by Anne Herries
‘Do you think me so shallow?’ Her throat caught with tears.
‘Then why will you not come to table?’ His mouth thinned. ‘I had not thought you so sulky, Elaine.’
‘I am not sulking.’
‘Are you not?’ Zander laughed softly. ‘You want proof of your worth to me?’ He moved closer, drawing her in with one hand placed in the middle of her back. Lowering his head, he began to kiss her, softly at first, but then with an increasing passion. His tongue flicked at her lips and she parted them, allowing him entry. The sensation of their tongues touching and meeting was pleasant and aroused stirrings of a strange but exciting feeling in the pit of her stomach. Heat pooled inside her and she moved closer to him, wanting something more. ‘Enough, Elaine, or our poor men will not eat this night. It is long since I have lain with a woman and my respect for your modesty may not withstand the need you arouse in me. Come now, take my hand and we shall go down.’
Torn between pique at his manner, which seemed to vacillate between that of a lover and a stern guardian, she refused his hand but turned and preceded him down the stairs to the hall below. She could hear the men murmuring amongst themselves and was suddenly shamed. These men worked and trained hard and they were hungry. She must find another way to bring Zander to his senses in future.
She took her seat at the high board and nodded at the servants. Food was brought hurriedly forwards—the first dish, soup, which had been cooling in the pot. Elaine allowed the housecarl to serve her, waving aside the services of a taster to save time. Only when she had been served would the men have their food.
She was about to taste her soup when she noticed something odd in the servant’s manner as he began to ladle the soup into Zander’s bowl. She made a signal to her steward, who hurried to her side.
‘That man is new,’ she said. ‘Tell him to taste the soup he would serve my lord.’
‘My lady?’ Elgin looked puzzled. ‘He is the nephew of—’
‘Tell him to taste it himself.’
‘Do as your lady bids you,’ Zander said, reaching out to bar the servant’s way as he tried to move away. ‘Drink it, damn you.’
‘No…’ the servant’s eyes rolled in fear. ‘You can’t make me…’ He tried to make a bolt for it, but was brought down by one of the knights further down the table. ‘He made me do it.’
‘Drink…drink…drink…’ the men demanded that the traitor drink the soup, which was so obviously poisoned.
‘No,’ Zander said. ‘Take him away and detain him. He shall be questioned later.’ He summoned another servant. ‘Take this soup away and bring something else. No one will drink the soup lest it has been contaminated.’
A flurry of servants hurried to take away the contaminated soup and a new dish was served, which the cook volunteered to taste himself. As nothing untoward occurred, the mess of rabbit and onions was distributed to the hungry men.
Zander took his place beside Elaine and signalled for the roast meat to be served. ‘What made you suspect him?’
Elaine shook her head. ‘It was just a look in his eyes as He passed his hand across your dish. I do not think the poison was intended for any but you, Zander. He was new at table and was sweating badly.’
‘Then I thank you for my life, Elaine. Had you not been so vigilant he might have succeeded in his aim.’
‘Why would anyone try to poison you?’ Elaine asked, feeling shocked and puzzled. ‘I thought you in danger if you fought Newark in single combat—but here in this house…’ She was angered that any of their servants should behave so ill.
‘The servant will be questioned,’ Zander promised and laughed softly. ‘It seems I have an enemy—mayhap one I did not reckon with.’
Elaine shivered as a cool breeze touched her. Suddenly, her behaviour earlier seemed childish.
‘Forgive me for making you come to ask me.’
‘I think your little scheme may have worked in our favour. The delay made our would-be assassin nervous and that in turn caused him to be careless. Had all been as usual, you might not have noticed anything amiss.’
‘Yet I am sorry.’
Zander touched her hand. ‘You felt I was arrogant and mayhap I was. I am used to command, Elaine. Once I knew how to smile and court the girl I loved, but now…’ He shook his head. ‘I shall try to remember that you are a lady and not a soldier waiting to do my bidding.’
Elaine saw the wicked light in his eyes and laughed. The tension had evaporated between them and she knew he was teasing her.
‘You mock me, sir. I shall have to think of a suitable punishment for you.’
‘And I for you,’ Zander murmured huskily, leaning close so that only she could hear. ‘Methinks my lady could do with a spanking.’
‘You would not dare…’ She sent daggers of fire at him with her eyes, but saw him smile all the more. ‘Or perhaps you would.’
‘Oh, you can be sure of it,’ he promised in such a way that tremors ran up and down her spine and she thought that what he promised was perhaps less a punishment than a pleasure.
‘You tread on dangerous ground, my lord. I am no milk-and-water maiden.’
‘I never thought you were.’
Zander stood up and clapped his hands. ‘Music and dancing to delight my lady. Forget the foolishness earlier. None was harmed save the knave who would have poisoned me. Enjoy yourselves, for in a few days we leave to seek my true enemy—but not before we have celebrated the betrothal of your lord and lady in two nights hence.’
Cheers greeted his announcement. Men got up and began to dance a jig as a fiddler played and a minstrel sang. Wine and ale was flowing freely, though Elaine noticed that Zander drank sparingly, as she did.
When the night was well advanced and the men were a little rowdy, she took her leave. Zander walked her to the bottom stair that led to her solar and kissed her hand before returning to his men.
Had Elaine looked back she would have seen that Zander left the hall almost immediately with half a dozen of his men, but she was smiling and happy as she went to her room and did not notice as the sound of men’s voices became muted and then died away.
‘Why did you try to poison your lord?’ Elgin demanded. The knave had been bound and was on his knees, his head falling forwards when Zander walked in. A bucket of water was thrown over him, making him lift his head. ‘Speak or you will suffer a beating and worse.’
‘No, stay your hand,’ Zander said. ‘I did not order torture.’
‘This man must speak. He tried to murder you.’
‘We know what he did, but not why.’ Zander approached the man. He took a ladle, filled it with water and offered it to the offender. ‘Drink. It is not poisoned. You will not be tortured. I simply want the truth. Who paid you to murder me—and why?’
The man hesitated, then drank the water. ‘I was not paid, lord,’ he said and looked up proudly. ‘When the men came to our village they took my wife and son hostage. I was told to poison you and they would be spared.’
‘You knew you would die for it?’
‘Yes, lord.’
‘So you were willing to die for your family?’
‘Yes, lord.’
‘Who sent the men to take your wife and child hostage?’
‘I do not know for sure, lord—but they spoke of the earl.’
‘Newark,’ Sir Robert said grimly. ‘I never thought him a coward—to send a churl to do his work.’
‘Nor I…’ Zander frowned down at their prisoner. ‘You can tell me nothing further?’
‘No, lord.’
‘Very well, let him go. You are free to leave, sirrah, and you may return to your home and farm your strip without hindrance, but if you enter the castle again, you will be arrested on sight and next time I shall not be so lenient.’
‘You will let him go free?’ His men stared in amazement, for the usual punishment for such an offence was death and his forbearance might be seen as weakness.
‘He is but a pawn in
a wider game,’ Zander said. ‘Send him on his way.’ He turned to leave, but the man caught at his robe. Zander turned. ‘Yes?’
‘My wife and child? He will kill them.’
‘I doubt it,’ Zander said. ‘When word gets out that I set you free, even though you tried to kill me, the earl will see that holding your family hostage does no good. I dare say your wife and son will be returned to you. Had you come to me for help rather than try to kill me I would have done what I could for you. Give me the name of the man who sent you and I will try to have your family released.’
‘He would kill them rather than release them to you,’ the man said. ‘You give me my life, but it has little use to me without my wife and my son.’
‘If you will not confide in me, I cannot help you,’ Zander said.
He turned and walked from the chamber, leaving the men to stare at their prisoner uneasily, for they did not understand their lord’s leniency in sparing his life.
‘We should teach the scum a lesson,’ one of them said.
‘No,’ Sir Robert said. ‘Follow my lord’s orders. He has his reasons. Throw this piece of filth from the manor. If he crosses our bounds again, kill him.’
‘I did not wish harm to Lord Zander, but my wife and son are lost to me…’ The man wept.
‘Thank God for your life,’ the steward said. ‘Most lords would have you hung, drawn and quartered for what you did. Lord Zander has shown mercy. Go now before he changes his mind.’
The man was dragged from the castle weeping and his cries could be heard for some time, until he was beyond the moat.
Sir Robert followed Zander from the chamber and caught up with him before He entered the hall.
‘Why did you not have him punished? He would have seen you die horribly.’
‘I have an enemy I do not know,’ Zander said. ‘If I killed the knave, my enemy would think he was safe, but since I spared him my enemy must wonder if the rogue confessed his name. In his anxiety he may become careless. I would know who my enemy is, sir. And I would have my lady’s people know that I shall treat them fair.’
It was not all his reason in showing mercy. The man’s plight had touched him, for he had been willing to give his own life to save his family and was therefore more to be pitied than reviled. Zander knew that by being so lenient with a knave who had tried to kill him, some might think him weak, but he had had enough of death and slaughter. Zander could not return his family to him, but he had given him his freedom. The rest was in God’s hands.
Sir Robert inclined his head, but looked thoughtful. ‘Surely it must be Newark? Who else would want you dead?’
‘I do not know and yet I have thought there must be someone in the shadows for a while, even in the Holy Land. When I went to bury Tom only a few men knew where I was going. The assassins that struck me down may have come upon me by chance, but I have always wondered if someone wanted me dead—if those Saracens were sent to murder me.’
‘Yet Newark is your enemy. You believe him guilty of your father’s murder—why look elsewhere?’
‘Mayhap you are right,’ Zander said, ‘but Newark is more likely to try a frontal attack to take the manor than poison. Somehow this seems more personal—as though this man wants me dead, but does not wish to harm anyone else. And for some reason he would keep his identity secret.’
‘Yes…’ Sir Robert frowned. ‘I can hardly believe any of your uncle’s men would try to murder you.’
‘No, not my uncle’s men, though I suppose he stands to inherit my wealth since I have no son or yet a wife. Even so, I do not think it.’
‘What do you intend to do about it? Someone should guard your back.’
‘Someone does guard my back at all times,’ Zander said, a slight smile on his lips as he looked at the great grey shadow that followed at his heels. ‘Both Vulcan and Janvier are always in the shadows waiting. I think that is why poison was chosen as the weapon. Anyone who tried to plant a knife in my back would be stopped in his tracks before he could get near. Poison is a deadly weapon, but silent and unnoticed—unless one has a quick-eyed wife.’ He smiled. ‘My lady saved my life, Sir Robert. I must reward her. Please send word to Lord Stornway that I would have the trunks I stored with him sent on to me here.’
‘Shall I send the men Lord Stornway sent as escort back to him, my lord?’
‘Yes, I think we cannot keep them here any longer. I have recruited men from the surrounding villages. They are raw and untried, but I trust them.’
‘Surely you trust Lord Stornway’s men?’
‘Yes, of course. Philip has always been my friend,’ Zander said. ‘He is above suspicion. It was he who told me what Newark had done to my father. When I had nothing left, he gave me money to buy the sword and armour I needed to follow the Cross.’
‘As I thought. So where do we look for your enemy?’
‘We do not waste our time in searching for him. He will come to us because he will be curious as to why I let his assassin live.’
Sir Robert nodded and smiled. ‘I knew you had a good reason for letting the rogue live. The men were for slitting his throat, but I told them to obey your orders. It will be interesting to see what now transpires, my lord.’
Zander’s eyes narrowed to slits of ice. ‘Newark I can deal with, but I can’t fight an enemy who comes in guise of friendship, for it could be anyone.’
‘You must be vigilant, my lord.’
‘I have learned to live that way. I dare say I made enemies in the Holy Land when I protected innocent Muslims from my fellow knights.’
‘I heard that at one time the King summoned you to explain your actions?’
‘Richard thought the sun had turned my brain, until I told him that some of his knights were killing indiscriminately for no reason other than the colour of a man’s skin. Some of the men and women they murdered were Jews, not Saracens, and some of those they killed were converted Christians, but because they looked like their Muslim brothers they met the same fate.’
Sir Robert nodded. ‘I have heard of men killing indiscriminately in their blood lust, but to kill simply for…’ He shook his head and made the sign of the cross over his breast.
‘Simply because they could,’ Zander said. ‘Richard decreed that I must meet the knight I accused of being their leader in single combat to prove who was right since both accused the other. I won and, though I would have spared his life, Richard commanded that I kill him. His name was Jonquil—Sir Jonquil of Knaresborough.’
‘Perhaps this Jonquil had friends who seek revenge?’
‘Yes, perhaps—though I won by fair combat.’
‘That might not appease someone who felt that you should have spared him.’
‘I had no choice but to obey the king.’
‘As you say.’ Sir Robert inclined his head. ‘I shall bid you goodnight, my lord. Someone will guard your door this night.’
‘It is not necessary,’ Zander said and smiled. ‘I am always well protected.’
He turned and walked up the twisted stair to his chamber, which was in the opposite tower to Elaine’s solar, though he could enter her chamber without returning to the hall. As he entered the room a dark shadow came towards him.
‘Has the traitor confessed the name of his enemy, lord?’
‘No, Janvier. He says the men that took his family came from the earl but that is not proof.’
‘There is more than one earl, lord.’
‘Yes, exactly.’ Zander smiled. ‘All we can do is wait until he grows frustrated enough to strike at me himself.’
‘Poison is more often a woman’s weapon, but I would swear all Lady Elaine’s people are true to her. We must simply watch and wait—and be ready when the attack comes,’ Janvier said. ‘Sleep well, my lord. None shall strike you while we guard you.’
Janvier touched the head of the great dog that had followed from the dark shadows of the hall below.
‘I know I am safe with you and Vulcan to keep me so.’
/>
‘If I slept and neglected my duty, Vulcan would not,’ Janvier said and smiled. ‘He well remembers the hand that fed him when you found him and he was near to starving.’
‘Yes, at least there are two that love me.’
‘And your lady. Do not discount her, lord. Her quick eye saved you this night.’
‘Yes.’ A smile touched Zander’s lips as he threw off his outer robe and sought his bed. ‘Had she not been observant, they would have buried me this night.’
Elaine lay restless after she had dismissed her ladies. Who wanted Zander dead so badly that he would stoop to poison? It was a coward’s way to send a knave to do a man’s work.
A little shudder went through her—had she not seen the sheen of sweat beading on the servant’s brow and wondered at it, Zander would have eaten the tainted food. The tiniest drop of some poisons was enough to cause almost instant and violent death and she would not have had time to discover the antidote.
She felt cold all over. Who desired Zander’s death and why? Was it so that he could take possession of all that Zander owned? Did this unknown person want her and her inheritance? Or was there some other reason…perhaps revenge?
Elaine knew that somewhere the Earl of Newark was plotting his revenge for being cheated—as he would see it—of Elaine’s hand in marriage and her fortune. He’d taken Howarth by force, but if the king returned and decreed it, he could be made to give it back—and if Elaine were wed to Zander he would lose all he’d hoped to gain.
He had reason enough to murder Zander, but would he choose poison? She could not be certain.
For a long time she tossed and turned on her pillow, seeking some elusive fact, something that would solve the puzzle. At last her eyelids grew heavy and she slept.
In the morning Elaine rose feeling drained and listless, but when she had washed the sleep from her eyes and eaten a breakfast of bread, honey and milk, which She preferred to the watered ale the knights drank in the mornings, she was feeling much better. She went down to the hall and enquired for Zander. She was told that he and a handful of his knights had gone to Zander’s own lands, which lay some ten leagues to the west. It meant that he would be gone for most of the day and she felt at a loss, knowing that she would miss the sound of his voice in the house.
