Chapter 24
It didn’t take long to summon Alric. The man had once been a simple knight like Rafe, but he was now married to Cecily de Vere, an heiress and the daughter of a proud family.
The changes in his appearance were subtle, but evident to Rafe, who once knew him very well.
His clothing was finer quality, and that belt and the leather shoes cost more than Alric ever would have spent when he was a knight.
Still, he was Alric. The brown hair held a little grey now, and he probably slacked off his military training since becoming lord-in-waiting here at Cleobury.
But he was just as tall, and just as insufferably straight-laced in outlook.
When Alric entered the room, he immediately crossed the floor to join Cecily, putting one arm around her shoulders in a gesture that said louder than words that he’d protect her against any threat…and that the presence of Rafe implied considerable threat.
The couple spoke to each other, just a few low-voiced words Rafe couldn’t hear. Next to him, Angelet gripped his hand.
“Do you know him?” she murmured.
“Like a brother,” Rafe said wryly.
Then Alric faced Rafe. He’d been forewarned, of course, but even so his expression was admirably steady. “I knew I’d see you again someday, but I didn’t picture it like this.”
Rafe actually laughed. “You mean where I come to you on my own two feet, unbound and unshackled? You have sent people after me to drag me back. Admit it.”
Alric and Cecily exchanged glances, and she said, “I think you should tell him.”
“Tell me what?” Rafe asked.
“Come with me,” Alric said. It wasn’t a request.
Rafe gave Angelet a careless smile. “Back in a moment.”
“Make me no promises,” she said, looking doubtful.
Rafe had his own doubts, but he followed Alric until they reached another room on the same floor, this one much smaller than the room Angelet was using.
Alric closed the door, then looked Rafe over for a long time.
At the end of the inspection, he just shook his head.
“I will admit, I did not foresee this.” His tone was resigned, amused…
and deeply, painfully familiar. Rafe never felt more homesick than right at that moment. But Cleobury was not his home anymore.
“Believe me,” he said, “it wasn’t by design. I tried to avoid this whole shire. But you guessed that, since your people tracked me elsewhere.”
“No. Not my people,” Alric said instantly. “True, I wasn’t happy that you ran away. But your life is your own.”
“Don’t play me for a fool. There have been men following me for years. I noticed the first signs only a few months after I left.”
“I didn’t say that you weren’t being followed,” Alric said, “just that it wasn’t me who sent them.”
“Who, then?”
“Lord Rainald is keen to speak to you.”
Rafe closed his eyes. Even if Alric forgave Rafe for his transgressions, it sounded as though Rainald de Vere had not. “What’s his plan for me? Why haven’t you dragged me to his feet already?”
“Because he’s not here,” Alric said. “He’s gone to a meeting the Lord Halbeck called. Many of the lords in this part of the country went to discuss the progress of the war. It might be many weeks before he returns.”
“Good. We’ll be gone by then.”
Alric snorted. “You’ll go when I let you go. And it won’t be for a while.”
“You don’t understand. It’s the lady who needs to hurry.”
“Ah, yes. Tell me, who is the lady?”
“Exactly who she says she is. Angelet d’Hiver. Yarborough. She’s the widow of one Hubert Yarborough. He was the son of a Lord Otto, who holds Dryton Manor. Stephen’s man.”
“I don’t know the name, but that means little, since I’m so bound here. What happened?”
“She must have told the story, more or less.”
“I’d like the more. The version she related to Cecily was rather light on detail.”
“I was hired to escort her on a journey,” Rafe said, “along with several other men-at-arms—some locals, and some who served Lord Otto. We were attacked on the road, taken by surprise. I had the opportunity to get her out of the fray and I took it. If we’d stayed, we all would have been slaughtered. ”
“Surely she’d be ransomed,” Alric objected.
“I doubt it,” Rafe said. “They meant to kill her that day, and that was confirmed when someone attacked her again several days later. Same weapon, same method. But they hit the second time, and forced me to bring her here.”
Alric was following the story, watching Rafe with narrowed eyes. “Where were you going?”
Rafe paused. He wasn’t sure if Angelet had explained she had a child, and intended to retrieve him. He’d better stick to the more obvious story. “We’d been heading south. She wants me to take her to Wareham, in hopes of getting passage to the Continent. Her own family hails from Anjou.”
“So all this was just professional pride on your part?”
“What else would it be?”
“You rode halfway through the shire to get her to a healer you trusted.”
“Well, I didn’t want her to die.” Rafe swallowed, suddenly very uncomfortable with how Alric was prodding at his motivations. “I’d get a bad reputation if a client died before she got to her destination.”
“That’s the part of your reputation you think will suffer?”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is that you are not treating this woman as an obligation.”
“I am. I was paid to take her to Anjou, and that’s what I’m going to do. She’s offered more money when she gets home. So you can understand my haste to resume the journey.”
“Don’t be too eager. The lady seems to have cheated death this time, but her recovery will take a while, according to Cecily. And then there’s Lord Rainald.”
“What’s he intend to do with me?”
Alric shrugged. “He’s been very secretive about his reasons, and it’s not for me to question him. But he’s not been at all secretive about his eagerness to find you.”
“He blames me for working for Theobald,” Rafe said, referring to one of his many past mistakes. “Serves me right for getting involved in a family matter. Rainald will punish me for that.”
“That’s up to him,” Alric said. “My duty is to keep you here until he returns.”
“So you don’t intend to punish me in the meantime?” Rafe asked.
“No. You showed remorse for what you did in the end, and I don’t think you knew the extent of Theobald’s plans.”
“That’s all too true,” Rafe muttered. No one knew just how far Theobald de Vere had gone to take power from his brother, or just how far he was willing to go to keep that power. However, Theobald’s plans didn’t go as he intended, and now Rainald was once again the head of the de Vere family.
Unfortunately, Rafe had been a willing pawn in Theobald’s game for too long, and the price of losing was steep. Steeper than he’d anticipated. Rafe hadn’t considered how valuable his friendships were until he destroyed them.
“Any word from Luc?” he asked, remembering their other close friend from the early training days.
“He’s well,” Alric said, his expression changing to one of genuine happiness. “I saw him just before Christmastide, in fact.”
“I expect he’s at court. He was always eager to play politics.”
“Less eager than he used to be. His interests are now more domestic.”
“Domestic? Luc? What happened?”
“He married, and is now a father.”
Rafe blinked. “I’d have heard! If Luc of Braecon married, it would have been into one of the great families—the news of that alliance would have been talked of everywhere.
Who’d the king pick for him?” Rafe couldn’t believe he missed that news.
He made a point of checking for such tidbits whenever he could.
“It’s a long story, in fact. His wife isn’t from one of the families you would guess, but he’s well content. And not too far away, since his new lands are only a few days ride south of Cleobury.”
“Don’t tell him I’m here,” Rafe said. It was bad enough to face Alric. He couldn’t face Luc too.
“No promises.”
Rafe accepted that. Alric didn’t owe him anything.
“You can sleep in the southeast room,” Alric went on. “No more lurking in the woods outside.”
“Well, at least it will be a comfortable imprisonment. Do you want me to surrender my weapons?”
“No,” Alric said. “You’re too intelligent to do something stupid when your client is forced to remain here at Cleobury for her own health.”
“Speaking of which, are we done? I’d like to talk with her.” Rafe began to walk to the door.
Alric stepped into his path. “I don’t think that’s necessary. After all, she doesn’t mean anything to you. And now that she is at Cleobury, we’re all responsible for protecting her, not just physically, but her reputation as well. Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, would we?”
Rafe rolled his eyes. He’d be damned before he admitted the truth of what happened between him and Angelet.
Let Alric guess if he wanted to. Rafe didn’t have to make it easy for him.
He said, “I don’t need to see her. It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.
” The words came out easily enough, but for some reason Alric just looked more annoyed than before.
“Maybe you haven’t changed at all,” he said.
“Don’t tell me about myself,” Rafe warned. “You don’t know me.”
“Of course I do,” Alric retorted. “We grew up together, we fought together, and we fought against each other. And when you had the whole country to choose from, you came here for shelter. Goodnight, Rafe. Welcome back to Cleobury.”
* * * *
Rafe spent his night dead asleep. He expected to be restless, disturbed by the return to his old home and anxious for the health of Angelet.
But after days of sleeping outside and the whole time running from whoever was after him and Angelet on the road, Rafe couldn’t resist the appeal of a clean mattress and the soft linens of a real house.
Everything about the manor spoke of comfort, and Rafe woke up feeling amazingly refreshed and even somewhat optimistic.