was not expecting him. He picked up the ring of keys and hurried downstairs and outside, not to the stables but to the watchtower.
The first key let him into the room. The second unlocked the two doors. He stopped, his hands hovering over the rose catches. Should he wait for Bea? But she would be away most of the day. Wouldn’t it be better to find out whatever the panels had to tell him and share that with her?
He grasped the roses.
He and Bea were to be partners. He had promised Claddach. He had promised Bea herself. He huffed a sigh.Best to start as I mean to go on. Reluctantly, he locked the cupboard doors. Discovering this with Bea was the right thing to do, but still, he struggled, keen to have the treasure hunt over, to win the right to propose to Bea. He turned to the window, gazing outside while he repeated to himself all the reasons to walk away now and come back later. With Bea.
Something on the rocks at the foot of the cliff caught his eye. “What’s that?” He squinted to better focus his eyes. The object, whatever it was, was half on the rocks and half in the water, with the waves breaking over it to further disguise its shape. But ifhe was not mistaken, it was a human being.A human body, he corrected himself.
Alaric left the top room of the tower, locked the door, and made his way to the stable. Soon, he led a small band of grooms and groundsmen out of the castle to investigate what he had seen.
They went out through both walls and through Bailecashtel on the castle side of the river to the bottom of the cliff, then out over the rocks. Their destination was only accessible at low tide, and then only by a difficult scramble from the town side of the bluff.
