Cast Love Aside (28 page)

“Where are the cells in relation to the large
room?” Magnus asked.

“Below it,” Gilbert said. “All of them open
directly off the staircase. There’s a landing in front of each
door.”

“According to Lilianne we go up from here to
reach the cells.”

“That's right,” Gilbert said. “After we
release the prisoner, we come back down the stairs, past the room
we are standing in now, to a tunnel that begins at the bottom of
the steps. From there it's only a short distance to the beach.”

“Don't imagine Erland hasn't posted guards to
watch over his prisoner,” William warned.

“I think they’ll stay in the anteroom at the
very top of the staircase, where it's warm and dry,” Gilbert said.
“I know that's what I'd do, if I were guarding the dungeon. They
probably only go down to the cell once a day, to leave food and
carry out the slops.”

“If they bother to carry the slops out at
all,” William amended.

“Do you know when the prisoner is fed?”
Magnus asked. “Morning? Midday? Evening?” He looked from Gilbert to
Lilianne.

“I don't know,” Lilianne said. “I wasn't even
aware that we have a prisoner. Gilbert, can you guess the
prisoner's mealtime by when he sent food to you?”

“They must feed him scraps from the midday
meal, after it's over,” Gilbert responded. “It was always late
afternoon when he'd tug on my rope and send up bread and cheese in
the little sack I told you about. The food was always dry and
moldy,” he added with distaste.

“Let us hope someone has delivered the
prisoner's food and has gone away until tomorrow,” William said.
“But we can't be certain the usual schedule was kept today. Whoever
is delegated to feed him may have been delayed by the fighting in
the hall.”

“We'll have to trust to luck on that,”
Lilianne declared firmly. “Don't try to dissuade us, William.
Gilbert and I are going to do our best to free the prisoner,
whether you help us, or not.”

“I'm not trying to prevent you,” William
said, “only to make you recognize the difficulties involved.”

“Gilbert, can you think of anything else we
ought to know?” Magnus asked. “Or you, Lilianne?”

“No.” Lilianne shook her head.

“We'll have to break down the cell door by
force, won't we?” Gilbert asked, his face creasing into an impish
grin at the notion.

“Now, there's a risky action for people who
are trying to leave the manor quietly,” William muttered.

“If we are going to do this, and I think we
should,” Braedon said, “then, we ought to begin at once, before
Norbard and his men finish searching the beach where we are
supposedly hiding. When they don't find us, they may decide to look
on the other side of the manor.”

“The stairs are just here,” Gilbert said,
pointing. He turned and vanished into the darkness of the opening
at the far side of the chamber.

“I do solemnly vow that if I ever see England
again,” William declared, “I am finished with spying.”

“You will keep your oath only until Royce
offers you another assignment,” Braedon told him, laughing. He
clapped William on the shoulder. “Come on, my friend; let us try to
help this poor, imprisoned guardian angel, whoever he or she may
be.”

The spiral staircase was too narrow for more
than one person at a time, and no railing protected the edge. The
treads curved tightly around the newel post, making it impossible
to see if anyone was coming down from the upper levels. But there
was light coming through slits cut at intervals in the stone
wall.

Lilianne's nerves were stretched taut with
concern for her brother's safety, and with her own eagerness to
free the prisoner and leave the manor before Norbard could find
them. The dungeon stairs seemed to her to stretch upward forever
before she reached a small landing. Magnus and Gilbert were waiting
for her, with Braedon and William still mounting the steps below
her.

“This is the lowest cell,” Gilbert said,
pointing to the door that opened off the landing. “The others are
farther up the stairs.”

“Is Gilbert’s guardian angel in there?”
Braedon murmured. “Or is he kept in the topmost cell, so the guards
don’t have to walk so far to reach him?”

“He's not here,” Magnus said, opening the
unlatched door. “Dear Lord in Heaven, what a place!”

The cell was empty except for birds that were
nesting on the deep sill of the one narrow window. Dust and bird
droppings littered the floor. Shaking his head in disgust, Magnus
stepped around Gilbert and resumed climbing the stairs.

“William, check the next cell,” he called
over his shoulder. “I'll look into the fourth cell.”

“Meanwhile, I will check to see if anyone
occupies the third cell,” Braedon said.

Magnus and Gilbert were already out of sight
around the curve as Braedon crowded past Lilianne on the landing.
She intended to join Magnus and her brother, but she paused when
she realized that Braedon was having trouble with the thick wooden
door of the cell he was to open.

“It won’t budge,” Braedon said. “Now, why do
you think that is?”

“Because it's locked, of course,” Lilianne
responded, pointing to the gleam of metal. “In addition to the
usual sliding bolt, there’s a new brass lock keeping the door
closed.”

“I do believe we have located Gilbert’s
angel,” Braedon said, flashing his cheerful grin. “Move aside,
Lilianne, and give me room to work.”

Braedon slid his eating knife out of its
sheath at his belt. Kneeling, he inserted the narrow tip of the
knife into the lock.

Lilianne was aware of Magnus returning from
the last cell. Upon seeing what Braedon was doing, he put out a
hand to stop Gilbert's approach and signaled for William to be
quiet. In the stillness they heard a faint clicking sound. Braedon
rose and sheathed his knife.

“My lord Gilbert,” he said, bowing to the
boy, “would you like to be the one to slide back the bolt and open
the door?”

“Yes.” Gilbert returned Braedon's smile and
lifted his hand to the bolt. An instant later the door swung open
and Gilbert stepped inside.

Afraid of what he might find, Lilianne
followed at once.

The cell was in even worse condition than the
one they had seen below, where birds were nesting. Moisture dripped
down the rough stone walls. A bit of moldy straw was piled on the
floor at one side, to make a most inadequate bed. A wooden eating
bowl and a small, upturned pitcher sat beside the straw. Across the
room an overflowing slops bucket lent credence to William's
supposition that no one bothered to carry out the refuse.

The single window slit was so narrow that
Lilianne wondered how the prisoner had ever managed to get his hand
through it to reach Gilbert's rope, or to send food through the
opening. But, the strip of white that swayed just outside the slit
with its end dangling into the cell proved they had found the right
place. Gilbert's makeshift rope still hung from the tower window to
the cell far below it.

The air in the cell was unbelievably
malodorous. Lilianne gagged when she took a breath. She swallowed
hard and stepped forward, squinting a little in the dim light,
eager to thank the prisoner who had kept Gilbert alive.

A skeletal figure stood pressing his back
against the damp stone wall, staring at the visitors who came
crowding through the door as if he expected them to attack him.
From what Lilianne could see of him, he had already been subjected
to violent treatment. The protective way he held his arms across
his chest suggested broken ribs. Above his beard one cheek was
badly bruised and swollen. The rest of his face was smeared with
dirt and dried blood, his hair was matted and greasy, and it was
obvious even from Lilianne's distance of several feet that he
hadn't bathed for a long time. The man wore no boots, his dirty
green hose were ragged, and in the torn edge of what had once been
a white linen shirt, Lilianne saw where he had found the material
on which he had written to her brother.

Gilbert, that proud and irritable young lord,
walked straight up to the prisoner and bowed to him.

“Sir,” Gilbert said, holding out his hand, “I
am the boy with whom you have been sharing your food. My friends
and I have come to set you free.”

“Free?” The prisoner's voice grated, as if
his throat were dry. The knuckles of the hand he reached to clasp
Gilbert's were scraped raw. “Are you Gilbert, then? How did you get
out of the tower?”

“My sister and her friends freed me,” Gilbert
said. “We are leaving the manor now. Will you come with us?”

“I would,” said the prisoner, “but I fear I
am too weak to undertake any journey. I'd slow you, and Erland
would catch you.”

“Erland is away from home and won't be
returning,” Lilianne told him. “We have three strong men who will
be glad to help you. Please, allow us to repay your kindness to
Gilbert. Sir, what is your name?”

“Who are you?” the prisoner asked, staring at
her as if he had never seen a woman before.

“This is my sister, Lilianne,” Gilbert said.
“She’s unusually intelligent for a girl, and she is absolutely
right in this instance. You must come with us; I refuse to leave
you behind. But we have to go immediately, because Norbard is
looking for us.”

“Ah, Norbard.” Loathing filled the prisoner's
raspy voice.

“I perceive from your tone that you know him
and, therefore, you understand our need for haste,” Braedon said.
Wrinkling his nose, he glanced around the cell. “I hesitate to ask,
but is there anything here you wish to take with you?”

“No.”

“It would be helpful,” William said to the
prisoner, “if you would tell us your name.”

“Or, at least,” said Magnus, “give us a name
by which we may call you, in lieu of your own.”

Lilianne suddenly realized that the prisoner
was staring at Magnus, while Magnus was glaring back at the ragged
man as if he were angry with him.

“Am I so changed that you don't know me?”
asked the prisoner.

“We don't have time for games,” William said.
“Am I correct that you haven't been fed yet? I notice your bowl is
empty, so it's entirely possible that someone will arrive soon with
food, and then we will have another fight on our hands. Prisoner,
if you are leaving with us, come now, or stay behind.”

“Of course, he's coming with us,” Gilbert
said. “We cannot leave him behind.”

“Certainly, we cannot,” Magnus said. He
stepped closer to the prisoner, his manner so intense that the
others backed away, leaving the two men facing each other.

“I am mightily glad to see you, Magnus,” the
prisoner said. “Are you surprised to hear me say so?”

To Lilianne's astonishment, the ragged, dirty
prisoner smiled and opened his arms. To her greater amazement,
Magnus caught the prisoner in a tight embrace that made the other
man wince.

“I feared you were dead,” Magnus said, his
voice muffled against the prisoner's greasy hair.

“Not I,” the prisoner responded, laughing as
if he hadn't a care in the world, as if he weren't in a filthy
dungeon cell with a serious bruise and dried blood on his face and
with life-threatening danger lurking just up the stairs. “I have
more lives than any cat. You ought to know that by now.”

Magnus drew back, holding the prisoner by the
shoulders to look into his eyes.

“You really believe that, don't you?” Magnus
said.

“I'm indestructible,” answered the prisoner,
still laughing. “I am also immensely valuable. Did King Henry send
you to free me? Or was it Royce, acting in the king's behalf?” he
asked in a mocking tone.

Magnus dropped his hands from the prisoner's
shoulders. Lilianne saw how he continued to glare at the man, how
tightly his hands were clenched, and how hard-set the line of his
jaw was.

“My friends,” Magnus said through gritted
teeth, “allow me to present Sir Desmond of Ashendown.”

“Desmond?” Lilianne repeated, scarcely
believing what her own ears heard. “Has Erland been keeping him
here in secret for all this time?”

“It does seem a long time to me,” Desmond
said.

“Here’s proof that King Louis told the truth
when he claimed to know nothing about a captured spy,” Braedon
said. “And now we know why Erland laughed when he heard King Henry
was negotiating for the spy's release. Desmond was Erland's
prisoner, not the French king's. “My lord Gilbert,” Braedon
continued cheerfully, “your insistence on rescuing your guardian
angel has saved Magnus and me a lot of trouble. Here is the man we
came to France to find and rescue. Now, all we have to do is get
you, your sister, and Sir Desmond out of the manor and to our
rendezvous location without being seen and without all of us being
killed. Then, we'll have to pray that Captain Piers will keep his
appointment with us. Once we are aboard the
Daisy,
we can
sail off to England in expectation of a fine reward from King
Henry,” he ended with a broad grin.

“In case any of you are interested,” William
said from the doorway, “someone is coming down the stairs.
Possibly, more than one person. Braedon, I fear our departure from
Manoir Sainte Inge isn't going to be as easy as you hope.”

“Go,” Desmond said to Magnus. “You have a
woman and a child to protect. Leave me and close the cell door
behind you. I'll be fine.”

“You don't have the wits of a new-born
kitten,” Magnus told him.

“I’m as weak as a kitten, so I’ll slow your
escape to the point where you will be in serious danger,” Desmond
responded. His next words did not sound at all weak. They held the
ring of stern command. “Leave, Magnus. You must take Gilbert and
Lady Lilianne to safety.”

“Shut...up,” Magnus ordered in a slow, deadly
tone. “I am in charge of this mission, not you. King Henry wants
you rescued. I cannot imagine why he finds you useful, but he must
have his reasons and I am sworn to obey him. Therefore, you will
leave this cell with us, and you will remain with us until we reach
England and I hand you over to Royce of Wortham. I will tolerate no
trickery, no clever disappearance on your part, no attempt to
subvert our efforts to rescue you. Do you understand me,
brother? “