Chapter Five #3
John was looking at him again. “Lord Edward Needham lives not far from here, I believe,” he said. “His seat is Elsdon House. Do you remember him?”
“I do, your grace. An older man with bags under his eyes. He has a look of illness about him.”
“That may be true, but he has a new wife,” John said. “He brought her to the masque at Westminster this past summer. Do you recall?”
“I believe so, your grace.”
John wagged a finger. “He tried to be clever and keep her out of my sight, but I saw her,” he said. “She is quite a beauty. Rumor has it that he’s in love with the girl, although he is old enough to be her father.”
“A woman with red hair? I do recall, your grace.”
John lay back again, closing his eyes as the carriage rocked and bumped. “Go to Elsdon and bring her to me,” he said. “If Needham stands in your way, do what you must to subdue the man. It will be a cold, wet night and I wish for a warm, soft body to fill my bed.”
It wasn’t an unusual command. Sean had carried out dozens of them over the years. He’d learned not to become outraged or upset by them, as barbaric as they were. He had to push his personal feelings aside.
“Aye, your grace.”
“Needham has a daughter, too. She’s young, but I hear she’s pretty enough. Bring her, too.”
“Anything else, your grace?”
“That will be enough.”
Sean quit the carriage without another word, mostly because he now had orders to head to Elsdon House and steal a man’s wife and daughter away for the king’s pleasure.
It was part of the hell he’d condemned himself to when he’d accepted this mission from William Marshal those years ago, a mission that saw him embed close to the king to watch the man’s every move and report back to William Marshal.
But it was with directives like these that made him question his loyalty to the Marshal, to England in general.
He knew there would be a special place in hell for him and all of the things he’d done in the name of the king.
It was something he tried not to think about.
Lady Barbara Needham was young, pretty, and very much in love with her older husband, who begged Sean not to take her away when he showed up with about thirty of the king’s soldiers.
The man wept and pleaded as Sean yanked his wife right out of their marital bed and handed her over to another of John’s bodyguards, a bear of a man named Gerard d’Athee.
When Lord Needham lunged for Sean, trying to physically reclaim his weeping wife, Sean slugged Lord Needham so hard in the head that it knocked the man unconscious in an instant.
It was a good thing that Needham had been rendered immobile, deaf, blind and dumb to what was going on around him, because once d’Athee took Lady Needham down to his waiting horse, Sean went to find the man’s daughter, locating a thirteen-year-old girl who was cowering in her bedchamber at all of the screaming.
Looking at that tiny, weeping girl, Sean knew she would not survive a night with the well-endowed and lusty king.
He simply couldn’t do it.
Telling her to be silent and locking the door behind him, he shut the panel and headed down to the servants’ quarters where he located a rather bold serving wench, who claimed she had seen eighteen years, and dragged her out into the night.
Under penalty of death – her death – Sean told her that, for the night, she was to pretend that she was Needham’s daughter.
When he caught up to the hysterical Lady Needham, he managed to get her alone for a few moments to tell her the same thing – unless she wanted to see her stepdaughter violated, she would confirm that the serving maid was Needham’s young daughter.
Poor Lady Needham was facing horrors beyond belief, but she understood.
She agreed.
Sean felt very sorry for her.
Before dawn the next day, Sean personally returned Lady Needham and the maid to Elsdon House.
Fortunately for Lady Needham, the king seemed to be more interested in the maid, who had turned out to be virgin, so Lady Needham had been forced to mostly watch what had happened rather than actively participate.
The maid hadn’t been particularly bothered by the event, thinking it a badge of honor to have been bedded by the king, but Lady Needham had been devastated by the entire event.
When Sean brought the women home before sunrise, Lady Needham had actually thanked him for sparing her stepdaughter.
But that didn’t make Sean feel any less dirty or dishonorable.
On the ride back to the village, all he could think of was Christin de Lohr and what was going to happen once John reached Norwich.
God help him, he was going to have to make sure Christin stayed out of sight.
He had never come close to blowing his cover in the entire time he’d served John, but if Christin de Lohr’s life and future was on the line, Sean knew he’d have to make some hard decisions.
Ruin eight years of hard work or put his friend and ally’s daughter in grave danger.
Would he choose the greater good of England or the greater good of one family?
And that was the dilemma facing Sean de Lara as the king’s escort rolled towards Norwich.