Midnight Warrior (24 page)

“I think perhaps he has been.” Malik was studying Brynn’s expression. “Gage would not stand for this. How bad, Brynn?”

“Dead.” She swallowed to ease the nausea assaulting her again. “Pitchfork.”

“Ah, you saw it?”

“Yes.” She would always see it. The sight would be there before her for an eternity. She moved over to the hearth to the basket containing her belongings. “I have to leave. I cannot stay here.…” She took a clay pot from her medicine pouch and set it on the hearth. “You don’t need me anymore at all, Malik. You’ll be sitting a
horse within a week, but you must not overdo it the first few days. I look to you to care for Adwen. If the fever comes back, have Alice make her a draught from the powder in that jar. I don’t think it will. She is healthier than I’ve ever seen her. I truly think she is—”

“Where are you going?” Adwen interrupted. “You are not well yourself, I won’t have you going off alone. It’s not safe.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be safe.” She had no time for further assurances. She was surprised Gage was not there already. She would have to slip out the back door to avoid any chance of encountering him. She snatched up her medicine pouch and her other belongings and headed toward the door. “God keep you both.”

“Ah, Brynn, I thought you would be leaving us after such a tragic happening.”

Brynn froze in the act of opening the gate.

Richard stepped out of the shadows beside the high gate. “I was waiting for you. I don’t suppose I can persuade you to stay?”

“No.”

“I could call the guard, you know. I’ve noticed the Norman’s men are very eager to please him, and they know how he values his slave.”

She turned to confront him. “Then do it.”

He smiled. “I was but teasing you. It would not be to my advantage to betray you. I have no wish to bring you to the Norman’s bed again. On the contrary, it’s my most earnest desire to separate you. I want you for myself,”

“You want the
treasure
for yourself,” she corrected.

“Ah, the treasure … Are you ready to join forces and lead me to it?”

“No, and there’s no way you can follow me.”

“How will you prevent me? Magic?” He shook his
head. “Delmas may have believed such nonsense, but I don’t.”

She felt a chill as she realized that Delmas had revealed even that dangerous secret. “Not magic. I’ll travel through the forests. I know them well.”

“But I’m no novice in the forest. I’m an excellent hunter, remember?” He tilted his head appraisingly. “I believe you would be very interesting quarry. According to Delmas, you have experience as prey.”

“Yes.” The muscles of her stomach tightened as she remembered those days of running and hiding in the forest after her mother’s death. Richard would take as much malicious enjoyment as those other hunters. “But I know the way far better than you,” she said boldly. “So if you wish to stop me, do it now.”

He considered her words and then smiled again. “I would never force you to stay against your will. Go forth, sweet Brynn, perhaps we will meet again.” He turned and walked away.

She drew her cloak closer about her as she watched him saunter across the courtyard. He had surrendered too easily and his smile was too sweet and glowing. Would he follow her? Well, she had no time to linger and wonder. She was far more worried about Gage’s discovering her than about Richard’s unusual behavior.

She slipped through the gates and hurried out into the waiting darkness.

“Where’s Brynn?” Gage asked from the doorway to Adwen’s chamber. “Has she been here?”

“A full quarter of an hour ago,” Malik said. “I’d wager she’s outside the gates and already on her way to Gwynthal. What kept you?”

Gage muttered an imprecation. “Our fine Lord Richard. He told me Brynn had told him she was going to the kitchens to talk to Alice about your care after she was gone.”

Malik lifted his brows. “And you believed him?” “It seemed reasonable at the time. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Evidently,” Malik said. “But no harm done. Since she will be on foot and you on horseback, you should have no trouble overtaking her.”

Gage had a sudden thought. “Did she take her herb pouch?”

“Of course. You know she would never leave without it.”

Gage remembered Brynn’s remark in the garden about the necessity of replenishing the herbs in her pouch. He had little doubt her destination would be
Gwynthal, and it wasn’t reasonable for her to take a long journey without her precious medicines. “Then I’ll have her back here tonight.”

“Before you go after her, I’d wash my hands. Don’t you think she’s seen enough blood this night?”

Gage went to the washstand and poured water into the wooden bowl. “Yes, she has.” He looked down as the water turned pink when he dipped his hands into it. “I’ll never forget her face when she—” Christ, there was no sense in dwelling on what could not be changed. He turned away, grabbed a linen, and wiped his hands. “I should be back soon. I’ll leave LeFont here at Redfern to protect you and care for your needs.”

“She wants to go home,” Adwen said suddenly. “Let her go to Gwynthal.”

Gage turned to look at her.

“Delmas was a wicked man,” she said, “and I don’t think it was an evil deed to kill him. But you have hurt Brynn in doing it. She needs to go home and heal.”

“I won’t let her leave me,” he said harshly.

“Then take her there yourself. Brynn has given to all of us. Give to her now.”

“I’m not known for my generosity.” His lips twisted bitterly as he moved toward the door. “I’m far better at taking than giving. Brynn will attest to that fact.”

He had found her.

Brynn stiffened as she saw Gage stalking toward her across the glade. The moonlight polished his hair to a bright ebony and lit his bold features with merciless clarity. She should never have come here, she thought in despair. She had hoped he wouldn’t remember that idle remark about the herbs, but Gage remembered everything. She quickly stuffed the last leaves in her pouch and sprang to her feet. “You should not have followed me. Go away.”

“No.” He stopped before her. “You’re never going
to be rid of me, Brynn. Not if you run to the ends of this earth.”

“I cannot …” Her voice vibrated with pain. “I cannot even look at you without hurting, without seeing—” She stopped, unable to continue.

“Delmas speared like a frog?” Gage asked bluntly. “Then you’ll have to forget it.”

“Forget it?” She would see that scene in the stable for the rest of her life.

“Just as I’ll have to forget how I felt when I saw what Delmas had done to you. It should be easier for you. You were guiltless and he deserved to die.”

“My fault,” she said dully.

“You had nothing to do with it.”

She shook her head. “Bathsheba.”

He gave an exclamation under his breath. “You are
not
Bathsheba and you bear no blame for anything that happened tonight.”

She shook her head again.

He reached out and gripped her shoulders. He stared down at her, his features tight and harsh in the moonlight. “Would you believe me if I told you I did not kill that cockroach?”

Hope leapt within her and then instantly died as she remembered what she had seen. “No.”

His lips twisted. “I didn’t think so. You have little trust in me. Then I will not bother to say it.” He turned away. “And you’ll have to accept what happened and go on. Come along, we’ll go back to Redfern.”

“I won’t go back there. I’m going to Gwynthal.”

“Yes, you’re going to Gwynthal.” He strode toward his horse. “But not like this, alone in the night. We’ll go back and make proper preparations for the journey.”

She wasn’t sure she understood. In that hideous moment in the stable it had seemed that the entire world had changed, that she was completely alone again. It was difficult to imagine a circumstance that
included Gage. “You’re taking me to Gwynthal?” she whispered.

He smiled sardonically. “Why are you surprised? Didn’t you promise me a great treasure?”

She nodded.

“Then why shouldn’t I accept what you offered me? It seemed you wish to cheat me of everything else.”

“But you didn’t believe me.”

“I didn’t disbelieve you. It’s my nature to doubt what I cannot see.” He mounted his horse. “And sometimes doubt what I do. Someone with as little trust as you should understand.”

“There has never been trust between us.” And now there could never be, she thought with aching sadness. She had never realized how close to him she had grown. How near to faith, how near to—

She cut the thought short, but it lay burning in her mind like a brand.

Dear God, no, she had not loved him. She would not love him.

“You don’t have to look at me with such horror,” he said roughly. “I don’t have a pitchfork in my hands now.”

He had killed Delmas. If she loved Gage, her crime would even be worse than she had imagined. She would always wonder if she had tried hard enough to prevent Delmas’s death. It was only passion. It was not love.

He held out his hand to pull her up on his stallion. “Come, I grow weary of being stared at as if I were one of your dragons. I’ll take you back to the manor and let you hide from me with Adwen and Malik.”

Sweet Mary, how she wanted to reach out and take his hand, touch him, accept comfort, accept passion. She could not understand it. How could she feel like this when she could still see him dripping with blood? She put her hand behind her so that she would not be
tempted and stepped back. “You need not bother. I’ll walk.”

He muttered a curse and jumped from the horse. He grasped her by the waist and tossed her on the horse’s back. “I’ll be the one to walk, if you can’t bear to touch me.” He grasped the reins and started leading the horse from the glade. “But, by God, you
will
touch me. I’ll give you time to come to terms but I—Christ, I hope I can give you time.”

“I’ll never come to terms with it,” she said unevenly. “Never.”

“It will be better for you if you do, but regardless, you’ll have to accept it,” he said grimly. “For you will never leave me, Brynn.”

They saw the red glare lighting the sky before they crested the hill overlooking Redfern.

Brynn’s first thought was that the comet had returned, and then she dismissed it at once. This light was no pure stream but a malignant mouth stretched wide, as if it wanted to devour the night sky. “What is it?”

“Fire.” Gage’s pace quickened as he half led, half pulled the horse the last few yards up the hill.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m a disgusting barbarian, remember? You won’t be surprised that I burnt any number of towns and villages while I was raiding with Hardraada.” He added bitterly, “Oh, yes, I know well what that glare means, though I didn’t set this one.”

“I didn’t say you—” Brynn broke off, staring in horror as they reached the top of the hill.

Redfern was engulfed in flames!

The roof of the hall was ablaze, and several of the outbuildings had also caught fire. It would be only a matter of time before the outer walls and gates became barriers of living fire.

“God’s blood,” Gage muttered.

“Adwen. Malik,” she whispered. “We have to—”

She got no chance to finish the sentence. Gage leapt on the horse behind her and kicked the animal into a gallop.

The wind tore at Brynn’s hair as they sped down the hill and through the gates.

Screams
.

People stumbling dazedly about the courtyard
.

The crash of burning timbers as they fell to the ground
.

“My lord,” LeFont shouted to Gage across the courtyard.

Brynn turned to see the captain and his soldiers trying to beat out the flames leaping from the hall to the chapel.

“We had no chance,” LeFont called. “It happened so fast we could not—”

“Malik?” Gage asked.

LeFont shook his head. “The front hall caught first. We couldn’t get through the flames.”

“The devil you couldn’t.” Gage reined in his horse and jumped to the ground.

Brynn slipped from the saddle and followed him as he ran across the courtyard toward the hall.

The entrance to the hall was no more. Flames. Flames everywhere.

“Stay here,” Gage shouted to Brynn.

How could she stay when Malik and Adwen were in that inferno? She had to find a way to get to them. “The rear door!” She ran to the left, narrowly dodging a falling timber as it crashed to the ground. “We can—”

Gage was already ahead of her, skirting the burning wreckage of the hall and dashing down the passageway between the chapel and the hall itself.

She saw him momentarily falter.

“Tend to her,” he shouted over his shoulder.

Tend to whom? she wondered in confusion. Then
she saw the huddled form, half sprawled, half leaning against the wall of the chapel.

Alice!

She knelt quickly beside her and realized with relief that the woman was still alive. She examined her quickly. Alice was not burned, but a deep cut scored her temple and she appeared to be in a deep faint. What should she do? Alice needed care, but Adwen most certainly was in peril.