Page 302 of Historical Hotties
Thor wasn’t surprised to hear it. “So he moves beyond trying to marry his son to his niece,” he muttered as the pieces of the puzzle began to come together. “Now, he simply wants to kill me so Caledonia will be alone again.”
“That is correct.”
“But even if I am dead, Caledonia is alive and he cannot have Tamworth if she is living,” he said. “God, don’t tell me… He wasn’t going to try to marry her himself, was he?”
De Lucera shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “I am going to marry her, assume Stafford, and give him Tamworth.”
He said it so factually, as if it was nothing outrageous, but Thor found himself shaking his head in disbelief.
“Clearly, you two had a scheme,” he said. “And that crossbow was meant to kill me.”
“It was.”
Thor had to wrap his mind around the whole plot. The poor village of Millford was caught in the middle of a power struggle and an attempted assassination while Cristano de Lucera satcalmly a few feet away. A man who had been promised Caledonia and Stafford Castle for his role in Thor’s death.
It was astonishing.
“Something is not clear,” Thor said after a moment. “Did de Wylde promise you this before his son’s death? Because he wants Callie to marry his son, you know.”
“He promised it to me after Domnall’s death, if I would help him kill you,” de Lucera said. “De Reyne, he was originally going to abduct you and ransom you back to your wife. But that changed at Domnall’s death. After that, he simply wanted you dead. For the price of your life, he would demand the wealth of Tamworth.”
“Then it is about the money?”
“It seems to be. Money and power are all that matter, are they not?”
Thor grunted. “There are a few more things worth living for.”
“Like what?”
“A good woman.”
It took de Lucera a moment to understand what he was saying. “Ah,” he said. “You mean Lady Stafford.”
Thor eyed the man in the darkness. “You saw what her marriage to de Tosni was like,” he said. “You saw how he treated her. How he entrusted their children to that charlatan, Madam Madonna. Where is the woman, anyway? She left Stafford with you.”
“She went with us to Dordon,” de Lucera confirmed. “She did not stay, however. She wanted to return to Whitby Abbey, where she evidently came from, in the hopes that she could become a nurse for another noble family. She did not seem overly distraught about not returning to Stafford. She said that she would not serve under a whore.”
He meant Caledonia, and it was a struggle for Thor to keep his temper at bay. “Lady Stafford is no whore, I assure you,” hemuttered. “Madam Madonna did not wish to return because she knew her reign of terror was over. She knew that Callie would not stand for her any longer. Hell, de Lucera, you served at Stafford. You saw how that woman treated the children.”
De Lucera was unmoved. “It was not my concern.”
That rubbed Thor the wrong way. Three starving little girls were not his concern? All of those adults at Stafford and no one could take responsibility for the children.
That disgusted him.
“So I see,” he said, feeling that the conversation was at an end. “Let us sum up this situation, de Lucera—Madam Madonna has gone to prey on another family, the younger de Wylde is dead, and you are now my prisoner. But that leaves Lord Dordon.”
“What about him?”
“Whereis he?”
De Lucera shrugged. “As I said, his son’s death drove him into madness,” he said. “I do not know where he is.”
That was probably the truth, but Thor had to make sure. “Would he have gone back to Dordon?” he asked.
“He was more concerned with seeing you dead. I do not think he would go home.”
Thor was starting to get that bad feeling again. Off in the distance, he could see the Stafford army moving about and saw, distinctly, when Truett came into view dragging a body. Thor suspected it was one of the de Lucera cousins who, more than likely, were the ones shooting the bolts. If Cristano was, this surely his cousins were as well. Therefore, they had managed to subdue those who had caused the chaos at Millford, evidently for the sole purpose of killing the new earl of Tamworth and Stafford.
