Chapter Eighteen
“Let me see if I have the facts straight,” Britt said slowly. “Now Cambridge intends to give the Pearl to Edward? As a gift?”
“As a Trojan horse,” Perrin said. “She has evidently refused to do what he wanted her to do—seduce Aidric to make her way closer to Edward—so he’s simply going to give her to the king.
Of course, she has no choice in the matter if he does.
As for Edward—who would refuse the gift of one of the Seven Jewels of London? ”
That was a very good question, but unfortunately in this case, the answer was deadly.
It was after sunset on a day that had been calm and sunny, the winds blowing in from the east, drifting over the river and finding their way through the courtyards and halls of Westminster Palace.
Perrin had arrived just after the sun went down and now they found themselves back in the guard room at the gatehouse, once again listening to a report from Thornhill Manor, only this report was more concerning—and confusing—than the first one.
Trojan horse.
That was what Cambridge intended to do with the Pearl.
“But what of all of that nonsense about her getting close to Aidric so she could have access to the king?” Britt said. “Was that not the original directive?”
Perrin nodded. “It was,” he said. “But she does not want to. From what I understand, she has refused Cambridge’s demand to go from courtesan to assassin. Therefore, Cambridge will gift her to Edward. That is a more direct way to place her in the king’s presence.”
“But if she is refusing to kill him, why do it?”
“I do not think Cambridge is acknowledging that she has refused,” he said. “Mayhap he still holds out hope that she will surrender to his will.”
Britt sighed heavily, looking at Gerard standing a few feet away.
Dirk, Bennet, Stefan, and Orion were also in the chamber, hearing Perrin’s report, but it was Gerard who was a little more knowledgeable about where Aidric and the Pearl were at this very moment.
He knew because he’d followed Aidric earlier in the afternoon when he went to meet with the lady, just as Edward had told him to.
He’d ended up in the alleyway next to Old Lloyd’s, peering in through a window in time to see Aidric escorted upstairs by a woman, probably a maid.
After Aidric disappeared into the levels above, Gerard went into the tavern and sat in a corner, his back to the wall, facing the stairs.
He saw the woman who had escorted Aidric come back down again and go to the rear of the inn where servants gathered, and she never went up the stairs again.
That meant Aidric was alone with the lady.
So, he’d waited.
And waited.
As the sun went down, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on in the lady’s chamber.
Aidric had been honest in his attraction to the Pearl, and Gerard didn’t blame him, but now, the stakes had grown even more serious.
Being alone with the lady, in a bedchamber, the implication was obvious.
The man had bedded her. There could be no other explanation for his not retreating from her chamber after an hour at the very most. It wouldn’t have taken him that long to ask the lady to consider turning against Cambridge in the name of the king.
Two hours later, however, Gerard was still waiting, which meant that Aidric was busy doing other things.
Things that Gerard had once done, with a woman he was mad about, and things that had gotten him into trouble.
Aidric was heading down that road, but Gerard was going to keep his mouth shut about it.
Whatever Aidric St. John did to ruin his career over a woman, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been warned.
Now, here Gerard stood in a room full of men who were trying to prevent the assassination of the king by a woman who was not only untrained for such a thing but, by all accounts, refusing or reluctant to do it.
Aidric had gone to ask her to turn the tables on Cambridge and assassinate him instead.
Did he have to bed her to convince her to do it?
And if she was reluctant to kill the king, would she also be reluctant to kill Cambridge?
Was it murder itself she was opposed to?
He wondered.
“Gerard? Did you hear me?”
Gerard had been lost to his thoughts, completely oblivious to the fact that Britt was speaking to him.
“Apologies,” he said. “I was just thinking how convoluted this situation has become. The most powerful man in England and one of the most powerful men in England are using a frightened woman to try to kill one another. There is great irony in that realization.”
No one could disagree with him. “She’s a courtesan, not an assassin,” Orion said. “Edward wants to use her against Cambridge, but Cambridge is sending her right to Westminster and to Edward. That poor woman is in a terrible situation.”
“Aidric is with her now, isn’t he?” Dirk said. “Did he not leave to meet with her about this very thing?”
Gerard knew the others weren’t aware of his orders from Edward, to follow Aidric, but he didn’t think it was a secret he needed to keep, simply because in a group like this, men shouldn’t keep secrets from one another.
They were all working together for the same purpose, so a secret could be detrimental not only to safety, but to morale.
“He left midafternoon,” Gerard said. “I followed him in case he needed assistance, but he met the lady in an inn, in a private chamber, and I waited for two hours before returning to Westminster. He never came out of the chamber.”
The implication was obvious. Britt and Dirk looked at each other, with Britt’s eyebrows lifting in a knowing fashion. The others passed knowing glances that were equally suggestive, but no one said what they were thinking until Gerard had seen enough of the expressions and glances.
“She is a courtesan,” he said flatly. “If no one else will say it, I will. She has been trained to please a man and Aidric is a man. He went to convince her to kill the man who has kept her like a pet for the past three years and my guess is that she turned her feminine charms on him. This is exactly what I told Aidric would happen, but he did not listen. However, it is of no matter now. I suggest we move past that realization and focus on the situation at hand. Perrin, does the lady know she is to be a gift to the king? Was that made clear?”
Perrin shook his head. “I do not think she knows,” he said. “She is going on the assumption that she is still to seduce Aidric and gain access to the king. My contact made no mention of the fact that she knew of Cambridge’s new plans for her.”
“Then she must know,” Britt said. “Aidric must know. If she returns to Thornhill and does not know what is waiting for her, that may change the situation quite a bit.”
“Not really,” Dirk said. “Think about it—if Cambridge intends to send her to Westminster as a gift for the king, she lands in Edward’s lap without having to go through Aidric.”
“You are missing the point,” Britt said. “If we want her to kill Cambridge, then she will no longer have access to the man if she has been given over to Edward. What is the king going to do? Refuse the gift and send her back?”
Dirk nodded strongly. “That is exactly what he does,” he said. “We convince her to return to Cambridge and put poison in the man’s wine.”
Britt frowned. “But she refused to kill Edward—what if she refuses to kill Cambridge?”
Gerard headed for the chamber door. “We will go to Old Lloyd’s and if they are still there, we tell them of this change in plans,” he said. “We convince the lady that the death of Cambridge would be a blessing for us all and that she is the most logical person to do it.”
“You do not think Aidric has already told her that?” Britt said, eyeing Gerard. “That Cambridge’s death would be a blessing for us all, I mean.”
Gerard opened the door. “There is one way to find out.”
*
With Cleodora wrapped in his arms, Aidric couldn’t ever remember feeling so completely whole.
There was something comforting and liberating and exciting about the moment.
He still didn’t know how things escalated like they had, but it was clear that the attraction between them was so strong that it couldn’t be denied.
They had come together in a way he’d never come together with a woman before, in a way that was primal and needful but incredibly satisfying.
It was nighttime now, and the street noises beyond the window had died down as people went home for the night, but he could see a few stars in the sky through the glass and he couldn’t remember ever seeing them so beautiful.
It was a night like no other.
Cleodora had been sleeping since they finished their third round of lovemaking.
As she had told him, she hadn’t really slept the night before, so she was exhausted by the time they were finished and collapsed into a deep slumber.
He hadn’t gone to sleep, but rather lay there with his arms around her, feeling her naked body against his, the warmth and the softness and the curves, and he didn’t want to miss one moment of it, mostly because he wasn’t sure if the moment would ever come again.
What had just happened was a fluke, certainly not planned, and he honestly did not know what the future held for them.
Therefore, he just wanted to savor the moment.
At some point, however, he needed to return to Westminster.
No one knew where he was because he’d left so quickly, he didn’t have a chance to tell anyone.
Truthfully, he didn’t think he would have been gone this long, so they wouldn’t have missed him, but here he was lying in bed with a woman in his arms. Not just any woman, but the Pearl.
He suspected that his comrades were wondering where he was.
It was probable nobody was panicking yet, but if he didn’t return soon, they might send out a search party.
He really didn’t want them to find him like this.