Sapphire - Book 2 (20 page)

“I’m not sure my lord, as I was busy and
didn’t really pay attention. But all I know is that when she saw
Lord Henry heading over to the pie vendor she followed him. She was
mumbling something about a blackberry pie.”

“What about it?”

“I don’t know. But I do know Lord Henry
seemed eager to eat it once he heard about it.”

“This doesn’t make sense.”

Waylon interrupted just then. “Lord Sexton,
while you were collecting the taxes, I thought I saw your stableboy
ride by quickly and if I’m not mistaken, there were two women
covered in cloaks with their hoods hiding their faces with
him.”

“Sapphire,” he said. “Who else would wear a
hood in this blasted hot weather? In what direction were they
headed?”

“Toward the docks,” answered Waylon.

“Toward the docks?” repeated Roe. “I wonder
where they were going and why.”

“I know where they went, my lord.” Erin
rushed up to him having overheard their conversation. She had a
frantic look upon her face.

“Erin, what’s the matter?”

“Dugald told me not to tell anyone, but I
just have to say something because they didn’t come back and I am
so worried.”

“Who didn’t come back? Are you talking about
Sapphire and my mother?”

“Aye. They went to the Bucket of Blood.”

“What the hell! I told her to stay away from
there. What would possess her to do such a thing?”

“Dugald said she found a note in a pie or
something. I don’t know exactly, but I think it has something to do
with the smuggling.”

“Waylon, let’s go get them.”

“Aye, my lord.”

“Let me come too, Lord Sexton,” pleaded
Erin.

“Nay. ’Tis much too dangerous. Now just stay
here and wait for our return, and I mean it.”

Roe headed out of the castle with Waylon
right behind him. Suddenly his sweet thoughts of Sapphire he’d been
having all day turned sour. And with the anger he was feeling right
now by her defying his orders, he knew she’d better say her
prayers. And though he didn’t eat of the devil pie, he still felt
no better than the devil because right now, he wanted to kill her
for betraying him yet again.

Sapphire stopped her horse just out back of
the Bucket of Blood, noticing another horse that looked a lot like
Lord Henry’s and also the pie vendor’s cart which now had no pies
upon it, though she saw it drive away loaded down with them.

“He’s inside alright,” said Lady Katherine.
“And my heart aches to say this, but we need to go tell Roe.”

“Well, mayhap he isn’t really involved,”
said Sapphire, knowing better but wanting to comfort Lady
Katherine. “Perhaps he just went in for a bite to eat.”

“With the festival going on and with all the
food the vendors were selling?” asked Dugald.

“Thank you, Lady Sapphire, as I know you are
trying to give me hope, but we just finished a large goose dinner,”
explained Lady Katherine. “He is not in there to eat. Now let’s go
get Roe.”

“Let’s just make certain, first,” Sapphire
protested. “Dugald, go inside and see what’s going on.”

“Me, my lady?” The boy looked white as a
ghost. She realized she’d put him in an awkward position.

“Then just stay here, and I’ll go inside.”
Sapphire dismounted, preparing to go have a look.

“Nay,” protested Lady Katherine, “’tis too
dangerous.”

“I’ll go,” said Dugald bravely, getting off
his horse.

“Just say you wanted to talk to Erin’s
father or that she needs something from him,” instructed
Sapphire.

“I will.” The boy disappeared inside, and
Lady Katherine dismounted and stood next to Sapphire as they
patiently waited. After a short while, when Dugald did not return,
Sapphire felt restless and anxious.

“Something’s wrong, I just know it. I never
should have sent him in alone. I’m going in to look for him,” she
announced.

“Not without me,” said Lady Katherine,
following close behind her as they made their way inside the
establishment together.

“Dugald?” Sapphire called out softly,
looking around the kitchen of the pub. It was empty. Actually, she
realized the pub was closed because everyone was at the festival at
the castle. “I don’t see him,” she said, peering through the dark,
since the shutters were closed. “Do you?”

“Nay,” said Lady Katherine, holding on to
the back of her.

Then Sapphire’s foot hit something on the
floor, almost causing her to trip. She looked down and gasped when
she saw Dugald prone on the floor, a gash with flowing blood upon
his forehead.

“Nay! Dugald, are you all right? Please
don’t be dead,” said Sapphire, getting to her knees to inspect the
boy and his wound.

“Ohhh,” he moaned and opened his eyes.

“Thank God you’re alive,” said Sapphire,
using the sleeve of her gown to wipe the blood from the boy’s head,
trying to stop the bleeding.

“What happened?” asked Lady Katherine. “Who
did this to you, Dugald?”

“Only I am to blame,” he said. “I walked in
and overheard men talking about tuns of smuggled wool that they
were planning on shipping out today since there is basically no one
on the docks, as they are all at the castle for the festival. When
the voices came closer, I tried to hide, but tripped in the dark
and hit my head on something.”

Sapphire got up and found a cloth on the
table and handed it to Lady Katherine.

“Please tend to his wound,” she told him. “I
am going to go find out what’s going on.”

“Nay,” the woman protested. “Don’t go. Let’s
just leave,” she begged Sapphire.

“Can you ride?” Sapphire asked Dugald.

“I think so.” He tried to sit up and the
eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped back down to the floor
in Lady Katherine’s arms.

“He’s not going anywhere,” said Sapphire.
She thought she heard voices in the other room, but they were
muffled. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered, heading into the main
part of the pub.

While the shutters were closed and ’twas
dark, she could see a candlelight coming from – of all places, the
hearth that was never used. She ducked down and looked within and
realized there was a secret door inside the back of the hearth that
was partially open. The candlelight was coming from inside, and she
could hear people talking.

“Bring the cart around to the Old Bell Inn.
This tunnel leads right to it. And the rest of you - roll these
barrels out through the passageway quickly. That festival won’t
last all day and we have already bribed the dockworkers by paying
them more than we should. Before anyone knows what happened, we’ll
have our ship overseas and the delivery made.”

It was the baron’s voice, she was sure of
it.

“After this, I don’t want you anywhere near
my pub, ever again. I didn’t want a part of this in the first place
and you know it.”

That had to be Auley O’Connor, she
decided.

“If you want that little girl of yours to
grow up to be an adult, you’ll do as I say,” said the baron.

“I don’t like this either,” came another
voice. “I want no part of any of this after today as well.”

“You have no choice, you sot,” said the
baron. “You owe me for not only keeping your secret with the wine,
but also suggesting you marry that bitch to ensure you get your
brother’s entire inheritance. And if I must remind you, I was also
the one who came up with the plan of me marrying the other bitch so
you could keep half the earl’s dowry instead of sending her
packing. You benefitted greatly from all this. Too bad the little
plan was ruined when your nephew decided to finally come home.”

The baron was obviously talking to Lord
Henry. But their voices were getting muffled and she needed to get
closer and open the door just a crack more if she wanted to gather
all the evidence she needed. She ducked down into the enclosure of
the hearth and put her hand on the secret door, preparing to push
it open.

“There’s some horses out back that weren’t
there before when I parked the cart,” came a roughened voice that
was probably the dockman that had posed as a pie vendor.

“Then go back out and see what’s going on,”
grumbled the baron. “The rest of you get moving these barrels
through the passageway to the Old Bell Inn. Urian will bring the
cart around and load it up and take it down to the dock where we’ll
put it on the ship and set sale before anyone returns.”

The secret door opened a tiny bit more and
she was able to see the baron, the innkeeper and Lord Henry, bent
over as the earthen passageway was not all that high. The door
squeaked as she moved it, and three heads turned to look at
her.

“You!” shouted the baron. Sapphire tried to
get away, but her foot tangled in her long gown and she fell when
she tried to stand. A hand gripped her by the hair and pulled her
to her feet. She came face to face with the man she despised as
well as feared most in this world – Baron Lydd.

“I’ll kill you for this, bitch,” he shouted.
And then Sapphire was suddenly reminded why she feared and hated
him so much, as his fist slammed into her face and her world turned
dark in front of her eyes.

“Roe,” she heard herself calling out as she
fell to the floor unconscious.

Roe approached the Bucket of Blood, seeing
that it was closed for the day and the shutters were covering the
windows. There were no horses out front, nor did he see any
movement down at the dock.

“She’s not here,” said Waylon, scanning the
grounds from the top of his horse.

“I’ll check out back and you ride down to
the docks and see if there’s any workers who may have seen
them.”

“Aye, my lord.” Waylon headed to the docks
and Roe made his way to the back of the building. He had almost
convinced himself that perhaps Erin was wrong after all and that
Sapphire hadn’t come here, until he saw three horses tied up out
back in the thicket.

“Damn!” he spat, sliding from his horse and
tethering it to a nearby tree. “Sapphire, why didn’t you listen to
me?” He looked down to the jeweled dagger at his waist and rubbed
his hand over the hilt. He wanted more than anything to be back at
the castle with Sapphire in his arms safe and sound. He had a bad
feeling in his gut and even before he stepped a foot inside he knew
whatever he found wasn’t going to be good.

He pulled his sword from his sheath and
stood with his back to the door, surveying the grounds around him.
Then he pressed the latch and opened the door, stepping one foot
inside, being led by the tip of his blade.

Something crashed down toward his head, but
his hand shot up and he managed to keep from being hurt. He was
ready to put his blade to the person, when he turned to realize it
was a woman.

“Mother!”

His mother dropped the pot with a clatter to
the floor and embraced Roe.

“Oh, Roe I am so glad to see you.”

“What are you doing here and where is
Sapphire?”

He heard a moan and looked to the floor to
see Dugald trying to sit up. He was holding a bloodied rag to his
forehead.

“Dugald, what the hell happened to you?” he
asked.

“I’m sorry, my lord. I only came along
because I knew you’d want me to protect them.”

“And a fine job you’re doing, lying on the
floor while my mother is fending me off with a damned pot. Now
where the hell is Sapphire?”

“Katherine? What are you doing here?” Henry
stepped out of the next room with a candle in his hand. He placed
it on the table before noticing Roe. “This isn’t what you think,
Roe.”

“And what would that be, Uncle? That you are
a smuggler and a no-good lying bastard who took my mother to your
bed just so you’d gain my father’s inheritance?”

“Henry, please don’t tell me you’re a part
of the smuggling,” begged Lady Katherine.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” said Henry shaking
his head, “but I had no choice.”

“That’s right,” said the baron, stepping
into the room followed by Auley and a half dozen men. “He owed me
for keeping quiet years ago for cheating the king out of prisage,
as I was the one who caught him wanting to keep all the wine for
himself.”

“You did?” asked Katherine. “How could
you?”

“I was on the wrong path before I met you,”
Henry told her. “But I wasn’t going to do something like this again
after this shipment, I promise you.”

“And what about you, Auley?” asked Roe.
“I’ve known you forever. And I’ve always treated your daughter like
a sister, and yet you resort to this?”

“He told me he’d kill Erin if I didn’t help
him. And since my pub has the secret passageways, he needed to use
them. I didn’t have a choice,” explained the innkeeper.

The door behind Roe opened and in walked not
only his squire but also Erin.

“Daddy?” she said, looking at Auley
questionably. Then Dugald moaned from the floor and she spotted
him. “Dugald, no!” She rushed over to him and fell to the floor,
cradling him in her arms.

“Where’s Sapphire?” Roe growled. “If you
bastards did anything to hurt her, I swear I’ll kill every single
one of you.”

“You’ll never get that chance, Sexton. Kill
them all,” said the baron to his men who pulled out weapons of
swords, maces and axes and rushed forward. Erin screamed and Roe’s
mother was frozen in fear.

“Over my dead body,” shouted Roe as he
lunged forward and took down a man swinging a mace coming toward
them. “Mother, get the hell out of here. Erin, you and Dugald do
the same.”

“There’s too many of them, my lord,” shouted
Waylon, as he raised his sword and fought as well. Roe headed
toward his mother to try to push her out the door, but a dockman
got to her first, his dagger already being raised to her throat.
Before he could even turn to help her, Henry rushed forward
screaming, and grabbed the man from behind.