The Maiden and the Mercenary

by Nicole Locke

  ‘This is Louve,’ she said. ‘He’s Usher here.’

  Her sister eyed Louve and Bied. Feeling suddenly awkward at her sister’s beautiful assessing gaze, she set the tray down.

  ‘He’s here because...because...’ Bied started. What was he doing? Louve was riffling through the contents on a table where there were papers and a quill, opening up a large flat box and then another.

  ‘Which one is his chest?’ Louve said.

  Louve had gone mad. Margery just answered, ‘They’re all his chests. Except for the two gowns, everything is his.’

  ‘Where does he keep paperwork?’ Louve said. ‘Messages?’

  Margery pointed. ‘He writes everything there.’

  Louve shook his head. ‘When he receives messages, where do those go?’

  ‘You’re not an usher.’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘The messenger makes this odd knock on that door,’ Margery said. ‘A guard opens it—I have to turn my back and face that window until he tells me I can turn again.’

  ‘Except you’ve watched it.’

  ‘A bit when I didn’t turn fast enough. He doesn’t like that.’

  Margery’s voice wasn’t like anything Bied had ever heard before. Assured. Matter of fact and, most puzzling of all, not surprised by Louve’s line of questioning. Bied didn’t understand any of it.

  ‘Where else can I look for a piece of parchment about this size with drawings? Something beautiful and colourful.’

  Margery shook her head. ‘There’s nothing like that here. Trust me, I’ve searched. He doesn’t leave the messages here. I don’t even know what he writes and, as for anything else, I’ve upturned this place every single day looking for anything to get me out.’

  ‘Does Lord Warstone talk in his sleep?’

  ‘Not about papers.’

  Louve’s expression darkened. ‘What, then, and be quick about it.’

  ‘It’s none of your concern.’

  ‘Nothing about papers, nothing about...gems?’ Louve asked.

  Margery glowered. ‘Nothing that should concern an usher, only wives.’

  Bied didn’t understand the rapid questions Louve asked her sister, but more so, she couldn’t believe how quickly Margery answered. Her younger sister had changed since she’d been here. The younger Margery would have collapsed when they entered and waited to be whisked away. This one had her hands fisted at her side and answered only because she wanted to.

  Giving one last measured gaze at Margery, Louve strode back to the window, peered one way and then the other, cursed, but then gave out a huff of amusement.

  Bied exchanged a look with Margery, but her sister only shrugged. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘Aren’t you going to ask him what he wanted with those questions?’ Bied said.

  ‘I’ve been in this room for far too long and am certain it’s safer not to ask.’

  ‘I brought her here—I’ll keep you both safe,’ Louve announced.

  Margery rolled her wide eyes. ‘Why are you in the fortress?’

  Her sister might not want to ask questions of Louve, but Bied did and she fully intended to later.

  ‘You sent me the message,’ Bied said. ‘You said you were in danger.’

  ‘That message was for our brothers, not for you.’

  Bied swallowed back the hurt those words caused. ‘Who else has helped you in the past?’

  Margery’s sparkling eyes softened. ‘With bumps and bruises. How can you be so reckless to come here?’

  Louve made a suspicious sound behind her, which Bied ignored. She needed to ignore everything to do with him.

  ‘Me, reckless!’ Bied said. ‘I warned you of Lord Warstone. Nothing you said eased any of my concerns. All you talked about was how handsome he was, how charming.’

  Margery gasped. ‘Is that why you’re here? I only said that for your sake.’

  ‘What?’ Bied said.

  ‘If I had told you I was only involved with a man for the coin, for connections—which all exist, mind you—would you have let me go?’

  No, she wouldn’t have. Margery’s words were sinking in. ‘So...you’re not broken-hearted.’

  Margery grimaced. ‘Absolutely not.’

  ‘You put yourself in this danger for nothing?’

  ‘You aren’t nothing. Our family isn’t nothing,’ Margery said. ‘You work and give coin to Mother and to the others. Yet you save nothing for yourself and what Lord Warstone promised me, well...’

  ‘You did this for me?’

  ‘I knew he was different than the others. I heard rumours he was dangerous, but his offer would have been enough to truly make a difference. Especially with Mabile, who wrote to me and—’

  ‘Mabile!’ Bied said. ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me?’

  ‘I don’t know why she sent it to me instead of you, but in truth, we never know where you go until you write to us and I’ve been here for so long.’ Margery eyed the door and sighed.

  ‘What is happening to Mabile?’

  ‘She’s pregnant again and she did so poorly before, and won’t be able—’

  ‘You have only moments,’ Louve interrupted.

  Bied shook her head. For days, her thoughts and deeds had been interrupted with Louve. Now Margery painfully reminded her of her responsibilities at home. Bied relied on Mabile helping their mother, who needed help simply relieving herself. If Mabile was pregnant again, she couldn’t do her duties.

  ‘He truly is protecting us,’ Margery said, a note of awe in her voice. ‘I’m curious now, who is he?’

  Louve’s back turned to her, Margery whispering—did they think there was someone eavesdropping?

  ‘I don’t know,’ Bied said. ‘He’s lying.’

  Louve cleared his throat and eyed Margery from her toes up. ‘Are you poisoning the ale?’

  ‘What?’ Margery said.

  Bied immediately stood in front of her sister. ‘She wouldn’t do that.’

  ‘There are casks that are poisoned—are you, or someone you know, putting poison in the ale?’

  ‘Was that what was wrong with it?’ Margery said.

  Bied turned to her sister. ‘You didn’t drink any more of it, did you?’

  Margery shook her head. ‘It was vile. I’ve been drinking wine ever since.’

  ‘And your hand?’ Bied asked.

  Margery raised it. ‘Wrapped, but it was only a shallow cut.’

  Relieved, Bied squeezed her sister and Margery stiffened. Flinging herself away, Bied said, ‘You are hurt! Let’s get you out of here, you need to rest, to heal.’

  ‘It’s not what you think.’

  ‘You wrote that letter. You have a swollen lip and goodness knows what else, and you tell me it’s not what I think? What is it that you think I think?’

  Margery’s face screwed up, then she shrugged. ‘Just that.’

  Bied felt the familiar spike of annoyance. Margery had always been contrary and dramatic. ‘I came here to rescue you.’

  ‘I can see that. Though you were supposed to send someone else.’

  ‘When it comes to the family, I’ve always come to your aid.’

  ‘Except this time, we needed someone who could use a weapon against trained men,’ Margery said. ‘You can’t fight any of these warriors.’

  ‘If you needed a sword, you should have said that. I would have found one, or some weapon or...’ She was being foolish, she wasn’t trained to fight, which was why she had intended to work her way towards her sister.

  ‘I thought that the words truly dangerous would have been enough. I found that tiny scrap of paper and I had to take the chance. Ian’s wealthy, but he doesn’t leave blank parchment around.’

  ‘I can see them through the woods,’ Louve announced. ‘The party could be on
a chase, or on the way back.’

  ‘He’s no usher,’ Margery said, eyeing Louve. No, he wasn’t. His strength, his cunning, the way he assessed situations... The way he commanded those around him.

  Feeling as though she should keep some of his secrets, she said, ‘He can organise a household.’

  ‘That’s good for you, then, since you’re so terrible,’ Margery said.

  ‘You need to pack,’ Louve said.

  Margery stepped back. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

  Louve peered over his shoulder. ‘Say that again.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere without Evrart.’

  ‘Evrart!’ Bied said over the roaring beginning in her ears. She couldn’t have heard her sister correctly. ‘Lord Warstone is the one who has kept you trapped.’

  ‘He did—he is!’ Margery said. ‘He was terribly charming at first, but for the time we’ve been here, he’s been distracted. And he’s never asked for...which I’m grateful for, but it was all very frightening. I had to send that note.’

  ‘They are returning,’ Louve said. ‘Balthus is alive.’

  The relief in Louve’s voice sent chills across her neck. ‘Alive?’

  Louve’s jaw tightened before he flashed her a look. ‘I meant Balthus is riding with them. The first of the guard has cleared the woods and there’s someone travelling with them I don’t recognise. Lord Warstone can’t be far behind now. We have to go, there’s no time to pack.’

  ‘I’m not leaving,’ Margery said.

  Bied looked to Louve, who was at the door. ‘Help me.’

  Louve kept his gaze on Margery. ‘I don’t think your sister is understanding.’

  ‘And you do?’ Bied said. ‘What is this?’

  ‘Your sister wants away from Ian, but not this man,’ Louve said.

  ‘Evrart,’ said Margery.

  ‘Where’s Evrart now?’ Bied said.

  ‘With Ian.’

  ‘Why does he matter?’ Bied cried.

  ‘He doesn’t,’ Louve said. ‘We’ve got to go.’

  ‘No!’ Bied said. ‘None of this makes sense.’

  Margery’s eyes narrowed on Louve. ‘What deal did Ian make with you, Usher? He negotiates like the devil.’

  ‘He said I could have you if you left the room,’ Louve said. ‘Since I had Bied, since she had this message from you, since I knew you loved your sister, it seemed as though I couldn’t lose.’

  ‘Who is Evrart?’ Bied said.

  ‘He’s Ian’s personal guard,’ Louve announced.

  ‘That brute?’ Bied gasped.

  ‘Don’t!’ Margery slashed out her arm. ‘Don’t say anything bad about him. He’s a good man and has had a trying time with his appearance.’

  Louve went back to the window. ‘They’re coming through the gates now, but it looks as though they want to attend their horses. Odd, but we’ll take it. Explain, Margery, and fast. Your sister won’t leave this room otherwise.’

  ‘I beg to differ! I’ll leave within half a heartbeat if she explains herself!’

  Margery cried out, ‘I’m in love.’

  Bied had heard this all too often. ‘Are you jesting?’

  ‘Truly this time,’ Margery said. ‘We tried to fight it. Ian wouldn’t approve and the danger is to us both! Then, it seemed he turned a blind eye and it...happened.’

  ‘Ian didn’t turn a blind eye,’ Louve said.

  Margery paled. ‘What do you mean?’

  Louve glanced to Bied, shook his head once, then gazed at her sister. His expression was grave. ‘He likes to watch.’

  Margery’s bandaged hand fluttered to her chest. ‘You don’t mean it.’

  Bied couldn’t understand what they meant until Louve dipped his chin and looked away.

  Margery held her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, Evrart can’t ever know. I think I’m going to be sick.’

  ‘Your sister said that to me once.’ Louve glanced to Bied.

  ‘This is not the time for jests,’ Bied uttered. ‘Where are you getting this humour and would you please choose a disposition?’ Bied pulled Margery’s hand in hers. ‘Margery, we have to go. Your lip is cut, and you flinched at dinner. Lord Warstone is hurting you.’

  Margery grimaced. ‘It’s not Lord Warstone. His personal guard...he’s big...and I don’t exactly... Must I explain this in front of him?’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ Louve said. ‘I understand.’

  ‘Yes, she does,’ Bied said. ‘Because I see her with a swollen lip. My youngest sister has been hurt by some guard of Lord Warstone!’

  Margery made an uncomfortable sound. ‘Bied, it’s not what you’re thinking. He’s large, I jumped, and we crashed. Please know that Evrart feels all the worse for it, but... I don’t. You saw him act like an idiot trying to cheer me.’

  Bied felt the flush against her cheeks as understanding dawned. ‘No more.’

  ‘It seems your sister likes more,’ Louve said. Margery giggled.

  Bied rounded on him. ‘Enough from you!’

  ‘Lord Warstone cut you in front of everyone.’ Bied pointed at Margery’s hand. ‘If you stay, how can you guarantee he won’t do it again?’

  ‘She can’t. That’s the Warstone training. Has it been happening more often?’ Louve said.

  ‘I don’t know him well enough, but Evrart says he’s been slipping,’ Margery said.

  Bied gasped, seeing the concern on her sister’s face. ‘You can’t feel for him?’

  ‘If you heard him late at night, when he’s sleeping—’ Margery stopped.

  Louve darted a glance at her on the way to the window, his frown deepening as if he, too, wanted to know what Margery refused to say.

  ‘They’ve left the stables.’ Louve peered out in different directions. ‘It’s time. I can’t guarantee what will happen if Ian sees us here. If we get trapped on that stairwell, we’ll have trouble.’

  ‘What do we do?’ she asked.

  ‘We leave her.’ Louve’s voice was absolutely dead with certainty.

  Bied’s heart stopped. ‘We’ll all go. This... Evrart will follow.’

  ‘He can’t,’ Margery and Louve said at the same time.

  Bied pointed at Louve. ‘What are you not telling me?’

  ‘He owes Lord Warstone a debt,’ Margery said. ‘Ian knows where Evrart’s family is.’

  When the words sank in, Bied’s heart panicked against her ribcage. ‘I didn’t come here for nothing.’

  ‘You have no weaponry, no training,’ Margery said, her voice firm. ‘I told you to bring our brothers who at least can fight. How are you supposed to get us past the guards? I’d hoped that with a few, and Evrart’s training, we could have a chance.’

  ‘You’ve been here for months,’ Louve said. ‘Unless they were trained by a demon himself for years, nothing would give your brothers a chance.’

  Margery looked away.

  ‘You knew that. Evrart told you not to send the message and you did it anyway,’ Louve hissed.

  ‘I didn’t tell him until after I’d sent the message. When I told him it was my sister in the Hall, he flew into a—’ Margery turned to Louve. ‘Oh, if Lord Warstone watches, does he hear?’

  Louve gave one nod and locked his eyes with Bied. ‘That means he knows who you are. We’re leaving.’

  ‘You truly care for him, don’t you?’ Bied said.

  ‘I do. Swear to me that—’

  ‘No!’ Bied cried out. Louve grabbed her hands. ‘Stop grabbing my hands!’

  He didn’t let go. ‘Not this time. Your sister is safe as long as Ian wants her to be. If we’re here when he enters the room, we’re dead. He’s been listening and knows you are sisters. That’s why he wanted this game with me.’

  ‘Game? How many games can there be?’

  ‘Go.
Go. Go.’ Margery pushed against her back. ‘I’ll find you. Ian can’t last for ever. He’ll make a mistake.’

  Bied yanked her hand and Louve grabbed her wrist.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘What are you doing? Where are we going?’ Bied demanded.

  Louve only clasped her wrist tighter. It was more than the difference of their size in the strides he took that hurried them along. It was his urgent pace, the insistent pull on her arm. It should have hurt, it should have been a warning to her, but he ensured she was too engaged in keeping up with him to notice the desperation in his actions.

  He was certain she could hear it, though, in his uneven breath from biting back all the words he struggled to contain. Until they slammed into the linen closet, the shelves replenished, the space somehow smaller.

  ‘Louve—’

  Louve caged her against the back wall, until everything about her was pressed against him and the wall and there was nowhere for her to go. He wanted her...needed her like this.

  ‘Quiet,’ he whispered against the top of her head, breathing her scent in, snagging her fine hair through the stubble along his chin.

  Louve couldn’t get his heart, his breath, his body under control. He half wanted to spin this woman around and laugh with her just from the sheer relief they were alive. His other half wanted to shake her, yell curses before he kissed her because she took risks.

  Instead he held her, not to contain her, but to contain himself. They were safe for now, but it wouldn’t last. ‘Reckless, foolish, what were you thinking? What were you doing?’

  She squirmed, but he followed her along, kept her trapped. He leaned even more, the feel of her against him, the warmth, the heat. ‘You knew what I was doing.’

  ‘I told you I would help,’ he said. ‘I told you.’

  ‘Then you—then we talked and—’

  ‘And what? Because you wouldn’t be with me, so therefore I’d abandon my vow, abandon you?’

  He couldn’t do it. He wanted a home, a wife. In the past, just the thought of both got him through the worst of times. Now that he’d met Bied, he wanted no wife but her, one who was courageous and trouble. With much work to be done with the Jewell of Kings, it’d be years until they could settle, though...