Chapter Fourteen #2
Kevin rolled his eyes. “You are not going to believe any of this,” he said, throwing up his big arms. “I have no idea how I get myself into these situations, honestly, but it seems as if we have yet another insane situation on our hands. When I was introduced to Salisbury earlier today, the subject of Viscount Twyford’s death was brought up.
As you can imagine, Salisbury is quite devastated by it and I was informed that Dorset had offered my services to the man to help him locate, and bring to justice, his son’s murderer.
They are evidently placing all of their faith in me to locate whoever killed Twyford. ”
Thomas’ eyes popped open wide whilst Adonis actually started laughing. It was a bitter laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.
“Surely you are joking,” Thomas hissed. “They want you to locate Twyford’s killer?”
Kevin nodded. “There is immeasurable irony in that,” he said.
“How on earth we came to this place, in this time, with the incident in Dover coming to overshadow an already complex and distasteful situation, I will never know. I fear that somewhere overhead, God is somehow punishing me for my activities in the Levant. I cannot imagine why else this would all be happening. Somehow, someway, I am being punished.”
Adonis had stopped laughing, now listening to the utter foolishness of everything, and he was back to wagging his head as if utterly appalled by what he was hearing. But there was far more to it than mere astonishment.
“You are being punished more than you realize,” Adonis said, eyeing Thomas as he spoke. “It seems to be the consensus amongst Dorset’s men that he and the young viscount were having a love affair. If the duke finds out it is you who killed his lover….”
Kevin was looking at the man with some horror.
“Then he will want me dead and buried, wiped from the face of the earth.” He rolled his eyes to the ridiculousness of the situation he found himself in.
“In that case, we will be forced to flee but we will not flee home. I would not bring that wrath down upon my family. We will go somewhere else, somewhere they can never find us. God be merciful that it does not come down to that, but if it does, I will not face Dorset’s justice. I will disappear forever.”
“And take the duchess with you?” Adonis asked softly.
“I will not leave her behind.”
Neither Thomas nor Adonis knew what to say to that.
It seemed, indeed, as if God above was playing chess with Kevin’s life and, at the moment, he’d put the man in check.
The irony was indeed immeasurable and the situation was vastly complicated.
But as Adonis opened his mouth to offer support, or even sympathy, a winded soldier suddenly appeared in the tent. The man looked straight at Kevin.
“My lord,” he said. “Dorset has sent me to find you. There is a problem with his wife.”
A bolt of stone-cold fear shot through Kevin. “What problem?”
The soldier was pointing off in the direction of the town. “She was apparently attacked, my lord,” he said. “Dorset says you must go to her immediately.”
Kevin was already moving out of the tent. “Where is Dorset?”
“With Salisbury, my lord.”
“Where are they?”
“In Salisbury’s tent, my lord.”
Kevin didn’t ask any more questions. It was all he could do to keep the panic off his face as he made haste for the Cock and Bull.
*
He could hear her weeping as he entered the inn.
The Cock and Bull was crowded with people, including the local sheriff, Lord Lily, and Kevin had to shove his way through men in order to get to the stairs.
Annavieve was at the top of the steps. He could see her slumped over and terror such as he had never known grabbed at him.
He actually thought she was the one who was injured until he reached the top of the stairs and saw that she was weeping over her old nurse.
The old woman was lying, quite obviously dead, in Annavieve’s arms and Kevin took a moment to draw in a deep breath and regain his composure.
Annavieve didn’t look injured from the way she was holding the old woman and his heart was greatly relieved.
However, there were many men about and he didn’t want to appear like a panicked lover.
He needed to put on his professional front.
Turning to the nearest man, who happened to be a knight bearing Salisbury colors, he spoke calmly.
“What happened to the duchess?” he asked the knight. “Is she injured?”
The knight, a shorter, powerfully built man with nearly black eyes and dark hair, shook his head. “It does not seem so,” he said. “Evidently, someone broke into her chamber and the old woman was killed trying to defend the duchess.”
“Where is the assailant?”
The knight shook his head. “He jumped out the back window of the chamber and ran off into the town,” he said. “My men are out trying to track him down now.”
Kevin’s gaze moved to Annavieve as she wept on the floor. “Did the duchess give you a description of the man?”
The knight nodded. “He only spoke French,” he said. “Dark, tall and lanky, with a scar by his nose. That is all she could tell us.”
A scar by his nose. Somehow, that description sounded vaguely familiar to him although he couldn’t seem to put his finger on it.
He turned to look at Adonis and Thomas, standing behind him, to see if they had heard what Gorsedd had mentioned, but they evidently hadn’t.
They gave no indication that they knew anything at all.
Unwilling to waste time to try and figure out why a man with a scar near his nose sounded familiar, Kevin returned his focus to Annavieve.
“She must be moved,” he said, his heart naturally aching for Annavieve’s pain.
“It is unseemly for the duchess to be grieving in public like this. I will take the duchess if you will remove the body of her nurse. Take the woman to the nearest barber-surgeon where she can be prepared for burial. We have no means to do it ourselves.”
The knight nodded. “Aye, my lord,” he said, eyeing the duchess sobbing on the ground. “She has been weeping like that since I arrived. This will not be an easy separation.”
Kevin could only nod his head. “I would expect not,” he replied. Then, he glanced at Salisbury’s knight. “What is your name? We have not met. I am Kevin Hage.”
The knight with the dark eyes blinked as if surprised by the introduction. Faintly, he smiled. “I am Gorsedd de Bretagne,” he said. “So you are the one.”
“The one what?”
Gorsedd’s smile grew. “Dorset’s man,” he said. “We have been hearing rumors of you since yesterday.”
Kevin cocked an eyebrow. “What have you heard?”
Gorsedd laughed softly. “That you are not a man to be trifled with,” he said. “That is all I am going to say.”
It was Kevin’s turn to grin. “A wise man,” he said. “How long have you served Salisbury?”
“Eleven years,” Gorsedd replied. “My eldest son is a squire serving under Salisbury as well. If you do not have a squire for the mass competition, then you may use him.”
Kevin shook his head. “I do not,” he said. “That is generous of you. I should like to borrow him, if I may.”
Gorsedd’s dark eyes were twinkling. “I will send him to you,” he said. “He is a very big and strong lad. Serving a legendary crusader will be good for him. He is a fast learner.”
Kevin was appreciative. “What is his name?”
“Cortez.”
“Cortez,” Kevin repeated. “I will expect him. Tell him to seek me in camp, at the armory, in a half hour. First, however, I must tend to the duchess.”
The men turned back to Annavieve, the smiles fading from their faces. The situation was quite sobering and Kevin, his eyes on Annavieve’s lowered head, sighed faintly.
“I will take her now,” Kevin said softly. “You take the old woman.”
Gorsedd nodded, moving around him so he would be in a better position to take hold of the body.
He motioned to Adonis and Thomas, standing behind Kevin, and the three of them prepared to strike when Kevin removed the duchess.
He watched Kevin approach the duchess from behind, bending over her as she sat on the landing.
“Lady de Ferrers,” Kevin said, speaking softly in her ear. “Come with me, please. Let me take you away from this.”
Annavieve was wallowing in grief. Hearing Kevin’s voice, she suddenly looked up at him as if surprised by his presence. Her eyes were red and her face was wet with tears. As her gaze fell upon him, her sobs renewed.
“He killed her,” she wept. “That… that man killed her. She was trying to protect me.”
Kevin put his hands under her arms and moved to pick her up off the floor. “I know,” he said softly. “Come along, now. Let us move you someplace safe.”
As he suspected, Annavieve wasn’t so eager to be separated from Magda’s body. “Nay, please,” she begged. “I must stay with her. I do not want to leave her.”
She was holding on to the woman’s bloody body even as Gorsedd, Adonis, and Thomas were trying to remove it. Adonis had to reach out and peel Annavieve’s fingers off of the woman.
“She will be taken someplace where she will be tended,” Kevin told Annavieve, quietly, but firmly. “Let go, now. You must let her go.”
Annavieve’s sobbing increased as Kevin broke her hold on Magda and Salisbury’s men whisked her away.
She tried to follow but Kevin scooped her up into his arms and took her back into the chamber she had shared with Magda.
As the soldiers carried the old woman away and the innkeeper’s wife began to wash away the blood at the top of the stairs, they could all hear Annavieve howling with sorrow at being separated from her nurse.
When Kevin slammed the chamber door and bolted it, they could still hear the woman crying, even through the closed panel.
Oddly enough, the chamber wasn’t in disarray, which would have been expected after a robbery and assault. It was still rather neat and Kevin placed Annavieve directly onto the bed.