Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (42 page)

Richard raised an eyebrow. He turned to Ethan. “Is this true, Ethan?”

“My liege, your brother granted land and title to Lord John for honorable service in defending his person,” Ethan told him.

“Exactly, your majesty,” Pennington replied. “He is loyal to your brother, not you.”

Ethan turned back to Jack. “Who are you loyal to, Jack? King Richard or Prince John?”

“Is that all he asked?” Jack panted, near laughing. He pushed himself to his knees. “Oy, I’m loyal to you, your majesty!” He bent double, touching his head to the
bloody
floor in front of him.

“See him groveling like the dog he is?” Pennington pointed across the yard.

Ethan ignored him. “Lord John is loyal to you, my liege!”
All or nothing. “it is Arthur Pennington who is the traitor!”

Again the crowd gasped. King Richard looked askance at Pennington.

“He is lying, your majesty,” Pennington insisted. He switched to English and growled at Ethan, “I’ll have your head too for even trying to pin this on me.”

“What
are you saying to them
?” Crispin asked.

“I told the king that Pennington is the traitor.” Ethan met his old rival’s eyes. Crispin stared back at him, dislike and distrust still hard in his expression. But something new flickered there as well, hope.

“Pennington is the traitor!”
Joanna shouted.
Ethan turned from Crispin to see
her
rush up onto the platform. “Tell him!”

“Ah!” Richard called from above them. “I see you brought
that
charming little vixen of a maidservant with you.” His smile made Ethan’s blood run cold.

“Proof, your majesty!” Pennington shouted in French once more. “Proof that Sir Ethan is a part of this conspiracy against your life. He should be executed along with the rest of them. It was his bitch that tried to poison you!”

The pack of higher nobles clustered on the stairs around the king and Pennington stirred, their whispers growing. “Is that true, your majesty?” one of them asked.

Ethan’s heart pounded into his throat. “If you will remember, my liege, there was no poison. I had simply hoped to surprise you with spices from the Levant in honor of our great campaign.”

“What is he saying?” Joanna asked behind him, her tone frantic. Crispin and Jack glanced desperately to him as well.

“Pennington is remembering the incident at the banquet,” Ethan told her without turning to look at her.

“Come on, your majesty, you don’t believe that,” Pennington drawled, taking a step up to stand level with Richard. “Those Derbyshire folk are all traitors.
Matlock, Windale, Lord John, the earl, every one of them deserves to die.”

Richard held up a hand. The crowds in the yard and on the stairs fell silent. Pennington leaned forward, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Ethan held himself straight and tall, meeting Richard’s eyes with confidence. Everything came down to the king taking his word over Pennington’s.

At last Richard turned to Pennington. “You were not present at that banquet, Arthur.”

“No, your majesty, I wasn’t.” Pennington nodded, his expression twisted in confusion.

“I gave explicit orders to everyone present that day not to so much as whisper about the incident on pain of death.” The color slipped from Pennington’s face. “How did you come to know about it?”

“What is he saying?” Joanna asked, stepping closer.

“The king gave orders not to repeat what happened at the banquet to anyone,” Ethan reported, his chest expanding with
confidence
. “He is questioning how Pennington knows about it.”

“Tell him that Pennington has the castle guards in his pocket,” she hissed.

He whipped to face her. “What?”

“Tell him that he has been conspiring against him this whole time.”

Ethan gaped. “I can’t make accusations like that without proof.”

“See, your majesty.” Pennington deflected the king’s attention away from himself. “Sir Ethan and his vixen are conspiring against you right now.”

“Tell him!” Joanna urged. She pulled away from him, dashing to the far end of the platform where Matlock’s body lay.

“My liege,” Ethan threw everything on the line. “Pennington is a traitor. He has been conspiring against you for years.”

“How dare you!” Pennington fumed.

“He has control of the Tower guards and
gave
them orders to look the other way while his henchmen
, Matlock, ca
me after you.” Ethan prayed his words came close enough to the truth to be proved somehow.

“Slander, your majesty!” Pennington shouted. “I have served your family for decades! I was a favorite of your father, King Henry!”

“Yes you were.” Richard arched an eyebrow and faced him. “I remember you from my youth, at home and abroad. Your name always seemed to come up around the times when my brothers were found dead.”

“Your majesty!” Pennington fell back as though mortally offended. “You know I have served you personally on many levels.”

Joanna was back at Ethan’s side. “Here!” she whispered, shoving something into his hand.

Ethan tore his eyes away from the stairs to look. Joanna had given him a scrap of bloodied parchment fixed with a seal. Scrawled across it were the words, “The bearer of this seal shall be admitted to any part of the Tower at any time and their actions shall not be questioned. By my authority” with Pennington’s seal affixed below.

“My liege!” Ethan cried out, holding up the parchment, the thrill of triumph surging through him. “I have proof!”

Once again the assembly of onlookers burst into excited chatter. The king pried his eyes away from Pennington and looked to Ethan. “What is that?”

“Pennington’s seal, my liege, affixed to an order allowing the bearer full access to the Tower and ordering the guards to look away.” He turned back to Joanna and asked in English, “Did he give this to you?”

“No.” She shook her head. “He gave it to Matlock. It was in his pocket.”

Triumph swelled higher. Ethan glanced past her to the stunned guards and the executioner. “Did she take this from Matlock’s body?” The men all nodded.

Energized, Ethan whipped back to the king. He held the parchment higher. “This permission was found on the body of the assassin, my liege! Pennington must have given the order to kill you!”

A roar rushed through the crowd. Before the king could order it, the armed guards on the stairs
grabbed Pennington. Pennington shrieked as they wrenched his arms behind his back and forced him to his knees.

“We will see proof of your accusation!” Richard boomed, his regal persona in place once more.

Ethan continued to hold the parchment up, turning and staring at the shocked nobles all around him as the king’s page pushed his way down the steps and through the crowd to the platform. The crowd parted, and when Ethan handed the evidence of Pennington’s guilt to the page he was able to run swiftly back to the king.

Joanna stepped to Ethan’s side and grabbed his hand as the king took the seal from
the
page. On
e brief glance and he spun to face Pennington.

“What is the meaning of this?” Richard raged.

“It’s … ah … this is … it’s all a misunderstanding, your majesty?” Pennington sputtered.

“
Kill him
!
Kill that traitor!
” Richard shouted. The nobles on the stairs fell back, wary of th
e strength of the king’s fury.

“But … but your majesty!” Pennington blubbered
as he was yanked to his feet.

One of the guards drew a long dagger and sliced it across Pennington’s throat
.
The nobles on the steps shouted and leapt back as Pennington’s blood spilled.
More than a few of the other guards
exchanged expressions of relief as Pennington was dropped to
his knees to
choke over his last breaths
.
As his body
crumpled and
went still t
he Tower yard filled with the buzz of the crowd.

All noise stopped abruptly when the king raised his hand. He turned his wide, angry eyes to the platform. Ethan stood with his back straight, prepared to face whatever consequence his actions would have. Joanna squeezed his hand to give him courage. He’d never felt so brave.

“And as for you,” Richard began, his voice echoing throughout the Tower. He paused, waiting until the crowd’s ant
icipation of his next words was unbearable before saying, “You are a good soldier, Sir Ethan of Windale.”

“Thank you, my liege,” Ethan replied, dropping to one knee in a bow. Joanna sank to her knees beside him, lowering her head.

“You served me well in the Holy Land,” the king went on. “You saved my life on many occasions then, just as you have saved my life once more today.”

“It is an honor, my liege.” The fierce tension of battle broke. Relief filled Ethan’s soul.
Pennington was dead. It was all over.
He lifted Joanna’s hand to his lips, closing his eyes as he kissed it. He would never let go again.

“Rise, Sir Ethan!” Ethan did as the king commanded him, helping Joanna to her feet as well. “Now tell me,” the king went on. “What would you have me do with your countrymen?”

Ethan blinked. “My liege, I do not understand.”

The king gestured to Crispin and Jack. “These two. You say they are innocent of the conspiracy against me today. What of their other crimes? Is it true they support my brother John?”

Ethan turned to look first at Jack, then at Crispin. Neither man had a clue what the king had said. Neither knew that their fate was in his hands. Crispin stood tall as their eyes met. Crispin Huntingdon, the man who had killed his father, taken his home, and stolen Aubrey from him.

“Well, Ethan?” Richard prompted him. “What do you think?” Still Ethan didn’t answer. “The Earl of Derby has possession of your Windale, does he not?”

Ethan replied, “He does, my liege,” without taking his eyes off of Crispin.

“Do you want it back?”

He wrenched his eyes away from Crispin and turned to look at Joanna.
Her glance flickered to the king before coming back to him.
Her beautiful face was full of confusion. And trust. The expression reminded him so much of Toby’s unwavering love for him that his breath caught in
his throat.

Toby had once told him that there came a time when you realized that if you couldn’t have what you loved you could still serve it. His friend had gone to his grave knowing that what he wanted most in the whole world was impossible to have, that that love was meant for someone else. He had loved Windale as much as anyone, maybe more, but in choosing to follow him on Richard’s crusade he had given that up as well. Now Ethan could return that home to his friend’s memory. He could give it the leadership and security that Toby deserved.

“My liege,” he turned to face the king, all eyes on him. “I abandoned my home. I left it to follow you. I did not realize the consequences of my actions.”

He turned back to Joanna, heart swelling with love for her. She looked to him,
unable to understand what he was saying, her eyes filled with affection as they had been long before he left.

“I left the people and things I loved to take up my sword and fight for glory.” He turned back to Richard. “Buxton was right. I abandoned my responsibility. He was a cruel, evil man, my liege, but he did one thing right in his time as Sheriff of Derby. He transferred Windale to a man who has treated it with far more care and consideration than I ever did.”

The murmur that passed through the crowd caused Joanna’s brow to furrow in question. Crispin and Jack watched him just as anxiously. Ethan could have said anything and they would never be the wiser.

“Are you saying that you
don’t
want your land returned to you?” King Richard asked.

Ethan took a breath. He looked from Joanna to the king. “Yes, your majesty, that is what I’m saying. Windale is in far better hands with Sir Crispin and Lady Aubrey in possession of it than it would ever be in mine.”

The murmuring from the crowd grew louder.

“What about that one?” Richard pointed to Jack. “What do you think of him?”

Ethan glanced to Jack before telling the king, “Lord John is a good man, my liege. He has risen above his birth to become one of the most effective and faithful leaders in all of Derbyshire, all of England. If you ask any of his vassals they will agree.”

King Richard shifted, leaning against the railing and staring down at him. His lips twitched in an incredulous grin. “So you are supporting these two.” He gestured between Crispin and Jack again. “You’re telling me that they are
not traitors but, in fact, better subjects than you are?”