Chapter 2 #2
Horland straightened and laughed. “If they were witches surely Princess Morla would know.”
She tsked and shook her young head at him as if he were a naughty child. “Morla is not a seer. She only knows things because she learns about them from books no one else wants to read.”
“I expect you are right on that point.” He bowed. “Have a good day, Princess.”
She wheeled her chair away. “And you, Sir Knight.”
Horland let out a breath. Tilly was right, though—Mark and Dianne were always coming and going. Horland doubted even the king knew when they were to arrive or leave, although he never once, as far as Horland remembered, showed surprise at their appearance or disappearance.
Thinking Leeta would be in the planning room instead of looking for her sisters, he hurried up the stairs to speak with her.
Voices floated from the half-opened door and for some reason Horland stopped, keeping out of sight.
He smashed his lips together. It wasn’t like him to eavesdrop, but the small hairs that had sprung up on the back of his neck at Leeta and the king’s voices told him to stay silent.
“Have you spoken to Morla?” the king asked.
“Not since she last came for supplies.”
“Is she well?”
“The work has finished on the ruins and she tells me the Forest of Uther is quiet. She has not come upon any wastrels.”
“Good, good. However, now is not a good time for Horland to return. Perhaps I should send Horland back into the kingdom on some errand or other.”
“I think that may be our only option at this time, Father. He will have many questions and the answers are not ours to give.”
“Yes, yes. You read his reports and come up with the errands and get Carson to give him his orders.”
“You are so kind, Father.”
The sarcasm in Leeta’s voice must not have gone over her father’s head because he laughed, and his boots hit the floor as if he were standing. “I am, I know.”
Bootsteps approached the doorway.
Horland backed up and spun on his heels, looking desperately for somewhere to hide.
He quickly and quietly opened the next door and slipped into the room.
Too late to risk making a noise closing the door, he held his breath as the king’s heavy boot falls passed by.
Letting out a gust of air, Horland waited for Leeta to leave.
Many minutes later she still hadn’t passed his way.
He realized then that she was probably reading the reports he had meticulously written each evening by fire or candlelight and trying to find an excuse amongst them to send him away again.
He set his jaw and, flinging the door open, he strode to the planning room.
Without knocking he entered to find Leeta curled up on the sofa, weeping.
His shoulders dropped. All thought of scolding her evaporated. “Princess Leeta, what is amiss?”
She lowered her hands from her wet face and sniffed. “You must go to Farsley and purchase those horses you wrote about in your report. The king wants them.”
“Farsley? But that is ten days’ travel away, and I have only just returned. Is that what has you weeping? Don’t you want to lose me again?”
Leeta and her sisters were like his very own sisters. They usually bandied words, insults, and compliments, friendly and teasing.
She swiped her eyes with her skirt. “That is not the reason for my sadness.” She threw her legs off the sofa and sat straight-backed with her hands in her lap.
“You are not the reason for my sadness.” She inhaled a deep breath and her gaze flitted around the room as if she were looking for something.
“It is just... It is just that Princess Tilly was looking forward to seeing you. She hoped you would dance with her at the Spring Ball.”
“Is that not Sir Garlain’s desire?”
“Garlain isn’t here and Tilly loved having a knight dance with her, and for this ball she has chosen you.”
“She didn’t say anything.”
“You have spoken to her?”
“Yes, in the hall, she showed me the new wheels Mark made for her chair.”
Leeta stood and walked to the window. “I wouldn’t have expected her to say anything. She would want you to request a dance at the ball without her having to command you to do so. She knows Garlain won’t be there.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why won’t Garlain and Patricia be there?”
“They are ... they are visiting Mark and Dianne.”
“And where would that be?”
“I don’t know, you will have to ask Father.”
He spun on his heels and headed to the door. “I will.”
Leeta rushed after him and grabbed a handful of chain mail. “Wait.”
Horland turned and raised his brows.
“He’s in meetings for the rest of the day. Our neighbors are claiming the horn as their own.”
“Which neighbors?” That was the very reason for his tour of the kingdom. He was to make sure all was well with all the neighbors and as far as he could tell, there was no dissent from any of them.
“Ah, the... the Angles. They know it is of no use. Those Anglo-Saxons know we the Cornovii will not allow it.”
“The Angles? But they are busy with their own sea borders, are they not?”
“Yes, that’s why they want Prater. They think they can repel the Viking horde from the horn.”
Horland accepted that to be true, but not everything Leeta had said that day was verity. He was certain he wouldn’t get any answers from the princess, but there was still the question of Princess Morla. “Where is Princess Morla?”
Leeta looked at the ceiling as if she’d just spied something amiss there. “She’s being mysterious again and has hidden away in the old ruins in Forest Uther. I expect she’ll be back soon enough.”
“How soon?”
She rubbed her temples with her fists. “Please, Sir Horland, you have only been back half a day and already you are plaguing me with inane questions. Go about your business while I continue to peruse the reports. I or Father will speak to you on the morrow about your mission to Farsley and the purchase of the horses.”
Understanding he was being dismissed, Horland took his leave with a bow and went to find Simone, Garlain’s sister.
SIMONE PULLED A BUCKET of water out of the well. “I don’t know. He doesn’t speak to me anymore. He is keeping secrets and I do not know what to do about him.”
“Tell me what you know.”
“He and Patricia left with Mark and Dianne not long after you left for your tour. That was the day before Harvest Day if you remember.”
Horland nodded.
“I was not privy to their comings and goings but when Mark and Dianne returned alone the next Harvest Day, they told the court of the birth of Patricia and Garlain’s daughter.”
“That is good news, is it not?”
Another tear slid down her face and along her nose. She swiped it away and blinked.
“Garlain never told me he would be gone so long. I don’t know why my brother didn’t return with his family and while the news of their daughter should have been cause for happiness, Mark and Dianne and the royal family had an air of sadness about them.
When I asked if something was wrong, they’d smile and tell me everything was as it should be.
“I asked many times when Garlain and his family would return, but they just kept saying, soon.” She looked over his shoulder and smiled as if remembering.
“Harvest Day was supposed to be a happy day, but that was the last day I ever spoke to any of them.”
“What happened?”
She gazed up at Horland with pleading eyes. “I will tell you what I know, and I pray you will find my brother and his family. I miss them terribly.”
“I give you my word.”
She put the bucket down and stood up, back straight.
Her eyes were full of sadness, but her stance was determined.
“As I said, the king’s strange friends, Mark and Dianne, visited on that Harvest Day with the news of Garlain’s daughter.
The next day, they, the king, and the Princesses Leeta and Morla met in the king’s planning room for the entire day.
When they finally exited, Mark and Dianne had gone.
None of the servants or knights remember seeing them go, though.
” She wiped her cheek and leant forward, whispering, “I and Princess Tilly believe they are witches, both of them.”
Horland would have laughed at that any other day—in fact, he did so just that morning when Tilly suggested such—but right then, his nerves and the hairs on the back of his neck were telling him to listen closely to everything Simone said.
She dipped her cup in the water and lifted it to her lips to drink but paused.
She shook her head. “Less than a senight later, the maid entered Garlain and Patricia’s rooms to air and clean them and Garlain was there. He was in a vile mood, tossing everything he could lift across the room and cursing like no other. He looked like a crazed man.
“The maid was so frightened she ran from the room. She waited for an hour and needing to retrieve the bucket of water and cloths from the room, she went back but before she knocked, she listened at the door. Not hearing any commotion, she opened the door to find Garlain on the floor, crying like a child in the corner.”
Simone pushed her dark hair from her eyes.
“He shouted at her to leave and she did so, but she searched me out and told me all that had happened. She said he was so crazed, he looked like he’d aged ten years.
She feared him so she refused to service his rooms. I tried to see him, but he refused me over and over during the next few days.
He was not himself. He was no longer able to fulfill his duties as Knight Commander of the Pradwick.
I fear he had sunk into insanity.” She dropped the still full cup into the bucket.
“Three days later, he was gone, and I haven’t seen or heard from him for over a year.
” She gazed at Horland, tears streaming down her face. “He never said goodbye.”
Horland scratched his head, trying to come to terms with what Simone had told him. Garlain and Patricia left Pradwick for a year. They had a baby daughter. Garlain returned alone last Harvest Day. Where were Patricia and the baby? And where had Garlain gone for the last year?
Horland wrapped his arms around Garlain’s sister. “Have no fear, Simone, I will find him.”
HORLAND PLACED THE saddlebags over his shoulder.
He had packed as many supplies as he could carry and walked out of the gates.
He could have taken a wagon or a horse, but he didn’t want to make his presence known immediately—he wanted to determine what Morla was up to first and if Garlain was in hiding there.
He knew the paths through the Forest of Uther and would skirt the ruins so as not to be seen.
“Fare thee well, Sir Horland,” Roget called from the gatehouse. “Are ye not staying longer?”
Horland stopped. Roget knew of every movement in and out of the keep. If anyone knew where Garlain and Patricia went, he would for certain. Dropping his bags at his feet, he climbed the ladder and met with Roget on the parapet.
“Cast your mind back to a year ago, Roget—do you remember seeing Sir Garlain or Lady Patricia or the king’s friends, Mark and Dianne, leave the keep?”
He shook his head. “Simone has already questioned each one of us and we have thought hard about their disappearances, but none can remember seeing them leave.”
Disappointed but not surprised, Horland made his way along the road toward the Forest of Uther.