Chapter Eighteen
Winterhold Castle
“What do you mean she escaped?”
It was early evening as Hallam and Kevin faced Covington and Marius in Covington’s gorgeous solar.
Per Caius’ orders, they faced the pair together.
When they’d entered the room, the mood had all the tides and trimmings of a victory celebration as father and son applauded their final triumph over the House of de Thorington.
They were dressed in their finest and toasting each other with Covington’s very expensive Spanish wine while trays of smoked fish and hard cheese was laid out before them.
Certainly, it felt like a celebration until Hallam delivered the news from Hawkstone. At that moment, the celebration came to an abrupt halt.
The question came from Covington.
“Hallam,” he very nearly shouted as he set his cut crystal cup to the nearest table. “What in the hell do you mean Lady Emelisse escaped? What happened?”
Hallam and Maxton had worked out the scenario on their ride from Hawkstone, so he knew it by heart. Backwards and forwards. He knew every single word that he was supposed to say, but when Covington charged at him, bleating his demanding question, all Hallam could feel was disgust.
Disgust and rage.
That had never happened to him before, not like this.
“Precisely that, my lord,” he said, launching into the story. “She asked to use the garderobe, so we permitted it. One does not usually follow a woman when she is taking care of, shall we say, necessities. While we were waiting for her a proper distance away, she escaped.”
Covington was so astonished that he could hardly think straight. “Escaped?” he repeated. “From the garderobe?”
“Through the garderobe, my lord,” Hallam pointed out, inferring the disgusting obvious.
“I suppose she was desperate enough to do it. We did not discover her absence until sometime later. Worse still, she somehow killed one of our soldiers in the process. He must have tried to stop her. She is on the run now and Sir Caius and Sir Morgan have gone after her.”
Covington’s eyes widened. “But what of her brother?” he asked. “Is he still in the keep?”
“Still, my lord.”
“Did she even speak with him? Did she tell him to surrender?”
Hallam’s lie was about to grow. “She did,” he said. “But that was before she escaped. The brother said he would consider surrendering peacefully if she was brought back safely and that is what we are trying to do.”
That gave Covington pause. It was a false hope that the intact keep might be surrendered without bombarding it and destroying it to remove the brother.
A keep that was virtually intact would cost him less to rebuild in the long run.
With that thought, he suddenly had hope that, truly, this would all be over soon if they could only find the lady.
So close!
“We found Rupert’s body not long ago,” he said. “It is drying out in the vault. Do you suppose we could use it to convince the brother to surrender now rather than later?”
“I think you should wait until Caius and Morgan find the lady,” Hallam said. “A live sister will have more effect than a dead father.”
Covington’s displeasure returned. “Then who else is looking for her?” he demanded. “You should have the entire army out looking for her. She must be brought back immediately!”
But Hallam shook his head. “That would not work, my lord,” he said.
“She would see them coming from a mile away. Nay, it will only work if men such as Sir Caius and Sir Morgan are searching for her in stealth. If she saw an army looking for her, she would only hide and we would never find her. It is better this way.”
Covington wasn’t so sure. He looked at his son to see his reaction to all of this only to see that Marius looked much like his father. Enraged, he threw his expensive crystal cup into the hearth and stormed in Hallam’s direction.
“This is your fault,” he hissed. “You stupid fool. You should never have let the woman go off by herself!”
Hallam didn’t like Marius; he never had. He particularly didn’t like being called names by the man.
“I am to stand at a lady’s side while she pisses?” he shot back quietly. “I think not, my lord.”
“It is your fault she escaped!”
Hallam remained calm. “I will only go so far in my duties as a knight and your father’s commander, but standing next to a woman as she relieves herself is where I draw the line,” he said, though his voice was getting louder as he spoke.
“There was no way of knowing she would escape through the garderobe, but if I’d suspected she would, then I would have placed someone outside of the chutes to catch her.
A pity I did not have the foresight you think I should have had. ”
Marius’ lip curled menacingly and Hallam was fully prepared to throw a punch at the man. He didn’t care if he was Covington’s son or not. But Covington mercifully stepped in, pushing the two of them apart.
“Enough,” he said. “It is done. The fact remains that we must get her back, Hallam. I want her brother’s surrender. I do not agree that we should not send the army out to search for her. She cannot hide from so many men.”
At that point, Kevin stepped in. Watching Hallam deal with Covington and Marius was like watching a noble wolfhound surrounded by two jackals. They circled Hallam and they growled at him, unnerved and disturbed.
Kevin was always the pious and obedient one, different from the rest of the Executioner Knights in that regard, but he did not differ from them in the sense that he had a strong sense of right and wrong, and he was coming to loathe the de Wrenville men for their unerringly immoral and deceptive behavior.
And he didn’t like in the least how they treated Hallam.
“Hallam is correct, my lord,” he said, interrupting the building tirade. “Sending an army to search for her would only drive her into hiding, and if she was cornered, it might force her to do something… drastic.”
Covington looked at him with outrage. “Drastic? Such as?”
“Throwing herself into the river,” Kevin said ominously.
“Pushing the blade of a dagger into her chest. Do you not care if she is returned to you dead? If that happens, then you must think of the consequences. Hawkstone will revert to the Crown and it is possible the king will not give it to you. I am sure he has heard about the riches on Hawkstone lands. He could very well keep it for himself or even give it over to another lord, a more important lord, as a political favor.”
Covington’s expression of outrage turned to shock as he looked at his son.
“Would he do that?” he asked. “Would he grant Hawkstone to another?”
Marius had been in John’s court long enough to know that the king had many favorites over him.
He spent his days following the king around like a puppy when he was allowed near the man.
Truth be told, he had never told his father that he wasn’t the king’s most favored that he’d pretended to be.
It was true that he was a courtier, and he mildly amused the king from time to time, but he wasn’t at all sure that John wouldn’t give Hawkstone to a warlord he liked better if the situation arose.
It wasn’t exactly something he could, or would, admit.
He had wanted his father to think that he was greater than he actually was.
In his father’s eyes, he was only worth something to his father as long as he could provide something to him.
In this case, it was a relationship to the king.
The more Marius told his father of his great position within the king’s court, the more his father loved him.
Therefore, he had never expected to tell him the truth of the situation.
It was always something he intended to keep to himself.
His father had been so happy when he thought his son was a favorite of the king, and when John had mentioned something about William Marshal’s family, and in that conversation, something about his unwed niece, that was when Marius had come up with the plot for his father to marry Lady Alice.
Marius had always let his father believe that the king had suggested it.
But that was not the truth.
Alice had only been a means to the end and, perhaps in some small way, it had also been a way for Marius to earn approval from a father who had always been incapable of such emotion. At least, Marius had always thought so.
It seemed that the de Wrenville son had some secrets of his own.
“He most certainly would not grant Hawkstone to anyone but us,” Marius said, eyeing Hallam and Kevin. “Get out, both of you. That woman had better be found or you’ll both be in for trouble.”
Hallam had heard that before. Marius threatened a good deal, but it was rare when he carried through. But Kevin, surprisingly, actually snorted.
“You have no power over me,” he said to Marius. “If I were you, I would sit down and wait. It may take some time, but she will be found.”
Marius’ eyes narrowed at him. “And just who are you? I do not even know you.”
Before Covington could explain the situation, Kevin spoke loudly enough to drown out the father as he tried.
“My name is Sir Kevin de Lara,” he said. “Aye, that de Lara. My father is Lord of the Trilateral Castles, which are not far from here, and you know my brother. He is the Lord of the Shadows, the king’s personal bodyguard.”
Marius did, indeed, know that name. Sean de Lara. That suddenly gave Kevin a whole new light in his eyes. “So your brother is the Shadow Lord, is he?” he said, a hint of approval in his tone. “The man is fearsome. Absolutely fearsome. But he serves the king. Whom do you serve?”
Kevin’s chin went up proudly. “I serve William Marshal and the army outside of the walls of Winterhold moves on my command,” he said. “Any further questions?”