Chapter Twenty-Four
Five days later
Two miles southwest of Doncaster, Hagg Forest
The moisture had been very heavy in the air overnight, which meant by morning, a thick fog was blanketing the land.
Having departed Conisbrough Castle before dawn, Kenton rode in the center of about fifty men, all of them heavily armed, all of them with one focus – Kenton le Bec.
This was a transport troop, designed to move an important prisoner, and it was of such importance that St. John had taken command of the troop and was riding point.
The man wasn’t going to let anything go wrong, at any time, and was determined to take control of every aspect of the movement.
Kenton, however, wasn’t thinking on St. John or the fact that he was being moved.
St. John had said very little to him about the action, only enough to tell him that they were meeting with Edward in Doncaster, which was very close to Conisbrough, a mere five miles away.
All Kenton could think of was the fact that he hadn’t seen Nicola since the day she arrived at Conisbrough, but he supposed that was to be expected.
She didn’t have any reason to see the prisoner beyond her initial visit but he still yearned for her, wishing he could have seen her at least once more before he departed Conisbrough.
He still had the taste of her upon his lips, something he kept tucked close to his heart. He hoped it wouldn’t be his last taste.
More than that, he had no idea what had transpired in the five days since he’d last spoken with her.
They had separated with a plan in mind, of getting word to Warwick, but he had no idea if she’d been able to accomplish that.
Therefore, he was operating in the dark, edgy and concerned about what was to happen, and especially concerned that he would be seeing Edward this day.
If Nicola hadn’t been able to send word to Warwick about him being moved from Conisbrough, then it was a certainty that he would be dining with Edward that night.
Already, he had no appetite.
Kenton’s anxiety made travel uneasy. He had been given back his armor, and his horse, everything but his weapons, so he looked just like any other knight as he was escorted on the road towards Doncaster.
The truth was that, for a prisoner, he had been extremely well treated and afforded a good deal of respect from both Saxilby and St. John, so he really had no complaints about his treatment.
But he simply didn’t want to be there, having grown bored and unnerved in his captivity.
He wanted to see Nicola and he wanted to go back to his last memories of Babylon, fishing with little boys or gently flirting with Nicola, although he wanted to do far more than flirt with her this time.
He had a taste for her flesh that he would never be free of.
So his mind wandered as they plodded along the muddy road, through the heavy fog, and towards a fairly dense stretch of forest that lined both sides of the road.
He could smell water and could see the hints of a lake off to the south, through the mist. Creatures were foraging in the early morning and he saw more than his share of rabbits and foxes as they darted about, startling the horses as they went.
He was peering off to the south, thinking he saw the dark shadows of people in the distance, when St. John pulled his horse up alongside him.
The men acknowledged each other silently. The truth was that Kenton didn’t have much to say to the man so he simply kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t one for meaningless conversation, anyway.
“We should be in Doncaster within the next hour,” St. John said. “I have no way of knowing when Edward will be passing through so we may be forced to pitch camp there. If you tell me you will not make an attempt to escape, I will not shackle you.”
Kenton looked at him. “That is your choice.”
St. John eyed him for a moment, sensing that he had insulted the man with the shackle comment. “Sorry, le Bec, but you are a valuable commodity,” he said. “Were you to escape, Edward would probably throw me in my own vault and lose the key.”
Kenton really didn’t care about that. He returned his attention to the misty field to the south, which was now becoming increasingly dotted with trees as they drew near the dense forest to the east.
“Where is Saxilby?” Kenton asked.
St. John, sensing that Kenton had no real desire to carry on any manner of conversation, turned his attention forward, towards the forest that they were approaching. “He has gone with Lady Thorne back to Babylon,” he replied. “She wanted to return home so he escorted her.”
Kenton didn’t react outwardly, but inwardly he was thrilled to know where Nicola was. He’d been desperate to know. “Good,” he said, but realizing that sounded as if she meant something to him, he added: “Send the woman back where she belongs and far away from me.”
St. John sensed a great deal of bitterness in his words and he grinned.
“I can only imagine how difficult she must have been,” he said.
“Why you did not confine her to the vault, I will never know. If you trusted her, it was your undoing, for the woman certainly did not trust you. It was by her hand that we were able to capture you.”
Kenton felt as if he were being chastised. “She had a working knowledge of the fortress,” he said as if explaining the obvious. “She served a purpose as chatelaine. As long as she served a purpose, there was no reason to confine her to the vault.”
St. John scratched his cheek beneath his open visor.
“As you say,” he said, although it was clear he didn’t particularly agree.
“Had it been me, I would have locked her up. She is an aggressive, pushy woman, but she is also quite beautiful and I suppose you are only a man, after all. Greater men than us have fallen to a beautiful woman.”
Kenton turned to look at him. “Who says I fell to her?”
St. John gave him a half-grin. “You did fall to her,” he said. “The woman betrayed you. I would call that falling to her. But she is so lovely that mayhap I would not mind, either. In fact, when this is over, I may return to Babylon and marry her.”
Jealousy reared its ugly head. Kenton’s eyes narrowed at the man as the ancient primal sense of defending a mate filled his chest. Nicola belonged to him and he would not tolerate any competition for her but he certainly could not say so.
If he did, it would jeopardize Nicola and everything she had worked for.
For all St. John knew, Nicola and Kenton were bitter enemies and no matter how much Kenton wanted to tell St. John otherwise, he would not do it.
He couldn’t. So he had to bite his tongue and turn away.
Stay away from her, you bastard!
“Then I wish you luck,” he said, not meaning a word of it. “Be careful that she does not end up ruling the house and hold, and you along with it. I get the sense that she would be quite adept at doing all of it.”
St. John chuckled. “I would not mind,” he said. “She is a lovely bit of flesh.”
Kenton’s jaw began to tick, struggling so hard not to say anything in return.
St. John was speaking of the woman he loved, the woman he intended to give up everything for, so it was a fierce struggle not to rush the man and wrap his hands around St. John’s neck.
He was thinking of St. John’s face turning purple as he squeezed, taking fiendish delight in it, when they entered the dark confines of the forest that surrounded the road.
It was moist and sticky as they began to pass through the heavy canopy of trees.
The white mist seemed to stop at the treetops, as if the canopy were holding it aloft, so the passage through the forest was fairly clear.
Birds were chirping and forest creatures were making noise, rustling through the ground cover, but Kenton thought it all felt rather eerie.
St. John must have, too, because he ordered his men to fan out and carry weapons at the ready.
Kenton was fairly open in the middle of the pack, watching the men around him tense up.
He was vigilant, looking around him as he would have normally done on any given patrol, sensing there were things in the trees that he could not see.
Perhaps it was the warrior in him imagining things or perhaps it was experience telling him that something was really there.
He had just turned his eyes forward, down the road, when something whizzed by his head.
Suddenly, chaos broke loose. Arrows were flying and men on horseback were charging from the trees, aiming for St. John and his men.
Startled, Kenton struggled to keep his horse from bolting, knowing he was weaponless and had no real way to fight back.
He was quite concerned momentarily, enough so that he considered running from the charge. But then a strange thing occurred.
Knights were emerging from the forest atop horses that Kenton had seen before.
In fact, he recognized at least three of the animals, maybe more, as a very big knight came forth and began swinging a massive broadsword at St. John’s men-at-arms. Two men near the front of the company fell almost immediately, beheaded by a massive knight with a serrated-edged broadsword.
The knight continued to charge back through the ranks, swinging that sword, as another enormous knight fell in behind him, killing men the first knight missed.
It was a precisely planned destruction that took a great deal of skill, and those two knights obviously had it.