Page 84 of Raven's Rise
Rafe closed his eyes. Even if Alric forgave Rafe for his transgressions, it sounded as though Rainald de Vere had not. “What’s his plan for me? Why haven’t you dragged me to his feet already?”
“Because he’s not here,” Alric said. “He’s gone to a meeting the Lord Halbeck called. Many of the lords in this part of the country went to discuss the progress of the war. It might be many weeks before he returns.”
“Good. We’ll be gone by then.”
Alric snorted. “You’ll go when I let you go. And it won’t be for a while.”
“You don’t understand. It’s the lady who needs to hurry.”
“Ah, yes. Tell me, who is the lady?”
“Exactly who she says she is. Angelet d’Hiver. Yarborough. She’s the widow of one Hubert Yarborough. He was the son of a Lord Otto, who holds Dryton Manor. Stephen’s man.”
“I don’t know the name, but that means little, since I’m so bound here. What happened?”
“She must have told the story, more or less.”
“I’d like the more. The version she related to Cecily was rather light on detail.”
“I was hired to escort her on a journey,” Rafe said, “along with several other men-at-arms—some locals, and some who served Lord Otto. We were attacked on the road, taken by surprise. I had the opportunity to get her out of the fray and I took it. If we’d stayed, we all would have been slaughtered.”
“Surely she’d be ransomed,” Alric objected.
“I doubt it,” Rafe said. “They meant to kill her that day, and that was confirmed when someone attacked her again several days later. Same weapon, same method. But they hit the second time, and forced me to bring her here.”
Alric was following the story, watching Rafe with narrowed eyes. “Where were you going?”
Rafe paused. He wasn’t sure if Angelet had explained she had a child, and intended to retrieve him. He’d better stick to the more obvious story. “We’d been heading south. She wants me to take her to Wareham, in hopes of getting passage to the Continent. Her own family hails from Anjou.”
“So all this was just professional pride on your part?”
“What else would it be?”
“You rode halfway through the shire to get her to a healer you trusted.”
“Well, I didn’t want her to die.” Rafe swallowed, suddenly very uncomfortable with how Alric was prodding at his motivations. “I’d get a bad reputation if a client died before she got to her destination.”
“That’s the part of your reputation you think will suffer?”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that you are not treating this woman as an obligation.”
“I am. I was paid to take her to Anjou, and that’s what I’m going to do. She’s offered more money when she gets home. So you can understand my haste to resume the journey.”
“Don’t be too eager. The lady seems to have cheated death this time, but her recovery will take a while, according to Cecily. And then there’s Lord Rainald.”
“What’s he intend to do with me?”
Alric shrugged. “He’s been very secretive about his reasons, and it’s not for me to question him. But he’s not been at all secretive about his eagerness to find you.”
“He blames me for working for Theobald,” Rafe said, referring to one of his many past mistakes. “Serves me right for getting involved in a family matter. Rainald will punish me for that.”
“That’s up to him,” Alric said. “My duty is to keep you here until he returns.”
“Soyoudon’t intend to punish me in the meantime?” Rafe asked.
“No. You showed remorse for what you did in the end, and I don’t think you knew the extent of Theobald’s plans.”
