Chapter Thirty-Two #3
He was cut off and she heard a huge crash of metal on metal.
Dustin screamed and fell away from David, trying to scramble away from him as she heard the unmistakable sounds of a sword fight over her head.
There was a great deal of shouting and yelling, and suddenly she was surrounded by soldiers.
Someone grabbed at her, but she slapped at them and whirled away, taking two or three swaggering steps before collapsing in an exhausted heap on the frozen earth.
Dustin was still conscious but so miserable and wiped out that she almost didn’t care what happened to her anymore.
She lay on her back, harsh gasps for air filling her ears and her head was rocking wildly.
Tears of pure agony filled her eyes as the sounds of swordplay grew fainter and then there was someone beside her.
She jumped, making a feeble attempt to rise, but a huge hand stilled her.
“Christ, Dustin, are you all right? What happened?” Christopher gathered his wife up against him.
Dustin could not breathe because sobs were constricting her throat, and she could not talk because she could not breathe. The sobs won over the talking, but she was gasping so she sounded as if she were dying. She felt like it, too.
“Calm down, sweetheart, calm down,” Christopher said soothingly, ripping off his helmet. “You are safe now. Just breathe, sweet, breathe.”
She was trying to, truly, but she could not seem to catch her breath. “Deborah,” she rasped.
Christopher was already filled with panic as his wife struggled to breathe in his arms, but when she spat his sister’s name, his panic doubled. He whirled to the nearest knight. “Go find my sister,” he barked. “Take a company of men with you.”
“In….in the castle,” Dustin gasped. “The west w-wing.”
The knight heard and was gone, roaring to the men-at-arms as he went. Dustin could only lay there, in agony with every breath she took, trying to calm herself down.
Edward bent over her, his handsome face creased with concern.
Christopher held out his gloved hand to him and Edward silently ripped the gauntlet off.
Christopher’s left hand, the wedding band gleaming dully in the dim daylight, caressed Dustin’s flushed face.
He didn’t speak, knowing she needed a moment to collect herself, and then he would know all.
Dustin’s hands flew to her face, covering it for a moment as her breathing calmed. Then, the fingers splayed and the great gray eyes opened and focused on her husband.
“Earl….the Earl of Fenwark tried to kill me,” she finally whispered. “You must find Deborah.”
“What?” Christopher said, outraged. “What are you saying?”
She struggled to sit up, Edward gently pulling her arm and Christopher supporting her back. Between coughs and sniffles, she managed to spit out the entire story. When she was finished, Christopher’s face was the picture of fury and it scared the wits from her.
“Then those men chasing you were assassins.” It was more a statement than a question, and he looked at Edward. “All of my knights to me. Now.”
Edward nodded grimly and rushed off, his armor jingling.
Dustin, infinitely more composed, brushed stray bits of hair from her face and watched her husband closely.
His gaze seemed to be following Edward, even after the man had disappeared from view, before returning to her once again.
When he saw how intently she was looking at him, he smiled bravely. Too bravely.
“My courageous little wife,” he said as he leaned forward and kissed her head. “Do you feel well enough to stand from this damp earth?”
Dustin, suspicious of his ready smile, nodded and rose unsteadily to her feet.
Christopher kept a good grip on her, watching as his soldiers hauled away one of the men who had been chasing after his wife.
He saw, with pleasure, that his men had literally disemboweled the bastard.
Dustin watched, too, with morbid curiosity but turned away as they passed by.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
“Lady Isobelle said the earl was moving his army north tonight and that he plans to attack Tickhill Castle. She wanted you to know. But her story about Lady Gabrielle… can you imagine that her husband gave her to the prince as a gift? I have never heard of such a vile thing.”
Christopher digested the information, his cunning mind beginning to calculate the course of the immediate future.
He wasn’t surprised to hear the information; in fact, he was grateful, at least for the intelligence on Tickhill.
There had been rumors but nothing concrete. Now, he had a starting place.
“I am not shocked,” he admitted. “What else did she say?”
Dustin shook her head. “That was all before… before…,” she trailed off, unable to voice such horror. Her gaze moved to Christopher’s face, seeing that he seemed inordinately calm. “What are you going to do? Are you going, too?”
He stroked the top of her blond head. “I do not know, sweet. I am only concerned with you right now.”
“And Deborah,” she insisted. “She cannot run as fast as I can and….”
He glanced down at her lowered head and saw she was trying hard to fight off the tears.
God help the earl if his sister had come to any harm; as it was now, he was going to kill the man mercifully.
If the worst had happened to Deborah, then Christopher would make sure the earl’s death was a slow, painful one.
David jogged up, his eyes riveted to Dustin. “Are you all right, Dustin? Did they hurt you?”
She sniffled, wiping quickly at her eyes. “Nay, David, I am unharmed.”
He looked her over, her disheveled surcoat and bleeding hands and shook his head.
Then he looked to his brother. “Edward is rallying Nicholas de Burg, Sean de Lara and Guy de le Rosa to reinforce our ranks. With Marcus and Dud missing, we could use the strength.” He felt the familiar taste of a fight in the air and was tense with anticipation, knowing not who they would be fighting to avenge the attack on Dustin, yet knowing soon they would be facing a battle.
Christopher nodded curtly, obviously preoccupied as his wife clung to his waist. “I have been working with them since I have arrived here and I feel they have proved themselves worthy of my inner circle. Edward and I talked on this subject yesterday,” he said, then his gaze fell on his brother.
“David, go with Dustin and help her pack.”
“Pack?” Both Dustin and David repeated loudly.
David eyed his brother with displeasure, knowing that Christopher planned to get to the bottom of who had attacked his wife, and furthermore wanted to accompany him. He didn’t want his brother fighting without him. “Send a company of men with her to help her pack. My place is with you.”
“You heard me,” Christopher said in a low voice. “She returns to Lioncross today. Deborah, too, and I want you with them while I tend to the earl. Send word ahead to Max and Anthony that they are coming; I want them to meet my wife and sister on the road.”
David shook his head. “My place is with you,” he repeated steadily, advancing on his brother. “You have got an entire squadron of men assigned to your wife. They will protect her while we take care of whoever has attacked your wife.”
Christopher raised an eyebrow at his shorter, younger brother. “Do not argue with me, David.”
“I am not,” David replied evenly, clenching his fists. “But I am going with you.”
Dustin watched the two of them, not at all happy with their body language for they looked as if to brawl any moment. It was a terrible cap to a terrible morning and she began to cry.
“Stop fighting,” she sobbed.
They both looked at her and were instantly remorseful. “We are not fighting,” Christopher said, pulling her close. “We never fight. We disagree, but we never fight. David?”
David made a wry face at his brother. “Never.”
Christopher ignored the implication and kissed Dustin on the top of the head. “I need to talk to David alone a moment.”
He let her go, concerned when she wobbled, but she waved him off. He pulled David aside.
“John is preparing to launch a strike against Tickhill Castle before the end of the week,” he told him quietly.
“The Earl of Fenwark’s sister informed Dustin of his plans and asked her to tell me, having overheard her brother speak of them.
I want Dustin out of Windsor and back to Lioncross immediately; you saw what nearly happened to her.
She is being pulled deeper and deeper into something that does not concern her. ”
David was confused. “Is that what this is all about? Jesus, why should the earl’s sister tell Dustin of his plans?”