Arsenic and Old Armor (34 page)

“
There’s more,” David said
quickly. “When I came back through the passageway, I started up the
stairs. That’s when I saw the Englishman was missing. Just then, I
could hear voices upstairs. They weren’t yours, so I backed down
toward the dungeon. There was a torch lit down there, so I thought
I might be able to find another way. Have you been down
there?”

Jack reached for David’s throat again, but
the defrocked cleric stepped back. “What about the dungeon?” he
snarled.

“
Bodies,” David whimpered.
“Lots of dead bodies. Nineteen of them I counted. All dressed up in
armor. Some of them in English armor. Lined up in rows. Most of
them are only bones. Some are rotting and…well, the stench is
horrible. There are some fresh bodies down there, too.”

“
What did I tell you about
drinking?” Jack growled, grabbing him by the cowl.

“
I haven’t had a drop!”
David said quickly. He crossed himself. “I swear, Jack. Not a drop
touched my lips from the time I left you.”

“
Do you expect me to
believe there are nineteen bodies—some of them Englishmen—lying on
the floor of that dungeon?”

“
It’s the truth. All
dressed in armor, swords in hand.”

Jack released him and slowly climbed the
stairs, with David on his heels. Outside on the parapet, the old
man was standing by the edge, staring out into the darkness.

“
Sir William, where do you
keep your army?”

“
In the dungeon, of
course,” the old man said without looking back at them.

“
Of course,” Jack repeated,
turning back to the cleric. “Was Dorset among them?”

“
No. There was no sign of
him. I don’t know what happened to him.”

Jack started back down the stairs.

“
There is no point in
facing him, Jack,” David said reasonably, following him down. “What
does it matter if the marquis is missing? There are enough bodies
down there to condemn Iain Armstrong. Why take the chance of
getting wounded in a fight with him? Let your scheme work as you
planned it. The English troops will be here any time.”

Jack stopped at the landing and stared down
the dark steps for a while. “True, but that will not take care of
my dear cousin, Marion. She must die, too.”

“
Does it need to be now?”
David asked, choosing his words carefully. “With Iain Armstrong
gone, she is at your mercy.”

David watched closely to see if his words
would have any effect on his leader. For the cleric, the only bad
thing in traveling with a gang of outlaws was the fighting. He was
no good at it, not even with a short sword. It was all too messy.
Give him a good hanging or witch burning, anytime.

Jack was obviously thinking about it. From
David’s perspective, if Jack and the Armstrong laird started
fighting, then David would be obligated to draw a weapon, too. That
meant he might get hurt. No, that wouldn’t really do at all.

Suddenly, Jack put his dagger back in its
sheath and started down the hallway. “Follow me.”

The outlaw moved quickly in the dark,
turning down a narrow passage and climbing three steps to a tiny
room. The moon was shining in a small slit of a window, and David
could see a straw pallet on the floor and a large wooden chest
against one wall. Jack knelt by the side of the chest, feeling for
something near the bottom. The cleric heard a small click, and his
leader straightened up and pulled the chest away from one wall with
surprising ease, revealing a narrow opening behind it.

“
Another secret passage?”
David asked with mixed feelings. “Let me guess. This passage
connects with the one we used to come in. We go down, join the men
outside the castle, and watch from a distance as the English take
Iain Armstrong.”

Jack took the monk by the back of the cloak
and pushed him into the narrow space ahead of him. There was no
light, and David nearly fell through an opening between two walls.
He panicked for a moment, but then realized that he was standing on
the rung of a ladder. There was no floor to speak of, or any
stairs, either, only the rickety old ladder leading downward.

He opened his mouth to say something more,
but Jack’s hand immediately clamped over it.

“
This leads down to a door
in the paneled wall of the great hall. No more talking, or they
will hear us.”

The cleric nodded and Jack took away his
hand.

“
What are you planning to
do down there?” David asked in a whisper.

“
Fetch my cousin,” Jack
rasped in his ear. “She’s lived too long as heir to Fleet
Tower.”

“
I am certain that they
must have left the way they came in,” Margaret was saying. “Through
the passage on the way to the dungeons.”

“
Did they?” Judith asked
her sister. “I don’t remember.”

“
I know Cardinal Bane
left,” Margaret reminded her.

“
Oh, yes. He went to get
more men or something.”

“
But if Jack didn’t go with
him, I suppose he might be upstairs,” Margaret told
them.

“
He might be,” Judith said
vaguely. She was obviously trying to remember something.

“
We told him he could stay
the night in the earl’s chambers.”

“
I was upstairs, but I
didn’t see him in the earl’s chambers,” Judith said.

“
You and I were up
there
before
he
went up.”

“
Oh yes, dear. You’re quite
right. That was
before
.”

What a fool Iain was, thinking he could keep
Jack out just by closing the gate. He’d never even considered the
possibility of a secret passage.

If Jack and his band of outlaws were really
in the tower house, first and foremost he had to protect these
women. While the two women chatted away, Iain barred the doorway to
the courtyard and then closed and barred the double doors beneath
the arched doorway. Now, at least, Marion and her aunts would be
reasonably secure in the great hall while he tried to understand
what was going on.

He stood by the arched doorway for a moment,
listening for any sound. He couldn’t very well go in search of
Jack. He was not willing to risk leaving Marion behind. Crossing
the hall, he opened the shutters and asked Marion to keep watch for
his two men outside. If he could get their attention, then at least
he could send one of them off to Blackthorn Hall for help.

He surveyed the great hall for weapons. On
the wall there were a number of shields and long lances. Reaching
up, he pulled one of the shields down and leaned it against the
window seat. Fourteen feet in length each, the lances were too long
to be of use in close fighting, and the shafts proved to be too
thick to break.

“
My aunts just said that
Jack brought the dead body of Dorset here,” Marion told him as he
laid the lances aside. “Does this mean that the English troops are
nearby, as well?”

Iain looked at his bride. Her biggest fears
were coming true. He went to the window again and closed the window
seat on Dorset’s pale face.

“
Iain, I know I can explain
my way out of this if you leave right now,” she said, clutching at
his arm. “I’ll tell them that my cousin, Jack, is the one
responsible for the murder of Lord Dorset and Sir George. They
never have to know about the others in the dungeon.”

“
I am not going anywhere,
Marion,” he told her, caressing her face. “We’ll find a
way.”

Iain turned his attention back out the
window. John and Tom had been making their way along the top of the
curtain wall the last time he’d seen them. They were due back here
any time.

Margaret was at the cupboard, rearranging
cups and pitchers and moving them to the table. Judith was on her
sister’s heels, whispering endlessly. Iain turned to Marion.

“
Do you know anything about
that secret passage leading into the castle?”

She shook her head. “I was too young to know
anything about it. But I’m not surprised that it exists.”

“
I’m thinking that if we
could block that entrance, we can at least stop any more of them
from coming in.”

Marion nodded. “Let me ask my aunts.”

She took a couple of steps in their
direction and then turned around, shaking her head.

“
There’s no point in me
asking them. I’ll keep an eye out for your two men, and
you
ask
them.”

Iain had no doubt that Marion was right in
what she was thinking. If Jack murdered Dorset—and it certainly
appeared that he did—then by bringing the body here, he intended to
lead Dorset’s men here and incriminate Iain and Marion both. But
that scheme would only work if Iain couldn’t catch Jack before the
English troops got here.

He laid his hand on Margaret’s arm. She was
the more likely one to remember. “Lady Margaret, do you know how
your nephew got into the castle?”

“
Why, of course, dear,”
Margaret said immediately. “They came in through the underground
passageway.”

“
And do you know where that
passageway enters the tower house?”

“
Certainly. There is a
trapdoor on the stairwell leading to the dungeon.”

“
On the stairwell,” Judith
repeated, nodding with certainty.

“
And is that the only way
they might have come in from outside the walls?” he
asked.

“
Polite guests always come
in through the courtyard,” Judith answered.

“
But is that the
only
secret
way?”
he repeated.

Judith and Margaret exchanged a few whispers
before the older sister answered. “We believe so. The men always
knew so much more about those things. Our brother the earl knew
every panel and every door and where each one led. William knows,
too, for I am certain that there have been times when he’s gone
rambling through the countryside without a by-your-leave.”

Iain turned to Marion. She had moved from
the window seat that contained Dorset to the other one. Too many
dead people for one day, he guessed. “No sign of John or Tom
yet?”

She shook her head.

Time was of the essence. Iain had to somehow
block that passageway or Jack and his men would break down the door
and cut all of their throats. Why, they could then tell Dorset’s
men they were heroes, even though they couldn’t quite manage to
save the English commander’s life.

“
I need to go down there
and block that entry,” Iain told Marion. “I want you to come with
me.”

“
But we could miss your men
on the wall.”

Iain looked at the two sisters. They were
discussing the table setting, lost in a world of their own. There
was no way he could trust them to give his men a message. He had to
take a chance. He walked to the window and handed Marion his
dirk.

“
Don’t be afraid to use it.
Yell, scream, do whatever must be done if you hear or see
anything.”

She nodded hesitantly, taking the weapon
from him.

Marion felt a yawning chasm open in her
chest as she watched Iain go. In her entire life, she had never
felt as helpless as she was feeling now.

Her cousin, Jack, was not what worried her
most. It was the thought of English troops arriving at Fleet Tower
and taking her husband that was tearing her apart. She didn’t know
what Iain could do. With everything happening at once, she couldn’t
think straight. There seemed to be no way out of their dilemma.

With obvious reluctance, Iain had wanted the
door left unbarred while he hurried down to the dungeons. She was
glad of it, for she didn’t dare leave from the window to bar the
door and unbar it when he returned. She wished his two men would
soon finish their rounds of the castle walls. It would be good to
alert them and also to get their help.

A sound from the other window seat drew
Marion’s attention. Stunned, she gaped at the sight of her aunts
leaning into the window seat. They were tugging and pulling on
something.

“
What are you doing?” she
cried out.

“
He’s lying on top of a
tapestry our mother began,” Margaret said. “It is a record of the
family history.”

“
Our history,” Judith
repeated, leaning in again and tugging on the dead man’s
arm.

Marion took a quick look outside before
turning to her aunts again. “I looked in there before he was placed
there. There were only scraps of cloth folded in the bottom.”

“
No, dear. Mother’s
tapestry is in there,” Judith said adamantly, not giving
up.

“
And we need it for the
wedding,” Margaret explained, helping her sister.

“
For your
wedding.”

Marion couldn’t believe her eyes, but the
two women had the dead man by the shoulders and were struggling to
drag him out of the window seat. The late Marquis of Dorset might
as well have been a piece of furniture.

“
Please leave him where he
is,” she begged. “I don’t need the tapestry.”

“
No, dear. You must have
it,” Margaret said.

“
You must,” Judith agreed.
“Mother said so.”

Oh, no
, Marion thought.
Now they’re
communicating with their long dead mother!