Age Gap Lovers IV (KLN Medieval Romance Boxed Set Collections #20)

Chapter One

Farringdon House

Two days later

“And that was what she said to you?” William Marshal asked. “There was no mistake?”

Christin was sitting in William Marshal’s lavish solar, the one that covered nearly half of the second floor of The Marshal’s opulent London townhome.

The walls were painted wooden panels, with scenes from Greek mythology, perhaps more lavish than a man like The Marshal would like, but his wife had insisted.

It was the fashion of the season last year when Savoy artisans had been brought in from France.

Therefore, he sat beneath the watchful gaze of Zeus and Hera and Ares, all of them lending judgment to the man’s activities as he controlled the power of England.

Christin had been in the chamber before, several times. She had come with her father once or twice when she had been younger, and then with Peter when the man brought her to The Marshal because Christin had expressed interest in serving England’s greatest knight.

Because she was a de Lohr, The Marshal had permitted her to help Peter when he went about his duties for The Marshal, but Christin took to covert activities very quickly.

Faster than Peter had, in fact. Within a year of her first meeting with The Marshal, she was undertaking her own missions on his behalf.

Therefore, sitting in William’s solar was nothing new.

But in this case, she was explaining what happened that night in the Duke of Savernake’s solar.

Surrounded by most of the men who had been there that night, she tried not to feel intimidated by the situation, as if she’d done something wrong by defending herself.

“There was no mistaking what she said, my lord,” she said steadily. “The woman told me that the danger was already in England, right under our noses.”

William’s gaze lingered on her, pondering that statement. “But she did not say what?”

“Nay, my lord.”

“Go over the conversation with me once more.”

Christin thought back to that night. “She seemed to know what she was doing, my lord,” she said.

“She was reading the map quite ably when I entered Savernake’s solar.

When she realized I had found her out, she told me she could not let me leave the chamber alive.

I knew she meant to kill me, which is why I was forced to kill her when she attacked me. ”

“Go on.”

Christin shrugged. “She burned the decoy map intentionally,” she said.

“She told me that there would be no invasion now. When I told her that she’d burned the wrong map, she became enraged.

She said, exactly, that I have no idea what is going on and that even as we make plans, Philip is already ten steps ahead.

She said that we have already lost, but do not know it yet, and that the danger for England is already here and under our noses. ”

“And that is everything?”

“It is, my lord.”

William sighed heavily, sitting back in his chair and mulling over what his young agent had told him.

She was quite composed and very much like her father in that respect.

She had only seen eighteen years, but she had a maturity that went well beyond that.

His gaze moved to the men standing back in the shadows of the chamber, listening.

“Sherry,” he said. “You heard none of this?”

Alexander stepped out of the darkness. “Nay, my lord. I came into the chamber after Susanna had cut the woman’s head off.”

Susanna wasn’t there to confirm his story because she and Achilles had already headed home, back to their very small children whom they did not like to leave without both mother and father for too long.

Cullen had also departed for his garrison at Rockingham Castle and Dashiell had remained at Ramsbury.

But Peter, Kevin, and Bric had come to London, along with Maxton and Kress. It was Maxton who spoke next.

“Prescombe has proved useless,” he said. “It is my assessment, and Sherry’s, that he was led around by the woman Christin killed because he truly seems to be a dullard. The woman appears to have been the driving force behind his actions.”

Maxton was the unofficial leader of the Executioner Knights, a man of little humor, of serious demeanor, and of deadly intentions. He wasn’t a man to cross, but he was fair and honest in all things. William’s focus shifted to him.

“Where is Prescombe now?” he asked.

“In your vault,” Maxton said. “I am surprised you cannot hear him screaming from here.”

William smiled, humorlessly. “I cannot, but I am grateful my wife is not in residence. She can hear a rat squeal a mile away, yet she cannot hear me when I tell her something important.”

Maxton lifted a dark eyebrow. “Prescombe is going to be trouble,” he said. “The man has money and a reasonably-sized army, and if we release him, he will run right to Philip and tell him what has happened.”

The Marshal’s expression was unapologetic. “That will not happen because he will never leave here alive,” he said. “But nothing will happen to him until we are finished with him. There may be more he is not telling us.”

“We have interrogated him for nearly two days,” Kress said, coming out of the shadows to stand next to Maxton. “He is either the most resistant spy alive or the dumbest. With everything we’ve done to him, he has not spilled anything of note.”

With everything we’ve done to him. That bespoke of nasty interrogation methods the Executioner Knights had learned in The Levant. William wasn’t squeamish by any means but he didn’t ask for details, especially with Christin in the chamber. He trusted Kress at his word.

“Then give him a few more days and every opportunity to tell us what he knows before you end his life,” he said. “But I am interested to know if, indeed, he is holding back. His companion spoke of danger already being in England. I want to know what that means. See if you can find out.”

Maxton and Kress nodded, glancing at Alexander before quitting the chamber, but Alexander stopped them.

“Wait,” he said. “It occurs to me that keeping Prescombe alive might work better to our advantage.”

“Why?” William asked.

“Because we can feed the man false information and he can report that back to Philip,” he said. “Certainly, he will report the death of his companion, but he doesn’t know the circumstances. In fact, he doesn’t know anything at all. Only what we tell him.”

William was listening with great interest. “Excellent point,” he said. “We can tell Prescombe anything. Mayhap we can even lead Philip’s armies into something to greatly diminish them.”

“An ambush?”

“Or worse.”

That suggestion had the approval of Maxton and Kress. “Then we must figure out what to tell him,” Maxton said. “We can make it so the man can escape back to Philip and tell him everything we want Philip to know.”

As Kress and Alexander nodded in agreement, William held up a hand.

“Indeed, we can and we will. But at this moment, I am more concerned over the cryptic words of danger that the woman spy spoke of,” he said.

“Forget about John’s plans of invasion in Normandy for a moment.

I have said this before and I shall say it again – John may be a thorn in the side of every Englishman, but he is still our monarch.

It behooves us to keep him alive because our alternative is a six-year-old heir.

The only real danger in England is a direct threat to the monarchy.

That is the only real way England herself would weaken. Would you agree?”

Everyone nodded to certain degrees and William continued.

“The woman said that danger was right under our noses,” he muttered thoughtfully. Then, he looked to Alexander. “What does that mean to you?”

Alexander shrugged. “Something obvious that we do not realize.”

William looked to Maxton expectantly. “The same,” Maxton said.

William moved to Kress. “And you?”

Kress cocked his head thoughtfully. “Mayhap something that we cannot see more than it is something obvious we do not suspect,” he said. “That would make more sense to me. Subversion under our noses that we simply cannot see.”

“Someone we would never suspect,” Christin said softly.

Her voice was soft, unexpected, and the men all looked at her. “Speak up, my lady,” William said. “You have the de Lohr mind. I will listen. You said someone we would never suspect?”

After a moment of hesitation, Christin nodded firmly. “If danger is under our noses, then it would make sense it would be someone we would never suspect,” she said. “Wouldn’t the greatest danger be from someone we trusted who was not who we thought he was?”

It was an astute observation from a young woman who had not spent years in the espionage game. William nodded faintly; he agreed with her for the most part. But he wasn’t a man to pin everything on one theory.

There was more to this situation than met the eye.

“That would make sense,” he said. “But it could be any number of things, so we must not focus on one thing only. I will stand by my opinion that, somehow, John is under threat and that threat is in this country. Something greater than all of the other threats we face. We will reach out to our network to see if anyone has seen or heard anything, but until we receive answers, it is important that John is watched. I believe he is attending a feast in his honor at Norwich Castle in a fortnight. Lady Christin, you would know this to be true.”

Christin nodded quickly. “Aye, my lord,” she said. “Lord de Winter is having a feast in celebration of the king’s birthday, which is next month. He has invited all of his allies to attend.”

“A threat under our noses,” Alexander murmured thoughtfully. When everyone looked at him, his gaze moved to Christin, sitting straight in the chair opposite The Marshal. “It could be one of the allies.”