Chapter Twenty #2
Adonis was struggling. He let go of Piers at that point and looked at Thomas, who was gazing back at him with an astonishing amount of fear.
They knew, even as they looked at each other, that they had no choice.
They were about to confess something they had no right to confess.
Somehow, someway, Victor and William had been told of Kevin’s hand in Twyford’s death. Dear God, they had no choice.
… they had no choice!
“We were in Dover, my lord,” Adonis finally said, struggling to keep the tears from his eyes.
He looked straight at William as he spoke, completely ignoring Victor.
“We had spent months traveling when we came to the same tavern that Viscount Twyford was in. Not knowing who he was, we stole his table. We were weary, you see… so we pushed him away from it. Twyford sent his men after us and we defended ourselves. Then, Twyford went after Kevin with a sword. In self-defense, Kevin killed him. It was an accident; he did not mean to do it. But Twyford charged him.”
The silence that hung over the table at that moment was full of pain and shock and awe.
Now, the truth was revealed. Adonis kept his eyes on William, who stared at him in return, his face pale as if all of the blood had been drained from his body.
He appeared weary, so incredibly weary. When he spoke, there was great emotion in his voice.
“Why did he not tell me?” William asked hoarsely. It was clear that he was fighting off tears, too. “He had every opportunity to tell me. Why did he not do it?”
Adonis sighed heavily, feeling positively ill.
He felt as if he had just betrayed Kevin in the worst way.
“I suppose he would have, in time,” he said honestly.
“But Lord Victor made demands that Kevin seek out Twyford’s killer and punish him, and Kevin did not know what to do.
He was in a quandary, my lord. He simply did not know what to do. ”
“He is a killer,” Piers hissed loudly, catching everyone’s attention. “I told you the man is a killer. He was the Scorpion on the sands of the Levant and that is all he knows. Death! It was not an accident; he murdered Twyford and I saw it!”
Adonis and Thomas whirled on him. “You were not even in Dover at the time!” Thomas said, reaching out to grab the man around the neck. “If you were there, we would have known. You were not there!”
Piers threw a punch at Thomas’ head, which the man deftly ducked. Suddenly, the fists were flying and Thomas and Piers went down to the floor in a mutual attempt to kill one another. Victor was on his feet, as was William.
“Hage!” Victor bellowed. “Hage! Where is the man? Find me Hage!”
Victor’s shouting began to disturb the other guests but no one moved forward to question him or even help him as he began to charge through the room, calling for Kevin.
He’d forgotten he’d allowed the man to escort the duchess to the privy, mostly because he forgot anything that the duchess did, but the thought did occur to him as he stormed about wildly.
With William, Adonis, Gorsedd, and about a half-dozen Salisbury soldiers, Victor charged out of the side door of the hall, frantically seeking the privy.
Men were running about, following Victor blindly. They knew something terrible was up but they did not know what. William somehow managed to run past Victor, reaching the livery and privy yard before Victor did. Instantly, he came to a halt.
What he saw did not surprise him. He had suspected it all along.
Kevin and the duchess in a compromising position.
*
An avenue ran alongside the eastern side of the meeting hall as Kevin and Annavieve emerged into the darkened street. Having just left the cloying heat of the hall, the sudden coolness of the night was both refreshing and welcome. Annavieve tugged on Kevin’s arm.
“Where are we going?” she asked, a harsh whisper because the darkness of the street seemed to dictate that she speak quietly. “Where is the privy?”
Kevin pointed down the road. “There is a livery at the end of this road and a public privy,” he said. “That is where we are going.”
Annavieve went along with him quickly after that.
They came to the livery at the end of the street, a small stable that had a boy outside of it, tending the horses that were in the corral for the night, and adjacent to the livery was a small structure with a slanted roof that was the public toilets.
As the stable boy took his shovel and headed back into the dimly lit livery, Kevin pointed to the slanty-roofed structure.
“There it is,” he told her.
Annavieve had never seen such a thing before; there were garderobes at the convent, and there had certainly been garderobes at the palace on Thorney Island, and the tavern they had stayed in the night before had simply a bucket in a corner.
So a public toilet was something entirely new. Curious, she entered.
It was essentially a room with two holes in the floor into which big barrels had been sunk.
A stool was positioned over each barrel with a hole cut into the bottom of it and there was a bucket of water with a gourd ladle in it next to each one for washing afterwards.
And it stunk very, very badly. Pinching her nose, Annavieve hurried and finished her business, fleeing the very smelly public toilet before the smell made her gag.
Kevin was waiting for her outside, leaning against the corral of the livery. He grinned when he saw how quickly she was moving away from the public toilet.
“I see the stench drove you out,” he commented.
She made a face. “Horrid,” she said. Then, she drew in a long breath. “It is much better out here, even if it does smell of horses.”
He continued to smile at her, warmly. Since there was no one around, he reached out to tuck a stray piece of hair off her face.
“In my travels, I have seen many public toilets like that,” he said.
“They are mostly built by the Romans and, of course, the Romans are everywhere. There is a public toilet near Rome that will seat twenty men. It is built in the shape of a crescent moon. You can sit there and talk over your business with the next man as you relieve yourself.”
Annavieve had to laugh at the mental picture of such a thing. “Is there no privacy at all?”
He shrugged. “Men do not need privacy,” he said. “It is only the women that require such a thing.”
She couldn’t disagree, glancing back at the public house. “It is better than pissing in a bucket, I suppose.”
He frowned at her, lightly done. “Where did you hear that word?”
“What word?”
“Pissing.”
She laughed softly. “You would be surprised what I have heard from the nuns at Sempringham,” she said. “I have heard them curse like men at times when they think no one is listening.”
He feigned shock. “Terrible,” he said. “My former master, Ranulf Kluge, called all his novice squires a ‘twat’. It took years before I finally figured out the true meaning of the word.”
Annavieve put her hand to her mouth to stifle the giggles. “It sounds terrible,” she said. “What does it mean?”
He shook his head. “I will not tell you,” he said primly. “It is unseemly for a lady to know such words.”
“You brought it up.”
“I did. I am very relieved to see that you do not know what it means.”
Annavieve continued to giggle, finally leaning against the fence as he was, butting up against him. They were very close, touching, and Annavieve dared to lay her cheek against his bicep.
“I am packed, as you requested,” she said softly, gazing up at the half-moon against the black sky. “Everything is ready. My bag is under my bed back at the tavern.”
He relished the feel of her against his arm. Looking around to make sure no one could see them, he put an arm around her, pulling her against his tight torso.
“Excellent,” he said quietly. “We will wait until Victor and Salisbury become too drunk to care before making our exit. I will tell Victor that I am returning you to the tavern, which he will freely allow me to do. The trick will be keeping Thomas and Adonis from following.”
Annavieve grew serious. “You did not tell them?”
He shook his head. “Nay.”
“Why not?”
He lifted his eyebrows to emphasize his point. “Because they would try to talk me out of it,” he said. “This way, they can plead total ignorance and it will be true. Besides… I cannot have them following. It would make them just as guilty as I am.”
Annavieve was concerned. “Mayhap you should tell them simply so they can be prepared,” she suggested. “Victor will more than likely not discover we are missing until tomorrow. Mayhap you should tell your friends so they know what is coming.”
Kevin pondered that a moment but ultimately shook his head.
“I cannot burden them with such knowledge,” he said.
“They are my best friends. They followed me to the Levant and they will follow me anywhere. I cannot burden them with my choice on the direction my life will now take. Accompanying me to the Levant is one thing, but this is quite another.”
Annavieve gazed up at him, seeing some sorrow in his expression. “You have known them a long time?”
He nodded, thinking of Thomas and Adonis. He would miss them. “All of my life.”
Annavieve felt a good deal of pity for the man. She snuggled against him, feeling his arm around her tighten.
“Where will we go from here?” she asked.
His thoughts of Thomas and Adonis turned to thoughts of the immediate future.
“North,” he said. “We will go to my mother. I have not seen her in six years and if I am to flee the king and the Duke of Dorset, then I want to see her one more time before I go. It will probably be the last time. And I want her to meet you, of course. You will like my mother; she is wild and loud, but she has a heart of gold.”
Annavieve grinned at the description of his mother. “How on earth did such a woman have a son such as you?” she asked. “You are very quiet and calm.”
He gave her a half-grin. “My father was so calm that he was nearly dead,” he said, watching her laugh. “At least, that is what my mother said. You would have liked my father; he was a wise and wonderful man.”
Annavieve could see both sorrow and joy in his expression as he reflected upon his father. “I wonder what he would have said to all of this?” she asked.
He sighed, a flicker of a grin crossing his lips.
“He told me something once,” he said. “I am not sure if many people know this, but the legendary William de Wolfe fell in love with his liege’s wife long ago.
They carried on an affair in secret with his liege’s blessing and when the man died, he married the widow.
He is still married to my Aunt Jordan. My father always said that in matters of the heart, men have no control.
I suppose that is what he would say now. ”
“But he would not approve.”
Kevin looked at her. “If our son was doing what we are about to do, would you approve?”
She pursed her lips wryly. “Of course I would not,” she said. “But I would understand.”
“Then I suppose that is how my father would react.”
For the first time, Annavieve could feel apprehension from him at what they were about to face.
He had been so calm and decisive about it that she had come to wonder if he really understood the seriousness of it, but now she realized that he did.
It was serious, indeed. Rather than let his anxiety frighten her, she sought to comfort him instead.
It was his life he was upending, after all.
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she hugged him tightly and Kevin shifted so that he could get both arms around her.
He held her close, kissing her forehead and her cheek before seeking her lips.
She was sweet and warm and delicious and already Kevin’s loins were growing hard.
He was sure that Annavieve could feel him through her dress.
The kiss grew more heated and, in the darkness, he caressed her left breast, gently, fondling her through the fabric.
Annavieve lifted her arms so they were around his neck, giving him access to her breasts as he kneaded and caressed.
His mouth moved to her beautiful shoulders and neck, suckling the top of her breasts and trying not to leave any marks.
He ended up licking them because he wanted to taste her so badly.
Backing her up against a fencepost, he snaked a hand underneath her dress, seeking her tender sex.
Annavieve lifted a leg, giving him greater access, and his fingers probed her as she groaned softly.
He wanted very badly to take her at that moment and was giving serious consideration to finding a warm, dark corner of the livery when he heard a voice behind him.
“Hage, move away from the duchess. Do it now.”
Kevin’s head came up and he swung around to see Salisbury and Victor standing there along with a host of Salisbury soldiers. Puzzled, he discreetly pushed Annavieve’s skirts down and faced the collection of men standing in the darkness, but he was particularly focused on Victor.
For once, the man was giving him the same cold expression he usually gave Annavieve.
It was then that Kevin suspected whatever this was, or whatever reason they were congregating, could not be good.
He braced himself.