CHAPTER 44 #2
“You mean Margit?” Jean-haut asked quietly, lifting her hand to his chest.
Marielle released a heavy sigh. “So she did tell you. Good; I wasn’t sure.”
Margit?
Cap’s head spun. Everything strange about her, everything that didn’t seem to fit, suddenly made sense. Her twelve-year absence. Her isolation. The council’s demands.
He should have seen it months ago. Of course she was the Ralnoran princess.
“No, she didn’t,” he heard Jean-haut whisper. “She let something slip when she helped me escape. I wanted to confirm it with you before saying anything.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Cap stuffed his bow in its sheath and strode back to the tree. “I know a way in. Be ready to receive ex-prisoners in the park a mile north of the castle walls.”
“Cap? Where are you going?”
He walked along the branch until he was past the wall, then crouched down. “Staging a jailbreak. You three, gather what you need to help everyone disappear once they’re free.”
He dropped to the ground and jogged up the road without listening to their protests. He didn’t need help for this part. And he didn’t want to talk about it.
Why hadn’t she told him? He would have handled things differently if he’d known. Protected himself better, never let himself dream of an impossible future. Never danced with her. Never given in to the ache to touch her.
His jaw tightened. At least he hadn’t kissed her. It was the only positive outcome of the General’s raid.
Cap slipped into an alley and opened the door of a ramshackle tool shed at the end. He felt his way through the dark, then bent down to drag a heavy crate aside. Swiping his hand along the floor, he felt for the metal ring buried in the wood, then lifted the trapdoor.
It was pitch black in the tunnel, but he didn’t waste time digging in his pack for a candle. With a hand on the wall, he hurried down the graveled slope until the stone under his hand changed to wood.
Tugging on a thin chain around his neck, he drew out a key and unlocked the door.
He sped down the new passage, passing a door on his left and then another on his right before he found the one he wanted.
From there, it was a straight shot for another hundred yards.
Bringing his key forward again, he unlocked the short door as quietly as possible, then eased it open and ducked through.
Dropping to his hands and knees, he crawled toward a thin stream of pale light. He paused next to it, listening for a good five minutes before carefully pulling the loose boards free.
“He said we’d be safe, Adrien. This doesn’t feel very safe,” Tucker sniffed.
“I know, my boy,” the older man replied with a sigh. “But Cap didn’t say he would keep you safe. He said he would do his best to protect you.”
Cap tried not to wince. He’d been afraid that Tucker would feel that way. He felt that way.
“But he didn’t!” Tucker fumed. “He trusted Margit. If he wanted to protect us, he should never have brought her home.”
“You were rather fond of her yourself,” Adrien noted.
“That was before I saw her with the General! Didn’t you see how she cuddled up to him when he announced their betrothal?”
Cap froze. Betrothal?
“I did,” the minstrel replied slowly. “And I also saw a young woman who looked uncomfortable with the role she was playing.”
“Only because we were listening,” Tucker huffed. “She knew she wouldn’t be able to fool us any longer.”
Gripping the key around his neck, Cap took a moment to gather himself, then pulled the chain over his head. They didn’t need to know he wore the master key.
Or that their conversation had rattled his already bruised heart.
Striding around the corner, he dangled the chain next to his head. “I heard some disturbing news when I reached the city. Do you think this will help?”
The bars clanged as Tucker and several others sprang forward, but they kept their voices down. “Cap!” Tucker cried. “You came for us!”
He could feel Adrien’s eyes as he fitted the key into the first cell door. The older man’s voice was grave. “You’re in Laurier.”
Cap pulled the door open, then moved to the next. Without looking up, he replied, “I couldn’t abandon you.”
He soon had all the cells open. Gesturing for his people to follow, he pointed to the hole he’d come through. “This leads to a tunnel that ends outside the castle. Jean-haut and Rouge should be waiting for you.”
They began to file through. Adrien lingered next to Cap, watching him with serious eyes. “Those directions sound like you’re not coming.”
Cap waved him by, then ducked behind him and returned the boards to their place. “I’m not,” he said casually. “I have one more person to rescue.”
“You’re not going after Margit?” Tucker exclaimed from just beyond the door. “She’s with the General!”
“I promised her the same haven that I did the rest of you.” Focusing on the lock, Cap continued, “Until she refuses it or proves untrustworthy, I am honor-bound to offer her a way to flee.”
Tucker’s face appeared in his peripheral vision. “Why? She doesn’t care about us. She sneered at the idea of a princess being with an outlaw. Why didn’t you tell me who she was, Cap? I can keep a secret!”
“I know you can.” Cap set a light hand on the boy’s shoulder and forced his lips up to hide the pain. “But an hour ago, I thought she was just Margit. Marielle told me before I came.”
“Then you know...” Adrien’s words trailed off, but his sorrowful eyes stayed focused on Cap. Because he knew. He understood.
“I do.”
“But you’re still going to look for her?” Scowling, Tucker folded his arms over his chest. “She deserves the General.”
A tiny bit of contrary faith pulled up the memory of Margit facing off against Erwan. She couldn’t have known Cap was listening, but she had staunchly defended him anyway.
“She deserves to have the choice,” he quietly replied. “Get going, Tucker. You can’t be here when the guards come check on their prisoners.”
The boy frowned but stomped off down the tunnel. Adrien’s hand landed on Cap’s arm. “You’ll be careful? General Valentin orders our execution, and then you arrive in Laurier a few hours later... It’s like he knew you were coming.”
Cap nodded slowly. “You make a good point. But I didn’t come just for you, Tucker, and the others.”
“No, I wouldn’t think so.” The minstrel’s hand tightened, but then he nodded. “Well, if you’re certain. But please be safe, Cap. For all our sakes.”
After bidding him farewell, Cap trotted down a different tunnel. There was no need for a hand on the wall this time. He knew this passage by heart, even in the dark.
A torrent of emotions clamored for his attention. Margit, her betrothal to General Valentin. Her true identity. Her dismissal of Cap in front of Tucker.
But those he could handle. Feelings he hadn’t faced in over a year assailed him as well, things he couldn’t deal with now. He shoved them aside. He could confront them when he was back in the forest. When it was safe for him to break.
Maybe.
When he reached the door he needed, he pulled out his key again. But he paused before fitting it to the lock. More than a year had passed since he last used this door. Then, he had been escaping after a trying morning, hoping an hour in the woods would clear his head.
He’d had no idea the news Jean-haut would bring him.
No idea that he wouldn’t tease his younger brother that evening or hide a smile at his sister’s obliviousness to her best friend’s affection.
That his mother’s smile wouldn’t greet him at the breakfast table the next morning, or that he’d spoken to his father for the last time.
Cap shook himself. Delaying over memories wouldn’t help him rescue his princess…assuming she wanted to be rescued this time.
Taking a deep breath, he turned the key, then pulled the lever that opened a narrow section of wall in the adjoining bedroom.
It was dark, but Cap strode confidently to the sitting-room door. He didn’t know where the General might have stashed Margit—Princess Helena—but he had a few guesses. If they proved wrong, he would risk waking Cedric.
He stepped into the sitting room and froze. It should have been quiet in the middle of the night. Instead, he could hear someone breathing.
The sound of a flint striking drew his eyes toward the hall door, and then a candle flickered to life. General Valentin stood in the doorway.
“I thought you might show up tonight,” the General said with a sad smile. “Welcome home, my boy.”