The Faithful Heart (23 page)

Madeline jumped away from the treasure tent,
tripping over her cloak as she fled into the dark. She dodged
around a few of the smaller tents until she was sure the guard
wasn’t chasing her. Her hood had fallen back but she didn’t bother
to set it right. Her hands were shaking too hard.

She still couldn’t believe what she’d seen.
So much gold and so many jewels in one place was unimaginable.
Without much light to see by she’d had to touch it all, pick pieces
up and squint at them to be sure it was what she thought it was.
That tent held a small fortune, picked piece by piece by Ethan’s
outlaws in the months that they had been active. She never would
have guessed it possible, but the proof was right there. The tent
held a king’s ransom.

But it hadn’t held Jack.

She took a deep breath and settled the hood
over her head again as she skipped to the next shadow. There had to
be another guarded tent somewhere in the camp. Caught between the
paths she had no way to find it but to wander and search. It was
next to impossible to get a good look at anything crouched in the
dark. The forest people were settling, but plenty of them were
still awake, going about whatever business they had. She bit her
lip and made a decision.

Heart pounding, she stood straight, rolled
her shoulders, and stepped out of the shadows. She walked forward
at an easy pace, cutting through the clusters of tents as though
she belonged there. Her heart dropped to her stomach when a man and
woman crossed in front of her as she rounded a corner. They were
laughing and more interested in each other than her. She nodded.
The woman saw her but walked past without a backward glance.

Madeline let out a breath and hurried on. She
had to stand on tip-toe to see over many of the tents although a
few were nothing more than canvas stretched over poles. She passed
another larger tent, but it was unguarded and the lanterns inside
cast as silhouette of a fat woman on the wall. Another man walked
right in front of her without blinking. Her confidence grew.

“If he doesn’t break by tomorrow I want you
to find some salt and dump it over him.”

The sound of Lydia’s voice sent Madeline
diving for the nearest shadow. She flattened herself in the dirt at
the base of a canvas wall as Lydia turned the corner. Roderick was
with her.

“I could find some pepper and blow it in his
eyes as well,” he relished the idea. “Father too.”

“No, don’t hurt him.” To Madeline’s dread
they stopped yards away from her. Lydia turned Roderick to face
her. “I think we can win Lord John with pain, but I know your
father, Roderick, and believe me, pain doesn’t work with him.”

“Nothing works on him,” Roderick sounded
surprisingly glum. “Cold bastard.”

“Now, now,” Lydia shifted to put an arm
around his shoulder, “he’s not as cold as you think. Hard, yes, but
not cold. You leave him to me.” They continued down the path.

“Why did you have to leave, Aunt Lydia.
Everything would have been so much better if you’d stayed.”

Madeline didn’t get to hear the witch’s
answer. They turned a corner. She jumped to her feet and rushed to
put as much space as she could between them.

As she dashed around a corner she ran
headlong into someone. “Sorry!” she whispered, the wind knocked out
of her.

The man who she’d run into continued to hold
her. “Madeline?” She glanced up into Tom’s worried face. “What are
you doing here?”

“Tom! Where is Jack? Which tent are they
keeping him in?”

He didn’t answer her. Instead he marched her
down a side path, hand still clamped firmly on her arm. “You can’t
be here. It’s too dangerous,” he muttered.

They reached a tent that looked no different
from any of the others. Tom pushed aside the flap and shoved her
inside. He let go when the flap shut and fumbled to light a lamp.
As the wick flared Madeline glanced around. The tent held a
bedroll, a stuffed pack, and a stool.

“Is this your tent?”

“Yes. If I didn’t think it was too dangerous
I would take you back to Derby Castle myself right now,” he charged
on when she opened her mouth to reply. “As it is you should stay
right here tonight. When Ethan gets back in the morning-”

“Ethan’s not coming back.”

His eyes popped wide in alarm. “What?”

She shifted to kneel in front of him. “I saw
him and Toby when I was looking for the camp earlier. A man,
Connor, and two men with him intercepted Ethan. Connor cut Ethan’s
arm and Toby slashed his face. Then the other two men chased them
away. I think … I think Lydia is behind it.”

Tom hissed and dropped his head. “I knew this
would happen.”

“We have to go get Jack and Simon and get out
of here,” she tried to get to her feet.

Tom reached out and stopped her, shaking his
head. “You can’t. Not right now. They’re being held on the other
side of the camp. Last I checked four men were guarding them, mean
ones. Men who never liked Ethan much to begin with. And Lydia’s
given orders that I’m to be stopped if I’m seen anywhere near
there.”

“Were they given orders to stop the Derbywood
Bandit?” Her eyes flashed with defiance.

He blinked and studied her outfit, seeing it
for the first time. “Does Aubrey know about this?” She shook her
head. “Does anybody know you’re here?” She bit her lip and shook
her head again. Tom rubbed a hand over his eyes, shaking his head.
“Madeline, you’re going to get yourself killed.”

“No I’m not.”

“You don’t know what you’re up against.”

“Then tell me!” She surged forward, grasping
Tom’s arms. “Help me rescue him.”

He sighed. “You don’t understand. That’s all
I’ve been thinking about since the moment Roderick caught Jack in
the first place. There’s just too many of them and not enough of
us.”

She shook her head. “There’s always a way. We
just have to figure out what it is.”

Tom stared at her. She could see he knew
better than to argue with her. It renewed her hope.

“Stay here for the night at least,” he
entreated her. “I can keep you safe that long. If you stay put
tonight then I promise I will help you think of something in the
morning.”

She drew in a long breath. “Alright, it’s a
deal.”

He shifted to the side. “Here. Sleep in my
bed. I think I’ve got some bread and mead if you’re hungry.”

He reached for the sack as Madeline crawled
past him to sit on the bedroll. “What happened?” she asked as he
turned back to hand her a heel of bread. “Between you and Jack, I
mean. Why are you here while he’s, well, there?”

He sighed and pulled the cork out of the jug
of mead, taking a sip before handing it to her. “Jack turned his
back on me.”

“He would never!” she answered with her mouth
full.

“He turned spy for Huntingdon against
Ethan.”

“And helped Aubrey and saved Prince John’s
life,” Madeline nodded. “He told me he asked you to come with him
but you refused. Why?”

“It wasn’t that simple,” he frowned. “He
betrayed Ethan.”

“Did he ever swear allegiance to Ethan?” Tom
shook his head. “Did Ethan ever do anything for him that merited
allegiance?”

“He rescued us from the dungeon when we were
about to be executed.”

Madeline shook her head, taking a drink from
the jug. “Aubrey did that.”

Tom’s shoulders sunk. “Ethan is a lord, a
good man.”

“Ethan lost his land and his title. He
abandoned Aubrey when she needed his help. He’s been robbing
travelers through the forest, harboring criminals.”

He raised his eyes to meet her frank stare
then lowered them again. “Ethan is a good man, he’s just lost.”

“You sound like Toby,” Madeline smirked.

“How would you know?” he scowled.

“Toby has been sneaking to Derby to visit his
sister.”

“I don’t have a sister,” he sulked. “I don’t
have anyone.”

“Yes you do!” She set the jug aside and
leaned towards him, putting a hand on his knee. “You have
Jack.”

He laid a warm hand on top of hers. “He
doesn’t want me anymore.”

“Of course he wants you!” she exclaimed,
coloring at how loud she’d been. “Of course he wants you,” she
repeated in a whisper. “Half the time I was with him he talked
about you. The other half he talked about Kedleridge.”

He didn’t meet her eyes. Instead he stared at
her hand as he held it, rubbing a finger across her knuckles in
thought. She bent lower, looking up into his clouded eyes and
trying to judge his thoughts. All she could see was that he was
troubled. She squeezed his hand. He let out a breath.

“Why don’t you try and get some sleep now.
We’ll get up at first light and see if we can get near to the
prison tent.”

“Thanks Tom,” she smiled. She leaned forward
to kiss his cheek. “Everything will work out. You’ll see.”

Derby Castle had been in an uproar ever since
Aubrey had gone to fetch Madeline for dinner only to find her
friend gone. Every servant had been sent to scour the castle and
its grounds and to search through the city. Joanna knew in her
heart that the search was pointless. As she’d picked up and
refolded the clothes that had been thrown out of the chest in the
North Room she’d noticed that Aubrey’s Bandit disguise was
gone.

“She wouldn’t dare!” Aubrey had gasped when
Joanna told her.

“I think she did,” Joanna had said. “And if
she took the Bandit disguise then we know exactly where she
went.”

“Search the castle anyhow,” Aubrey ordered.
“We can’t let it look like we’ve given up.”

Joanna wasn’t sure if she agreed but she’d
continued turning over rocks and looking behind curtains anyhow. It
was far too late for her to still be up by the time she wandered
into the garden. She wasn’t sure if she had gone there to search or
just to sit in silence on one of the garden benches.

The sound of a pot and rakes being knocked
over behind the garden shed sent her to her feet as soon as she’d
sat down.

“Toby?” she whispered, hurrying towards the
shed.

“I’m here!” he called back. “We’re here.”

He stumbled around the shed moments later,
dragging Ethan with him. Both men were pale in the moonlight but
the sight of Ethan’s arm heavy around Toby’s shoulder and his
painful limp sent Joanna’s heart to her throat.

“My god, what happened?” The glint of
something wet on Ethan’s sleeve drew her attention.

“We went to Windale,” Toby said.

“Who there would do this?” She grabbed Ethan
around the waist on the side opposite Toby and helped him to the
bench.

“No one at Windale,” Ethan growled in
pain.

“When we went back to the forest we were
attacked and chased out,” Toby finished. “Ethan was struck with a
sword on his arm and then he fell and hurt his ankle.”

“My money would have been on you to be the
one to break an ankle,” Ethan joked with a cringe.

“Thank God the brutes had stopped chasing us
by then,” Toby panted as he let Ethan go.

“You need someone to treat this cut.” Joanna
shook her head, peeling the fabric of Ethan’s shirt back from his
wound.

“Well, Joanna, I was hoping….” Toby raised
his eyebrows.

“You want me to do it?”

“Yes?” Toby tried to smile.

Joanna sighed and ignored Ethan’s wound,
standing straight and planting her hands on her hips. “What else
were you hoping I’d do?”

“He was hoping you’d take us in,” Ethan
answered with a sullen frown.

Joanna arched an eyebrow at her brother. Toby
shrugged with an uneasy laugh. “We’ve … got no place else to
go.”

Joanna rolled her eyes and sighed. She fixed
her brother with a flat stare. He smiled back with mournful
hopelessness. “Alright, but you’ll have to stay out of sight.
Aubrey is in enough of a tizzy without you two muddying up the
waters for her.” She glanced to Ethan with narrowed eyes.

“Why?” Ethan sat straighter. “What’s going
on?”

“Madeline has gone missing.”

“What?” Ethan and Toby answered a the same
time.

“She’s taken Aubrey’s Bandit disguise and
probably gone into the forest to try to rescue Jack.”

“Crazy woman,” Ethan muttered as Toby
exclaimed, “We have to help her!”

Ethan snapped a sharp look at him.

“You don’t have to help her.” Joanna crossed
her arms. “You have to get cleaned up and stay out of sight. Do I
make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Toby lowered his head as Ethan
glowered, “Who put you in charge?”

“You did,” she stared hard at him, “when you
came to me for help. Now are you going to behave yourselves or
should I call the castle guards?”

“We’ll behave,” Toby insisted.

Joanna arched a brow at Ethan. He sighed and
answered, “We’ll behave,” with about as much conviction as he would
promise to polish Crispin’s boots every day.

“Good,” Joanna answered. She would believe it
when she saw it. “Come with me and don’t make a sound.”

Chapter Thirteen

“Oy, Simon. Am I hallucinating or did someone
bring us breakfast?” Jack tried to blink moisture back into his
eyes. A tray sat on the floor against the side wall with two mugs
and two bowls of porridge.

“They were brought in just before dawn,”
Simon croaked his answer.

“Just like that?”

“You were asleep.”

He stared at the food, debating whether it
would do any good to surge against the ropes to reach it. He was
sure that his mouth would have been watering if he’d had any spit
left.

“Smells good, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t think about it. You’ll only drive
yourself mad.”

Jack shifted, toying with the impossible idea
that if he could swing his legs around he could reach the tray and
pull it closer.

“Jack,” Simon’s voice was strained behind
him. “You’ll only drive yourself mad.”

He sighed and settled against the tent post.
“Bloody unfair, if you ask me.”