“Always,” he whispered.
The glimmer in his eyes as Scott left the chamber told Avrielle everything she needed to know at that moment. This man of strength and power was also a man with the capacity for great compassion and understanding.
And she knew, at that moment, that she loved him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Roused from his bed, Sadgill was more than irritated. He was bloody well furious. A warm and wonderful bed had been his haven but, now, he was out of it because a frightened servant had summoned him. He was so mad that he nearly fell down the stairs in his haste, making it to the solar of his manse only to find Adam waiting for him.
His anger turned to surprise.
“Adam?” he asked, somewhat curiously. “It is the middle of the night, lad. Why are you here?”
“Because something important has happened,” Adam said. He appeared breathless and weary. “If ever there was a time to steal Canaan for yourself, now is the time.”
“What do you mean?”
Adam took a deep breath, laboring for calm. He’d ridden hard and fast in the middle of the night, beneath a full moon, and a hearty sense of urgency was pulsing through his veins. He’d nearly killed himself to get here, but it was imperative that Sadgill know what had happened.
Plans had to change.
“I was informed earlier this evening that de Wolfe has received a call for aid from Pendragon Castle,” he said, his tone laced with urgency. “Jeremy Huntley is still too wounded to go with the army, so he asked if I would remain behind with him and command what few men would be left when de Wolfe departs with the entire army.”
Quickly, Sadgill caught on to the importance of the situation. “The entire army is leaving?” he repeated. “God’s Bones, lad – when?”
“I am told they are moving out before dawn,” Adam said. “Jeremy mentioned that only a small contingent will be left behind, meaning you and your men could easily take Canaan while de Wolfe is away. The castle will be vulnerable. This is a perfect moment, my lord. You must summon your men!”
Sadgill couldn’t argue with that, overwhelmed with the sheer possibility that Canaan, after all of this time, might finally fall into his hands. It was an unexpected gift that had dropped into his lap on this night.
“Are you certain of this, lad?” he asked, grabbing Adam by the arm. “De Wolfe is truly pulling out?”
Adam nodded, feeling Sadgill’s excitement mingle with his own. “I am,” he said. “Jeremy is staying behind, but I believe I know how we can convince him that your presence is not to be feared. Mayhap I can even convince him that it is for the best. I thought to tell him that I summoned you for reinforcements since de Wolfe is taking most of the army with him. Surely a castle the size of Canaan cannot be without protection, and who better to offer protection than a Cumbrian ally.”
Sadgill’s features were alight with the possibilities the night had brought. “Wise, lad, wise,” he agreed quickly. “Mayhap I can convince him that our presence is necessary, as well. He has no love for de Wolfe, as you have said. Surely his loyalties are not with the man.”
Adam shook his head. “When he told me of de Wolfe’s departure, it was with good riddance to de Wolfe. He is glad to be rid of the man. In fact, I believe he was overjoyed for it.”
“Then mayhap he will be glad to see me.”
“I will do my best to convince him of that,” Adam said. “But we must hurry. If the army is pulling out before dawn, then we must be there to take the castle.”
“But why the rush?” Sadgill wanted to know. “It will take them at least a day to reach Pendragon and who knows how long the siege will be?”
“But what if they return immediately? Do you want to take that chance?”
He didn’t. Sadgill’s foul mood at being pulled from his bed had vanished completely with the delivery of Adam’s news. He was thrilled at the prospect, his mind already working on what needed to be done. Adam was correct; they had to move quickly on this because it was a rare opportunity. He couldn’t take the chance that the Canaan army would return sooner rather than later. Therefore, he began shouting to his servants, to his wife, and the entire house came alive as he bellowed for his men.
Servants, startled from their bed, began running to the outbuildings, summoning Sadgill’s soldiers, as the compound was roused in the middle of the night. Sleepy men, grumpy men, began pouring in from outside and Sadgill’s wife, a rather fitful woman, was irate at her husband’s men filling the ground floor of her manse. She didn’t like them inside with her sister and her sister’s children in residence, but Sadgill didn’t listen to her protests. He eventually slapped her to shut her up, and the woman ran off with her hand to her cheek, wailing unhappily.
Such was the chaos of the Sadgill manse.
It was chaos that was strangely organized, however. As Adam stood aside, Sadgill addressed his men, perhaps nearly one hundred of them that had crowded into the manse, all of the men he kept close to him, and those men were instructed to ride into the night and collect even more men from local houses, men Sadgill knew would ride with him. Most of these were serfs or tradesmen dependent upon their business with Sadgill, so he was confident that he could build his ranks.
But time was of the essence. Even though it would not take long for them to travel to Canaan, they had to make it by sunrise. With de Wolfe pulling out, they had to claim the castle as soon as he departed. Only then would Canaan be secured for the Cumbrian lord who lusted after it. The chance had to be taken.
Therefore, Sadgill’s men rode into the night, collecting those they could and returning to the manse as quickly as possible. With at least two hours to go before sunrise, they had managed to collect almost two hundred men from surrounding farms and tiny villages. With the other three hundred soldiers under Sadgill who stayed and organized the troops, Sadgill believed he had enough men to hold Canaan against the return of de Wolfe’s army. Canaan was so strategically built that it would take very few men to hold out against a siege. Sadgill was confident that this was the moment the mighty castle of Canaan would become his.
With the morning approaching, he and his rather ragtag army departed his manse and took the trail up over the mountain as the full moon sank low in the sky. It was still incredibly bright, bathing the landscape in a ghostly glow, so it was no trouble for men to find their way over the mountain by following the beck that ran straight to Canaan.
As the sky above began to turn shades of deep purple, glowing as the sun approached, the mighty bastion of Canaan came into view and Sadgill was quick to note that the castle was empty. There were no men on the walls that anyone could see and both drawbridges were down, indicative of an army that had recently departed. Those inside had not yet raised the bridges.
Open and vulnerable, greedy Sadgill had never seen a more beautiful sight.
*
He’d run.
Much as Scott and Jeremy and the others had anticipated, Adam had done exactly as they’d planned. Shortly after Jeremy spoke to Adam of needing him to remain at Canaan because Pendragon had sent request for reinforcements against a neighbor who had them bottled up in a bad siege, Adam had taken the information seriously, swore he would maintain vigilance with the vast majority of Canaan’s army – and de Wolfe’s army – off to assist an ally. But within a half-hour of leaving Jeremy, Adam moved with great stealth to remove his horse from the stable and slip from the northern gatehouse.
They’d all been watching from various places of concealment throughout the bailey – Gordon, Stewart, Milo, Stanley, Raymond, and Jean-Pierre clearly saw him depart. So did Kristoph and George, who had been told of the situation by Gordon and refused to believe it until they, too, saw Adam flee in a manner that suggested he was clearly trying not to be noticed. If there had been any doubt in their minds, that doubt had been subsequently erased.
The sense of urgency grew.
The plan became even more detailed. Since Adam was gone, there was no reason
not to be obvious about the defense of Canaan so Gordon and Jeremy, along with Stewart and Milo, gathered their armies in the bailey so that Scott could address them. The de Wolfe army numbered at slightly over one thousand five hundred while the du Rennic army was considerably smaller at almost four hundred, but they had an additional fifty men who were specifically trained as archers and they were very good at their craft. Along with Scott’s contingent of archers, the total archers among them numbered in the hundreds.
That was very important for their plan.
With the full moon illuminated a bailey that was filled with men and dotted with torches, Scott addressed the armies with Jeremy on one side of him and Gordon on the other. No matter what had happened over the past two weeks, it was time to put their differences aside and unite for the common cause of defending Canaan.
As the sergeants below began sectioning off two groups of men – those who would go outside and those who would remain inside – Scott explained that they were expecting an attack from Cumbrian warlords come the dawn so there was a serious sense of urgency. Beneath the full moon, it would only take Adam an hour to reach Sadgill so both Scott and Jeremy assumed that by midnight, Sadgill was already gathering his men to move on Canaan. He might even be calling on his neighbors, assuring them of a swift victory. There was no way of truly knowing so all Scott could do was prepare for the worst.
In the very early hours of the morning, the two groups of men separated. Those who headed out into the countryside beyond did so with the swiftness of a light brigade; no wagons, no quartermasters – they moved with men and what they could carry on their backs, and there were twelve hundred of them, leaving close to seven hundred, including the archers, inside the structure.
Those that left the castle were ordered to conceal themselves in the beck that ran to the north of Canaan and also in the heavy line of trees that were situated to the south, and wait for the command to rush Canaan. The contingent separated into two groups when they were outside the fortress, rushing to hide to the north and to the south. Both sides needed to be covered. Once the invading army arrived and entered the gates, a volley of flaming arrows from the archers would signal the army outside the walls to rush in to help.
In fact, the men were eager to face the threat. The du Rennic army blended with the de Wolfe army for the most part, but Scott made sure the majority of the du Rennic army remained outside the walls. He didn’t tell Jeremy or Gordon his fears, but the truth was that he wasn’t convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the du Rennic army might not be sympathetic towards their Cumbrian brethren.
Therefore, nearly two-thirds of the du Rennic men were outside with the group that had gone into hiding. De Wolfe men outnumbered them almost four to one, so even if they did revolt, the numerous de Wolfe soldiers could put down the threat quickly. Scott was fairly certain none of that would come to pass, but one couldn’t be too careful. His sergeants were under orders to watch the du Rennic men closely.
There was movement throughout most of the night, men moving out of the castle and the men inside moving into hiding. It was those concealed inside the castle that proved to be more of a challenge because wherever they hid, they needed to be near the bailey because they needed to see what was happening. They couldn’t be buried too far away. Therefore, men were positioned in groups all throughout the fortress, all of the groups with a view or at least a partial view of the bailey.
As men moved to conceal themselves, the knights were on patrol to make sure the men understood their orders and were properly concealing themselves in the nooks and crannies of Canaan. Because the knights wanted the men to blend in with the darkness to help the element of surprise, they were instructed to smear themselves with mud to conceal them as much as possible. Faces, hands, and hair were smeared with brown muck. Moreover, these men had the same trigger to begin their attack as the army outside did – a flaming arrow shot straight down into the bailey would signal them to ambush. Everything was planned down to the last contingency – if Sadgill entered the fortress, if Sadgill didn’t enter the fortress – between Scott, Stewart, Jeremy, and Gordon, there wasn’t any possibility that they had overlooked.
It took the men inside of Canaan some time to properly conceal themselves and as dawn approached, so did the sense of anticipation. Men were nervous but eager to charge, waiting for the Cumbrian lord who wanted to kill them all and take the castle. There was some mumbling among the men, wondering who the Cumbrian lord was and also who the traitor in their ranks was, and there was plenty of speculation. A few of the men were bold enough to ask Stewart or one of the other junior knights, but they all received the same answer – do not worry over a traitor. Focus on your orders and we shall live through this.
It was good advice and it was standard across the board. Even du Rennic men were hearing it from their commanders and not one of them happened to notice that Adam de Ferrar was the only knight missing. In truth, it didn’t matter, for today would see that threat eliminated and Canaan saved from a vengeful lord and a bastard knight.
Today would be a pivotal day in the history of Castle Canaan. An hour before dawn, the men of Castle Canaan fell silent.
All they could do now was wait.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The puppy was wriggling in the bed, waking Stephen but Sophia and Avrielle slept right through it. Bundled up in his mother’s big bed with his sister and his mother sleeping peacefully, Stephen woke to the puppy licking him on the chin and he sleepily cuddled it. But the gentle hugs of a young lad didn’t soothe the puppy; it climbed all over Stephen, licking and nipping, playing now that he’d had several hours of uninterrupted sleep. Stephen tried to keep the dog in the bed but the puppy had other ideas.
Stephen sat up as his puppy jumped off the bed and began wandering around the room, sniffing. The boy rubbed his eyes, watching the dog wander around and remembering his mother telling him that the dog was only allowed to relieve himself outside. Fearfully, Stephen looked to his mother, who was sleeping with his sister cuddled up next to her. He didn’t want to wake his mother but he didn’t want the puppy pissing inside when he’d been warned about it. She might even take his puppy away.
Silently, Stephen slithered off the bed and went to the puppy. Wolfe jumped on him and licked at him. Picking the dog up, he shuffled over to the chamber door, which was bolted. He had to put the dog down in order to work open the bolt, which was iron and hard to move. He struggled at it as the dog ran away, back over to the hearth where the fire burned low and hot. Once Stephen managed to open the door, he ran over to the puppy, picked it up, and slipped from the chamber.
It was cold and dark in the corridor outside, a narrow passage that connected the chambers in the family’s wing. Stephen knew that his friend, de Wolfe, had taken the big chamber that his mother and father used to sleep in and he peered down the dark corridor to see that the door was shut. He was sure his friend was inside, sleeping, so he waddled past the door, carrying the puppy that was heavy to a little boy, and ended up in the guard room with the spiral stairs that led down to the bailey below. He knew he had to take the puppy down there to relieve itself so he made his way to the stone steps and sat down on them, taking the stairs one at a time, on his bottom, the way his mother had taught him so he wouldn’t fall down them.
Unfortunately for Stephen, he lost his balance and the puppy fell from his grip, running back up the stairs and down the corridor, back in the direction he had come from. Stephen scrambled off the stairs and ran after it, being rather loud as he did so. It was enough to wake Avrielle.
She thought she’d dreamed the sound at first. She lay there in the darkness, thinking she might have heard fading footsteps but she wasn’t entirely sure. Her sleep-groggy mind didn’t quite process the sounds until she heard a puppy bark and her head shot up, seeing immediately that Stephen wasn’t in the bed. Stricken with panic, she turned to see that the door to the chamber was open and that was all it took for her to fly out of bed. She h
it the ground running.
In the passageway outside, Avrielle looked about in terror. From one end of the passageway to the other, her son was nowhere to be found. Her heart was racing as she chose to go to her left, towards the north side of the castle, but she hadn’t taken two steps when she heard the dog bark again only it was in the opposite direction. Bare-footed, and only in her heavy sleeping shift, she tore off down the corridor towards the sounds of the barking dog.
She caught sight of Stephen midway down the spiral stairs, scooting down on his bottom as she’d taught him and holding the puppy in his arms. She didn’t want to shout at him because the castle, as she’d noticed, was as silent as a tomb. She didn’t want to be screaming in the silence if something was happening.
A battle is coming to Canaan, Scott had told her. Glancing at the sky through a window that opened out into the bailey, she could see that the sky was turning shades of pink and purple, as a sure sign of sunrise. Hastening to catch up to her son, he slipped further down the stairs and she slid down after him.
But Stephen wasn’t aware his mother was behind him. As soon as he hit the bottom of the spiral stairs, the puppy fell from his arms and bolted off through an opening into the bailey. He started to run after his dog but he suddenly noticed men all around him, with mud spread over their faces to make them blend into the darkness of the walls, and it terrified him. Frightened, he ran after the puppy, out into the dark and eerily silent bailey to escape from the scary soldiers who were hiding near the stairs.
Avrielle was right behind him. She came flying off the stairs only to be grabbed before she could emerge into the bailey and, in a panic, she shoved her fist into the throat of the man who had tried to stop her.
It was Jean-Pierre. He’d been too slow to grab the boy or the puppy, but he’d had his wits by the time Avrielle ran past. He’d knew Scott would be grossly displeased for allowing the woman into the bailey, not now when they were waiting for the Cumbrian lord’s army to appear, but Lady du Rennic had other ideas. Now, he was struggling to breathe as she’d nearly collapsed his windpipe.
The Original de Wolfe Pack Complete Set: Including Sons of de Wolfe Page 205
