Kathryn Le Veque (14 page)

The knight hustled her through
the worshipping peasants and out into the night beyond.
 
Still, he continued to pull Alisanne along
until they were down the entry steps and onto the street.
 
Until that point, Alisanne had gone along
without a word but when he tried to pull her into a smaller, darker avenue that
bordered the east side of the church, she balked.
 
She was terrified that he was going to do
something unspeakable to her.
 
Yanking
her arm from the knight’s grip, she turned to run but he easily captured her
and dragged her into the shadows.

“Stop, lady,” he commanded
quietly. “Cease your struggles and listen to me. I mean you no harm.”

Not strangely, his words didn’t ease
her. “Let me go!” she cried.

His response was to tighten his
grip. “I swear upon our Holy Father that I mean you no harm,” he said. “Please,
my lady, be still.
 
You are Roane de Garr’s
companion, are you not?”

She came to a stop and cast him a
fearful gaze. “Why… why do you ask?” she demanded, verging on terrified tears.
“What do you know of him?”

“I know a great deal.”

“Then tell me your business
before I scream my head off!”

The knight loosened his grip but
he didn’t let go; he could see how genuinely frightened she was. “My name is
Albert,” he said quietly. “I was with Father Tertious Bordeleaux when he came
for Roane at Kinlet Castle. Do you not remember me, my lady?”

Alisanne’s struggles came to a
halt as she eyed the man suspiciously. Truth was
,
she
couldn’t see him very well in the darkness.
  
“I… I am not sure,” she admitted, her gaze darting about nervously. “There
were so many men and my eyes… well, I do not see very well at times.”

He could tell that was true simply
by looking at her. She had beautiful eyes in shape and color, but they were
very red and irritated.
 
It was truly a
pity, too; a woman like this, in fine health, could command a prince for a
husband.
 

Albert studied her in the
darkness, contemplating his next move.
 
He’d truthfully only come to warn her off and tell her to leave because
of Roane’s impending sentence, but now he found himself questioning his very
motives.
 
After the events of the
afternoon with Roane and the servant who had tried to help the man, Albert was
beginning to question everything.
 
He
looked at the quivering woman before him, dirty and disheveled, and his
thoughts began to shift.

“When was the last time you had a
decent meal, my lady?” he asked, his tone considerably softer.

Alisanne could not seriously recall.
“I… I am not sure,” she said, confused by his question. “Why would you ask such
a thing?”

Albert still had her by the
arm.
 
This time, he tugged her back
towards the avenue with its dirty people and desperate businesses.
 
“Come along,” he said quietly.

“Where are we going?” she asked,
dragging her feet.

“Some place warm.”

Alisanne struggled against him,
continuing to demand that he let her go, but he continued to ignore her.
 
Only when she realized that he had taken her
to the stoop of the nearest inn did she stop her struggles, and that was only
mostly out of curiosity. She’d never been to an inn before and the strong smell
of smoke and roasting meat had her attention.

Albert was able to drag her into
the inn without a fight.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Alisanne had never had pickled
pears before but found very quickly that she liked them very much.
 
In fact, she ate an enormous helping of them
along with everything else at the table - over-cooked mutton, turnips and
carrots, as well as a steaming bowl of beans and peas and onions.
 
She was so hungry that it was difficult to
pace
herself
.
 
She’d never seen so much readily-available food in her life.

    
Albert watched the woman
eat as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks, strange emotions rumbling in his
chest.
 
He’d seen plenty of starving
women, and plenty of beautiful ones, so it was difficult to surmise why this
particular woman had his attention other than she was Roane de Garr’s lover and
Roane was in a particularly precarious situation.
 

Up until an hour ago, he had
sided with Father Bordeleaux on Roane’s sentence purely because he had no real
choice in the matter.
 
Roane had been a
hunted man for his acts against God for three long years.
 
But Albert supposed that, in his heart, he
knew that Roane was not a sacrilegious man.
 
Roane had been more pious than most of them.
And Bordeleaux, as they all knew, could be less than holy in thoughts and
actions.
 
Such was the stain of power
that marked him.

    
So he watched the Lady
Alisanne eat as he wondered if there was a way to remove Roane before he was
scheduled to be purified.
 
Purification.
 
That’s what the Hospitallers called that
horrific act.
 
It was torture on a main
scale, an event so barbaric that it made most hardened men weak.
 
And they were going to do such things to
Roane.
 
The more Albert thought about it,
the more he knew it wasn’t right.
 
Roane
had been a good friend to him, once. Mayhap it was time for him to take a stand
and help his friend.
 
Mayhap it was
finally time to take the lead and cease to follow the collective brotherhood.
He had his own opinions about such things and Roane didn’t deserve the hatred
that had been cast against him.

    
“Will you tell me your
name now, my lady?” he asked quietly.

    
Alisanne looked up from
a piece of bread with a great slathering of butter and honey. “I am the Lady
Alisanne de Soulant,” she said. “My father is Baron Craven.
 
Have… have you seen him today, too?”

    
Albert shook his head.
“I do not remember your father, my lady,” he said. “He has come with you?”

    
Alisanne nodded,
thinking mayhap that she shouldn’t tell him what her father’s purpose was here,
so she lowered her head back to the pears. “You said you are a friend of
Roane’s,” she said, shifting the subject. “If that is true, then why did you
let the Hospitallers take him? You know the man is innocent of those foolish
charges.”

    
Albert took a long drink
of his ale. “I knew Roane well, my lady,” he said quietly. “What they accused
him of… it does not seen possible. But I saw the proof of his gift with my own
eyes.”

    
Alisanne’s head snapped
up, her irritated eyes fixing on him. “How would you have seen it?” she
demanded. “Were you there?”

    
Albert held his ground
in the face of what sounded like an accusation, which mayhap implied that he
was just as guilty as Roane was if, in fact, he witnessed such a thing.

    
“The man he cured,” he
said. “I knew him. He had one eye that was bad and suddenly… his eye was
healed. He said it was a miracle and that Roane had performed such a thing.”

    
“Then you did not
see
Roane do anything.”

    
“I did not. But the man
he cured swore it was Roane that did it.”

Alisanne was exasperated. “Roane
was in the Holy Sepulcher when these things occurred,” she said passionately.
“Is that not what your Order seeks?
Signs from God and the
presence of miracles?
Why
was Roane
immediately
cast in a demonic light when this happened? I do not understand how such an Order
who can profess to serve God could be so blind to His miracles?”

    
Albert looked around,
making sure no one heard her as she spoke.
 
He held up a hand. “Quietly, please,” he murmured. “Surely you know that
if your association with Roane is known, you will be facing execution along
with him and those who have tried to help him.”

    
Alisanne was preparing
to retort but something in what he said caught her attention. “Those who have
tried to help him?” she repeated. “Who else has tried to help him?”

    
Albert toyed with his
wooden cup as he gazed at her. “A servant he evidently enlisted to aid him,” he
said. “The man is now in the vault with him. Both will face execution.”

    
Alisanne’s face paled.
“Execution?” she breathed, stunned. “I… I had not heard this.
 
Of course, I have not asked anyone about
Roane and I’ve not heard the servants speak of him… in fact, I have heard no
one speak of him.
 
My father and I had
to… well, it does not matter what we did. You say that he is to be
executed
?”

    
Albert could see the
painful distress on her features which only served to fuel his own distress.
“Aye,” he responded.
 
“Two days from
now.”

    
She stared at him. No
longer hungry, she pushed her food away and hung her head as the tears began to
come.
 
Fumbling, she pulled on her cloak
and tried to stave off the flood of sorrow.

    
“I… I thank you for the
information,” she whispered. “I must go now.”

    
Albert reached out and
grasped her wrist. “Where must you go?”

    
Alisanne pulled weakly
as she tried to move away. “I must find my father.”

    
Albert wouldn’t let her
go so easily. “My lady, please,” he said.
 
“Do not go.
 
Please remain.”

    
Alisanne shook her head,
wiping at the tears that were falling. “Although I thank you very deeply for
the meal, I must find my father. He must know what Roane’s fate is.”

    
Albert maintained his
hold on her. “My lady,” he
said,
his voice soft but
firm. “Please sit. I… I want to know why you are here.”

    
She paused in her haste
to leave, looking at him dubiously. “What do you mean?”

    
“Surely you did not come
to Clavell to see Roane perish,” Albert said quietly. “It would therefore stand
to reason that you have come to free him somehow.”

    
Alisanne didn’t want to
give away her intentions, fearful that this was somehow a trap. “How would it
be possible for me to free him?” she asked, though it was a weak argument. “I
have no means to do this.”

    
“You said your father
was here.
Where
is he?”
    
“I do not know,” she said honestly.

    
“Surely he is not simply
ambling about, aimlessly, while your lover faces execution. Surely you both
came here with a scheme in mind.”

    
Alisanne stiffened, one
of courage and indignity. “We do not scheme.
 
I will not deny that helping Roane escape has been in our thoughts but,
as you can see, we have not the means nor the opportunity.”

    
Albert regarded her
carefully. “What have you been doing since you came to Clavell?”

    
“Working
in the kitchens.”

    
“Is it safe to assume
that your father was working in the kitchens, too?
Or,
mayhap, in the stable?
Working as a servant would give him access to
almost anywhere in the compound.”

    
She stared at him,
seeing that his logic was much the same as hers.
He knows
, she thought.
 
He knows we have been posing as servants to
get close to Roane
.

    
“Why do you ask me
this?” she wanted to know.

    
Albert’s gaze lingered
on her a moment longer before reaching for the earthenware pitcher of ale and
pouring himself another cup. “Because you heard me mention that a servant was
captured trying to assist Roane,” he muttered. “It may have been your father. I
did not get a good enough look at him, but for his efforts, he too is slated to
be executed along with Roane.
 
It is
possible you are all alone in this now.”

    
Alisanne suddenly wasn’t
so willing to depart. She stared at Albert, trying not to feel bone-crunching
agony at the thought of her father’s failed attempt to free Roane. It was true
that Albert had mentioned a captured servant; she never thought twice that it
had been her father although she should have. She began to feel sick and weak.

    
“Oh…,” she murmured as
she sank back into her chair.
 
She
gripped the sides of it, her expression dazed as she thought on what he had
told her. Her shoulders slumped. “Aye, you did mention that. You said a servant
had attempted to free him?”

    
Albert nodded. “He put
something in the food and drink he served the guards.
 
When they went to sleep, he tried to free
Roane but was caught by me and another knight who just happened to be in the
area at the time.
 
We found the guards
drugged and followed the trail to Roane’s cell.”

    
Alisanne had known her father
was up to something although he’d not said much about it. She could tell by the
way he was acting, however, that he had something mapped out. Now she knew what
it was and she was genuinely speechless. The man had failed and unless she
could think of a scheme to save both him and Roane, they were both going to die.
Despair clutched at her; she had no idea what she was going to do.

“What would you have me say to
all of that?” she asked with soft resignation.

    
“The
truth.”

    
“So that you may throw
me in the vault with them and execute all of us?”

    
“Nay,” he shook his
head. “I will help you get them both to safety, but there is little time. You
will have to learn to trust me, my lady. I know it is difficult, but I cannot
say that you have a choice if you want to save their lives.”

    
Alisanne had all but
lost her tears.
 
She stared at the man,
shocked. “You would
help
?” she
sputtered. “I do not understand. You were there when the Hospitallers took him;
why did you not help him then?”

    
Albert managed to pull
her back into her chair. “Because I would have been one man against fifty,” he
said quietly.
“As great a knight as I am, even I cannot
survive such odds.
But now…
I know where Roane
is and how closely he is guarded. I know the strengths and weaknesses. I can
come up with a plan.”

    
Alisanne couldn’t
believe what she was hearing.
 
For a
moment, she was truly speechless. “Is this true?”

    
“It is.”

    
She continued to stare
at him, wondering if he was indeed sincere.
 
She couldn’t chance disputing the man and risk him withdrawing his
offer.
 
She was out of options and
therefore had no real choice but to trust him.

“Then… then I do not know what to
say except you have my eternal gratitude,” she said sincerely. “But I am
curious to know why you would do this now? You said you have known Roane for
years. Surely you were there when he was first accused and when the brotherhood
first put a price on his head. Why did you not help him then?”

    
Albert shrugged; it was
difficult to maintain eye contact with her as he felt both guilt and confusion.
“Mayhap I was too willing to listen to the head of our Order when he accused
Roane of being in league with the devil,” he muttered. “Mayhap I have been too
willing to go along for fear of being accused of Heresy just as he was. But I
know in my heart of hearts that it is not true; Roane would never side with
Satan.
 
He is too true and good a knight
for such a thing.
 
Having known John Adam
and his failing sight before Roane was able to heal
him,
mayhap I have always known it was a miracle.
 
Mayhap God did indeed choose Roane for such a gift and we have no right
to dispute it.”