Catherine Coulter (32 page)

“I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

“She drugged you, made you believe her lies. Aye, I believe she has the skills to do that. I do not wish to hear you defend her again, do you understand me?”

She was crying, not making a sound, simply letting tears run slowly down her cheeks. He remembered she could cry at will. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her to stop it, but she looked suddenly very lost. He brought her against him, rubbed his hands up and down her back, found his fingers threading through her thick hair. “We have our future ahead of us. Your mother has no place in it.” He said no more. Never would he believe the witch had given up her plans for acquiring the silver. She wouldn’t give up unless he managed to kill her.

But why had she let Merry leave? She hadn’t gotten what she’d wanted, yet she’d given Merry her blessing and sent her back to him. It made no sense, but he knew she’d had a reason, the witch would allow nothing to happen without a reason.

Garron raised her face, and kissed her once, lightly, then twice more. He grabbed two fistfuls of her hair in his hands and brought it to his nose. “Aye, different. By Saint Glenda’s clacking teeth, I do not wish to wait for you. I want you now, this very moment, but I cannot, I cannot,” and he pressed his forehead against hers, held her tight until he felt a chill in the afternoon air.

“It is time,” he said, and descended the ramparts ladder, Merry a step above him. When he heard a shout from Aleric, he froze.

“Garron!”

Aleric? No, it isn’t possible, Aleric is guarding Wareham.
Oh God, what had happened that had brought Aleric to London? He saw Sir Lyle standing behind him, his men flanking him. He leapt down the remaining six steps to the ground and ran full tilt toward him.

G
arron, we caught him! We caught Jason of Brennan at Wareham! By all that’s holy, we found Arthur’s silver coins! I came to tell you myself.”

Garron came to a panting halt in front of his master-at-arms. He heard the words, but could not accept them. “What did you say, Aleric?”

Aleric was grinning like a madman. “We caught Jason of Brennan. He’s locked in Wareham’s granary, awaiting your pleasure.” And Aleric rubbed his big scarred hands together, his pleasure ferocious to behold.

Garron slammed his fist into Aleric’s arm he was so pleased, so very relieved. “Did the fool come again as the Black Demon with many men and somehow find his way again into Wareham? Is everyone all right? Come, spit it out. What happened?”

“Nay, Jason of Brennan did not come as the Black Demon with an army,” and Aleric laughed. “Up rides an old tinker with his equally decrepit old wife, leading three mules laden with goods. I spoke to both of them, studied their goods. I saw nothing amiss with them. I knew the mistress needed more goods, and our people were excited, and so I allowed them to enter.”

“You are telling me Jason of Brennan disguised himself as an old tinker?”

“Nay, my lord, it is even better than that—he was the old man’s wife. She looked as old as the dirt beneath the ancient oak at the edge of the Clandor Forest, ugly as sin, her hair tangled gray knots. I studied the old man’s ancient face very carefully indeed, but I will admit I did not study the old woman that closely. I mean I looked at her face, but saw nothing untoward, just ancient seams and wrinkles and black teeth. I saw what I was meant to see. Ah, I am a fool.”

“But you said you caught him. How? And how did you find Arthur’s silver?”

Men were gathering around them now, listening. Merry pressed close to Garron’s side.

“It was Miggins, Garron, she was watching the old crone whilst everyone else gathered around the tinker’s mules and looked at all his goods. Since they arrived late, not an hour before sunset, I invited them to pass the night within. I did not question it when Miggins chose to sleep near them in the great hall. Miggins followed the old woman when she went to the jakes in the middle of the night. I was sleeping in the solar when Miggins fetched me. She told me the old woman only stopped at the jakes, then she went to your bedchamber, unaware that Miggins was behind her. Miggins said the old crone was on her knees over the hidey hole where Lisle had hidden Lady Anne’s gowns after her death.”

“But I myself looked into that hole, there was nothing there. Merry, you and Lisle and Miggins removed all the clothes, the shoes, did you not?”

Merry nodded.

“There was another hole beneath the boards, a larger space than the one above. It was filled with leather pouches filled with silver coins, and the old woman was pulling them out, making a stack next to her. I crept up behind her, clasped my hands together and sent my fists against her ears. She shrieked and fell back. I ripped the wig off and there lay Jason of Brennan.”

Amazing, Garron thought, it was not a bad plan.

Aleric bowed his head. “I came to tell you myself so you could punish me immediately for my blindness. I should have stripped those old birds down to their wrinkled hides. You must look to me and at my failure. Aye, I failed in my responsibility, I did not see what was before my own eyes. If it were not for Miggins—”

Garron said over him, “If you had not let the two old people pass the night at Wareham, why then, we would not know where Arthur had hidden the silver coins. I prefer to believe it was your plan all along—to neatly trap Jason of Brennan once you had him within. You set Miggins to watch him. You caught him, Aleric, his arse in the air pulling the pouches from beneath the floor. Did you bring the silver here?”

“Nay, my lord, I did not wish to tempt the king to see all those piles of silver coins. It would strain a saint’s morals.”

“Aye, it would.” Garron sighed. “Still, the king will doubtless remove more than we would wish to give him.” He rubbed his hands together. “Was he humiliated to be found in an old woman’s gown, with ancient seams painted on his face, his teeth blackened, a grizzled wig on his head?”

“Oh aye, it was a magnificent sight. His rage turned his face red as fresh blood, particularly when I called him by name, and he knew then he could not try to fool me. Do you know, the fool tried to fight me in his gown? I knocked him sideways and sent my boot into his ribs. Then he tried to bribe me, swore he would share the silver with me. I kicked him again. As I told you, he now resides in the granary, his ancient tinker husband with him. I believe I recognized Sir Halric, but I am not completely certain since he did not take off his disguise, and he refused to tell me his name. I left both of them in their ancient old clothes and their hideous faces.” A huge grin split Aleric’s face. “Oh aye, I see the truth of things now. You are right, Garron. It was my plan all along. I solved the riddle of the missing silver coins and I caught our greatest enemy, the Black Demon. Aye, I was brilliant and I deserve a knighthood. What say you?”

Garron smacked Aleric’s arm again. “Why not? Let us see what the king has to say about this.” He paused. “Mayhap Miggins should have a knighthood as well.”

 

 

T
he king allowed he would consider the knighthood once he’d seen the silver coins with his own eyes. He commanded them to leave at once for Wareham since he feared that villains were lurking behind every tree, and he wanted to take no more chances with the silver. He even suggested Merry and Garron could be wed at Wareham by the king’s chancellor.

And so it was that Garron and Merry, Sir Lyle, and Aleric left London an hour later with all their men and the king’s blessing, Robert Burnell accompanying them to ensure, as the king himself put it, “That there be an accurate accounting of the silver and a just amount removed as a tithe to your king.”

When Garron saw the king huddled with Burnell, he knew the
just
amount of Arthur’s silver was likely to be very great indeed. His last memory of the king was of him rubbing his hands together, his Plantagenet blue eyes alight with excitement.

And Garron wondered,
Where did you get all those silver coins, Arthur? Surely not from Jason of Brennan. And how did Jason of Brennan know where to find the silver this time?

M
erry slowly opened her eyes to see blurry bed hangings surrounding her. She blinked several times until her vision slowly began to clear. But the pain in her head still pounded fiercely. She pressed her palms against her temples and forced herself to sit up. She pushed back the bed hangings and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Soft material slid up her legs and she saw she was wearing a gauzy bedgown that covered her from throat to ankle, white, and beautifully stitched. She looked around, saw a low fire burning in the grate. She was in a bedchamber, she was warm, and she was alone.

The only problem was, she had no idea where she was.

She continued to massage her temples until the pain slowly receded. Her mouth felt dry. She picked up the carafe of water on a small table beside the bed and raised it to her mouth.

And she remembered—her kidnapping, her meeting with her mother, then nothing at all. She set the carafe back down. Her mother could very well have drugged the water.

She called out, “Mother?”

There was no answer. Apparently she was indeed alone, unless her mother had either left or made herself invisible, which wouldn’t surprise her.

Slowly she got to her feet and took several steps. She was steady. She searched the room, not very large, and in the shape of a near half circle. No, more like a sickle, just like the one in which she’d awakened after those two men had brought her here. Why build rooms in such odd shapes?

Here was where?

She didn’t know. She had to get away from this place, she had to get back to Garron. She rifled through a chest sitting at the foot of the bed. She found several gowns, beautiful gowns that the queen’s ladies would happily covet. One was green as the richest emerald, another scarlet, the third pure white. And there were matching leather and silk slippers and hose and undergarments. Whose were they? Her mother’s?

She quickly pulled off the beautiful bedgown and dressed herself. The gowns fit her perfectly. She didn’t understand any of this, but it didn’t matter. She had to leave this place, wherever this place was, and get back to Garron.

There was no window in the room. All the shadowy light came from the sluggishly burning fire. What time was it? What day was it? How much time had passed since she’d first been brought here?

She hurried to the door and quietly pulled down the latch. It was locked. Well, what did she expect? A prisoner, that’s what she was, her mother’s prisoner. Rage filled her and she jerked again on the latch. To her surprise the door opened this time. She looked at the latch for a moment, wondering why it hadn’t opened the first time she’d tried it. She looked into a darkened narrow corridor. At the far end of the corridor, she saw a staircase. There was a door directly opposite her, but she wasn’t about to go in there. She lightly ran down the stairs. Once at the bottom, she looked through the shadows shrouding the corridor and could make out the main door.

She heard a noise. Was her mother coming?

She heard the latch give on the front door and quickly pressed herself against the wall, deep in the shadows. She watched the thick wooden door open. It wasn’t her mother who entered, it was an old woman carrying a basket in her arms, and humming.

She looked neither right nor left, merely walked down the corridor toward the stairs, toward Merry. Evidently she was bringing the prisoner some food. Merry waited until she was nearly in front of her. She grabbed the old woman by the neck and dragged her back against her. She said against that old ear, “Don’t you dare drop that basket. I am very thirsty and hungry.” She lessened the pressure on the old throat.

“You’re bringing me food?”

“Aye. Ye’re hurting me, young’un.”

“Where are we?”

The old woman was silent a moment, Merry could feel her surprise. “Ye don’t know? Why, we are in the witch’s tower. I am taking care of ye until she returns.”

“When will the witch come back here?”

“I don’t know, mayhap another day. I do what she tells me to do, naught more, naught less, else she’ll turn me into a lizard. Ye’re hungry, are ye, young’un? The witch said she left water fer ye, her special water, and I was to bring ye food today.”

How many days had she passed in limbo? Merry knew that if her mother walked into her tower, she’d have killed her in that moment.

“Where do you come from?”

“From the woodcutter’s cottage, not far from here. The witch came to me and offered me two ha’pennies to take care of ye. I knew I didn’t have a choice since I didn’t want to die a lizard. Then a beautiful young knight came to my cottage and asked me where the witch was. I told him, aye, and why not? He gave me two whole silver pennies, so beautiful they were, they shined like God’s face in the sunlight when the sun finally showed itself.”

Garron. “Did you tell him to come here?”

“Aye, he was searching for ye. Later he and his men rode back past my cottage. I suppose he didn’t find ye.”

Thank St. Ebert’s valiant heart her mother hadn’t killed Garron. Had her mother seen him? Spoken to him? She thought she probably had. But she’d wager she’d magicked him, or drugged him just as she’d drugged her daughter. But he was all right, thank the good Lord and all his bearded apostles.

How had he gotten away from her?

“What will I do with my silver?”

Merry eyed the old woman. “Do not worry, I will take all the silver you have and use it well. We’re leaving now. You’re taking me back to your cottage, and then you will tell me how to get back to London.”

“Think ye the witch will demand back the silver she already gave me? Think ye she will turn me into a lizard?”

“It’s likely, so I’ll let you keep your coins and you can return them to her when she comes.”