Kingdom Come (34 page)

Kaleef shook his head. “I have never saved your husband.”

She cast him a long glance, a gentle smile on her face. “You and I are going to have a very long talk one of these days about the amazing properties of your potions. I think you’ll find it very interesting.”

They fell into contemplative silence as they approached the mighty castle of Southwell.  As they drew closer, Rory became more and more enamored with the sight.  The city loomed before her in all of its Medieval glory and pageantry, with its people and massive walls and banners snapping on the parapets in the wind. It was at that moment that Rory began to understand that she was really, truly entrenched in another period of history other than the one she was born in to.

She had arrived.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Jeffrey Hage, Fifth Earl of Newark and Sherwood, was everything Rory had imagined he would be. He wasn’t particularly tall, perhaps around six feet, but he was a big man with wide shoulders and enormous hands.  He was also quite handsome even at his advanced age, with heavy dark brows and a salt and pepper beard on his face.   He was still hugging Kieran by the time Rory pulled up with the carriage and wagon bearing their belongings, joyfully kissing his son and praising God for his safe return.  The old man was obviously thrilled.  But the joy was short lived; the moment Kieran pointed out Rory, Jeffrey’s good humor fled. Rory could only make out a few sentences before the explosion.

“Who is she?” Jeffrey asked, stunned, his gaze on Rory several feet away.

Kieran had his arm around his father’s shoulders. “My wife, the Lady Rory Elizabeth Osgrove Hage.”

Jeffrey’s heavy eyebrows flew up. “Your wife?”

“Indeed.”

“Where is she from?”

“West of Ireland.”

“We will have no Irish bastards in this family!”

From that point, the conversation and the situation deteriorated.The joyful homecoming was ruined. Rory and Kaleef remained on the pony cart while David and Bud remained on the carriage, fearful of all the yelling going on. Yusef, having dismounted his horse several minutes earlier, came to stand next to Rory as they watched Jeffrey Hage rant.He was screaming at his son in a massively booming voice, telling Kieran how stupid he was and how disappointed he was in him.Kieran took the barrage of insults with his usual stoic demeanor.He didn’t try to argue with his father or interrupt; he simply let the man have his head.

But Rory wasn’t stoic; she was growing increasingly emotional watching Kieran’s father yell at him.Sean stepped in at some point to try and soothe their father, but Jeffrey literally shoved the man aside as he bellowed at Kieran.  Kieran remained silent and composed, even when Jeffrey jabbed a big finger at him and thumped him in the chest.  Sean and Christian stood next to their brother in mute support while Andrew made a futile attempt to calm their father.  It was an ugly, chaotic scene and somewhere in the middle of it, a couple of the lesser Hage knights were disbanding the army. They didn’t want the vassals to be witness to a family feud.

But Jeffrey Hage and his sons remained steadfast. Rory watched, disgusted and nauseous, until she was unwilling to witness the shouting any longer. Jeffrey Hage was a horrible, horrible man as far as she was concerned and she suddenly bailed out of the pony cart, practically running for the great gates of the ward.  Yusef ran after her.

“Lady Hage!” he called. “Where are you going? Lady Hage!”

Rory broke in to a dead run, heading for the gates.  She had no idea that behind her, Kieran caught a glimpse of her racing for the open gates and he made a break for Liberator. When his father grabbed him by the front of his tunic to prevent him from following, he cuffed the man to the point where his father lost his balance and fell to one knee. Instead of the Hage brothers going to the aid of their father, they were all racing for their steeds. Jeffrey Hage struggled to his feet, shouting his anger to all of his foolish, disobedient sons, but none of them were listening. They were all scrambling to follow Kieran as he raced after his wife.

Having closed behind the incoming army, the great gates lodged within the massive gatehouse of Southwell were cracked open enough to only allow one person at a time to enter.   Rory darted through the opening and bolted off the road, into the town that literally butted right up against the inner wall. By this time she was weeping hysterically, exhausted, pregnant and despondent over Kieran’s father’s reaction.All she wanted to do was get clear of the fighting, to cease being the cause of the friction.  Her emotions were on edge and she didn’t have as much control as she normally had.

The town of Southwell was a maze of small alleys and streets, of homes and merchant stalls. It was actually fairly well developed for a Medieval town and Rory ran down a few little alleys until she came to a dead end that backed up against the inner wall.  There was a stable next to the wall; she ran into it, looking for some kind of shelter.  There were a few stalls with wide-eyed goats and a loft.  She spied the small ladder that led up to the loft and climbed up.

It was a rickety old loft full of freshly cut hay.  Sobbing, Rory threw herself down on a pile of the stuff, feeling it cushion and poke her weary body. She’d been traveling for weeks, a thousand years from her time and a thousand miles from that rocky beach at Nahariya.  She may as well have been on the moon.  She lay there, staring at the unevenly thatched roof and thinking of her life for the past several weeks; the two orphan boys she was coming to love, Kaleef and Yusef, and a husband she loved more than words could express.  But apparently their marriage had been a very bad thing indeed, at least as far as his father was concerned. Kieran had worked so hard to achieve his goals in life; he was proud, honorable and compassionate. She just couldn’t stomach the thought that after everything, his father would think him stupid or irresponsible.  All because of her.

Several more minutes of painful sobbing saw her fall into an exhausted sleep.

***

Kieran and Sean had been searching for Rory for nearly an hour. Yusef was with them; having lost Rory nearly the moment she entered the town, he had returned to the castle to collect his horse.Along with Christian and Andrew, they were blanketing the town, a town they knew particularly well. As young children, they used the town as their private playground, so they knew all of the nooks and crannies.

Few things had changed in the town since Kieran left. Even so, he hadn’t been able to locate his wife and was growing increasingly apprehensive. He and his brothers had upended the five taverns in town, interrogating the patrons and turning any sleeping rooms upside down.  Soon, the whole town of Southwell was aware that Sir Kieran Hage, newly returned from the Crusades, was searching for his errant wife and citizens of the town began searching for her of their own accord.  It helped that Kieran had promised a huge reward.

Andrew, accompanied by Yusef, went off towards the south end of town to search. As the afternoon drew into evening, Kieran, Sean and Christian left the very last tavern where they had given the barkeep a few coins to aid in the search for Lady Hage.The barkeep knew everyone in town and usually had his finger on the pulse of any information.  Plodding back on the chargers through the darkening streets, Kieran finally allowed his despair swamp him. He couldn’t resist it any longer; it had been a long and stressful trip only to return home to a ranting father and a distraught wife.  He suddenly slumped forward in the saddle, dropping the reins and wiping his hand over his face in a weary, defeated gesture. Liberator, without Kieran’s strong hand reining him, came to a confused stop.  Sean and Christian came to a halt beside him.

“We shall find her,” Sean assured him quietly. “She is hiding, somewhere. She cannot have run far.”

Kieran sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes exhaustedly. “I know,” he muttered, blinking his eyes and trying to focus on his next course of action. “But it does not erase the fact that even when I find her, she will be shattered. What woman would not be given the way father acted?”

Sean refrained from ‘I told you so’; Kieran didn’t need to hear that. “She will recover,” he said softly. “Remember that father did not like Margaret when I married her, either.  Her family was not good enough, he said. Do you recall? It took him a year to warm to her and when Ellie was born, he fell in love with them both.”

Kieran’s jaw ticked as he stared moodily out into the darkness. “But Maggie is a Bigod,” he said. “She is from one of the finest families in England so his argument of her being from an inferior family was baseless.  Libby is… she is from minor nobility. But she is the most brilliant, courageous and beautiful woman I have ever met. She has risked her life for me and I owe her everything.”

Sean glanced at Christian, who was looking at his eldest brother’s lowered head. It was clear that he was sympathetic. Sean and Christian exchanged glances. 

“What would you have us do, Kieran?” Christian asked softly.  “Shall we continue to search?”

Kieran shook his head vaguely. “There is nothing more to do unless we want to tear this town apart house by house,” he muttered. “I am confident Libby is in no danger; we would have heard the screams. She is, if nothing else, loud and demonstrative. She is hiding somewhere, licking her wounds, and I will find her.”

“And then what?” Christian pressed quietly.

Kieran lifted his big shoulders. “I do not know. I will not force her to live where she is not comfortable. If father cannot come to terms with our marriage and treat her civilly, then I will have no choice but to occupy Peveril Castle. I will not stay where my wife is not welcome.”

Sean’s brow furrowed. “Peveril?” he repeated. “That places is an outpost and unworthy of you.”

Kieran looked at him. “It is mine, given to me upon my birth through father.  It is still a royal outpost for the king with royal troops. I will take my wife there and we will raise our family.”

Sean sighed heavily and looked away.  “Do not do anything rash, Kieran. You have only just returned and I do not want to lose my brother again so soon. At least let us speak with father and try to rectify this situation.”

Kieran didn’t reply; he simply leaned forward on his saddle horn, exhausted.   Sean nodded at Christian; the younger Hage brother took the hint and began to move away, returning to the castle.  Sean reined his charger next to Kieran and lowered his voice.

“Christian is going to return and speak with father,” he said quietly. “I will stay with you if you wish and continue the search for your wife.”

Kieran thought on that a moment before shaking his head. “Nay,” he said after a moment. “I will search for my wife alone. Return to Maggie and give her my love. I will return as soon as I can.  Make sure that Kaleef and the two young servant boys are well taken care of, if you please.”

Sean clapped him on the shoulder and was gone, following Christian up the dark streets back to the gatehouse of Southwell.  Kieran remained still for a moment before collecting his reins and pushing forward.

He took a different path than his brothers. He reined Liberator into a series of small streets that butted up against the inner wall of Southwell. He simply plodded along, looking into any little open door or crevice, hoping to spot that beautiful chestnut head. He was feeling increasingly despondent, so incredibly sad on her behalf. His father’s ranting was nothing new to him; he’d been dealing with it since he had been a child. Jeffrey Hage was a cruel, competitive man. Kieran knew that; but Rory didn’t.  He should have been more sensitive to that.

He ended up near a dead end. He could see down the alley and it was dark and cold.  He was about to turn away when a small boy suddenly appeared.  Kieran reined Liberator back so the horse wouldn’t snap at the child, but the little boy kept coming towards him.  Kieran finally held out a hand.