Chapter Nineteen #4
Kress wouldn’t lie to him. “Aye, my lord.”
“I find that astonishing.”
Kress smiled weakly. “You were her betrothed,” he said simply. “It was my duty, my lord, and I intended to see it through in case you were wondering. I had no intention of interfering and the lady is not compromised. She would have gone to your marriage bed a virgin.”
Tatius regarded him for a moment. In truth, he should have been incensed about this.
The knight was correct – the lady was his betrothed.
But not having any desire or attachment to the betrothal his brothers had forced him into gave him an ambiguous detachment to it.
He wasn’t incensed in the least, but he was coming to see a humanity to it – the humanity of a woman and the knight who loved her but was fully prepared to give her up.
That touched him.
“From a knight of William Marshal’s, I would have no doubt that was the truth,” he said. “Most men would not have such self-control with a woman they loved, whether or not she belonged to him.”
Kress didn’t let on that he’d almost lost his self-control.
There was no point. “Nobility had nothing to do with it, my lord,” he said.
“The lady never belonged to me in body, only in heart. But given that you have just surrendered the betrothal, I would like to say… I would like to thank you for changing my life, although it seems inappropriate to say so. You risked yourself to come and tell your betrothed’s escort not to deliver her to you.
It takes an unselfish man to do that, my lord, and I shall forever be grateful. You have no idea just how grateful.”
Tatius had never considered himself to be heroic in this situation, so Kress’ words gave him a moment of pause.
Had he really changed a man’s life by trying to prevent a tragedy?
His intentions hadn’t been altruistic, merely self-preservation.
Still, it made him feel rather pleased to realize that, for once, he’d done something for the good of someone else.
Perhaps that knight he’d once been long ago was still there, and still noble, indeed.
“Then I am pleased if something good will come of this,” he said. “Before I go, however, may I see her? Call it curiosity and nothing more. Cadelyn of Vendotia has a great heritage.”
Kress nodded, a smile playing on his lips. “Wait here.”
Tatius did. As he moved to polish off the rest of the pitcher of ale, Kress raced up the steps to the second floor, taking two at a time.
Achilles was already up there, pulling Susanna from the chamber where she had been standing at the door, prepared to cut down anyone who tried to enter.
Kress burst into the doorway, so swiftly that the dog, who had been sleeping in his favorite place upon the bed, rolled onto his feet and stood up, barking.
Kress shushed the dog as he came into the chamber, facing a startled Cadelyn.
There was fear on her face as she jumped up, looking at him with wide eyes. “What is wrong?” she said. “Why are Achilles and Susanna running?”
Kress had the most remarkable smile on his face. “Because,” he said, grasping her by the arms and taking a moment to simply gaze into her sweet face. “Something has happened, indeed. I have a question for you and you must be completely truthful in your answer.”
Cadelyn eyed him, wondering why he looked so flushed. “What is it?”
“Do you think you could be happy as the wife of a mere knight?”
She blinked at the question, as if she didn’t quite understand it, but she was a sharp woman. From the look on his face, she caught his meaning, as improbable as it was. After a moment, her eyes widened.
“With whom?” she gasped. “You?”
Kress couldn’t ever remember feeling more joy in his entire life. “Aye.”
Her hands flew to her mouth. “Nay!” she cried. “It cannot be! But how? Why?”
“That is not an answer to my question. Could you be happy as my wife?”
Her answer was to throw herself at him, her arms wrapping around his neck. She hit him so hard that she’d rammed his throat, and he coughed as she hugged him tightly.
“Aye, I could,” she said fervently. “Until the end of all things, I could. Can I be happy as your wife? I could be nothing else.”
He laughed low in his throat, hugging her tightly before releasing her. “That is good,” he said, “but the celebration will have to wait. We must leave here and we must leave now.”
Cadelyn went from shock to joy to confusion and back again. “Why?” she asked. “What has happened, Kress? Why must we…?”
He cut her off, gently, by turning her around for her capcases, which were against the wall.
“I have no time to explain right now,” he said.
“Pack one satchel and one satchel only because we will be riding on my steed. He is strong, but he cannot carry too much extra weight since we must flee quickly. Hurry, now. There is no time to waste.”
Confused, she made a halfhearted attempt to move to her capcases. “We are all leaving?”
“Not all of us,” he said impatiently. “Hurry, sweetheart.”
She opened the lids of her cases. “Who, then?”
“Just you and me.”
She wasn’t happy to hear that. “But where are we going?” she asked. “If you have asked me to be your wife, I will assume we are not going to The Paladin.”
“Nay.”
“But what of the others? What of Susanna and Yerik? I cannot simply leave them behind, Kress.”
“Susanna will stay with Achilles and Bric and Sherry,” he said, grabbing the only satchel he saw and thrusting it at her. “Yerik is still in the Summerlin carriage, making more of your poem cards, I will assume. He hasn’t left the carriage since we fixed it.”
“But what will become of him?”
“When we return the carriage, he will go with it and return to Lynn,” he said with hurried patience. “It is better for him there, anyway. He can keep producing your naughty poems even if you are not there to give him new material. Mayhap he can learn to construct those poems himself.”
Her mouth popped open. “A man?”
Kress was losing his patience with her. “No more questions,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Hurry!”
Cadelyn was muddled but she knew enough to do as she was told.
Frankly, she didn’t care why she was leaving with Kress, only that she was.
The reasons didn’t matter. Quickly, she began digging into her capcases and pulled forth a pair of shifts, two gowns she could get her hands on that weren’t bulky, combs and soap wrapped in hemp, a handful of hose that happened to be near the top of one capcase, and anything else she could grab to stuff into the only leather satchel she had, which wasn’t very big.
Very quickly, the satchel was full and she struggled to close it, so much so that Kress stepped in to secure it.
As he was tying off the leather bindings, Cadelyn slipped her cloak over her shoulders and secured it tightly.
Her last action was to call the dog off the bed, and the animal leapt off and was at her side in an instant.
When Kress turned around with the satchel in his hand, he saw her standing there with the faithful dog by her side. He looked at the dog and sighed.
“I am not sure we can take him, Cadie,” he said quietly. “We must move quickly.”
She looked at the dog, petting his gray head. “I cannot leave him,” she said simply. “He will keep up with us. He is a dog, after all. He can run.”
Kress didn’t argue with her; he didn’t have time. At the moment, he had to move her out to the kitchen yard where Bric would be with his horse. With Cadelyn in one hand and her satchel in the other, Kress made his way down to the common room with the dog in tow.