Honor & Roses (39 page)

“We don’t have that many men. But we have a lady who is to be reckoned with,” said Alric. “Through Edmund, Cecily arranged for a certain herb to be added to the mercenaries’ meals. I didn’t ask for details, but apparently they’ll be unable to fight for a few days while the plant has its effect, which is, let’s say, unpleasent. And no one will want to be very close by while they suffer. It’s easy to take a man prisoner while he’s distracted by his own body’s rebellion. Cecily was quite confident.”

“Cecily leads you?” Rafe asked.

“No. That honor goes to
him
.” Alric gestured at the man now emerging through the smoke.

The lord Rainald was on horseback, and he had prepared for the moment, because he wore an outfit fit for a lord, not the common cloth worn in the Ardenwood. He rode proudly, looking about him with no fear, only curiosity about what he’d missed.

Rafe stared in astonishment, recognizing the old lord.

Not everyone was so affected. A few guards, still convinced they could defend Cleobury though the gates were open, attempted to attack. An archer on the tower posed a real threat, firing arrows into the mass of Rainald’s men.

Octavian appeared, shouting for the fighting to cease. Some listened, but the archer saw a new target.

Alric yelled a warning to Octavian, who had no shield with him. Before Octavian could react, the archer himself suddenly fell to his knees, dropping his bow. An arrow jutted from his shoulder, and his cry of pain echoed over the scene as a satisfied looking Robin lowered her own bow.

Then Cecily took charge. “Enough! Enough!” she called. “I am Cecily de Vere, and I order you all to stand down!”

She was standing defiantly by the gate, flanked by only two soldiers. But her voice carried in the morning air, and the shock of it made everyone pause.

“Hear me!” Cecily continued. “The fight is at an end. The true lord de Vere has returned. My father Rainald de Vere is here to claim his legacy. Theobald, his brother, has no authority here.”

The shock of seeing his brother, who he presumed dead or forever gone, robbed Theobald of the power of speech or movement. He only stared as his brother advanced, dismounted, and approached him.

Rainald struck him, only once. Yet Theobald fell to the ground. Rainald looked at his younger brother with contempt.

“Chain him,” he ordered his men. “Then confine him in a room where he can’t wiggle free. I have much to discuss with my brother.”

Alric left Rafe, knowing that he was no threat any longer. He ran to Cecily. “Are you all right?”

“Not a scratch,” she replied with a smile. “For my first battle, I think it went well.”

“Your only battle,” he swore. “I’ll never let you put yourself in danger again.”

“Yes, love,” she murmured as he held her close. He didn’t care who saw them, as long as Cecily was safe.

“We should see to the others,” she said finally.

He nodded. All around them, people chattered. They were still confused, but no longer anxious, since the fire had been revealed to be more smoke than flame.

They soon found Robin standing near Octavian. Alric looked Octavian and Robin over for blood, and saw none. “You’re both unhurt?”

“Seen fiercer fights in the forest,” Robin said. “I only fired one shot.”

“A good one,” Octavian said. He caught Robin’s eye. “Thank you.”

Robin merely nodded, but Alric saw how pleased she was at the acknowledgement, so simply and honestly given.

They all regrouped. Rainald walked behind Octavian, Robin, and several others as they led Theobald to a room where he would be confined. Cecily watched, but then turned back to Alric.

“My father will want to speak to his brother alone,” she said. “They have years to catch up on.” She looked rather shyly at him. “Do you also wish to speak to your brother alone?”

Cecily so simply identified Alric’s pain. Rafe was essentially a brother to him. But he didn’t want to face this conversation alone.

“Come with me,” he said. “I want you to know.”

After the dark knight had willingly put aside his weapons, he had wandered to the chapel, speaking to no one. They saw him sitting on a bench, near the door and far from the altar.

“Rafe?” Alric asked. “Will you speak?”

The knight looked over his shoulder. When he saw Alric, the distance in his eyes receded, and when he saw Cecily holding Alric’s arm, he nodded.

“Friends,” he said in greeting, his voice tinged with doubt.

“Rafe, I need to know what happened.”

“We fought. You won. Accept my sincere congratulations.”

“You let me win,” Alric said. “The question is why. I have not understood your thoughts since we returned to Cleobury this summer.”

Rafe looked away. “Was I so difficult to read? Interesting. I suppose that is because I scarcely knew my own mind.”

“What happened?” Cecily asked, her voice calm. “Please tell us.”

“I could not believe it when I saw Lord Rainald step through the smoke this morning,” Rafe began. “I was at Aldgate when Rainald died—or seemed to die. But I also knew who killed him. I knew the moment Theobald showed his face so soon after the fire, and declared that all was his. Oh, he used prettier language, and said he would only act in the name of the rightful heiress. But I saw the men he had around him. They were men I saw the night of the fire. They
set
the fire.”

“Why did you not speak?” Alric asked, shaken that Rafe had kept such a secret for so many years.

Rafe shook his head. “Who would I tell?” he asked. “I was a boy of no account, no name. If I worked and served a lord well, I might attain the rank of knight someday. Should I accuse the very lord I served then? How would that look? Who would take me on after that, even if my words were true and my intentions noble?” He sighed in disgust. “Besides, I knew no one would believe me. I had no proof, only my story of what I saw on a dark night filled with smoke.”

“But you knew Theobald’s true nature,” Cecily said. “All these years, you knew.”

“I did, but I told myself that all lords were the same, all playing the great game as they fought each other and made alliances and broke promises to better their own positions. I chose not to get involved.”

“Yet you did get involved,” she said.

Rafe nodded. “Not long after we came here to Cleobury this summer, Theobald’s clerk Laurence began to take an interest in me—to see if I could be useful. I listened to much of what he told me. It made sense to me, for as I said, I know how the world works. If I wanted to achieve my own goals, working with Laurence was one way to do so.”

“Is that why you joined the party traveling north?” Alric asked. “It was not to aid Pierce’s treason?”

Rafe stood up, moved to react at last. “No! As for conspiracy against the king, I had no idea what was in the wind. You must believe me. I would not betray my king.”

Alric said, “But I saw you come to some agreement with Pierce the very morning he confined Cecily to her chamber. He never spoke of his plan for invasion to you?”

“He did not,” Rafe said. “We did speak together, but on an entirely different subject. Pierce was keen to have his men learn new techniques in sword fighting. He learned of my skills and he asked me to remain after the wedding to instruct some of the guards in the castle and men in the town. He was going to pay for it.”

“I assumed it involved his conspiracy with Theobald,” Alric said, upset at how he’d misinterpreted the exchange.

“Why not?” Rafe said, his expression downcast. “Considering how far we fell out, and what I’d already been offered, there’s no blame to you for believing I was against you.”

“What were you offered?” Cecily asked. “I overheard you speaking with Laurence in the orchard one evening. You came to some agreement.”

“How could you overhear that?” Rafe looked at her in surprise. “We were alone.”

“I was in an apple tree,” she confessed.

Rafe shook his head. “Sly. Thank God I didn’t take Laurence up on his offer then. The reward would have been a punishment.”

“What was the reward?” Cecily pressed.

“You were,” Rafe said, glancing at Alric to judge his reaction.

“Cecily was the prize?” Alric asked, in a worryingly calm voice.

Rafe nodded. “Laurence knew you’d caught Lady Cecily’s eye. Theobald didn’t believe it—he always thought his niece to be a child. But Laurence wanted you removed. He suggested that an accident during a sparring session would be most convenient.”

“He truly wanted you to kill me?” Alric asked.

“Yes. While Theobald wanted Cecily married to Pierce, Laurence saw other possibilities. He suggested that you, Alric, were a little too close to Lady Cecily, and too diligent in defending her claim. He wanted me to kill you, and then take Cleobury by force and marry Cecily to legitimize my claim. Laurence said he had the skills to make any document look legitimate.”

“That’s monstrous,” Alric said. “All of it.”

Rafe shrugged. “It’s not that uncommon a tactic, and all it would cost was my soul.”

“How could you even consider it?” Cecily asked, appalled.

“You’ve never been poor, my lady,” Rafe said quietly. “You were born with a title, with land, with wealth. Others have to fight for everything they’ve got, and then they must fight to keep others from taking it away.”

“But in the end, you didn’t accept Laurence’s offer,” Alric said.

Rafe shook his head. “I’m many things, most of them not very admirable. But I’m not a murderer. I came close, but I could never step further.”

“You gave me a scare that day,” Alric admitted.

“I scared myself,” Rafe said. “I prayed the wound wouldn’t be mortal, though I doubt it was
my
prayers the saints heard.” He looked over at Cecily again. “I won’t ask for your forgiveness. I would not expect you to give it. But know that I did always try to keep you safe, and I would have no matter how things fell out.”

Cecily, staring at Rafe with wide eyes, didn’t answer at all.

Alric cleared his throat. “Well, it seems one thing is clear. Laurence has much to answer for. Let’s find him and question him as to the depths of his betrayal.”

However, Laurence could not be located. He’d taken advantage of the confusion to melt away the moment he perceived his lord had lost. The whole manor was searched, then the village, then the outlying farms. Laurence had vanished.

Rainald put the word out that Laurence was a wanted man. It was illegal to aid him, provide food or shelter, or hide him from the authorities. If found, he was to be held as a fugitive, to await the lord’s justice.

But no one found him.

When Cecily discovered how quickly
life settled into a slower pace, she wanted to laugh out loud. Agnes was reunited with Cecily, and clucked over her like a mother hen. She would hear no ill of Rafe, telling the story over and over of how he’d insisted that Agnes must return to her home as soon as possible.

“A true knight,” Agnes declared him. Cecily and Alric agreed to never discuss the particulars of Rafe’s decisions in front of her old nurse. Sometimes, it did no good to shatter an illusion.

The manor’s residents accepted Rainald as their rightful lord without any trouble. Indeed, many were happy to see the end of Theobald, who had been tolerated, not beloved.

Cecily helped her father readjust to the life of a lord. Together they sent missives to neighboring manors and towns, so that all would know of the change in fortune. Rainald also invited people of note to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of his daughter. Cecily guessed her wedding would be well attended by the curious.

Alric sent several letters of his own, and not long after, an old friend arrived, just in time for the wedding. Luc of Braecon rode in on a splendid horse, looking as if he’d never been wounded.

Cecily noticed her husband’s delighted expression when Luc’s arrival was announced. “Come,” he said, taking her hand. “You’ve not seen Luc for years! He’ll not believe the sight of you.”

“You’re showing me off,” Cecily teased.

“Why should I not?” he asked, stopping to kiss her soundly, despite the fact they were in full view of a dozen people. “Any man would be proud of you.”

“Alric, you’re not to do that!” She disentangled herself with some reluctance. “Not till after the wedding.”

He pulled her close again, and whispered, “How many weddings must I endure?”

“One more,” she whispered back, suddenly flushed with desire. “Only one more.”

“And then you’re truly mine.”

“I was always truly yours.”

He pulled back enough to look her over. “I love you, my Cecily.”

“I know,” she said, recovering from the moment of passion. “But you have to greet a friend now, do you not?”

“By God, you’re right.”

They hurried the rest of the way, and soon enough Alric was embracing Luc, his oldest and closest friend.

Luc laughed at Alric’s enthusiasm, saying, “I am well met!” Then he looked at Cecily, his eyes widening.

“You’ve met my wife, Lady Cecily,” Alric said proudly, “though it was long ago.”

“That’s truth,” Luc said, with a dazed smile. “I remember a little girl always hiding in the gardens. And now look at you! I am well met indeed.”