Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (37 page)

He was right, but it didn’t stop her from snarling at his retreating back. When Pennington disappeared through the front gate Joanna pivoted to stare up at Ethan.

“We have to
do something
.”

“He will take Aubrey back to his estate,” Ethan replied, speaking to Simon and her.
The speed with which he agreed with her and jumped into action left her speechless. He was actually helping her.
“
The estate is
secure and if he has more armed men with him it will be heavily defended.
We’ll need more men
.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Joanna interrupted. She shot a glance to the king as he and his men mounted their horses. “The king has been lazy with his own security. He thinks he’s safe in the White Tower and so he leaves himself unguarded when he is in his private chambers.”

Alarm and a deeper concern flared in Ethan’s eyes. “You can’t kill a king,” he
said in an urgent hush.

“Pennington
will
release Aubrey, and Crispin and Jack as well, if we do,” she insisted.

Ethan shook his head. “You can’t believe what that man says.”

“And you can’t just discount it because he’s a murderous, treasonous bastard either!” she argued. “Now I’ve been in the king’s bedchamber. If we could just-”

“You’ve what?” Ethan gaped at her.

“I carried water to his room this morning,” she told him, glaring. “There were no guards in the room, only his page. I took the back stairs. If we could-”

“Ethan! Joanna!” A new voice split the tension in the air. Joanna dropped her thought to spin towards the gate. David was running towards them faster than she would have thought his round body could carry them. “You must come at once!” he shouted. “The lady Madeline has been abducted!”

Ethan’s sense of danger could not have soared any higher if an earthquake had struck and reduced the Tower to dust. Without hesitation he took Joanna’s hand and charged to meet David.

“What happened?” he asked, urging the man to lead them back to the inn.

“No one is certain,” David panted. “The inn was crowded. We were all busy. Madeline was in the garden with the children.
One of the maids in the kitchen saw a pack of men with a cart take her
.”

“Is Wulfric safe?” The jolt of fear that struck him was unlike anything Ethan had experienced.
It brought with it flashes of Toby’s lifeless body lying in his arms as a newborn wailed.

“He is unharmed, though badly shaken. He keeps calling for you, all of you,” David told Joanna and Simon as well.

“Matlock must be behind this,” Simon seethed. “And my son.” He kept to his place behind Ethan and David but even Ethan could tell that he wanted to run through London to find the men and punish them.

“I’m willing to bet that Pennington and Matlock coordinated their actions,” Ethan said. “They’ll have taken them both to Pennington’s estate.”

“Ethan, stop!” Joanna dug her heels in as they neared the gate. She cast an anxious glance back over her shoulder to the White Tower. “I can’t just leave. There are things that need to be done.”

Frustration hardened every muscle in Ethan’s body as he followed Joanna’s gaze to the king and his retinue. They finished mounting and, led by the king,
nudged
their horses into a walk. Once they were past the first flush of nobles, Richard kicked his horse to a run. Everyone between the king and the gate had to jump out of the way or be trampled, Ethan, Joanna, Simon, and David included. One young woman didn’t move fast enough and was struck by the king’s horse. A gasp went up from the bystanders as she was thrown aside.

A strange, old anger boiled up in Ethan’s soul. The young woman didn’t get up. The smell of blood and sand was hot in his memory again.

“I’m not leaving you here,” he said to Joanna in spite of the determination in her eyes. “I love you too much to leave you in harm’s way.
I promise you, w
e will come back to speak for Crispin and Jack, but right now it’s Aubrey and Madeline who need us more.
”

The ghost of a smile touched David’s lips. Joanna lost her stony glare. When Ethan extended a hand, reaching for hers, she hesitated for only a moment before taking it.
She rushed ahead toward the gate, almost tugging him with her.

The London streets were busy, but Ethan had navigated them in a crowd so many times in recent weeks that it was effortless to dodge between pedestrians and merchants.
B
y the time they reached The Stag Hunt
,
the inn was in an uproar. David’s stable master
, Jacob,
and the young man who had been hired to replace Ethan had the common room sealed and were asking each of the patrons if they knew anything about the abduction or had seen anyone suspicious.

“You can let
the
patrons
go,” Ethan told David when he
saw
what was going on. “There’s only one man who could have done this and we know where he is.”

“Ethan!” A tiny wail blared across the room. Rebecca entered the common room with Wulfric in her arms. As soon as he saw Ethan he threw his arms out towards him and wriggled to break free of Rebecca.

Ethan strode across the room and pulled the boy from Rebecca’s arms with a grateful nod. “It’s alright, little man. We’re here now.”

“I want my mama!” Wulfric screamed. He buried his hot face against Ethan’s shoulder.

“We’ll rescue her for you,” Joanna promised the boy, dashing to Ethan’s side.

On instinct Ethan closed his arm around Joanna and hugged her as she lay a hand on Wulfric’s back. For one gentle moment the strife and the danger swirling around them disappeared. He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the people he cared about. This is what he was fighting for, what he
should have
been fighting for all along.

“We have to go to Pennington’s
estate
,” he said, opening his eyes and letting Joanna go. “They won’t have had time to settle and entrench. We can find a way into the house and
rescue Aubrey and Madeline before they have a chance to hide them.”

“We’ll need weapons,” Simon added. The determination in Jack’s steward’s eyes went beyond agreeing with Ethan. He approved.

“I have a few meager swords,” David told them. He gestured to
Jacob
, who scrambled out of the room towards the back hall. “You’ll need men to come with you. I can come and Jacob and Harry as well.”

The young dogs
body brightened in anticipation.

“I’m coming
with you too,” Joanna insisted.

Every fiber in Ethan’s body wanted to tell her no, tell her to stay
at the inn, out of harm’s way.

He laid a hand on her face. “It will be dangerous.”

She swallowed, meeting his eyes without backing down. “I know. If I don’t do everything I can to help them I’ll go mad.”

He believed her. Toby would have gone mad if he had been in trouble and his friend
had
been unable to help. “Alright.” Ethan let out a breath. He bent forward and kissed her to still the gnawing fear in his gut. “Promise me that if we run into trouble and you can make it to safety that you will save yourself.”

She hesitated, unfamiliar emotions flashing through her bright eyes. “I will,” she promised.

Ethan nodded, dropping his hand. He gave Wulfric a squeeze as
Jacob
jogged back into the room, arms full of an assortment of blades. None of them looked promising, but they were the best they could do.

“Go back to Rebecca now, little man,” he told Wulfric, setting him down. Wulfric whimpered in protest but Ethan said, “I’ll be back soon.”

As soon as he straightened he started for the door, Joanna, Simon, David and his men following. Jacob skipped ahead to hand him a sword as they stepped
outside
. The people passing in front of the inn gasped and whispered as the gang poured out into the street. Ethan ignored
them
.

“Be careful as we get close to Pennington’s estate,” he instructed the group. “The men he had with him looked well trained and vicious. If we can find Aubrey and Madeline and free them without bloodshed we should.”

“Just tell us what to do,” David said.

Joanna strode up to walk at
Ethan’s
side as they turned a corner and started up the wider street. She had taken a sword along with the others. He was too focused to smile, but the sight filled Ethan with confidence nonetheless. Joanna was every bit the fierce warrior that Aubrey was and every ounce the determined servant that Toby had been. Every breath she took made him love her more.

The street where Pennington’s estate stood was quiet in the afternoon. A pair of young maids saw them coming and
ran off
. Ethan marched straight for Pennington’s gate. His confidence wavered. They should have plotted a deeper strategy before picking this fight.

“Let us in!” he demanded as he reached the gate. The courtyard beyond the gate was eerily quiet. “Pennington! We know you’re in there
!” His cry echoed to silence.

An uneas
y itch slid down Ethan’s back.

“Where are they?” Jacob asked from the back of their group.

“Pennington!” Ethan shouted again.

At last the front door opened.
A frightened page stepped aside to let a grumpy older servant slouch through to the
courtyard.

“What are you making all that noise for!” the man shouted as he stomped across the courtyard towards them. “There’s no one here to listen anyhow.”

“I demand to see Pennington!”

The gatekeeper took his time walking the last few yards to the gate. He sniffed when he saw the group of them, all armed. His expression was not impressed but there was a light of fear in his eyes. He crossed his arms, staying several yards away on the other side of the locked gate.

“Pennington ain’t here,” he said.

“What?” Joanna gasped by Ethan’s side. “Where is he?”

“He’s not here,” the gatekeeper repeated with a snarl.

“Prove it,” Ethan demanded.

The man laughed. “What do you want me to do, give you a tour of the place? If I say he’s not here, he’s not here.”

“Not good enough,” Ethan growled. He lifted his sword and surged toward the gate.

Even though there was no way he could have reached the man, his gesture did the trick. The gatekeeper dropped his arms and stepped back, his smarmy look replaced by fear.

“Alright, alright!” he gasped. “He’s not here! He left for the Tower this morning, to do his business with King Richard, and he hasn’t come back yet!”

Ethan frowned. “And Matlock?”

“Went with him.” The gatekeeper told them everything, eyes never leaving Ethan’s sword. “If you want me to send word when they get back I could do that,” he said, shifting his eyes to make sure no one else was around to hear. “For the right price.”

Ethan ignored the bribe and pushed away from the gate. He led the others away from Pennington’s estate and back out to the main road. Frustration and something far more sinister gripped him.

“They must have taken Aubrey and Madeline somewhere else,” he said pausing to
rub
a
hand
across his face
, fighting off frustration.

“Where?” Simon asked.

“I don’t know,” Ethan admitted.

“How do we find out?”

“Someone had to have seen lady Madeline’s abductors,” David reasoned. “We’ll need to ask around.”

“Aubrey did not go quietly,” Simon added. “Someone will have seen where she went.”

It was a meager way to find the women at best, but it was all they had to go on.

“Alright.” Ethan sighed. “We’ll have to go back to the inn, maybe find a few more people to ask around.” He turned to Joanna. For a change she wasn’t trying to hide her worry. The sight of her distressed punched a hole in his heart. “We’ll find them,” he told her. “And we’ll rescue them.”

The hustle and bustle of midday did nothing to ease Roderick’s hatred of London Bridge. As the cart rattled over its stones he sniffed and spit to the side. The urchin he barely missed swore back at him, shaking his fist. He would have run after the boy and taught him a lesson, but the bridge kept him tight in his seat until it came to a halt.

He sent a spiteful look to the tall tavern sitting so boldly near the middle of the bridge. It wasn’t natural for buildings to sit in midair like the shops and houses that were being built onto the bridge. The whole thing was like as not to tumble into the Thames at any moment. Matlock was a fool for ordering him to bring Lady Madeline there.

He swung his legs out of the cart, setting foot on the stone as though it would crumble beneath him. Only the muffled sounds of Lady Madeline’s struggling convinced him to pretend, at least for the moment, that he was on solid ground.