Song Of The Nightingale (DeWinter's Song 1) (30 page)

Raile heard a coldness in her voice, and he thought he knew what was bothering her. “You saw Gabrielle today, didn’t you, Kassidy?”

She was quiet for a moment. “Yes. I saw you and her together.”

He sat down on the bed, feeling for her hand, but she pulled it out of his grip. “It wasn’t what you thought, Kassidy. I know it looked like we were—“

“I don’t care what you and your mistress do, Raile.” She brushed tears off her cheek. “My only request is that you have your rendezvous with her elsewhere in the future. I found it very humiliating.”

He stood up, feeling helpless. “Damn it, Kassidy, it wasn’t like that.”

She turned her back on him and her voice trembled. “Please leave me alone, Raile. I’m very tired.”

He wanted to take her and shake her, until she listened to reason. But he dared not distress her more. Tomorrow he would explain about the letter when she was thinking more clearly. “I’ll just leave the connecting door open so I can hear you during the night, should you need me.”

When she did not answer, he went to his own bedroom, which felt cold and empty without her. He removed his shirt and breeches and lay on the bed. He had grown accustomed to having Kassidy beside him. He reached out for her pillow and tucked it beneath his head, smelling the sweet aroma that still clung to it.

He couldn’t help but smile. Kassidy was so much a part of his life, he couldn’t imagine being without her. She had made him into a husband—the kind he had always despised in the past—the kind who wanted only to please their wives.

He remembered telling her he would never love her—but he did, with a deep lasting love that consumed him day and night.

His desire to have a son was now overshadowed by his need to have Kassidy with him—he would have loved her even if she had been barren and could not give him a son.

Yes, he thought with confidence, tomorrow he would make her understand about Gabrielle.

34

Raile was awakened in the middle of the night by an agitated Oliver. “Atkins has asked that you come to the stable at once, your grace.”

Raile sat up and shook his head to clear it. He knew Oliver would never wake him unless it was for a good reason.

“Did he say what it was about?”

“Atkins is in an outraged state. It has to do with one of the horses, your grace.”

Raile quickly dressed and moved down the candlelit hallway, with Oliver leading the way. When they reached the stable, Atkins met them at the door.

“It’s the new prized Arabian, your grace. The one that was to foal any day.”

“What’s happened to her?”

Atkins looked shamefaced. “I consider it my fault, your grace. I never thought this would happen. I should have been more watchful.”

“Tell me what happened, Atkins!” Raile demanded.

“Her throat’s been cut, your grace, and the foal’s been cut right out of her belly, and its throat’s cut, too.”

Atkins gulped, his eyes flashing with fury. “I heard the mare carrying on something awful. By the time I dressed and got here, she was thrashing about in her own blood.”

The groomsman closed his eyes for a moment as if he were trying to forget the sight. “Who could have done this, your grace?”

Raile ran back to the stall, while Atkins held a torch for him. The grim spectacle that met Raile’s eyes made him sick inside. How could anyone destroy such a beautiful animal, and one that was about to give birth?

Raile’s eyes narrowed with anger. “By God, someone will pay for this. I’ll find out who did it, and when I do, they’ll regret this night’s work.”

Atkins handed Raile a note that was splattered with blood. “I believe this will explain it, your grace. It was pinned to the stall door with the same knife that was used to kill the mare and foal.”

Raile read the pitiful, blood-splattered scrawling. He knew before he finished reading who had done the deed.

This is how easily I can get your wife and child. You can’t stop me—no one can.

Raile crushed the note in his fists. “Atkins, did you see anyone suspicious hanging about?”

“No, your grace—no one.”

“I want you to employ ten men from the village whom you can trust. Have them patrol the castle and grounds day and night. No one is allowed inside the walls unless they are personally known. Is that clear?”

“Do you believe Mrs. DeWinters is responsible for this, your grace?” Atkins asked.

“I know she is. She is dangerous and is trying to get to the duchess.”

“You can count on me, your grace,” Atkins said with conviction.

Raile nodded toward the stall. “I will expect you to see that this doesn’t happen again.”

Atkins ducked his head in shame. “It won’t, your grace.”

“At sunup I shall require the carriage. I will be going into London. I don’t want to leave her grace at this time, but I must make the authorities aware of my stepmother’s actions.” His eyes hardened in the torchlight. “1 also want to make arrangements for my wife and child’s future should anything happen to me.”

Oliver and Atkins exchanged glances but said nothing.

“No one is to speak of what happened here tonight, is that understood?” Raile said.

Both Oliver and Atkins quickly agreed.

Kassidy sensed something strange in the air when she came downstairs the next morning. It wasn’t what anyone said, it was more the watchful glances and hushed whispers behind her back.

When she learned that Raile had gone into London without first telling her, she assumed it had something to do with Gabrielle Candeur, and she also assumed everyone was feeling pity for her.

Kassidy returned to her room, wondering how she would live through the weeks until the baby was born. Her only happiness came from being with Arrian, so she spent most of her days in a child’s world—it was too painful to dwell in her own.

Two days passed and then three, but Raile did not return. When he did come, it took Kassidy by surprise.

She was sitting in the window seat in the nursery, reading to Arrian, when he appeared at the door.

“How are my two favorite girls?” he asked.

Arrian climbed off Kassidy’s lap and ran into Raile’s open arms, giggling and kissing his cheek.

Kassidy set the book aside. “You come and go so quickly, your grace, one wonders how poor Oliver keeps up with you.”

Raile received a sympathetic glance from Elspeth. “I regret the business that took me to London, but it could not be avoided.”

Kassidy walked past him and into the hallway. He handed Arrian to her nurse and followed his wife.

“I know, Raile,” Kassidy said when they were out of hearing distance of the others, “what business took you to London. I’d be a fool not to.”

“Damn it, Kassidy, will you condemn me without a hearing?”

She turned on him, her eyes flashing like green fire. “You condemn yourself, Raile. Do as you will, only leave me in peace.”

Raile could only stare after her. When she went into her bedroom and closed the door behind her, he resisted the urge to go to her. He knew she had been humiliated by Gabrielle’s visit, and he could see how she would draw the wrong conclusion. Perhaps he should tell her about Lavinia’s latest threat, but he feared it would only upset her more. He was new at being a husband, and it wasn’t always easy to do the right thing.

Raile made his way to the stable, saddled his horse, and rode into the village. Since Kassidy was heavy with child and could no longer go into Ravenworth, it fell to him to help the villagers with their china factory. The Ravenworth china was in demand and the village was flourishing.

Raile thrust the heel of his boot into the horse’s flank and rode through the brown meadow grass. He was realizing more and more that Kassidy was the most important person in his life. She had altered his conviction and tempered his ambitions. Most of all, being with her had given him the family he had always craved.

But he was afraid for Kassidy because there was a madwoman who wanted her dead and would stop at nothing to carry out her threat.

Lavinia was now a familiar sight in the village of Ravenworth. She often brought the farmer’s cheese to town so it could in turn be transported to London.

She was sick of hearing the villagers rave about the virtues of their precious duchess and how she had brought prosperity to the village. Lavinia would grind her teeth when she heard the women discussing the baby the duchess carried. But most of all, Lavinia hated any mention of Raile.

She had thought long and hard on how to bring him the most pain. And she had come up with the perfect plan. She could tear his heart out and make him a broken man if she destroyed his wife and unborn child.

That was her goal—that was what she would do.

She had to make her move soon—before the baby was born. She was causing Raile a great deal of concern, she knew that. How easily she had outsmarted him when she slipped past the men he had posted at the arched entryway of the castle and slain his prize mare and her foal. After the deed had been accomplished, she had slipped away without detection and returned to the village without anyone being the wiser.

Lavinia suddenly saw a familiar figure riding down the street, and she turned her face aside as though pretending to look into a shop window. Raile DeWinter rode right past her, never looking in her direction.

A sinister smile curved Lavinia’s lips. She had waited patiently for this day. At last she had convinced Thomas Creag to allow her to accompany him when he delivered sweet cream and butter to Ravenworth Castle.

She now trudged along beside the ox-drawn cart with her head down when they entered the arched gate that led to the inner courtyard of the castle. The guard at the gatehouse merely waved them inside, paying little heed to Farmer Creag or the old woman in peasant dress, who carried a block of cheese on her stooped shoulders.

The rickety cart groaned over the cobblestones on its way to the kitchen door.

Lavinia smothered a gleeful laugh as the cart stopped and the head cook stood with the back door open, beckoning her inside.

“Come on, old woman, don’t take all day. Bring in the cheese, I need it now.”

Lavinia kept her head bowed as she moved up the steep kitchen steps. Her eyes gleamed with triumph— she was inside the castle!

Kassidy sat at the dining-room table, toying with her food while Raile watched her impatiently.

“Is it such a chore for you to dine with me, Kassidy?”

“Of course not, Raile. I’m not very hungry.” She raised her eyes to him. “There is no cause for worry. It’s just that I feel clumsy and tire easily.”

He thought her face looked pale, but the doctor had assured him Kassidy was in good health. He never saw her smile anymore, and she was most often in her room or in the nursery with Arrian.

“Kassidy, you are nice to my servants, you are nice to the people in the village. Why do you never show me the slightest consideration?”

She didn’t know how to answer him. Surely he knew she was still angry with him. “I have never been unkind to you, Raile.”

“No,” he admitted, “not unkind exactly.”

“What do you expect of me?” she asked.

He pushed his plate back and took a long look at her. “I expect you to deliver a healthy baby,” he said at last. “And nothing more.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I will do my best, your grace.”

“I don’t know what to do about you, Kassidy. Perhaps after the baby is born we can—“

She stood up, cutting him off in midsentence. “When the baby is born, I will have fulfilled my part of our bargain, and I will be free to go.” Pain stabbed through her heart at the thought of leaving her unborn baby. But she would not cry—she would not give Raile that satisfaction.

“Kassidy—“

She moved hurriedly out of the room.

Kassidy walked into the garden, too heartsick to notice that the tulips had burst into scarlet blooms. There she remained until the sun on her face calmed her spirit.

Why should she care if Raile didn’t love her? she reasoned. Would she be able to deliver this baby and return to London? Repressing a sob, she realized she would be contented to live out her life at Ravenworth Castle and glean some small happiness in being near Raile.

With a heavy sigh, she went inside and slowly climbed the steps to her bedroom, using the banisters for support. Her back had been aching since she awoke this morning, and the pain had now spread to her abdomen. It was too soon for the baby to be born, so she thought if she lay down, the pain would subside.

When she reached the second floor, the pain had ceased, and she stopped a moment to catch her breath.

“Your grace,” a servant said, coming out of the shadows. “His grace has asked if you will come to him in the tower room. There is something he wants to show you there.”

Kassidy turned to the woman. “I have not seen you before. You must be new.”

“Name’s Betty Daniels. I work in the kitchen, your grace. Cook told me to take lunch to the workmen in the tower room, and his grace was there and he sent me to fetch you.”

“I didn’t realize they were working in the tower today,” Kassidy said, dreading the thought of climbing the steep stairs. She nodded at the woman. “Thank you, Betty. You may return to the kitchen now. I can find my way up the tower.”

“If it please you, your grace, the duke asked that I accompany you. Says he don’t want you being alone.”

“As you wish.” Kassidy sighed. “I’m not feeling well, perhaps you will allow me to lean on you.”

Lavinia could hardly contain her elation. How easily this foolish girl had fallen into her trap. “Yes, your grace,” she said, smiling, “lean on me.” Her voice trembled with expectation. “I’ll help you right enough.”

Kassidy had never been to the tower room. Raile had forbidden anyone to go there until the repairs were completed because he insisted it was too dangerous.

As Kassidy climbed past the third floor, she had to stop and catch her breath. “Perhaps it isn’t wise for me to go to the tower today.”

“Just a bit farther, your grace,” Lavinia encouraged.

They came to the winding staircase that was only wide enough for one person at a time. “You go ahead of me, your grace, and I’ll just come up behind.”

Kassidy realized her mistake when she was halfway up the winding stairs and another pain hit her with such a force she felt as if it were cutting her in half. She stopped, leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath. The pain was becoming more forceful, and she clung desperately to the railing. Beads of perspiration stood out on her brow, and she felt lightheaded.

“Just a few steps more, your grace.”

Kassidy climbed slowly upward until she came to the top. Stepping onto a wide board, she saw the whole side of the tower had been ripped away so new stones could replace the old ones. She glanced through the gaping hole where she could see only the sky.