Chapter Seven #2
Aglette was aghast. She blinked tears of fear and fury away. “But how do I know you are who you say you are?” she repeated. “Everyone at Framlingham knows of Sir Garren. You could simply being trying to trick me.”
Fergus looked at her; she was a pretty girl in a pale sort of way. “Tell your mistress that the ibis has returned,” he said, more gently. “She will understand and will assure you that my presence is no trick. Go, now. Tell her.”
Aglette didn’t know what to say. She turned so quickly for the tower that she nearly dropped the plate with food on it.
“One hour,” Fergus called after her. “At the stables.”
Aglette had no idea how she managed to carry the tray up two flights of stairs with her quaking knees, but she managed somehow.
By the time she reached Derica’s chamber, she was a mess.
The kitchen servants were filling a basin with the water they had brought and Aglette chased them from the room furiously.
Even Derica, in her stupor, looked surprised when her red-headed maid slammed the chamber door and threw the bolt.
“Aglette?” she said. “What is the matter?”
Aglette looked like a frantic chicken. She threw her arms up in the air and struggled not to shout.
“A man in the ward,” she gasped. “He said… he said that Sir Garren sent him.”
Derica’s expression grew serious, confused. “What do you mean? Who is he?”
“He said his name was Sir Fergus,” Aglette stammered. “And… oh, my lady, he said that Garren has sent you a message. He wants you to meet him in the stables in one hour!”
A week of lethargy was erased in a matter of seconds. “Garren has sent me a message?”
Aglette shook her head fearfully. “That is what he said, my lady. I am frightened!”
Derica didn’t know what to feel at the moment. “Is that all? Did he say anything else? How do I know it isn’t a trick somehow?”
“But who would trick you?”
“I do not know. But how can I know for sure that it isn’t?”
Aglette seemed to calm strangely, though there were tears in her eyes. “He said to tell you that the ibis has returned,” she whispered. “He said that you would understand.”
Derica’s eyes widened enormously. “Dear God,” she murmured. “Ibis and alligators.”
“Then you know?”
She closed her eyes and, as Aglette watched anxiously, tears suddenly streamed down her cheeks. They were like rivers. But accompanied with the tears was a smile so bright that it lit up the room. Derica suddenly shouted and began spinning around the room like a madwoman.
“Aye!” she cried. “I know!”
Aglette’s fear began to fade, replaced by some of the happiness her mistress was feeling. “Truly? He has sent you a message?”
Derica’s answer was to throw her arms around her maid.
The two of them danced jubilantly around the room.
They hopped and cried and Derica bumped into the couch, stumbled, but kept going.
She could have flown from the window at the moment and not been aware of it. But her dancing came to an abrupt halt.
“I must get dressed,” she began rushing around the room. “I must wash. Where is my soap?”
Aglette kept a cooler head, helping Derica wash quickly with a cake of rose-scented soap. The blue dress, a form-hugging garment without a hem, was Derica’s choice simply because it was there. As she pulled up the sleeves, Aglette fastened the stays with trembling hands.
“ ’Tis too long!” Derica exclaimed as she shoved her feet into doeskin slippers.
She was already heading for the door, tripping on the garment. Aglette struggled after her with a comb. “I told you that I needed to hem it, my lady,” Aglette said with irritation.
“I shall trip on this and fall to my death before I can hear Garren’s message.”
“Then pull it up. Higher.”
Derica had the front of her skirt bundled in a wad in front of her as she took the narrow stairs. Aglette ran the comb through her tangled locks. By the time they entered the ward of Framlingham, Derica let the skirt down just enough to be decent and struggled to calm herself.
“I will do this myself from here,” she said. “Return to my chamber and keep watch for my family. I do not want them trying to follow me.”
“How shall I keep them from looking for you should they come?”
“Think of something. Anything. I shan’t be long.”
Aglette watched her mistress scurry towards the stables.
She was shaking with fear, and hope, and didn’t think it appropriate for her lady to go alone.
But she respected her wishes. Dutifully, she turned back for the tower, hoping the annoying de Rosa men would not want to console Derica yet again.
She doubted she could hold them off long and for that, her fear mounted.
Derica tried to keep from running to the stables.
She was so excited that she could scarcely breathe.
The stable block was a long, low series of buildings attached to the outer wall.
The wall walk was twenty feet above, soaring into the sky.
She entered the first building and, seeing only horses and a few servants, went into the second and third.
The fourth block was dim due to the shadows cast from the wall above.
Derica passed through it, not seeing a living soul.
She was about to exit when she heard someone clear their throat behind her, softly yet firmly.
Startled, she swung about. A man in a dirty brown cloak was in the shadows, hidden behind a large pile of hay. He pushed the hood from his face slightly, revealing bright blue eyes and a handsome face.
“Lady Derica, I presume?”
Derica nodded, hesitantly “Are you….?”
“I am.”
“I was told that you have a message for me.”
He nodded. “I am Sir Fergus de Edwin. Sir Garren has sent me. He told me to tell you that the ibis has returned to the alligators.”
She smiled at the words from their private world. “Is he well, then?”
“He is.”
She sighed, visibly relieved. “I am so glad,” she murmured. “He went through so much here… I have prayed for him.”
“He is well enough that he has done nothing but speak your name,” Fergus said. “Garren and I go back many, many years, my lady. When he asked me to help him in a matter involving a woman, I did not take it lightly. Garren is not the sort to be infatuated with a female.”
Derica was pleased to hear him say that. “Nor I a man. What message did he give you for me?”
“He has sent me to bring you to him.”
“Bring me to him?” Derica repeated. “For what purpose?”
“To marry you.”
“Marry?” she sounded stunned. “After all that happened… after everything my family did to him, he still speaks of marrying me?”
“It is his heart’s desire.” Fergus regarded her carefully; she was a strikingly beautiful woman. He didn’t blame Garren in the least. “But is it yours?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You seem hesitant.”
She shook her head. “ ’Tis not that. ’Tis simply hard for me to believe that he would still want to marry me after all that has happened.”
“My lady, if you do not wish to go to him, I am not here to abduct you. I am merely here to help you should you wish it.”
“Is that what he told you to say to me?”
“Nay. But I am an honorable knight. I do not abduct unwilling women.”
“I am not unwilling, Sir Fergus,” she said quietly. “I want nothing more in this world than to be Garren’s wife. If he sent you for that purpose, then it is my pleasure to go with you.”
“Good,” Fergus smiled. “Then we shall arrange it. A time and place, when there is little chance of your absence being discovered too quickly.”
“Why not now?”
Fergus peered from the open stable door. “Where is your family?” he cast her a long look. “I understand you are surrounded by a host of guard dogs.”
“I do not know where they are,” she said. “But we can leave Framlingham without being noticed. There are always peasants coming and going and we can blend in with the crowd. Where is your horse?”
“In the woods to the south,” he replied. “Are you certain you wish to go now? Do you not wish to pack lightly, or to collect anything of personal value?”
Derica shook her head firmly. “The sooner I see Garren, the better. He is the only thing of personal value to me.” She could see the indecision on Fergus’ face and she put her hand on his arm.
“Sir Fergus, I have done nothing but eat, sleep and dream of Sir Garren since nearly the moment I met him. He is all that I have dreamed of and more. I must be with him. Do you understand that?”
Fergus could see her sincerity and he felt a stab of envy; he wished a beautiful woman would speak so fondly of him.
But he pushed those thoughts aside, quickly, and removed the dirty cloak from his back.
Swinging it over Derica’s shoulders and pulling the hood over her honey-colored hair, he began to pile straw on her back.
“Let us do this the best way possible, then,” he said. “I think I have a plan.”
Derica was so excited at the prospect of being with Garren that the weight of the straw on her back couldn’t dampen her spirit.
Although she was angry with her family, she still loved them and felt a moment of sorrow that she would never see them again.
She also felt sorrow at the prospect that Aglette would take the brunt of their anger.
Still, she had to do this. She knew in her heart she would have risked death to go to Garren.
But hopefully, it would not come to that.
*
Leaving Framlingham would have been easier had they left a few moments earlier or later. As it was, the timing was right so that Daniel and Dixon were in the ward, speaking to the guard captain. Derica spied them the moment she and Fergus left the stables, and Fergus saw her hesitation.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
The hood was down over her face, the huge cloak covering her body. “My brothers,” she whispered. “Over by the main gate, talking to the guard.”