Highland Protector (26 page)

Simon locked the door and looked at her. “What else did Henry threaten ye with?” When she just shrugged and tried to step back, he caught hold of her hand and pulled her closer, only the bars separating them. “Ye cannae slip back and hide away, nay with these fine new doors the king had put on these cells. Do ye ken why he had them built? Too many guards were hurt by the prisoners because they couldnae get a good look inside there before they had to step inside. E’en the prisoners who were chained could prove dangerous. The king decided the guards needed to see the whole of the inside. So, I can easily see that ye are hiding something no matter where ye stand in there. Tell me, what else did my brother threaten ye with?”

“It will only make ye angry and there is naught ye can do about it anyway.”

“Ilsabeth, I can stand here waiting for a verra long time.”

“Aye, I suspicion ye can,” she muttered and sighed. “He thinks I can give him a son.”

She winced as his grip on her hand tightened. Ilsabeth could see his fury tighten his face and darken his eyes. A part of her was very pleased by this sign of possessiveness, maybe even jealousy, but she knew it was a waste of their time. Henry could not reach her in this prison; he could only threaten her. Simon needed to use his anger and need to protect to capture his brother and put an end to the man’s evil games. The expression on Simon’s face told her that it was not going to be easy to get him to ignore Henry’s talk.

Simon took a deep breath and let it out slowly, easing the grip he had on Ilsabeth as well. For a moment all he had been able to think about was killing Henry. He had had to fight the urge to run right out into the town and try to find his mad brother and end his life. That would solve nothing. Planning was needed if he was to catch a villain as wiley and brutal as Henry and he could only plan well with his head clear.

He had to wonder if Henry had said such a thing knowing Ilsabeth would tell him. It would be the sort of thing Henry would do. It did not mean that Henry had lied, however. Ilsabeth would be the sort of woman Henry would want to take and, if the man had seen her strength and wit, he just might believe she was the type of woman who could give him a son.

“He will never touch ye,” he said.

Simon’s voice was hoarse and deep and Ilsabeth knew anger had a strong grip on him. “He cannae reach me here, Simon. I am safe and now the children are, too. Wheesht, ye are the only one still in danger. Henry hates ye, Simon. He said it was because of the way ye used to watch him with his own eyes, judging him. Henry doesnae think anyone has the right to judge him.”

Just as she had hoped it would, telling Simon why Henry claimed to hate him had tugged at that curious part of his mind enough to pull him free of the tight grip his anger had on him. The anger was still there, but it could now prove more of a strength than a weakness. Ilsabeth realized that she needed Henry gone for more reasons than his threat against the king, against her and her loved ones. She needed him dead so that Simon could shake free of the past, of all that pain that roused such fury inside him whenever Henry drew too near.

“If I watched him too much it was just to ken when it was time to run or when to get my brothers out of Henry’s way.” Simon shook his head. “And a mon needs a guilty conscience to fret o’er being judged for who he is or what he has done. I wouldnae have believed Henry could feel guilty about anything he has done.”

“The mon is mad, Simon. The mad probably only make sense to themselves at times.” She reached through the bars to stroke his cheek. “Get him, Simon, and worry o’er why he is what he is, later. Stop him now.”

He kissed her palm, released her hand and left, searching out the guard. The anger that had swept over him when Ilsabeth had told him what Henry had said was leashed now, but not gone. Simon knew he had to stop allowing what Henry did or said to enrage him so. That rage came from old wounds, from the fact that Henry was the one responsible for Simon’s loss of a true family, for the man had driven away everyone close to them, or killed them. It was time to pull free of that past and deal with the traitorous game Henry played now.

The guard was quick to understand the threat posed by the ability of men to come and go from the bowels of the keep unnoticed and unguarded. In a short time there were guards, soldiers, and some of Simon’s men searching every prison cell, every wall, and every twist and turn of the labyrinth below the keep. Simon worked with Gowan, planning a way to set a trap for Henry and Walter once they found the way the men were secretly slipping inside.

Ilsabeth watched the men searching and waited patiently for a cry of discovery. When it came she breathed a sigh of relief. There would be no more visits from Henry. She knew it was important for the safety of the king, but that did little to dim the pure selfishness of her relief. Henry terrified her.

She smiled when Simon appeared at her cell door. “Ye found it.”

“Aye, and ‘tis because of ye that we e’en kenned a need to look,” he said. “ ‘Tis an old bolt-hole. It was sealed and they did their best to make it look as if it still was. It was Gowan who felt the slight movement of air where there should have been none. We are setting a trap now.”

“Ye think they will come back?”

He heard the fear in her voice and reached through the bars to take her hands in his. “Aye. Once my head cleared of my anger at Henry, I recalled that Walter also had a reason to see ye here. He still wants ye to run to France, aye?”

Ilsabeth grimaced and felt herself blush. “Aye. I confess, Simon; I angered both men with my sharp tongue. I dinnae think Walter kens Henry’s plans for me, either.”

“We are close to ending this, Ilsabeth. Verra close. And then ye willnae have to fear either mon again.”

Ilsabeth hoped he was right. She was tired of being afraid. Part of her saw it as a weakness but she knew that was foolish. She had good reason to be afraid and it would keep her wary and alert.

“I pray ye are right, Simon, but dinnae let concern o’er me take up too much of your thoughts. I am safe here and weel ye ken it. Go and finish this.”

It was a little awkward but Simon gave her a kiss through the bars and then walked away. There were plans to be made. He intended to make more than the one plan to capture Henry and Walter as they tried to sneak back inside through the old bolt-hole. Simon knew that, no matter how good their trap was, how well it was set, there was a chance the men they wanted could escape. He wanted to be absolutely certain that there was a second plan ready to be set in motion immediately.

Simon cursed long and viciously as he looked around at the dead and wounded men, most of them Walter and Henry’s men. He recognized a few men from Lochancorrie. Many of the others looked like men who wielded their swords for anyone with coin enough to pay for their skill. Two days of planning and lying in wait and all they had were the soldiers hired or coerced by the traitors.

“More of your clan?” asked Gowan, studying the six battered men huddled together against a wall.

“Aye. I suspect they are more men like that lad Wallace I told ye about, who did such a poor job of trailing after the children. I will talk to them but they have all probably been forced into this in the same way Wallace was. None of them put up much of fight, did they?”

“Nay, although ye think they would fight rather than get caught and chance being tried and excuted as traitors. That would scare many a mon into fighting to the death.”

“Henry probably scares them more. This way he will be thinking they were killed here and, if Henry holds a sword at the throat of their loved ones, it might ease now. Or that is how they will think. I dinnae think many of those at Lochancorrie believe anyone can do anything to rid them of Henry.”

“Weel, I will leave ye to decide what to do with them.”

“Thank ye. I will speak with them.”

Gowan looked around. “Most of these others are naught but swords for hire although I can see a few from houses I ken weel and have been watching for a while. They dinnae have the look of hopelessness your lot does so I am thinking they didnae disagree with what was asked of them. Some men think much akin to the laird they serve. But, we didnae get Sir Walter or your brother.”

“Nay. I suspicion they sent their men in first to test the water and have left now that they ken the way in was discovered.”

“Think they kenned the lass might have guessed about the bolt-hole?”

Having talked to Ilsabeth several times, Simon believed he now had the whole truth about all that had been said between her and Walter, and her and Henry. “Not Sir Walter because, fool that he is, he would ne’er think she had the wit to ken it, being a mere female and all that.” He nodded when Gowan snickered. “My brother, however, would have anticipated the possiblity after talking to her for a moment. He might think her unnatural, for Henry thinks verra little of women, but he would have quickly guessed at her intelligence.”

“So the men we set outside will have caught no one or will be dead.”

“Aye, I fear so. Henry may be mad enough to think he can kill the king and set his arse on the throne, but he is sharp-witted and a fighter to be wary of.”

“I want this mon, Sir Simon,” Gowan said in a hard, cold voice. “Him and that fool Hepbourn. I want them to pay full toll for this plan against the king.”

Simon was a little surprised by the vehemence in Gowan’s voice, but nodded. “Oh, ye will have them soon. Weel, if my brother doesnae kill Hepbourn first.”

“What do ye mean Ilsabeth told them of the way in?” Walter slid off the winded mount he had been riding hard for miles. “How could she have any idea about that old bolt-hole?”

Henry dismounted and stared at Walter. “Ye ne’er really kenned her, did ye? I said I wanted a lass to dangle before Simon, one he would feel the need to protect. Ye decided to play your own game and try to rid yourself of the Armstrongs. Wanted their lands, too, didnae ye?”

“And why not? They abut mine.”

“Of course. Weel, if ye had looked a little more closely instead of praising yourself on your cleverness, or trying to get beneath her skirts, ye might have seen that the lass has a verra sharp wit.”

“A sharp tongue, most assuredly. I cannae believe I didnae see that, but she was probably just on her best behavior so that she could catch me as her husband.” He screamed when Henry slapped him so hard he fell to the ground, and stared at Henry in fear.

“Dinnae be any greater a fool than ye have to be,” Henry said. “That lass is quick, and nay just with her sharp tongue. She kenned something was wrong and she thought on it. It didnae take long for her to realize we had come in the wrong way, unguarded. If ye had kenned her as ye claimed, I would ne’er have made such a mistake.”

“Weel, we have more men.” Walter cautiously got to his feet.

“And we had best get to them.”

“Why?”

“Because, ye fool, my cursed brother will be right behind us. He set up that trap because he had the sense to heed his woman when she told him something wasnae right about our being there. He will also have a plan ready to come after us because he wouldnae have set all his hopes on catching us as we tried to get back into the dungeon.” He looked back in the direction they had just come from. “Simon is coming and this time I will kill him. And then I will take his woman.”

“I thought she was going to be my woman.” Walter stepped away from Henry when the man stared at him. “Weel, she is yours then, although after feeling how deep her sharp tongue can cut, I cannae see why any mon would want her.”

“If I find her sharp tongue too much of an irritant and cannae beat it out of her, I will simply cut it out. Did that with my first wife.”

Walter stared at Henry as the man watered his mount at the small burn and then got back in the saddle. He hurried to do the same but he could not shake something Ilsabeth had said out of his head. She had warned him that Henry would get what he wanted and then kill him. Walter had scoffed at such a foolish statement but he did not feel like scoffing anymore.

He thinks I can give him a son.

Simon growled as those words slithered through his mind yet again. He could not shake free of them or the power they had to make him angry. Not even reminding himself that Ilsabeth was right, that she was safe where she was, helped him regain the calm he needed to do his work. Henry could not reach her in her prison cell, he kept telling himself, but himself was not listening too closely. The fact that Henry had tried to return to the dungeons was enough, however, to make him eager to put an end to his brother’s freedom and traitorous games as soon as possible.

“Here comes Wallace,” said Peter, looking toward the line of trees to their left. “Ye were right about him. He is an excellent tracker.”

“He has always had the skill,” Simon replied. “I think he was born with it.”

“Aye. I had feared we had lost our prey when they had escaped the trap at the dungeons, but this lad will sniff them out.” Peter smiled faintly as he studied Simon. “Calm yourself, Simon. Ye are pacing like a mon awaiting his firstborn. This will be over soon.”

“Ye feel it, too? Feel that the end is close?”

“Aye. I do and verra strongly. The others involved in this plot are being quietly collected up so that their compatriots arenae warned that they have been discovered too quickly and then flee. Although I suspect a few will escape. Cannae help that, and Gowan has our men starting at the top of the list so that we can be sure to bring in the ones who had the most important part in all this. Nay your list, either. Gowan’s list.”

“Gowan had his own list made?” Simon began to wonder if Gowan had his eye on Simon’s place in the king’s household and then decided that he really did not care. “How did Gowan list everyone?”

“By the value of their lands, property, or purse. Our Gowan kens weel what the king is most interested in. Aye, the king wants the traitors, but he also wants the riches he will be confiscating from them. Gowan kens that giving the king the wealthiest of the lot will be enough to satisfy the mon so that we willnae be made to suffer for any who get away. Gowan means to better himself and weel he deserves to. Just nay sure the king will want to lose such a fine captain of his guard.”