Page 2 of Dark Tidings on the Thames
“My manner is none of your business.”
“Your reprehensible behavior is the business of everyone who works for the Wardrobe! So many people striving to do some good in this world. So many poor men, women, and children who are no longer shoeless, cold, or wearing rags. You put all of that in jeopardy!”
“It is you who will be in jeopardy, if you do not call off your meeting with the duchess and learn to keep your mouth shut.”
Glynn raised her chin. “I won’t be silenced. You are sick. Vile. The Wardrobe is not your hunting ground. You will be stopped.”
A low laugh taunted her. “I won’t be stopped, but you will be silenced—one way or another.” A shift in the shadows. A glint of faint light on dark metal—and Glynn saw what her opponent held.
She stepped back. “Is that…?”
It was. Suddenly she understood the full extent of what was about to occur.
“No!” She turned to run. She made it only a few steps before the blow came. A flash of blinding light, then instant darkness.
She never felt it when she hit the soft grass.
She was already gone.
Chapter One
A week earlier
Scotland
Kara Kier, theDuchess of Sedwick, clutched her husband’s hand. Pride swelled in her chest as she watched her ward grin at the group assembled in the entry hall at Tallenford Priory.
“Thank you all for coming to see my knight,” the boy said without a trace of bashfulness.
Harold had come a long way from the scrawny street rat she and Niall had first encountered at the Crystal Palace. He stood tall and proud and bright eyed—and tears threatened. Kara blinked them away and smiled widely at the boy instead. Niall, glancing down at her, tugged her close and wrapped an arm around her. She leaned into her husband’s embrace and listened.
“This is the largest and most complicated piece I have ever made, but I could never have got it done without the help of everyone here.” Harold grinned at her and Kara’s heart skipped a happy beat. “I first must thank Kara for sharing with me how she works, for explaining arbors and gears and lantern pinions, but also for telling me all about Green Knights when I found the one hiding behind the ivy in the walled garden. We decided together to make a Green Knight my next project, but she let me design and put him together myself. She always helps me when I need it, but lets me work alone, too—and she neverlaughs at my mistakes.”
Harold turned to look up at Niall. “Thank you to Niall, who finally showed me how to make a sword, even if it is a small one. He didn’t laugh, either, even when my first one looked more like a corkscrew.” Everyone gathered laughed outright at that. Grinning, Harold forged on. “Thank you to Gyda for showing me how to etch the vines and blossoms into his sword and armor.”
Gyda, standing near the stairs, gave the boy a nod. Kara noted the dark circles under her eyes and the shallow nature of her friend’s smile, and exchanged a look with her husband.
“Thank you to Ailsa for telling me about the spirits of the forest, and many thanks to Mrs. Pollock for clootie dumplings and cherry crumble.”
“Hear, hear!” Niall called.
Mrs. Pollock reddened. “No cook was ever so happy as when feeding a boy with a hollow leg,” she called out.
More laughter, but next to the cook, Turner—Kara’s butler, friend, and lab assistant—took out his pocket watch and raised a brow at the boy.
“And thanks to Turner, for always keeping me on track—especially when I forget to leave the lab or forge.” Harold’s expression softened. “And for teaching me how important it is to care for others.”
Kara wasn’t the only one blinking back tears of pride now.
Harold stepped close and grabbed a corner of the cloth covering his creation. “And here it is!”
His pride was obvious and justifiable as he whipped the cloth away. The piece had been kept under wraps in their new workroom at the priory, so there were gasps of surprise all around. Harold had done a remarkable job. Kara had never accomplished anything so involved at his age. The Green Knight stood two feet tall. The armor, with the etching Harold had inscribed with Gyda’s help, was well done, but it was the face that caught and held attention at first. The boy hadpainstakingly rolled out different thicknesses of metal vines, curling and twisting them into magnificent hair and a beard surrounding a weathered face. Metal oak leaves and pine cones were interspersed throughout.
“Now, watch,” Harold said, excited. He inserted a key and wound the piece.
Everyone breathed out in awe as the figure lifted its head. One knee bent forward and the sword arm lifted, the forearm bending to put the figure in a defensive stance.
“Bravo! Well done!” Cries of wonder and congratulations echoed in the entry hall. Everyone surrounded Harold and the piece, proclaiming their awe.
