Chapter Three #2
Nicola watched Tab as he helped Tiernan push a little bed around, realizing that her eldest son had more of his father in him than she cared to admit.
He had proved that the night he had rammed a sword into Gaylord’s back as the man beat his mother.
Nicola’s smile turned to something of a grimace.
She would have to make sure Gaylord’s tendency for physical violence didn’t also manifest itself in Tab.
She could never do much about her husband to that regard but she could certainly do something about her son.
He would not repeat the mistakes of his father.
And he would never, ever know that his actions had led to Gaylord’s demise.
She could only pray that le Bec and his knights would help keep her secret.
“My lady,” Janet said, catching her attention.
Jolted from her train of thought, Nicola turned to her little maid. “Aye?”
Janet had been rummaging around in one of the baskets of clothing that had been brought up from the master’s chamber. She scooted over to Nicola, keeping her voice low.
“I think something was left behind, my lady,” she said, wringing her hands nervously. “I cannot find the items you use for your woman’s time. No bindings, no moss… I believe it was all left behind.”
Nicola lifted her eyebrows, unconcerned. “No need to worry,” she said. “I will go down and retrieve it.”
Janet was still nervous. “It seems that Henry’s men do not want us out of our rooms, my lady,” she said. “I do not want you to get into trouble. I will go.”
Nicola shook her head. “I will go,” she insisted. “You remain here and tend the boys. Soon they will be hungry and we shall have to go to the kitchens.”
Janet’s worried appearance increased. “But we are to remain here, my lady.”
Nicola moved to the chamber door, turning to glance at her servant.
“Le Bec will have to release us, eventually,” she told her.
“His men will need to be fed at some point. He needs someone to manage the house and hold. I am confident we shall not spend the remainder of our days in this stone prison.”
Janet wasn’t entirely convinced but didn’t say any more.
Nicola quit the chamber and shut the door softly behind her, making her way to the small flight of stairs built into the wall of the keep that led down to the floor below.
It was dark in the stairwell and she paused, listening for sounds of le Bec or his men.
In truth, she didn’t want to run into the man and risk being punished again for being caught out of her rooms, so she very carefully made her way down to the third floor.
The familiar smells of her former chambers greeted her.
She was edgy standing on the landing, fearful that le Bec was about to make an appearance and throw her in the vault again for disobeying him.
Even though she wished nothing but ill on the man, she was still afraid of what he might do when provoked.
He’d proven that he wasn’t reluctant to punish her and even though taunting had become something of a game, she didn’t want to push him over the edge.
Therefore, not wanting to be caught, she immediately headed to the master’s chambers, seeking the small basket of products she used for her personal needs.
Usually, it was under the bed but the moment she opened the door, she noticed that since the time she had moved most of her possessions upstairs, le Bec had entered the master’s chambers and fell asleep on the bed.
He was covered up with the only coverlet she had left, including his head, but his feet were sticking out. He still had his boots on.
Frowning at dirty boots on her mattress, which wasn’t so much her mattress any longer, she tiptoed inside the chamber and headed for the bed.
The old wooden floors creaked now and again and she froze every time one let out a squealing noise, watching the bed to see if the sound had awakened le Bec.
He must have been a very sound sleeper because, so far, nothing seemed to have disturbed him.
Encouraged, Nicola closed the gap between her and the bed and went to her knees, peering underneath it in search of her items.
There was still some clutter underneath the bed but she saw the basket she was looking for on the other side.
Her arm wasn’t long enough to reach it. Still on her knees, she crawled around the bed to the other side, hoping to grab her basket and flee before le Bec realized she was in the room and tried to kill her because he thought she was an intruder.
The floor was still creaking a bit but she ignored it.
It was impossible for the floor not to creak so she simply tried to be careful about it.
Just as she neared the basket, as it was within her grasp, a hand from the bed shot out and grabbed her.
“You are a lovely wench,” the voice said. It was not le Bec. “Did Kenton send you to me? Good man. Come here and warm me.”
Startled, not to mention terrified, Nicola smacked the man’s hand as he grabbed her rather brutally.
He yanked at her, pulling her halfway onto the bed, but she threw out a fist and shoved it into the man’s face, still half-covered by the coverlet.
The man grunted and loosened his hold, enough so that she was able to pull away, but it wasn’t enough to run completely.
He grabbed her again, more forcefully, and Nicola was rightly panicked.
The old, iron fire poker was next to the bed where Tab had left it.
He had been playing with it earlier when they had all been in the chamber, removing items, and she had forced him to set it aside.
She didn’t allow her boys to play with sharp things even though Tab had an affinity for them.
He’d proven that many times, most recently with the sword that had impaled his father.
With the iron poker in arm’s length, she swiped at it even as the man pulled at her, getting a grip on the pointed end of it.
As the man pulled her onto the bed again, she took hold of the poker and brought it down on the body still buried within the blanket.
The man grunted again as she brought the poker down, twice, before he finally let her go.
Seized with panic, Nicola beat the man soundly as he lay wrapped up in the coverlet, racing all around the bed from every angle, whacking at him with all her strength.
The man protested vehemently and at one point, tossed the cover off his head so he could try to get hold of the poker, but Nicola whacked him on the knees and he howled, trying to protect his legs.
“You… you beast!” she cried angrily. “You fiend! How dare you grab for me! I am not a whore!”
The man roared. “Woman, cease your battle!”
Nicola was furious as well as frightened. She hit him one last time, on the thigh near his buttocks, and backed away from the bed with the poker wielded in front of her defensively. She backed up towards the door.
“Touch me again and this is only a foretaste of what is to come,” she hissed, grabbing at the door latch and throwing it open. “You have been warned!”
With that, Nicola fled the room, having no idea who she had just thrashed. When Kenton came up later to discuss a few items with Warwick, he was astonished to hear the man describe his violent encounter with a woman who beat him soundly with a fire poker.
Warwick was laughing as he told the story, but Kenton was not laughing; based on Warwick’s description of the beautiful, volatile woman, Kenton knew it could only be one person.
He only knew of one woman at Babylon with enough bravery and foolishness to do such a thing.
He was embarrassed as well as furious, convinced that Lady Thorne had purposely sought Warwick to issue her own particular brand of rebellion against him.
When Warwick finished his tale, snorting and giggling, Kenton had all he could take.
He was going to put that woman over his knee and spank her into submission as he should have done the first time they met.
Obviously, the vault did little good to quell her rebellion.
He would see if his hand to her backside would.
Politely excusing himself, he made his way up to the fourth floor.
*
Nicola was dozing in a big chair with Teague lying across her lap and Tiernan sleeping upon her shoulder.
After fleeing her former chamber and the wicked man who now slept there, it had taken her a while to calm her fright.
She kept thinking of that terrible man, and of how he had grabbed her, trying not to think of what would have happened had she not broken away.
Perhaps le Bec had a very valid reason for telling her to stay to her apartments and it hadn’t merely been because he was a cruel captor.
Perhaps it had been for her own safety. That hadn’t really occurred to her until now.
Feeling rather sheepish, she had finally settled down in the nearest chair, taking a cup of stale wine from Janet to help calm her nerves, but the twins were upset and restless, so she had turned her focus to them in the hopes of settling them down.
She eventually calmed, they calmed, and the boys finally fell asleep.
Exhausted from a night of very little sleep herself, Nicola closed her eyes and dozed off right along with them.
Until the door to her chamber flew open and le Bec was standing there in all of his hulking glory.
Startled by the servants’ cry when the door slammed back, Nicola sat up so fast that she nearly dumped Teague onto the floor.
She grabbed both boys to make sure they didn’t fall as she looked up at le Bec, wide-eyed with surprise.
“My lord!” she gasped. “What is the….?”
He didn’t let her finish. He took three massive steps over to her and picked up Tiernan from her shoulder, extending the now-squealing child to the nearest frightened servant.