Choose the Sky: A Medieval Romance (Swordcross Knights Book 2) (38 page)

Joscelin stood behind her, holding a knife to Constance’s throat. He looked so incongruous with a weapon. Mina couldn’t remember ever seeing her frail cousin with a blade.

“Careful, cos,” he said as Mina stopped short. “Don’t startle me, or I might do something regrettable.”

“Put the knife away,” Luc ordered, coming in behind her.

“Ah, my lord,” said Joscelin, his normally soothing voice now stronger, louder. “I heard horses enter the gate. Good thing I went to look, or you’d have got me by surprise.”

“Let the maid go,” Luc said. “You gain nothing by harming her. You wouldn’t escape anyway. Not from both me and Drugo.”

“Perhaps I’m willing to kill anyway.”

“Joscelin,” Mina begged. “Not Constance. She’s done nothing! You can’t truly intend to hurt her. This isn’t like you!” But the fact that she saw him doing such a thing was the final confirmation that Luc’s accusations had weight.

“You don’t know me as well as you think, cousin,” Joscelin said, in that same mild tone. “In fact, you know nothing at all.”

“Tell us, then,” Luc invited.

“Why?” Joscelin sneered at them. “Why should I?” Perhaps unconsciously, he pressed the knife into Constance’s neck. She gasped and flinched back.

Mina almost screamed in fear. “Joscelin, don’t do this. Please let her go.”

“In exchange for what?” he asked.

“For me,” she offered.

“No!” Luc said.

Mina was already taking a step toward Joscelin. “Let me take Constance’s place. Surely that would be better for you. A lady instead of a mere maid. Your cousin instead of a stranger.”

“
No
, Mina,” Luc repeated.

Joscelin, however, smiled and gestured with his free hand. “Come then, cousin. Killing you would be more effective. In fact, I’ve been trying all morning.”

Mina paused. “What?” She saw him glance toward the covered dish. She changed direction, reaching the table and pulling the lid off. It looked like ordinary gruel. “What is this? Did you put something in it?”

His smile thinned. “Something just for you.”

Rage replaced her fear. “You intended to poison me? Like some skulking coward?”

“I’m not a coward!” Joscelin snapped. “I’m noble. My blood is every bit as good as yours, and you’re just a woman!”

Mina picked up the dish. “So I’m just a woman? Then you must expect me to fight like one.” She hurled the dish toward Joscelin. He saw it coming right at his head and instinctively raised his arms to block it. Constance saw the moment when the knife pulled away from her. She threw herself forward, hurrying away on hands and knees.

A moment later Joscelin realized his mistake, and cursed his own inattention. By then Luc was charging toward him, covering the distance from the door to the fireplace in an instant. Domina knelt by Constance, pulling her into an embrace.

“Are you all right, dear?” she asked the maid.

Constance nodded. “Oh, my lady. I didn’t know what to do.”

“You did exactly right. You’re safe now.”

She looked up to where Luc had Joscelin in a hold that left Joscelin’s eyes watering. The physical difference between the two had never been more stark.

“Don’t hurt him,” she told Luc. “He’s barely more than a child!”

“That’s not true,” both Luc and Joscelin said simultaneously.

“He needs to explain!” Mina said.

“Yes, I need him to explain,” Luc agreed.

Luc moved Joscelin to the same chair Constance had been in. Drugo shifted to stand in front of the now closed door, his sword drawn.

Joscelin struggled for a moment, but he soon calmed. “For God’s sake, get your hand off me,” he said. “I know I can’t run.”

“Seminary students shouldn’t blaspheme,” Luc said. “Though that’s the least of your sins. Where would you like to begin?”

“I don’t understand how you can say such things at all,” Mina said, still reeling from seeing this new, ugly side of her cousin.

“I say what I have to!” Joscelin snapped. “That’s what everyone does in this world. Some people just say it more elegantly.”

“But you were different,” she protested. “You had a calling. Even when you were a little boy, you had such strong faith.”

He shook his head. “No, Mina. Never. I never felt anything but hollowness in church. I never felt that the saints listened to my prayers. You remember me as a little boy. You know what I remember from that time? My family dying! What need do I have for a god that took my parents, my sister? None. I would not trust any god who could do that.”

Mina said helplessly, “But your whole life has been devoted to the church.”

“Because I had a revelation, just not of the religious kind. After my family died, I went to the funeral,” Joscelin said. “I felt dead, too. I wanted to rip the stones apart to get my parents back. But that would have done nothing.

“The priest who buried them asked me if I felt peace. Something inside me woke up. I looked right into his eyes and said yes…and he believed me! He not only believed me, he was delighted. A little boy mourning his parents, and the man believed that
peace
was possible for me.” Joscelin recounted the incident in a stunned voice, as if it just happened a day ago.

“I realized I had a gift,” he went on. “A gift for telling people exactly what they wanted to hear. If the church was filled with such idiots as that priest, then what might I accomplish there?”

“Your vocation was all a lie, from the very beginning?” she asked.

“You know, sometimes what I said
felt
true,” he mused. “Sometimes, I wanted to believe the things I said, about the glory of heaven and the marvelous gift of grace. It would have been comforting to believe all that. But grace does nothing in this world, and this world is the one I live in. I was a poor relation, with few prospects for inheriting—unless those ahead of me in line died. So I focused on the church, where I had more advantages.”

“Then what changed?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I suppose I did. I kept asking myself why I should have to carve my own fate, while you didn’t simply because of who you were born to. And, to be honest, there’s a limit to how much time I can tolerate in a church, especially because I know it’s all lies. There is no god worth worshipping.”

Constance gasped at the blasphemy, but Mina was too consumed by his confession.

“Did you hurt my father?” Mina asked. “Are you responsible for him falling ill?”

“Not the first time,” Joscelin said. “When you found him at the bottom of the stairs—that was pure chance, and I won’t take the blame for it.”

“You said the first time. There were others?”

“I didn’t think I had to do anything at first. Godfrey seemed to be on the edge of death, and surely he’d topple over into the grave quickly. But he didn’t. You hovered over him, and he wouldn’t die. Maddening. So I helped fate along, with a particular herbal concoction I brewed up myself. Every time I came to Trumwell, I gave him a bigger dose, and each time, he nearly died. The final time, I gave him a massive dose. Unfortunately, so much of the concoction taken at once made him vomit it up before the potency could manifest.”

“But he didn’t die!” Mina said triumphantly.

“No, he’s tougher than I ever imagined,” Joscelin admitted. “At least he was incapacitated since his collapse, though. That was almost as good, especially as it tied you to the castle. You were so terrified someone would find out and take your lands from you. Of course I kept your secret. I didn’t want you married off to some lord! I intended to reveal myself at the proper time, to argue that it should be a man of de Warewic blood who kept the title, and to sorrowfully retire from the church to take up the duties of the family name.
Then
you’d be married off.”

Domina paled as she heard him talk so calmly about her fate. “You would not! Do you hate me so?”

“I never hated you, cousin,” said Joscelin. “You misunderstand. All I’ve done is simply to better my position. I don’t seek revenge or to destroy anyone. That’s a foolish path, and it leaves one open to weakness.”

“Don’t lie now. You tried to kill me today!”

“Oh, well, that was your fault. If you hadn’t let that lord into your bed…”

“I was married to him, you dullard.”

“You should have gone to a nunnery first.” Joscelin’s tone was petulant now, as if she’d denied him a sweet. “I tried to encourage it, but you were so resistant. Always wanted to be the lady of the castle.”

“And so I was,” Domina said. “While you were off in London, pretending to follow a righteous path, I was managing the estate. I made sure the harvests came in, that taxes were paid. I watched the walls and I obeyed the king’s summons. If not for me, you’d have nothing to fight for at all.”

Luc interjected, “Isn’t it true you offered your allegiance to the empress?”

“I’d have offered it to anyone who was in a position of strength,” Joscelin said. “The empress seemed to respect that even though the Swan was no great fighter, there were other benefits to an alliance, namely wealth. Alas, someone must have talked to the wrong person. My secret dealings as the Swan were less secret than I would have liked. I had to start moving more quickly.”

“Through Haldan?” Luc asked. “You used a forged seal to get him the position at Trumwell after Godfrey collapsed, and Mina was too distracted to wonder at it.”

“Yes, Haldan was my man. I met him in London, and saw how his simple mind worked.  He did what I ordered him to—at first. He shouldn’t have put a hand on Mina. I warned him about that, but he never listened well when it came to women. He lost that gamble. He was still useful from outside of the walls. I ordered him to attack Trumwell, using the information on the castle’s weaknesses to secure a quick victory. Then I was going to approach the king and confess that Domina was ruling in her father’s name. The king should have been grateful for the knowledge, and given the castle to me.”

Joscelin looked at Luc. “But Haldan didn’t account for what a couple of true knights could mean for a castle’s defenses, and the failed attack, plus the marriage, made my previous strategy useless. It also made Haldan useless,” he added.

“You couldn’t have killed Haldan, though,” Luc said. “You weren’t even in the castle when it happened.”

Mina said, “There’s a passage from the lower level of the keep. It goes under the eastern wall and emerges near the forest. It was dug at the founding of the castle, in case of a siege. Only the family knows about it—Joscelin and I used to creep through it, as part of our childhood games.”

Joscelin nodded, almost proudly, at Mina. “My cousin has the right of it. I left Trumwell on an excuse, then returned after dark to visit my faithful retainer Haldan.”

“How did you manage to kill him? The guards didn’t hear a scuffle.”

"They were barely awake.” Joscelin snorted. “Anyway, Haldan didn’t even understand he’d become a liability. I spoke to him, told him I was working on a plan to sneak him out the next evening, and all he had to do was remain silent for a day. I passed a few items through the bars—the knife, a few small biscuits, a little dried meat. Then I had him hold up his cup to the bars, and I poured some wine for him…which contained poppy syrup. He fell asleep within a quarter hour. Then I used my copy of the key to enter the cell.”

“You cut him after he fell unconscious,” Luc said, enlightened.

“Yes, and arranged it all to look as if he took his own life. I wasn’t sure you’d believe Haldan killed himself, but I knew no one would suspect young, skinny Joscelin! And anyway, I didn’t wish someone to think that another copy of the cell key existed.”

“When did you make a copy of that key?” Mina asked, rather astonished at her cousin’s foresight.

“Oh, I had duplicates of several keys forged, cousin. Including the treasury. Godfrey never noticed.”

“
You
stole the money!” she gasped.

Joscelin laughed. “I broke into the treasury shortly after his fall. I spirited the money away through the secret passage over a series of nights. It was too heavy to do all at once.” He shrugged. “I buried it in the woods. You want to talk about nerve-wracking! Any fool walking by might have stolen the gold for the pain of a few minutes digging. As soon as I could, I moved it to a much safer location.” He looked over at Mina, adding, “It’s in my rooms at the bishop’s home in London, where you’ll find the remainder of the treasure under the bed, wrapped in old canvas.” He gave her a lopsided grin that made him look so much younger, more innocent. “I enjoyed sleeping over so much wealth! And once I had control of the money, I decided to simply wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“Initially, for Godfrey to die. Then I would have presented myself as the next male heir. But as we know, the old man refused to die, even with a little nudging. But then by chance, I encountered a man who supported the empress. This was while Stephen was imprisoned last winter, and it seemed the empress would get the crown. So I decided to play a slightly more dangerous game, but one that would have a much better reward.

“But Mina proved rather too…capable when it came to keeping Trumwell going. I thought she’d come to me for help much sooner. But she didn’t, not until the king himself decided she ought to be married. That was
not
in my plans.”

Luc said, “So you returned to Trumwell when you heard of the marriage.”

Joscelin nodded. “I knew I’d see some opportunity. There has never been a problem I couldn’t think my way out of. Of course, once Mina took it upon herself to flee, I had to track her down.…all very messy.” Joscelin sighed. “No wonder most men just use swords to solve their problems. Sometimes I wonder if God hated me from birth, and that’s why I’m so weak.”

“Your weakness has more to do with the Devil than God,” Mina said. “Don’t ask for pity. Everything you did was because of greed.”

“Perhaps.” Joscelin looked at her steadily. “So how does that make me different from you, cousin, so intent on keeping your castle to yourself? Or your husband, who married you for distinctly selfish reasons?”

“Shut your mouth,” Luc said, his voice hot.

Joscelin grinned. “Soon enough. But first tell me, what are your plans for me now?”