Chapter 16 #3
His jaw flexed, as if barely suppressing his wrath. She desperately wanted to make him understand. “I, too, must have been given a potion, my lord.”
“By Sir Hugue? What was his role in all of this?”
“He was working for my abductor. I thank you for sparing us the mercenary’s wrath. Cassie threw her knife into his shoulder, but he pulled it out and sent it into Cassie’s flesh. He was very angry when he fled at hearing your horses.”
“What about your handmaiden and the bard? Were they a part of this?”
“Nay. They went in search of me and only crossed my path a short while before you did.”
“Surely they aided your escape.”
“They did not. Ask Rhodri for yourself.”
The Red Wolf turned in his saddle to glance back at the Welshman. “She speaks the truth, my lord,” said Rhodri. “Cassie was eager to go in search of Lady Serena and I insisted on joining in the hunt.”
“Mayhap they do speak the truth,” offered Sir Geoffroi from where he rode next to Rhodri.
The Red Wolf huffed, and turned back to Serena. Beneath his anger she saw a weariness she had not observed before. Likely, he had not rested when he returned to Talisand.
“Go on then, out with the rest of your story,” he said, appearing resigned to hearing it.
“I will tell you if you promise not to take revenge on the one who took me.”
“And why should I make such a promise, my lady? If, indeed, you were taken against your will, and Sir Hugue had a hand in it, such a crime would be deserving of the severest punishment.”
She knew he meant death. But Serena could not let him kill Morcar and his brother. “Because the ones who took me were of my own people and believed they acted in accordance with my wishes and my father’s.”
“I will shelter no traitors at Talisand!” the Red Wolf declared.
“I know of none, my lord.” But even as she said the words, Aethel’s face came unbidden to her mind.
Still she could not think of the herb woman as a traitor.
Instead, she was sorry for what the woman’s life had become.
“Tell me you will not take revenge and I will tell you from whom I escaped only this morning.”
“Did he touch you?” the Red Wolf asked, his gray eyes clouded, his voice stern. “That I could never forgive no matter his motive.”
“Nay, he did not. He intended to wed me and that is why I left, and why I must ask for your word that you will not seek to harm him. He was a friend of my father.”
The Red Wolf stared at her as if weighing her request. Finally, he said, “You have my word. Now tell me, who would dare steal from the Red Wolf? Tell me, and I will decide if you can be believed.”
Knowing him to be a man of honor, Serena trusted him not to seek vengeance for her disappearance. “’Twas Earl Morcar.”
The Red Wolf’s frown deepened. “…the English earl?”
“Aye. When my father still lived, the earl asked for my hand. Morcar believed he was doing what my father wanted. What I wanted.”
“It matters little.”
“I suppose you are right, and anyway, there was no contract. But Morcar had spoken to my father and had hoped one would follow.” She looked into the Red Wolf’s gray eyes.
The anger she had seen only moments before seemed to soften.
“He could not have known that I wished to wed a Norman, that my heart had changed. And I did not tell him. He would not have believed me any more than you do. Instead, I sought to escape and return to Talisand.”
“You are practiced at escape, my lady.” The Red Wolf’s gaze lowered to her lips, still stained, she knew, with the juice of the red berries. “Mayhap I believe you,” he said. “Or mayhap I merely want to. How were you taken from Talisand?”
“I know not, though I suspect Sir Hugue played a role. He now serves Morcar. I went to sleep in my chamber and awoke in another, one I came to learn was in Earl Edwin’s manor in Mercia.”
“Earl Edwin had a part in this treachery?” he asked with a look of surprise.
“You must understand,” she said, trying to convince him of the truth.
“The earls feel betrayed by your Norman duke who would be England’s king.
He demanded their fealty and then broke his promises, taking his daughter from Edwin and Northumbria from Morcar.
Then, as if that were not enough, he built castles on the Welsh border of Mercia and gave his abbot control over some of Mercia’s shires.
” Looking directly at the Red Wolf, she said, “It seems your king does not keep his word, my lord.”
“Enough of this!” he shouted. “I’ll not listen to you criticize William and defend the English who defy him. The king has had enough of such treachery.” Then looking away, he added, “After Exeter, he will show no mercy.”
Ignoring his disparagement of her people, she asked, “Did all those you took with you to Exeter return?” She had to know if any had been lost. She could not bear to see any killed, particularly not Jamie.
“They did.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Despite his anger and mistrust, Serena was comforted by his presence and glad he had found her, especially with Cassie bleeding from a knife wound.
She needed the Red Wolf’s strength. Although she trusted him, she had purposely not spoken of Morcar’s intention to travel to York.
It might only draw the Red Wolf into what could become another battle, this time one involving her brother.
Trying to appease his lingering anger, she said, “Thank you, my lord. I was worried about Jamie especially.”
From behind her, Sir Geoffroi said, “You have his lordship to thank for the lad’s health, my lady. He took an arrow for the boy.”
Alarmed, Serena turned to face the Red Wolf. “You are wounded?”
“Yea,” he said looking down at his left arm, “but not grievously.”
She could see no bandage but she remembered his wince when he mounted his stallion, and he now held the reins in his right hand. “You protected the lad. And you have spared me the wrath of Sir Hugue. For both, I am most grateful.”
“What about the mercenary?” he inquired. “You cannot tell me it was chance he encountered you and the others in the woods.”
“Nay, it was not. As I said, he has pledged his sword to Morcar and his words to us suggested he was sent to find me.”