“I risk much more than an escape,” Mary said and looked to each woman.
Reena spoke low. “There is gossip in the fortress about the babe’s father.”
Mary grabbed hold of her goblet of cider and rested back in her chair. “What is being said?”
“That you were with child before reaching the fortress,” Reena confirmed. “Since all knew you arrived on your wedding day, and due to Decimus’s firm belief in Church doctrine on celibacy before marriage, it is thought he is not the father.”
“Decimus will learn of the gossip soon enough,” Brigid said. “What then?”
Mary thought the timing perfect. The gossip would serve her plan well and lead to the conclusion of the ideal solution to her problem, though she required help in implementing it.
It had to be carried out precisely, leaving nothing to chance and making certain that in the end the Dark One had no choice but to follow her plan. Was it fair of her not to give him a choice? But then he was not giving her one. He insisted they could not stay together. She thought otherwise and intended to prove herself right. She had to; she refused to live life without him.
“Mary,” Reena said, drawing her out of her musings. “Decimus will show no mercy if he should discover you helped prisoners escape. And I hate to think of the consequences when he discovers the truth about the child you carry.”
“I have a plan.”
“Will it free you?” Brigid asked hopefully.
“I will need to go away and never return,” Mary said with sadness, knowing she would miss her friends. “There is no other way.”
“We will do what must be done to free you,” Reena said firmly, choking back a tear.
Brigid refilled their goblets with cider. “Does the Dark One know?”
“Aye, the Dark One knows that I carry his child.”
“And what says he?” Reena asked.
“He insists that I go away never to see him again. He claims he must continue with his work here, and that I and his child would be safer far away from him.”
“He saves many lives,” Brigid said, “the numbers too numerous to count.”
“He has sacrificed enough of himself. It is time for him to live,” Mary said, angrily. “There will always be someone who needs saving. He cannot save them all. The people must begin to save themselves.” She sounded selfish and she was, for her husband’s sake. “And he is bound to be caught eventually. Who will free him then?”
“He chose to take that chance,” Reena said. “Can you not convince him that you and the babe need him more?”
“I have tried, but he is stubborn and I fear for his life. You may think me selfish, but I want him with me. I do not ask that he surrender his battle, just that he change how he battles. All good warriors change tactics from time to time. How else does he avoid capture by his enemy?”
“What you are telling us is that the Dark One is not a willing participant in your escape plan, which makes for a more difficult success,” Reena said then grinned. “Though not necessarily a failure.”
Mary wiped away her last few tears and smiled. “You will help me?”
“That was my intention since I first received your note, and when I read it to Brigid, she agreed.”
“I told Reena that we must come at once. Your note seemed urgent.”
“The Dark One’s plans have me remaining here until I am heavy with child. I wish to leave as soon as possible.” She realized when she helped Jenna escape that she would be wiser to hasten her own plans. When she was swollen with child it would only make for a more difficult travel. Now she was still agile and able to move freely, the babe but a tiny seed inside her.
“A wise choice,” Brigid said. “I have not yet grown full with child and I already find myself moving more slowly. It is best you go now when you have no added burden.”
“We will need to begin very soon,” Reena said. “If we delay there is always a chance of someone discovering our plans.”
“What of our husbands?” Brigid asked. “Will we require their help?”
“I think we will need them,” Mary said. “We will need strong men to carry the bodies.”
“Bodies?” Reena asked alarmed. “What type of plan have you devised?”
“A permanent one. I want everyone to believe that the Dark One and I are dead. I do not want to live in fear that one day someone will find us. I want there to be no doubt that we are dead. Tongues must wag, the gossip grow and spread far and wide.”
“It is a dangerous plan,” Reena said. “Decimus will want to view the bodies and make certain there is no breath left in them.”
Mary took a deep breath and looked at her friends. “When I was with the Dark One he took me to a village where many of the people he had helped lived. They assisted him in helping others to escape. I met a seer there and she predicted my future.”
Mary took another breath. “She told me I would be the demise of Decimus, that he was my destiny.”
Reena grabbed Mary’s hand. “You cannot mean to kill Decimus. It is too dangerous.”
Brigid agreed. “He sees everything, knows everything. He will surely find out.”
“Extremely dangerous is what I told you my plan would be.”
The two women looked ready to argue, but Mary spoke up.
“It is not the danger you think and what I am about to reveal you must swear never to speak of, not even in a whisper.”
The two women shivered and nodded their heads.
“The seer’s words made no sense and frightened me until I discovered the Dark One’s true identity. The Dark One and Decimus are one.”
Chapter 35
Reena and Brigid were stunned, neither woman able to speak. They sat and stared with wide, bewildered eyes at Mary.
“I was just as shocked,” Mary said. “I actually thought that Decimus had played a trick on me when he pulled off the black shroud to reveal himself. It took little time for me to realize he spoke the truth, though it has not been easy to merge the two men as one. Decimus continues to appear the cruel, unforgiving torturer of innocent souls and yet within him is the Dark One, the man who fights for and frees the innocent.”
“So with Decimus’s demise, the Dark One lives,” Reena said, Mary’s plan making more sense.
“Michael lives,” Mary said with a smile. “He is who I know and love.”
“And his plans for you are?” Reena asked.
“That I appear ill throughout my pregnancy and just before the babe is born, I die. Decimus would see to the burial arrangement and the Dark One to my escape, saying his last goodbye to me when he turned me over to the safety of his friend Roarke.”
“Roarke healed well and left with us, though we separated along the way,” Reena said. “He expressed the need to return and help the Dark One.”
“I will need Roarke’s help as well.”
“What is your plan?” Reena asked.
By the time they finished discussing what Mary had in mind, it was decided that Magnus and Thomas would not be told of anything until the very last minute. The women feared the husbands would attempt to dissuade them or change the plan to one they deemed more suitable and safer for the women.
Mary entered the hall to find Decimus speaking with Magnus and Thomas. They all wore frowns, and she could only imagine what her husband discussed with them.
“Your visit will be short. I have work to do,” Decimus said and turned, almost colliding with his wife. He grabbed firm hold of her arms. “Should you be out of bed? You have not been well.”
“I am feeling much better,” she said, her head bowed in respect.
“Visit with your friends now for they will not be staying long.” Decimus released her and marched off, expecting his orders to be obeyed.
Magnus approached her. “Are you all right, Mary?”
“I was feeling ill when you arrived, but a sound night’s sleep, though it was more like a full day’s sleep,” she said with a laugh, “has seen to re
viving my health.”
He stepped closer to her. “Reena advised me of your note and request for help. What is it we can do for you?”
“There are some things that I will need of you, though I cannot discuss them with you now.”
“We will be here for you,” Magnus assured her.
“I appreciate your help and patience in this matter.”
Thomas stepped forward. “I stand beside my lord in all matters.”
She smiled. “You are true friends and we will talk soon, but now I must see to another matter that needs my attention.” She thanked them again and left the hall.
“Something more goes on than she tells us,” Thomas said to Magnus.
“I agree and I think it involves your wife and mine.”
Mary hurried out of the fortress to see if she could find her husband. He was chastising a group of his men in the center of the courtyard. She approached slowly, keeping her demeanor that of an obedient wife.
Decimus turned, his tongue sharp. “I am busy, wife, what brings you to me?”
“A private question, my lord.” She trembled to show fear, though the act was not difficult. His dark, penetrating eyes could put the fear in anyone. She had to remember he was the man she loved.
He dismissed his men with the wave of his hand. And while he kept his expression stern he spoke in a soft whisper that only she could hear.
“You are feeling well?”
“Aye, my lord,” she said, bowing her head to keep up appearances.
“I am sorry to send your friends away, but the longer they remain the more careful I must be, and I selfishly want what time I have left with you, without worry of discovery.”
“I feel the same and I ask that they be allowed to remain here until the end of the week.”
He waved his hand as though he dismissed her remark and said, “I see no problem with that.”
“One other thing,” she said, softly. “Reena told me that Roarke had returned part of the way with them and then left to find the Dark One. Have you heard from him? I wish to know that he is well and safe.”
“He waits for me in the woods, where we will begin to formulate a plan for your death and escape.”
“May I go to him?” She intended to find him whether given permission or not. But she did not want Decimus to know that.
He hesitated a moment. “Take Reena or Brigid with you so that it looks like you are taking a walk in the woods.”
“I will see you later,” she said and bowed her head.
“Be gone,” he shouted. “I have no time for nonsense, take your walk and leave me be.” He turned and walked over to his men without another glance.
Mary found Reena but left Brigid who was already busy securing the items necessary for the escape.
“Roarke will not speak to me in front of you,” Mary said, when they had almost reached the area where he waited for Decimus.
“I will wander off on my own,” Reena assured her, making it known in a raised voice that she went in search of feathers for quills and that Mary was to relax and enjoy the beautiful summer day.
Roarke stepped out from behind a tree as soon as Reena had disappeared into the woods. “Reena knows you meet me. She did not need to leave.”
“You are too perceptive,” Mary said with a smile. “But I needed to talk with you alone and Reena understood.”
“She and Brigid took good care of me,” he said and reached out his hand.
Mary took it and he helped her to sit on a fallen tree, and joined her.
“They are good friends, like you.”
Roarke’s handsome face brimmed with a smile. “You want something from me.”
She nodded and looked out on the beauty of the woods, so alive with new summer growth, the bright sun shining down and a gentle breeze wafting around them. It was peaceful here and that is what she wanted for Michael and herself—peace.
“Have you spoken with Michael since your return?”
“Briefly,” he said. “He told me you are aware of his identity and I hear congratulations are in order.”
She placed her hand to her stomach. “He will be a father come winter.”
“He is pleased, though . . .” Roarke did not finish.
She saw he was upset and she prayed he felt the same as she. “He deserves a life, Roarke.”
“I have told him this time and time again. His family, especially his sister, would not have wanted him to surrender his whole life for them.”
“But he feels they surrendered theirs for him, does he not?”
“No matter how much I tell him it was not his fault, he believes otherwise,” Roarke said.
“So he continually surrenders himself for others, with the dream of saving his family over and over. Yet now, with his child inside me, he continues the family, what his mother and sister would wish for him. Their persecutors cannot rob Michael of his bloodline.”
“He feels committed to save as many people as he can.”
“Do you think he has not saved enough? Do you not think it is time for him to fight in another way? Do you not think it is time for him to live?” She sounded as though she pleaded her case, but it made no difference, she was pleading for the life of the man she loved.
“He is a stubborn man and I have often told him that he cannot go on forever living a lie; he will be caught.”
“Do you not tire of this life yourself?” Mary asked. “Would you not like a wife and family?”
Roarke rocked back and glanced up at the heavens. “Peace, I would love some peace in my life.”
She reached out and touched his hand. “Then help me free Michael and finally lay his revenge to rest so that his family may rest, and you may know peace yourself.”
“You are a courageous woman, Mary.”
She grinned. “I am a woman deeply in love.”
“Michael is a lucky man.”
“He may not agree with you, especially after I tell you what I have planned.”
“Your plan will free him of Decimus and the Dark One?” he asked.
“Only Michael will live.”
“Tell me what you have in mind.”
They huddled in discussion with Roarke making a few suggestions that would help secure the plan’s success. They plotted date and time, Roarke agreeing it must be done immediately or they would risk someone learning of it. He also agreed that Michael might be angry with her at first.
“I am prepared for his wrath; I am not, however, prepared to live my life without him,” Mary said stubbornly. “In time he will come to realize the wisdom of my actions.”
“When he holds his newborn in his arms, he will be grateful to you.”
Mary sighed softly. “As I will be grateful to see him hold his son or daughter and know that his family continues on within the tiny babe.”
They heard heavy footsteps and Reena talking to herself much too loudly.
“Reena lets us know of her approach,” Roarke said with a laugh.
“She will be pleased that you help us.” Mary waved to Reena to join them when she caught sight of her.
She hurried over.
“He joins us,” Mary said with joy.
“Good, now all that is left is for us to finalize the plans and choose a day,” Reena said, relieved.
“We have chosen a day,” Roarke informed her. “We carry out the plan the day after tomorrow.”
“Brigid and I will tell Magnus and Thomas that morning.”
“I think it wiser if I discuss the plans the night before with them. Timing, actions and illusion will be vital to the success of this plan. They must be fully aware of what they must do. We cannot waste a minute nor hesitate. Decimus must be taken by surprise.”
“From what Mary has planned I think he will be stunned,” Reena said.
“Giving us all the time to do what we must.” Roarke smiled. “Do you wail well, Reena? It is a vital role you will be playing.”
“For my small size I have a loud wa
il,” Reena said with pride.
The three laughed and parted ready, yet nervous that if all went well, in a day’s time Decimus would be no more.
Mary rolled over in bed that night to hug her husband, her hand roaming down the length of him teasing him into attention.
He responded immediately growing large in her hand.
“You have not been well, I thought not to disturb you.”
She squeezed him hard and he grabbed her hand.
“Be careful, you make me want you with a need so strong—”
She squeezed him harder, her need as desperate as his.
In a flash he had her on her back and he was slipping over her and into her as he ravished her mouth with demanding kisses. She responded with the same demand and hungry need, welcoming him into her and holding tightly to him as they loved strong and hard.
Their joining left them breathless, their bodies damp, and their hearts beating wildly. They held hands, lying on their backs and staring at the ceiling as their breathing calmed and their bodies cooled.
Neither spoke, their minds on opposite thoughts.
Decimus felt the heavy weight of their future parting on his heart. Each day they spent together was one day closer to their last day. How would he ever let her go? How would he be able to live without her?
His mind reeled with the tormenting thoughts, but he would not let her know. He had to see that she and his child were safe and free from harm and able to live a good life. And that meant he could not remain with them.
He loved her with all his heart and she would take his heart with her when she went, for he would never love again.
Mary thought of the day after next and how they would be free to live and love. She would not let her plan fail. She was even more determined now after making love with him. She could not think of a future without him beside her. Whether making love, snuggling together in bed, holding hands as they did now, she could not bear the thought of their binding love not continuing.
She thought him admirable for wanting to continue to help the innocent but not at the cost of their love. He could do more by living his life, having a family, and teaching the innocent to defend themselves.
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