Lord of a Thousand Nights (35 page)

“Well, I do not plan to cook David a meal or read him philosophy, Reyna. I may have to use that Saracen game that I described to you the night in Carlisle when we all got besotted on wine.”

They made their way to where the army waited. The ladies pulled up their horses fifty yards away.

Morvan strode forward. “I see that you found them all well, Ian.”

“Aye. A very small adventure, as it turned out, although your arrival has simplified the last part. I might have had to kill Aymer otherwise, and we would all like to avoid that.” Ian strove for lightness but to no avail. Morvan's sparkling eyes had not cooled one whit.

Morvan shot his sister a sharp glance of dismissal. “Your husband is waiting.”

Christiana looked apologetically at Anna before turning her horse away, but Anna didn't see her. Her own gaze had locked on her husband's with a challenge.

Morvan walked over until he stood beside her. “Have you been enjoying yourself?”

“I am completely unharmed, and I thank you for asking. Not the slightest discomfort.”

His expression silently responded
not yet.
“I trust that you left Duncan's stronghold standing. Or did you raze it to the ground?”

“We were able to escape without doing so. More's the pity.”

Reyna rolled her eyes. Of all the ploys that she could imagine, goading an angry husband did not strike her as the smartest.

“Are we to head back to Carlisle immediately?” Anna asked. “I hope that you are not planning to wait until morning at Black Lyne Keep, Morvan. The excitement of this ordeal has had the most surprising effect on me, and I find myself very restless. A good ride seems just the thing.”

He didn't move and his expression didn't change, but a different light entered his eyes. “You will all come with us, but not back to Carlisle. We ride straight to Harclow, where work awaits that can not be delayed.” He rested a hand on her knee. “The long ride should take care of your restlessness.”

Anna's hand smoothed over her husband's. “I doubt that.”

Reyna and Ian turned their horses away just as Morvan reached up to pull Anna over to his kiss. Near the army, Christiana was enclosed in David's arms, speaking earnestly up at him. The naked love in the comte's blue eyes suggested that he would accept whatever his wife told him.

Reyna and Ian's approach broke their embrace. Christiana remounted, and a squire brought David's horse forward.

“Morvan says we go straight back to Harclow,” Ian said.

“Aye. We would have arrived sooner, but your man came right in the middle of an action yesterday morning,” David explained. “We are inside the first wall, Ian.”

“How—”

“Used our plan is how. I'm sorry we couldn't wait for you, but the opportunity was too good to miss. A huge storm broke a few hours before daybreak. The wall was barely manned, and we were almost across the lake on the rafts before they realized what was happening. The first men used their axes to cut through the wooden barrier placed over the hole the guns had made, while those on the rafts used their bows to protect them. Once inside, we fought our way to the gate before too many fell on us.”

“Will Maccus yield?”

“He wants to negotiate, and has sent us terms. Morvan decided to let him stew while we dealt with this other problem.”

Morvan and Anna joined them, and they all rode to the rear of the army. “David has told you, Ian?” Morvan asked.

“Aye. He said that Maccus has terms, however.”

“The predictable ones. The safety of the knights and soldiers and such as that. I have refused to consider them until he yields, and for the most part he will set them aside and open the gate.”

Reyna rode two horses away. She stretched forward on her horse until she could see him. “Morvan, might I speak with Maccus Armstrong once he surrenders? I have some questions that developed during this journey, and he may be able to answer them.”

Morvan looked to the western horizon. “Your request is very interesting, Reyna. Because one of Maccus Armstrong's terms was not at all predictable, and I sensed it is the only point on which he will not move.” He turned his gaze on her. “Old Maccus will not yield until we hand him the widow of Robert of Kelso.”

Chapter TWENTY-FOUR

R
eyna stood on the wall walk behind Ian's armored body. David also formed part of her human shield, and Anna stood nearby with her bow in hand, to answer any movement that threatened from the opposing wall. Other archers were deployed for the same purpose, but her friend had insisted on standing by her side, and Morvan had warned the Armstrongs that any errant bolt finding his wife would mean the death of every man in the keep.

Maccus had demanded that Reyna Graham be given into his custody for her safety, but Morvan had refused. Reyna considered that very chivalrous, since this one point was all that kept him from reclaiming his family's honor. Since Maccus had referred to her safety, Morvan had offered to let him see for himself that she was present and unharmed, even though no one believed Reyna's safety had been Maccus's goal at all.

“There he is,” Ian said. Reyna peered over his shoulder to the far gate. Atop one of the towers, a white-haired
man appeared. “I will step aside, Reyna, but keep yourself behind David's and my shields.”

He moved over, holding his shield next to David's so they formed a steel wall. Reyna pressed up against it and faced the distant scrutiny of Robert's friend and lord. The white head looked her way and a silence fell over the castle. Down below, Morvan Fitzwaryn stood alone in the outer bailey, protected only by his armor.

Maccus Armstrong raised his arm in a sweeping gesture. Bodies began leaving the battlements around him. Soon, not a single Armstrong soldier or archer could be seen. Maccus waited until the last had gone, and then his head disappeared.

Anna ran for the wall steps. Reyna and the men followed and joined the expectant crowd forming in the yard. Slowly, the portcullis rose.

Ian kept his hand on her shoulder while they waited among the circle surrounding Morvan. Reyna's throat burned, and she knew her emotions were evidence of her divided loyalties. She felt elation for Christiana and Morvan, who had been driven from their home so long ago, but also anguish for Maccus himself, who had been Robert's trusted friend and an instrument in all that had been good in her life.

Suddenly, a lone figure appeared in the yard beyond the gate. Maccus strode forward without hesitation. The crowd parted for him, and he crossed to Morvan and silently unsheathed and handed over his sword.

Maccus was a hearty man, and still a powerful figure despite his sixty-plus years. He looked Morvan right in the face, studying him shrewdly. “You have your mother's eyes and color, but you fight like Hugh sure enough.”

“I wouldn't know. He died when I was still a boy.”

“He did at that, and we both know 'twas one of my archers who brought him down. But such is the way with war.”

Morvan nodded. “The way with war. Better for you in the long run if you had killed the son as well.”

“I do not kill children. Besides, you were a brave figure of a lad. Would have been a waste.” He glanced around and smiled with chagrin. “Although, under the circumstances—”

Something like a smile softened Morvan's expression. “Since you were generous in victory, I can do no less. Any man who swears to stay north of the borders of our lands can leave at once to be escorted to Clivedale. You will remain here until a ransom that I set is paid.”

“And Lady Reyna?”

Morvan shook his head. “You worried for her safety. She will be safe with us.”

“There have been accusations about her.”

“We are aware of them.”

Reyna felt her face redden as glances in the crowd shot her way.

“They aren't true, those stories about her killing Robert,” Maccus snapped.

“Your nephew Thomas thinks otherwise.”

“Thomas is an ass. Nonsense, all of it. Anyone who knew him and her knows that. I was on my way to put an end to it when you caught me here. I have been worried that Thomas would do something stupid while I was pinned down. All the same, best if you keep her until my ransom is paid. Then I will bring her to Clivedale and clear all this up for her.”

Reyna stared dumbfounded at this public announcement of her innocence, coming from the man she had been sure intended to send her to her death.

“She will not be going to Clivedale,” Morvan said.

“If you don't give her to me, you had better swear to her safety, Fitzwaryn. I will not have you judging her and listening to people spin their tales, remembering things that never happened and whatnot. She's a Graham, you know, and there are old feelings about that.”

“Everyone's interest in the lady has perplexed me from the start, Maccus. What is the reason for yours?”

“I owe it to Robert.”

“A good man, Robert of Kelso. But her new husband is a good man too. He will swear to her safety, and if you swear to her innocence, I have no inclination to hold her in judgment.”

Maccus looked as stunned by this announcement as Reyna had been feeling about his. He scanned the crowd until he found her. Turning abruptly, he strode over and peered down, then studied Ian. “I would speak with you,” he said brusquely.

Ian nodded. “Somehow I thought so. And Reyna would speak with you.”

Some knights took Maccus away then. Morvan strode toward the inner gate, and a new hush fell over the crowd. Pausing, he looked back and gestured for Anna and Christiana to join him.

With his wife and sister beside him, he walked back into Harclow.

Reyna turned to Ian while the crowd followed through the gate. “That was very surprising, Maccus defending me like that.”

“Was it?”

“Perhaps not,” she conceded. She met his serious gaze. “How long have you known?”

“I have not known at all. But I have wondered for some time.”

“You are quicker than I. I spent a lifetime before I wondered.”

“Perhaps you should leave it at wondering. Are you certain that you want to know for sure? All of it?”

“It is the all of it that I need to know, and I think that only Maccus can tell me the truth.”

“Then let us go and speak with him, Reyna.”

They found Maccus in a small chamber. He had sworn his parole, and no guard stood at the unbolted door.

He stood near the cold hearth in a thoughtful pose, hands clasped behind him, staring at flames that did not exist. Over the years Reyna had come to know him fairly well, but he had always been a little remote in his dealings with her. He had been different with Robert, and often she had heard their laughter behind the solar door.

He turned at their entry and scrutinized her. “Didn't take you long, girl. Robert be barely cold.”

“Well, she did not have much choice, Maccus. It was me or return to Duncan,” Ian said.

“Hell of a choice, that's for sure,” Maccus groused. “Learned a bit about you from the knights that brought me here. You took Black Lyne Keep, they say, and it is to be yours now. Not a bad summer's work, Ian of Guilford. Still, if it's done it's done. I had planned to give her to another man, but if she is content I'll accept it. An English knight no less. Hell.”

“I am more than contented,” Reyna said. “And it is well that I am, for you would not have found me willing to be given to any man at your bidding should this summer have unfolded differently. At four-and-twenty, I am tired of being moved like a chess piece and kept in ignorance.”

Maccus showed surprise, then smiled. “Robert always said that you had more spirit than I ever saw. Well, you
have cast your lot with these English and this man, so I hope it will suit you. If it does, I will accommodate myself to the notion.”

“It will suit me. But I would know some things now. I am a grown woman, and have a right to know them, I think.” She chose her words carefully. “Aymer Graham has said that I am not really his sister. I do not think that he just referred to our half-blood connection, not with how he said it.” She squared her shoulders and looked Maccus in the eyes. “Who was my father?”

His face fell, and he suddenly looked very old.

“Was it Robert?” she whispered.

“Robert! Hell, girl, what did you take the man for? Robert would never marry his own daughter.”

“Who, then? Was it really Duncan?”

“Duncan Graham should pray that he could get such as you by any woman. Nay, not Duncan. And no knight of his, no matter what they say about your mother in that place. 'Twas Jamie. My boy James was your father. Duncan always suspected but never was sure, but your mother knew, and so did Jamie.”

“James Armstrong? I knew that they said he had been her lover later, but—”

“A long time, almost since she first came to these parts. They met early on. The families were not enemies then.” He turned away, his gaze seeking the empty hearth again. “I warned him off. Told him naught but bad could come of it. Well, he was young— still, it might have gone on like it was, except she saw how things were going to be for you. For herself she didn't mind, but you— Jamie decided to take you both away. Duncan found out, caught up with them just past the waste, near the old motte. Hung my boy like a thief right there, and left him. Robert found his body.”