Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (3 page)

“Yes, sir.”

Dunkirke gave his answer by rote and started swiftly down the street in the direction the carriages had gone. His mind was both scattered and focused on one single thought. What was Joanna doing in London?

Every nerve in Joanna’s body was on edge as their carriage rattled through the narrow streets of London. She’d thought Derby was a large city. London seemed like another world, a world of close street
s
and buildings wedged so tightly together that she didn’t see how they could breathe. Judging from the noise that had followed them around every corner
,
the people didn’t breathe
.
T
hey were too busy talking and shouting.

They
turned a corner and the enormous edifice of the Tower of London loomed before them. She’d never seen walls so formidable. They were tall and thick with spikes along the top decorated with some kind of grubby bundles. She leaned against the carriage door
as they stopped
on the small bridge over the moat
to try to figure out what they were. Before she could figure it out
another round of shouting greeted them from the Tower gate.

She couldn’t hear what was going on. A few moments later the carriage lurched to a slow roll forward. They passed through the huge gate and into a whole other world. A wide, grassy lawn complete with trees met her. A few rows of buildings like those in the city lined the inside of the Tower walls. But the centerpiece of the common was a tall, stunning castle with four towers, one at each corner, flags whipping in the breeze. Its stone shone white in the morning sunlight. The White Tower, part royal residence, part fortress.

“Alright, you! Get down from these carriages and get them out of here!” an irritated voice boomed at them.

Joanna hopped into action, pushing open the door and descending to the gravel where the carriages had stopped. She took in her surroundings. They had parked beside a long stable bubbling with activity. The Tower wall rose up behind it. The objects she had wondered at were sharply visible now. She gasped and pressed a hand to her mouth. They were severed heads on pikes, rotting in the sunlight.

“Traitors,” a passing stable hand chuckled when he saw her shock. “That’s what they get for crossing our king.
”

The thought of it, and of the young man’s callous
laughter, turned her stomach.

“You here for the same reason they were?” the man continued
with a
laugh.

Joanna whipped away from him in disgust. She sent one more anxious glance to the heads before forcing herself to focus on why she was there.

“Here, my lady, give me your arm.” Joanna reached into the carriage to help Madeline.
“Don’t look up when you get out,” she warned.

Jack hovered behind
Joanna
, Meg in his arms, caught between concern for his wife and general annoyance at
the rest of
the world.
He must have seen the heads too.

Madeline took
Joanna’s
offered arm
and muscled her
self
out of her seat. She climbed
down from
the carriage and found her footing. “I’m fine
.
”
S
he sent Joanna a weak smile. “Really, I am. Although I’m not going on another trip like this
again.”

“Not on your life,
mate,
” Jack added. He handed Meg to Joanna and grabbed Madeline around the waist to help her
across the yard towards t
he
White
Tower’s long wooden stairs.

“Jack, stop fussing.
”
Madeline frowned, letting him support her weight all the same. “You go help Crispin with the arrangements.”

“Looks like they’re already taken care of, my lady,” Joanna answered, settling Meg against her shoulder.
A man in Plantagenet livery
had called the morbid stable hand over and was gesturing to their carriages like he was giving instructions.
“Leave me to handle the rest.”

Madeline managed a relieved smile. “I don’t know what we would do without you.”

Joanna
returned the smile then
walked back to where Aubrey was wiping Wulfric’s red face with a handkerchief. Her little lord had stopped crying but was still put-out with the whole affair. His father didn’t look much happier.

“We should have found an inn before coming
here
,”
Crispin
grumbled.
He too eyed the heads on the wall warily. Joanna followed his glance when it lowered to see a platform set up in the center of the green lawn. It held a block stained dark, with what Joanna didn’t want to know. A pair of servants were scrubbing it to no avail. The sick feeling in Joanna’s stomach spread.

“It’s alright, my lord.
”
She forced her mind to her work,
juggl
ing
a fussing Meg. “I’ll take care of it.”

Crispin nodded and marched to where Jack
was helping
Madeline
mount
the stairs. A slew of pages, servants, and
various
men and women, noble or otherwise, watched them with
everything from
fascination
to
derision. Joanna ignored them,
searching
for
the
stable hand. A
nother
young man with hunched shoulders and a hood
pulled low
over his face
approached her.
He was dressed in similar clothes to the stable hand.

“Are
we supposed to give the carriages to you
?” she asked.

“Joanna, would you mind taking Wulfric too?” Aubrey
called to her
at the same time.

“Certainly, my lady.” She stepped back to take Wulfric’s sticky hand in hers, holdi
ng Meg close with her other arm
as Aubrey hurried to join Crispin, Jack, and Madeline.

“You can leave the horses and carriages with me,” the
hooded
man nodded.

His toothy smile unnerved her.
The last thing she wanted to do was leave their horses, car
riages, and belongings with
the likes of
him.
S
he didn’t have much choice
. N
or did she
have time to worry about
it. Meg was starting to fuss.

“Thanks,” she called over her shoulder. “I don’t think we’ll be too long.”

“Very good, miss,” the man nodded to her.
There was something familiar about his nod
.

“Come on, my lord.” She
dismissed the feeling and
gripped Wulfric’s hand
.
Nothing was right in this place. The yard was only an imitation of a village common in the middle of what she knew was a crowded, writhing city. The heads on their spikes on the wall stare
d
down at her,
as if
warning her to run. She
hurr
ied to catch up to the others.

A man standing
at the edge of the yard
close to the gate
caught her eye
as she climbed the stairs
. He was dressed simply. His hair was long and he had a thick beard.
He was too far away to make out his face,
but
he
tickled her memory
all the same
. S
he knew him
as well
.

She shook her head and pushed out a breath as she helped
Wulfric up the stairs and into t
he
White
Tower. “I’m seeing things,” she muttered. “A week of traveling, a huge city, and already I’m losing my mind.”

Joanna was used to castles. S
he’d overseen things at Derby Castle for years now. The White Tower was something else entirely.
The
main hall
that they were shown into was larger than the Great Hall in Derby and filled with twice as many nobles as attended the grandest feasts. They lined the walls in their finery, brocades and silks
and furs
, gold and gems.
Their finery was in direct contrast with the pikes, swords, and pole arms lining the walls. It was as if the entire room was armed for battle, or murder, and the chattering nobles didn’t suspect a thing.
Their discussions were loud and animated or whispered as participants
huddled
together. Some were in English but just as much of the chatter was in languages that Joanna had never heard before.

“Joanna! Over here,” Crispin called to her
from the front of their spread—
out group. The crush of people
closed
behind Crispin and Aubrey as they strode towards the entry to a second room. Crispin and Aubrey may have looked as though they belonged in that crowd, though Joanna was certain Aubrey would argue otherwise, but Jack and Madeline were in danger of being cut off from them. Jack was more concerned with helping Madeline than watching where he was going. Madeline, for her part, looked as though she might faint in the heat and noise of the
hall
.

“Come on, my lord.
”
Joanna clutched Meg in one arm and bent down to lift Wulfric into her other. The poor boy was frightened by all the people and clung to her, nearly choking her as he
grabbed
her neck. Joanna bit back a grunt, hugged the children close, and rushed after the others.

The second room was only slightly less crowded than the first
and twice as martial
.
The walls were lined with shelves and cabinets full of weapons that appeared to have been shoved hastily aside to accommodate the king.
Crispin stood talking to a liveried page
just inside the room
. Joanna could
barely
make out what they were saying, something about how Crispin and Jack had been summoned.
She
made her way over to Aubrey’s side. Wulfric tried to wriggle out of her arms in favor of his mother.

“Not now, sweetheart.
”
Aubrey did her best to comfort him, kissing his forehead and smoothing his hair. “Stay with Joanna.” Her brow was creased in worry as she glanced around the room.
The people there
had the writhing, uncertain emotion of a
herd
of cattle about to be slaughtered.

The tension that Joanna had brought with her from the courtyard
jumped up a notch at the soun
d of Madeline gasping, “Jack!”

Joanna took a step closer to Madeline, fearing that she had reached the limit of her fragile health. Madeline clutched Jack’s hand but it was her eyes that tipped Joanna over to panic.

“Aw bloody hell!” Jack exclaimed when he saw what his wife
saw
.

There, standing at the front of the room near
a carved wooden
throne was Sir Stephen of Matlock. He had his head together in conversation with a second man Joanna recognized
,
Sir Arthur Pennington. Pennington had caused them no end of trouble when he served as the emissary of the crown
in
King Richard
’s absence
. Both men had noticed the arrival of their group.

“Right, I’m goin’ home,” Jack declared, taking Madeline around the waist as though he would steer her out of the room.

“You can’t go anywhere.” Crispin stopped him. His face was as hard as stone, his eyes flashing with wariness. He glanced to Aubrey, who had gone pale at the sight of the
ir enemies
. “Take Madeline, Joanna and the children and get out of here.”

“No,” Aubrey
snapped
.

“They won’t have had time to move the carriages yet.” Crispin ignored her. “The drivers will take you to
safety.
”

“I’m not leaving you.”

They didn’t have time to argue. Trumpets sounded from the front of the room and with a great whoosh
all
conversations died and everyone sunk into low bows. Joanna struggled to follow suit, Meg wailing in one arm and Wulfric whimpering as if he would do the same any moment
in the other
.

“Ssh, ssh, it’s alright, little one.” Joanna’s voice wavered as she tried to silence Meg.

She was pushed back as the crowd parted, making way for an entourage of the most richly dressed men and women Joanna had ever seen. The
gem-encrusted
hems of their kirtles and tunics swept the floor as they passed. She caught
flashes
of swords
as she kept her head lowered.