Chapter 5
Five
Sin stood in the center of Henry’s throne room, waiting for the king’s return. Why he bothered, he couldn’t imagine.
Henry had made his decision clear. Sin was to find the Scots’ rebel leader and kill him.
There was nothing unusual about the order. He’d murdered more than once at Henry’s command. It was what made him an anathema to the court. An abomination to the pope.
It was also what had saved his life as a boy.
He’d only been ten-and-four when he’d taken his first life.
Never would he forget that moment. Scared and shaking, he had followed his orders and gone into the man’s room at a local inn.
The man had been nothing more than a poor pilgrim who had come to Outremer to pray.
The Old Man of the Mountain had ordered the pilgrim slain and Sin knew that had he failed, they would have taken him out and. ..
He shook his head to banish the memory.
Sin didn’t like to remember the past. There were no happy memories of childhood or of anything else.
All he remembered was the wanting.
Yearning for a mother’s kindness. A father’s gentle hand.
What he had gotten was innumerable insults and beatings.
Torture at times so cruel and severe that he wondered how he had managed to survive it with his mind and body intact.
Then again, maybe his mind wasn’t so sound after all.
Surely no one could survive what he had and be left normal.
Day by day, sometimes even hour by hour, he had suffered through and emerged so strong that no one could touch him now.
He was granite. And he fully intended to stay that way.
Sin cocked his head as he heard a sound. It was the soft whispering of leather against stone. So slight, most men would not have heard it all, but for a man whose lack of vigilance had cost him dearly in his youth, that sound was mammoth.
From the shadows he saw a man emerge with a dagger. In an instant, he knew the man who attacked him. Though why it surprised him, he had no idea. Roger’s enmity toward him was nothing new.
Sin rolled his eyes as the fool rushed him with the dagger raised. “Roger, this is a mistake.”
Before the knight could comment, two more attacked.
Sin sighed disgustedly. They knew he was unarmed. No one was allowed through the main entrance of the throne room bearing arms. Not that it mattered.
He caught Roger with his foot and kicked him back. The knight went sprawling.
The next man he knew not at all. It didn’t matter. Sin hit the ground in a roll and knocked him off balance, then twisted the sword from his grasp.
Sin heard the rasping swoosh of Roger tossing a dagger toward his back and the door opening. Instinctively, he dropped to the floor. The dagger whizzed past and embedded itself into the chest of the man he had been about to fight. The man gasped as he sank to his knees.
The man he’d disarmed ran out the open door while Sin turned to see Callie standing there in shock.
Roger started for him, but Callie jerked at the rug beneath Roger’s feet and sent the man sprawling.
Hiding his amusement at her aid, Sin angled his sword at Roger as the knight slowly regained his feet while Callie stepped back to observe them.
The knight’s eyes glared his hatred and Sin was amazed Roger didn’t run away and hide. It was what the knight did best.
Sin lowered his confiscated sword. “Care to explain?”
“Explain what? That someone needs to kill you? Everyone knows you need to die. How many sleeping throats have you cut in the name of Henry?”
Sin heard a soft gasp at the words. He glanced behind Roger to see Caledonia covering her mouth with one hand, her eyes wide. Now she knew the truth of him.
So be it. He’d never hidden from what he was.
Perhaps it was for the best. Now she would hate him as everyone did. It would make avoiding her all the easier.
And yet something inside him shriveled at the thought of her hating him. It made no sense to him at all. But then, few things in life did.
Roger looked to the woman and his eyes narrowed. “Does she know you were a hashishin?”
Sin took a deep breath as he recalled the days he’d been thoroughly trained in ways to take a man’s life. He saw the confusion on Caledonia’s face as she regarded the two of them.
“She doesn’t know the term assassin, Roger.”
“She knows the term murderer. That’s what you are. You are a filthy murdering dog with no conscience or morals.”
Sin lifted the tip of the sword to Roger’s throat. “You’ve said enough. Anymore words, and I will show you firsthand what my trainers taught me.”
Roger paled.
The gilded oak doors opened to admit Henry and his guard. The king drew up sharply as he caught sight of Sin in the middle of the room with his sword at Roger’s throat. “What is this?”
Henry’s guards came around to protect their king.
Sin stepped back and handed the sword hilt first to one of the guards. “Nothing of any great import, Sire. ‘Tis only another attempt on my life.”
Callie stood in shock at Sin’s bored tone. It was as if he thought little of the fact the man had just sought his death.
Rage suffused Henry’s face as he faced the handsome knight who was almost a head shorter than him. “Any good reason why you felt the need to kill our advisor?”
Roger glared his hatred at Sin. “He killed my father in cold blood and yet you reward him like some treasured hound. ‘Tis obscene the way no one dares make him pay for what he’s done.”
Henry’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “We understand you are upset, but we stringently advise you to counsel that tongue lest you find our wrath falling full force onto your head.”
Roger stepped back and turned his chastised gaze to the floor.
Henry glanced to Sin. “Is it true? Did you kill his father?”
Callie saw pain flare in Sin’s eyes a moment before he shielded it.
Sin shrugged. “How would I know? I never asked nor knew my victims’ names.”
By Sin’s expression, she could tell he did remember their faces. There was such a haunted look to him that she had no doubt it troubled him still.
“See!” Roger snarled. “He doesn’t deny it. I want justice for my family.”
“Justice, sir, or were you after a more selfish end?” The words left her mouth before she realized she’d spoken.
Suddenly all the men turned to look at her.
Callie shifted nervously. “I was told you came to kill him so that one of you could marry me and put down my people.”
“You lie!”
Henry cocked a brow at her words. “How do you know this?”
“Their plot was overheard by someone I trust.”
Sin was stunned by her words. In the whole of his life, no one had ever defended him. He was so used to being cast out and left to his own ends that her actions baffled him.
Now her sudden appearance in the throne room made sense. “Is this why you came here?”
She nodded. “I wanted to forewarn you.”
He stood in complete disbelief.
Henry narrowed his eyes on Roger. “A witness to your plot, Roger. What say you now?”
“There was another conspirator as well,” Callie said.
“Aye,” Sin concurred, “Thomas of Wallingford. He ran off.”
Henry sent his guard in search of the man. His eyes cold, Henry looked to Roger and instructed his other guard. “Send him to the tower. I shall deal with him later.”
Once the three of them were alone, the king approached her with one arched brow. “By your actions, may I assume you will abide by your marriage?”
“Might I speak alone with Lord Sin on the matter, Majesty?”
Henry focused a suspicious stare on her, but ultimately allowed them to leave his presence.
Sin led her from the throne room and down the hall to a set of stairs. They walked along in silence until Lord Sin took her to a small courtyard behind the keep.
The small area was surrounded by gray stone walls that were covered in ivy and honeysuckle. It was a peaceful afternoon with nary a sound to intrude on them.
She watched him stand proudly before her, his dark hair falling becomingly over his face. Lord Sin was a dangerously handsome man. One who could devastate a woman with nothing more than a simple smile. She couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be held by him. To taste those lips on hers.
She shouldn’t be having such thoughts of him and yet she couldn’t quite seem to stop herself.
He clasped his hands behind his back and eyed her a bit impatiently. “Well?”
Callie sorted through her jumbled emotions as best she could. “May I be honest with you?”
“I certainly prefer it to dishonesty.”
She smiled at that. He was such an odd man.
“I...” She paused as she searched her mind for the best way to broach her concerns.
“You?”
She fidgeted with the sleeve of her gown. She knew so little of this man that she wasn’t sure what to say.
Finally, she lifted her chin and did what she did best. She blurted it out.
“You and your king have asked me to bind myself eternally to you. To entrust my life and my people into your hands. I wanted you to know that I take my oaths very seriously. And if we are to do this, then I wish to spend a little time getting to know you.”
Sin opened his mouth to tell her of his plan to find The Raider and leave her in peace, then paused.
She would never agree to his going home with her to hand one of her people over to Henry or worse, kill him. If she had any intention of doing that, the rebel leader would already be on his way to London.
Nay, he would have to let her think he was agreeable to this match. “Very well. How do you suggest we get to know one another before the morrow?”
“Will you dine with me this evening? Here. Just the two of us?”
He arched a brow at that. “Us alone?”
“And Aelfa, of course. But no one else.”
It was a strange request she made. Yet he could see no harm in humoring her. “What time?”
“Vespers?”
He nodded. “I shall see you then.”
Callie watched him leave her. For the first time, she noticed the way he walked. Like a stalking lion waiting for a predator to jump out at him.
He was a fierce man, this knight. Fierce and lonely.
And soon to be her husband.