Page 98 of Peregrine's Call
“God did not care for that fate, apparently,” Robin said with a little bite to her tone. “For Cecily is now wedded to her love, with children, and she is happy.”
“Children?” Pierce said in that same distant, musing tone. “She did say she wanted children. And Hawksmere was quite the protector, after all.”
“So you remember Sir Alric.”
“The man who undermined a carefully crafted alliance among three different factions simply by stealing my bride? Of course I remember him. And I am glad for her, to have got what she wanted.”
He sounded sincere, and Robin frowned. “I thought you’d hate her. She was the one who discovered your treachery and reported it to the king.”
Pierce shrugged. “She may have been the first to report that news, but she would not have been the only person who sought to undermine me. The Devil knows there’s no shortage of people who want me dead.”
“Perhaps you should stop betraying every person you encounter.”
“Not every person, little Robin. Just the important ones.”
Not her, his tone implied. She was utterly unimportant.
But she said, “Like Ranulf, and Estmar, and who knows how many more men who are looking to kill you even now. What do you know that’s so essential? Surely the king has spies among the northern barons. They’ve been restless for years.”
“He does have spies, and most of them are known to Ranulf. He uses his knowledge to feed those spies the wrong information. He’ll get Stephen to head to the wrong place, or keep him from moving at all.”
“But you have the right information?” she asked skeptically.
“Yes, and I can prove it. The hints of attacks at other towns across the country are a diversion to mass Stephen’s forces elsewhere. Meanwhile, Ranulf is gathering everything he needs to build a counter-castle at his chosen site.”
“You can’t build a castle without someone noticing!” she objected.
“Oh, you can if you’ve got enough hands. I’ve seen the preparations and the supply routes, all planned out with the northern rebels and the Welsh mercenaries they’ve hired to help. Then he’ll be able to lay siege to the city from a position of strength. The city will fall before Stephen can get any reinforcements there. And once it is under Ranulf’s control, the other northern towns will follow. The independent barons retake power in the north, and Cadwallader seizes control of the Marches, free of any fear of the English attacking from the northern strongholds near the border.”
“So you’ll tell the king of Ranulf’s true plans, and you expect Malvern back in return.”
“Simple, isn’t it?” Pierce sighed. “Except that Ranulf is a clever bastard and made spies out of some of my own men. So I had to devise a new way to get an ally.”
She pointed to the sleeping cat. “By sending the message to get Octavian to help you escape your own castle.”
“Yes, and thanks to him—and you—I’m out of Willesden, out of the Ardenwood, and nearly to a main road to London. Why not come with me?” He smiled at her suddenly. “There’s nothing for you at Cleobury. Just a life of hanging around your betters, like a dog hoping for scraps.”
“That’s not how it is,” she protested.
“Oh, I’m sure they treat you well. Cecily has a soft heart—I could tell that the moment I met her. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a pet. A forest urchin they’re dressing up so they can feel they’ve saved you from yourself.”
“It’s not like that,” she said with less conviction.
“Isn’t it? Is it not all womanly pursuits and sewing and mending and minding your tongue because you’re not important enough to speak up? You’re not meant for that life.”
She frowned, suspecting his real motive in asking her to join him in London was simply to avoid the reckoning he’d face if the king’s true allies got hold of him. And wasn’t Robin an ally of the king herself? She’d never taken an oath, but everyone she knew and loved swore allegiance to Stephen.
“We’re going to Cleobury,” she said flatly.
He shook his head sadly. “So that’s how it will be? It’s too bad you’re not better at chess.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Just because you’d know the most satisfying move isn’t a checkmate. It’s the move that happens before checkmate, when you place the piece that your opponent doesn’t notice. The move that gives you multiple paths to victory, before your opponent even knows the game is over, Lady Robin.” He looked not the least bit perturbed to be bound up in rope by a girl half his age.
The way he saidladymade her shiver.
The next morning, Robin woke Pierce up by nudging his stomach with her foot. She’d bound his wrists and ankles before he slept—she was done playing.
