“Now,” he said quietly. “What I say will not leave your lips. Is that clear?”
William nodded firmly. “It is, my lord.”
“Good,” Caius said. “Everything I say to you from this point on is in confidence unless I tell you otherwise. The first thing you need to learn is the value of keeping silent. Someday, it may save your life.”
“Aye, my lord.”
Caius glanced around the entry, with Covington’s solar door nearby. He eyed it for a moment before returning his focus to William.
“You have heard us speaking of de Wrenville’s insatiable greed when it comes to Hawkstone,” he said softly. “He has Lady Emelisse here and, at some point, it is quite possible that we will remove her from this place without de Wrenville’s permission. While I am speaking with her, I want you to nose around this keep and find another exit than the entry door. Learn this keep as much as you can, for I will have questions when I return.”
William nodded sharply and Caius turned for the stairwell that led to the upper floors. Leaving the squire to investigate the layout of the keep, Caius headed up the stairs, assuming they hadn’t moved Lady Emelisse from the last place he saw her. He found himself wondering where Hallam had gone because the keep seemed empty. He didn’t even see a servant as he made his way to the top floor. He was just nearing the top of the stairwell when he heard Hallam’s quiet voice.
What he heard from that moment on changed the course of the evening.
And his mission.
CHAPTER NINE
“He will be here any moment,” Hallam was saying softly. “I believe he wants to do what is right. He does not seem to be siding with your husband.”
“But what does that mean?” a woman replied. “You know I have not involved myself in my husband’s military plans but, in this case, I must. I fear what he plans for Lady Emelisse. Do you know?”
It took Caius all of two seconds to realize it was Lady de Wrenville. He paused as he reached the top, listening to their conversation with curiosity.
“I do,” Hallam said softly. “He plans to marry her to Marius.”
Lady de Wrenville gasped. “Him?” she said, evidently horrified. “Hallam, that will be a horrible fate for the lady, especially after everything that has gone on over the years. Does she know?”
“I do not believe so.”
Lady de Wrenville began to pace because Caius could see her shadow on the wall.
“Then you must speak with Sir Caius,” she said decisively. “He is the one in command of my uncle’s army, is he not? You must convince him not to support my husband and you must convince him to remove Lady Emelisse. Mayhap I am caring too deeply about things that do not concern me, but I have been here long enough to see the situation for what it is. He married me to gain an army and he will have Marius marry Lady Emelisse to gain a fortress. I do not wish my fate upon her, not in the least.”
Hallam didn’t say anything for a long moment. “If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else,” he murmured. “He needed military support that a marriage could give and he discovered you. But it could have been anyone else who could provide him with a big army.”
Lady de Wrenville sighed heavily. “It just happened to be me,” she said. “I have always wondered how he found me.”
Hallam drifted closer to her; Caius could see his shadow as well. “I suspect it came through the king,” he said. “In fact, my suspicion is that this entire situation came through the king. Marius has his ear and, undoubtedly, John knew about the conflict with Hawkstone. It is my suspicion that John suggested the marriage with you to gain William Marshal’s military support. If the king is controlling Marius, then he is controlling Covington. And if Covington calls for aid from The Marshal, that means the king controls The Marshal to a certain extent.”
Lady de Wrenville shook her head in awe, her shadow moving on the wall. “I see that now,” she said. “But my parents did not. They were so happy with a marital offer that they did not look beyond the offer itself, or the implications. At thirty years and four, my time for finding a husband was over ten years ago. They knew another offer would not come along so they took it.”
Hallam’s shadow was moving closer to her. “Had I known of you before this, they would have had another offer,” he said softly. “From me. But God has not been kind to us.”
“Nay,” Lady de Wrenville said, resigned. “Even so, I cannot stand by and watch Marius marry that girl. Knowing what I know, I shall intervene if I can. God only knows what Marius will do to her if he becomes her husband.”
Hallam’s voice was gentle. “You have endured a tragic fate, yet you will make sure another does not meet the same fate you have,” he said. “You are noble and kind and true, my lady. Your heart has a great capacity for love.”
Lady de Wrenville stopped pacing. “For you, it does,” she murmured. “I have said it before, Hallam. You are too fine a man to be serving this monster I have married. I wish…”
He shushed her softly. “No more,” he said. “Sir Caius shall be here any moment. If I can convince him to remove Lady Emelisse, I shall. I promise.”
Caius had heard enough. He decided that was the moment to make an appearance and he stomped the last few steps, making his approach obvious as he came to the top of the steps. He appeared in the doorway as Lady de Wrenville and Hallam turned to him, both of them trying not to look as if they’d been caught doing something they perhaps should not have been. Hallam was the first one to speak.
“I wanted to make sure you had Lady de Wrenville’s permission before speaking to Lady Emelisse,” he said. “You may proceed.”
That’s not why you came here, Caius thought, but he didn’t say anything. He was rather interested in the dynamics that were evidently going on here at Winterhold – a woman married because of the army she could provide and her husband’s knight who evidently had feelings for her, and she for him.
Quite interesting, indeed.
But in what he heard, it also told him that Hallam hadn’t been trying to trap him. Whatever the man had told him had been genuine because there was more to the story than he’d initially believed. In truth, this situation was growing by leaps and bounds every minute and his trust for Hallam grew, just a little.
“Thank you,” he said as he headed for the small chamber door. “Lady de Wrenville, has Lady Emelisse supped yet?”
Lady de Wrenville shook her head. “I have just sent for food,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
“Because my meal was interrupted,” he said. “I will eat with the lady, if you would be so kind as to arrange it.”
Lady de Wrenville nodded quickly and headed for the door. She disappeared down the stairs, but Hallam remained. Before Caius knocked on Lady Emelisse’s door, he glanced at the knight.
“You and I will have a discussion when I am finished with Lady Emelisse,” he said. “Do not go far.”
Hallam nodded. “I will be here when you have concluded.
Caius turned to the chamber door, rapping softly. When a voice from the other side demanded his identity, he gave it, and the bolt was promptly thrown.
A well-dressed maid appeared.
“Enter, my lord,” the maid said.
He did. As he proceeded into the chamber, the maid departed, shutting the door quietly behind her. It was a good thing because Caius probably would have forgotten to. The moment he set eyes on Emelisse, every thought in his head seemed to go up like a puff of smoke.
She was sitting on a three-legged stool in front of the blazing hearth, wrapped up in a cloak that was too big for her just like the gown had been. It was cold in the room, in spite of its small size and the lively fire in the hearth. Caius could feel it. In fact, as he stood there, he could feel the icy wind coming through the shutters that were old and tired.
Before he even uttered a word of greeting, he went over to the shutters and inspected them, seeing that they simply weren’t adequate against the storm outside. Returning t
o the door, he threw it open, startling Hallam. The man was several feet away, whirling to Caius as the door flew open.
“I need a woolen blanket cut into two halves,” Caius told him. “Bring me that and hammer and nails, and quickly.”
Hallam frowned. “What is the matter?”
Caius threw a thumb in the direction of the chamber. “Her shutters are about to collapse under the force of the wind,” he said. “That chamber is completely inadequate in this storm. If I cannot repair the shutters, then we shall have to move the lady or she will freeze to death.”
Hallam wanted to see what he was talking about. He came into the chamber and between him and Caius, they determined that the shutters were indeed inadequate in this storm. As the man headed off in search of items to keep the shutters secure and block out the chill wind, Caius shut the chamber door behind him.
He turned to Emelisse.
“I will apologize for not noticing the inadequacy of these shutters when I was here earlier, my lady,” he said. “If we cannot repair them satisfactorily, then we shall find you more comfortable quarters.”
She stared at him a moment as if surprised by all the fuss. “My lord, I do not expect you to see to my comfort,” she said. “I am a prisoner. Given the circumstances, this is far better than it was earlier in the vault. I am quite satisfied.”
He shook his head. “Even prisoners can expect decent treatment,” he said. “I will insist.”
She continued to stare at him as if unsure what to make of his chivalry. She was a captive and he was… well, it was her understanding that he had come to support de Wrenville. But his actions suggested that he wasn’t entirely on Winterhold’s side. Confused, she pushed her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
“I fail to understand why you should, my lord,” she said. “Please do not misunderstand. I am grateful to have you as my advocate. But I do not understand why you should be concerned.”
Caius tried to tell himself that he would have the same concern for any prisoner in the face of such an upsetting situation, but if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. From the beginning of their association, he’d been drawn to Emelisse. He didn’t even know the woman but, somehow, she had his attention.
After a moment, he averted his gaze, looking around for something to sit on.
“I am concerned as the only neutral party here,” he said. “As I told you, William Marshal has a stake in all of this and until I can determine who is in the right, and who is in the wrong, if any, I shall be your advocate and ensure you are treated fairly.”
It sounded reasonable enough and he was proud of himself for explaining it so logically. But her brow furrowed as she considered his words.
“You did, indeed, mention that you had come on behalf of William Marshal,” she said. “But my question is why? We never knew that Covington de Wrenville was such a close ally of The Marshal.”
Caius had found a chair and he pulled it up, sitting opposite her in front of the hearth. “He was not until he married Lady de Wrenville,” he said, finally looking up at her. “Lady de Wrenville is the former Alice de Gras. Her mother, Margaret, is a beloved sister of William Marshal.”
Emelisse’s eyes widened when she realized what he was saying. “He married a niece of William Marshal?” she gasped. “That means… now he is part of The Marshal’s family. Did he do this on purpose? To destroy Hawkstone?”
Caius shrugged, trying not to make it sound as bad as all that when the truth was that it was as bad as all that. He simply didn’t want to feed the fear he could see in her eyes because he needed for her to remain calm considering what he had to tell her.
She still didn’t know that Covington intended to marry her to his son.
“I am sure there were many reasons why they were married,” he said. “Marriage can be for money, for power, for armies, or for love. I do not know the reasons why he married her, but he did.”
His words eased her only slightly. Her gaze lingered on him a moment before she turned back to the flames, staring into their mesmerizing depths.
“It seems clear that he married her for William Marshal’s support,” she muttered. “He only married her two months ago and now here you are, with an army. I am not a politician, nor a military tactician, but even I can see why he did it.”
Caius watched her profile in the flickering light, his thoughts moving from the marriage of Covington and Alice to the curve of Emelisse’s face. He was being an utter idiot, he knew, but he didn’t care. His initial observations of her had not been incorrect; she was an exquisite creature. He was curious about her, personally, and trying not to be obvious. He was trying to be completely professional in all aspects, but the more he looked at her, the more difficult it became.
“Until I determine the truth of the situation, it will do no good for you to worry about this,” he said. “But there is something you should know because I feel that it is only fair to tell you the truth. De Wrenville has recalled his son to Winterhold with the intention of marrying you. I know that is not what you want to hear, but that is what he has spoken of.”
Her head came up, her eyes wide on him. “Marius… he is coming here to marry me?”
Caius nodded. “That is what I have been told,” he said. “I thought you should know so you are not surprised when Marius arrives and the subject comes up. Mayhap knowing will give you time to… prepare yourself.”
For a moment, she simply looked at him and he met her gaze, waiting for her reaction. Either she would be resigned to it, which he couldn’t imagine she would be, or she would vehemently protest. He suspected he was going to have to listen to fearful tirade.
He wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
Suddenly, Emelisse was on her feet, running for the nearest shuttered window. Caius was out of his seat, grabbing her just as she yanked open one of the broken shutters and tried to crawl up into the window. Her intention was clear and, shocked, Caius pulled her out of the window, into his massive embrace, as she fought like a wildcat.
Caius was a big man, and strong, but Emelisse seemed to have superhuman strength. She was twisting and fighting, and when he lifted his hand to hold her thrashing head still, she bit him. It was enough for him to loosen his grip and she managed to yank herself free of his grasp, but not for long. He tackled her before she could get to the window and they both went down on the floor in a heap.
“Please,” she begged, beating at the arms that were holding her. “Let me go! Please let me go!”
Caius was genuinely afraid of what would happen if he did. “Nay, my lady,” he said, his head tucked in behind hers. “I will not let you throw yourself from the window. Breathe, Emelisse, just breathe.”
He called her by her Christian name, hoping it might break that barrier between a professional and neutral party to someone who was concerned. The human emotion factor in all of this, which had been sorely missing in this situation. Emelisse had been treated like an enemy, punished and emotionally abused, and she was reacting in kind. Only Lady de Wrenville had been kind to her.
Caius wanted to be kind to her, too.
But she wasn’t making it easy.
“Let me go!” she grunted, trying to force herself free of his iron grip. “It is not your right to save me! It is not your privilege! It is my life and I will not live it with Marius de Wrenville. So let me go or you condemn me to a fate worse than death!”
Caius didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what to say. He was coming to regret telling her about Marius but, in the same breath, she had to be told sooner or later. Better do it now while he was with her and able to prevent her from ending her life in desperation. Frankly, her reaction had caught him off-guard.
There was nothing he could do not but hold on tightly until her urge to end it all subsided.
Emelisse’s burst of rage and terror was now fading into a burst of tears. She was still fighting him, but now weeping, and he could feel her struggles l
essen. Still, he didn’t let go. He was afraid to. The side of his head was against the back of hers and he could feel her heaving in his embrace, her soft and warm body lurching with sobs. Had he not been so concerned with calming her, he would have realized that the woman in his arms was about the best thing he’d ever experienced.
He’d never known anything like it.
“I realize this situation has pushed you beyond your endurance,” he said in his deep, soothing voice. “But throwing yourself from the window is not the answer. Hawkstone still needs you, my lady. Would you abandon your home so easily?”
Emelisse was weeping pitifully in his arms. “You do not know how I feel,” she hissed. “You do not know me at all. Let me go or I will hate you until I die.”
Caius couldn’t help it; he grinned. “If I have anything to say about it, that will be many years in the future,” he said. “Hate me if you must, but throwing yourself from the window is the coward’s way out. And it seems to me that you are no coward.”
She continued to lay there, sobbing, until he could feel her soft body eventually relax against him. Had the circumstances not been so dire, he would have enjoyed it. Her hair, that mass of spun gold, was splayed against his chest, his shoulders, and part of his face.
Soft…
He dared to inhale of its scent, closing his eyes to the beauty of it.
But she suddenly came alive again, sensing perhaps that he had relaxed his hold, and tried to bolt out of his embrace. His arms clamped down on her like a vise and threw a leg over her, effectively trapping her for all time should he so choose. Realizing that, she stopped fighting, but her hands were on him, gripping him, and from the way she gripped him, Caius began to feel something he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Fear.
The Agents of William Marshal Volume II: A Medieval Romance Bundle Page 127
