Chapter Two #3
In fact, he was sure of it.
*
It took Nicola a moment to realize that someone was opening the vault door.
Down in the dank darkness on the sub-level below the gatehouse, the rattling of metal was deafening against the moss-slick stone walls.
Rubbing her eyes of sleep, Nicola blinked her eyes in the darkness, struggling to focus, only to realize that Kenton was entering her cell. And he was not alone.
Tab and Teague were walking beside him and Tiernan was in the man’s arms. Shocked and fearful to see her children, Nicola rolled to her knees and held out her arms to her sons. Tab and Teague rushed to her.
“What is wrong?” she asked, terrified for her boys. “Why are you here? What have you done?”
Tab hugged his mother fiercely. “We tried to scare him away but he would not leave,” he told her. “The ghost could not scare him away, either!”
Kenton stood before her, gazing down at the woman as she hugged her children. There was something very sweet and gentle about it, something quite loving. Kenton had forgotten that there could be such tenderness in the world, for he couldn’t remember a time in his life when he had known any.
He tried to put Tiernan down but the frightened boy clung to him.
He couldn’t just force the child to his feet so he stood there, awkwardly holding him.
Still, there was something strangely comforting in holding a child.
Very strange, indeed. Fighting off unfamiliar feelings of tenderness, Kenton focused on the reason for his visit.
“We saw the woman in the closet, Madam,” he said, his voice low. “Who is she?”
Nicola was somewhat confused by the question. “The woman in the closet?” she repeated.
“The one at the base of the stairs, near the entry.”
The light of recognition went on in Nicola’s eyes. “Ah,” she said. “That is my husband’s mother.”
Kenton was rather surprised by the answer. “His mother?” he confirmed. “What on earth is the woman doing in that closet?”
Nicola snuggled with two out of her three boys, almost too much for her petite lap. “She has been in that cubby as long as I can recall,” she said, kissing Teague’s head gently. “She is quite mad but quite harmless so long as she is left alone.”
Kenton mulled over the information. “She hissed menacingly at us.”
“She will do that if confronted.”
“Your sons believe she is a ghost.”
Nicola shrugged. “She comes out at night and dances through the lower floors in her tattered clothing and wild hair,” she said. “If you were a child, what would that look like to you?”
Kenton conceded the point. “A ghost,” he admitted. “She will be removed, however. I cannot have the woman disrupting my keep.”
Nicola gazed up at him, her brow furrowed with concern. “But I told you she is harmless so long as she is left alone,” she said. “If you try to remove her, she could become quite violent.”
Kenton’s face was like stone. “That is not my concern,” he said. “I will do what is necessary in order to remove her. There will be no mad relatives loose in my keep.”
Nicola regarded him a moment. Then she looked away, shaking her head. “Your keep,” she muttered. “You have been here less than a day and already it is your keep.”
“I told you it was my keep the moment I entered the gates of Babylon. What part of that statement did you not understand?”
Nicola sighed softly. It was evident she was very weary and somewhat defeated, but the fire of resistance was still in those beautiful eyes. Kenton could see it. He suspected a woman as strong and fiery as Lady Thorne would never be completely subdued, ever.
“It took you days to breach Babylon,” she muttered. “It did not come so easy. It was not as if I easily gave it up to you.”
Kenton’s jaw ticked. Now, she was touching on a subject he had been wondering about since nearly the moment he’d breached the gatehouse – who was in charge of Babylon’s defenses?
“And so it did not,” he said, forcing Tiernan down to his feet.
As the boy ran to his mother, Kenton crouched down a few feet away, watching the four of them very carefully.
Mostly, he was watching Nicola. “As impenetrable as Babylon is, the fact remains that there are only a handful of soldiers and knights seeing to her defenses. You held off a substantial army for days with very few resources which is to be commended, but in the end, you still fell to me. That is a fact.”
Nicola’s head jerked to him, her eyes flaring with rebellion. “You mounted our walls with ladders,” she said. “We stemmed your tide for almost five days before the end came.”
“But the end did come and Babylon is mine.”
He said it with such finality, such arrogance.
Nicola, who had thus far remained somewhat calm and submissive throughout the conversation, began to feel the fire of resistance surge in her veins.
She didn’t like le Bec’s attitude or his possessiveness when it came to something that did not belong to him.
This was the home that her boys would inherit and for no other reason than that, she had to fight for it.
She held no grand memories of Babylon. In truth, she equated the fortress to her marriage to Gaylord.
It was a cold, sometimes painful, and always an intimidating thing.
But it was her children’s legacy and she would fight for it, no matter what.
“It is yours and Henry’s for now,” she said, hazard in her tone. “But soon enough, Edward shall regain it. I hope I am here to see that day.”
Kenton heard the hatred in her words. Hatred of him, of Henry, and perhaps of war in general.
It was difficult to know. But he could see such strength in the woman as she spoke.
That fire he’d seen since the beginning of their acquaintance was still there, smoldering, waiting to flare once more.
She could still be a viable threat to him and he knew it.
The logical thing would be to get rid of her for his own protection but he couldn’t seem to make a decision about it, which confused him.
Threats must be eliminated!
“It is quite possible that you will be,” he said evenly. “But until that time, your fortress, and everything within it, belongs to me.”
Nicola held his gaze a moment longer before turning away.
She simply couldn’t stomach the triumph in his eyes.
“It would not be yours if I had more men,” she murmured, “and if I was better at commanding. If I’d had those two factors, you would still be outside the walls and I would be laughing at your futility. ”
A twinkle came to Kenton’s eye, suspecting he now had his answer about the leader of Babylon’s defenses. In hindsight, he knew it all along. He wasn’t surprised in the least and he found himself impressed with a woman that should be strong enough to hold off an army.
“Where are all of Gaylord’s men?” he asked in an oddly conversational manner, as if there was no force or demand behind it. “Babylon has been known to carry thousands.”
Nicola was still looking away from him, her gaze averted to the darkened shadows of the vault. There wasn’t any reason not to tell him everything. It wasn’t as if she had any secrets left to keep.
“Gaylord sent them on to the Duke of York to reinforce the lines for Edward,” she said quietly. “He saw no reason to leave more than a few dozen men to man Babylon, knowing she was unbreachable. Imagine what his surprise would be to know that was not the case.”
“Why did you not recall them from York?”
She shrugged. “I did not see the need until your army came upon us. By then, it was too late.”
Kenton digested the information, thinking that a good deal now made sense.
With Thorne’s men away reinforcing Edward, Babylon was truly his.
His men were currently still housed outside of the castle walls in an encampment that had been set up before the siege but he now thought it a good idea to fold up camp and bring everyone inside.
Word would spread that Babylon was now in Lancastrian hands and he fully expected retaliation at some point, but before that could happen, he wanted Babylon sealed up.
His gaze moved to Lady Thorne and his thoughts followed.
Having a woman at a military installation was a distraction and having her entire family there was unacceptable, and that thought alone swayed his decision towards sending Lady Thorne away.
He’d been uncertain only a few second before but now, knowing what Babylon was to become for Henry’s cause, he knew he had no choice. The woman, and her children, had to go.
“Babylon is now held for the rightful king,” he said, telling her what she had already heard before.
“You should know that I have sent word to Warwick. He will soon be moving his men here to assume command and we will be using Babylon as a base for further action in the north. With that said, there will be no room for you and your children and servants. Do you have somewhere else to go?”
Nicola looked at him again, her eyes wide with distress and surprise. “This is our home,” she said, rather hotly. “Of course we have nowhere else to go.”
“You cannot remain.”
Nicola was stricken. “Why not?” she demanded.
“I will keep the boys out of the way. We will not interfere with your operations. Moreover, you need me. I told you that before you threw me into the vault. I run this house and hold quite efficiently and with a large army arriving, I should think my function would be very valuable to you. You want your men fed and housed, do you not? I know how to do that. I serve a purpose.”
I serve a purpose. He was coming to think that she was correct; he would have thousands of men here, including commanders, and if they did not have someone to run the household and provide meals and other functions, one of the men would have to do it and they more than likely would not do it nearly so well.
Besides, he didn’t exactly want to send her away.
There; he admitted it. It was the entire reason behind his indecision and he found himself wavering once again on his inclination to send her away.
She was beautiful and intelligent. She intrigued him. At least, she was starting to.
“We shall see,” he said vaguely. “Since you do not have anywhere else to go, for now, I will allow you to remain, but only until other arrangements can be made. Furthermore, I will make it clear that Babylon can only have one master and that is me. Is that in any way unclear?”
“It is clear.”
“You are not in charge.”
“I understand.”
He eyed her, knowing she was saying it simply to agree with him. He knew she didn’t mean it. With a grunt, perhaps of resignation, he turned for the cell door.
“You are released from this place,” he told her. “Take your children and return to your apartments. You will remain there until further instructions. Do you comprehend?”
Stiffly, Nicola began to rise. Tab was trying to help her to her feet. “Aye,” she said, brushing off the dirt and straw from her knees. “What will happen now?”
Kenton stood at the cell door, indicating for her to walk through it. “Go back to your rooms,” he told her again. “The business of Babylon is no longer your affair. From this point on, you will obey implicitly or you will find yourself back in this vault permanently.”
Nicola didn’t reply, mostly because she knew he meant it.
She had pushed the man repeatedly and he had shown her his capabilities.
He had no problem throwing a woman in the vault.
The next time, he might put her in here and truly keep her here forever.
Her pride was a difficult thing to swallow and so was her rebellion, but for her children’s sake, she had to. At least for the moment.
Silently, she grasped the twins by the hand and, with Tab in tow, slipped from the vault and back to the keep where Liesl and Raven and Janet were very glad to see them. They tried to return to a sense of normalcy quickly, unbalanced by the events of the day and uncertain of their future.
With the boys settled in for the night, Nicola remained awake, struggling to accept the new state of her world and wondering what the morrow would bring.
Never could she have imagined the scope of the invasion that was about to happen.
Babylon’s very fabric was about to change.