Conquering the Dark Axe (20 page)

Alexa frowned over her words and gave her a
quizzical look.  “What were you doing over there?”

Camm grabbed one of her hands and held it to her
breast as her eyes filled with tears. “I-I was” she gulped, blushing. “I was
meeting my man there, mistress.”

Alexa smiled then and caressed her cheek.  Camm
and the blacksmith’s son had a long standing relationship and why the two had
never married, was still something Alexa had never been able to get a straight
answer on from Camm.  She dropped to her haunches and lifted Camm’s chin
with the hand the maid was not squeezing to death. 

“What could have frightened you so with Jacob
near?” 

Jacob was a burly young man that did plenty work
around the manor and the fields and still maintained his status in the
household.  

“At first I thought ‘twas Jacob playing a trick,
mistress. Trying to frighten me, you know. But, soon enough he grew fearful
himself.”

Alexa’s tone did change then and she sighed when she
finally managed to get her hand free from Camm’s cold tight grip.  Alexa
stood, rubbing her smarting hand and asked, “Do go on. What happened?”

Camm turned wide blank eyes upon her then. “No-Not
really sure. Just that someone or something passed over us. A cold chill, worse
than any winter I have ever felt brushed against my cheek. Right here,
mistress.” 

Camm grabbed her hand again and pressed it to the
spot on her cheek and Alexa felt her shiver under her, as though her cheek were
still cold.  Alexa knew by the wild look in her eyes that she was
remembering.  She pulled her maid up and pulled her into an
embrace.  

“It was probably just a cold draft, Camm.” 
Alexa said in a comforting tone. 

Camm pulled away, gasping.  “Nay, mistress! I
felt it as surely as I just felt yours, but much colder. I tell you, the touch
was as smooth as a baby’s bottom and could freeze even the devil’s blood.
Something or someone has stirred the spirits there.” 

Alexa felt her mouth drop open as her maid launched
back into her arms sobbing.  For years the superstitions about the old
tower had swirled and grown around the manor.  But no foundation or truth
to them.  Her parents never used it. She and Lisbeth had been forbidden to
tread there and steered clear of it.  Alexa had ventured close, and would
have entered on many occasions, had it not been for Lisbeth’s whining and
frequent threats to tell on her. As they’d grown older, she’d forgotten about
what secrets the lone tower held. Until now.  When Camm had calmed, Alexa
asked where Jacob was.

“He was called away by your husband, mistress. Seems
my lord wants to plan a rough joust before the frost.” 

Alexa gave her maid a fresh cloth to wipe away her
tears.   “Are you feeling better now?’ she asked Camm gently.

With heavy sniffles and eyes red rimmed, Camm
nodded.  ‘Aye. Thank you. You should come see for yourself, mistress.”

Looking at her face, Alexa felt pain lance her heart
seeing the real fright in her maid’s eyes.  Camm had been like a sister to
her and damn Rourke’s hide! What did he know? Looking at the open door, the
guard was not there and Alexa smiled.

 “Perhaps Jacob will tell my husband about what
you saw.”  Alexa said licking her lips nervously.  Why should she be
nervous? He had not forbidden her from venturing anywhere else other than the
practice room. Although she knew better. ‘Twas time she was able to walk freely
about. They were getting along better to some sort of degree. At least she was
trying. Alexa bit her lip.

“Jacob called me a fool and said ‘twas my
imagination, mistress. He said the lord would think it so himself were he to
speak of it to him.”

Her maid looked so forlorn, her bottom lip stuck out
and trembling.  Alexa sighed. She knew Camm better than anyone and she
hated to see her so upset. Having to accept the Norman as her new lord had been
pretty taxing and the treatment the man had bestowed upon his new bride- well-
Alexa felt even worse. She should have known it would have affected Camm
too.  Her mind made up, she placed a secure hand on her maid’s shoulder.

 “Aye, Camm. I will see for myself. Nay. I will
worry about my husband later.”  Alexa said and exited the room with her
maid.

The wind was always more brisk up on this part of
the manor and was even more so on this cold winter day. Her ancestors had
intended to fashion a castle after the ones they had seen go up during King
Edward’s time.  A partial rampart led to a causeway that connected the two
made of wood and the walls that were made of partial stone, which Alexa used
her hand to lean upon as she inched her way along the unfinished side with Camm
behind her.  Coming to the thinnest part of the plank floor, she stood
just inside one of the embrasures that had a gaping hole in it on one
side.  The workmanship could be noted in every stone and Alexa tried to
picture the tower complete. ‘Twould have been a beautiful structure. 
Camm’s cough brought her back. 

“Is this the spot, then?” Alexa did not know she
stood dangerously close to the edge as Camm waved a shaky hand out in front of
her.

“Nay, mistress. Over there more. That’s it. Right
there.” 

Alexa frowned when she felt a cold draft move up her
gown.  That was definitely the wind. She stood still and looked all
around. She looked out over the fields. What a view. She could see the whole of
her lands from this post. Her ancestors had the right idea. Had the embrasure
been complete, there was not one piece of Barnett lands one could not see
facing this north side for an enemy wishing to attack.  Turning back to
Camm, Alexa tucked a loose strand of hair that had blown free, back behind her
ear and shouted across to her maid.

“I must say, Camm. I can see what you two must have
been looking at. ‘Tis absolutely breathtaking. I never came up this high
before.”

“What’s that, mistress?”  The wind snatched at
her maid’s words and brought the strangled tone to Alexa’s ears and she gave
Camm an odd look. 

“The view of course. That is what you were trying to
do up here, was it not?”  There was not aught more to do or a better place
to cuddle for warmth in your lover’s arms and be in intimate, Alexa thought as
her gaze swept around them.  She gazed back out onto the cultivated lands
and caught her breath. She would know him anywhere. Even from this distance
Rourke’s form caused a tingle to ripple through her and she shuddered. 
The sun had fully risen and his hair looked like spun white gold from here. He
was surrounded by Goran and a few other men. He moved away from the circle of
men in their direction. She had little time.  She sighed and turned back
to Camm as her maid called to her.

“What was that, Camm? I couldn’t hear you. The wind
is so strong up here. I’m coming back to you now.”  She shouted and just
as she started to inch back towards her, she saw Camm step towards her. “Nay.
Stay there. I am coming back to you.”  Alexa shouted her warning again
with a wave to stop her, and then she stopped when she saw the look on her
maid’s face. 

Camm looked like a different person. Her pretty face
twisted with an ugly sneer and the look in her eyes made Alexa’s blood run
ice-cold.

Alexa shook her head with a laugh. She was letting
Rourke’s suspicions get the best of her. Camm was like a sister to
her.   Yet, she heard the uncertainty in her own tone when she asked,
“Camm? Camm, are you well?”

“I should have killed you first.”  Her maid’s cold
words smacked her right in the face.

TWENTY-FIVE

Rourke scanned the grounds and watched Jacob with a
cautionary eye. Although he liked Barnett’s blacksmith, his son’s disposition
did not sit well with Rourke and it hadn’t since the day he’d first met the
boy.  Something about the young boy had always seemed off center, missing
or dead in the boy’s eyes.  Eyes that kept shifting to the ground whenever
Rourke looked his way, like now.  With his hands clasped behind his back,
Rourke studied the boy through his peripheral as he and Goran walked the group
of men through their duties in preparation for the short practice joust he’d
planned. 

Something cold swept over his cheeks and Rourke
lifted his head as the wind whistled and he found his gaze turning back toward
the manor high wall facing the north side. A movement drew his gaze to the area
where the dilapidated tower stood and his heart lurched and skipped a
beat.  He stopped walking so abruptly, the others behind him nearly fell
over as they stumbled around him. Only Goran stepped to his side.

“Rourke?” Goran questioned, worriedly at the look on
his friend’s face.  When he got no response, he turned and quickly
dismissed the men.  He tried to get Rourke’s attention again. 
“Rourke?”

Rourke uttered one single word. “There.” And was off
running.

Alexa tried to decipher what she’d just heard and
could only stare at Camm as her mind tried to make sense of what her maid had
just told her. Surely she had not heard her correctly and that Camm simply had
misspoken. The wind after all was nigh howling, whistling around them, and
snatching long tendrils of her hair out of her neat double plait.

“Camm?” Alexa finally managed to mutter.

Alexa drew back as she watched the woman a year
younger than herself,  that she’d grown up with side by side, and whom she
and Lisbeth had loved, transform. The loathing blazed from her maid’s eyes as
they stared at her.  Camm’s façade of the loving maid evaporated and she
took a menacing step in her direction. 

Alexa felt a deep anger start to build within her
and she tried again. “Camm?”

 “’Tis Cammilla, you stupid bitch!” Camm
screamed with venom.

The woman she’d known was gone and Alexa struggled
with the sudden grief that assailed her as it mingled with the rising tide of fury
over such betrayal. She could not believe it and wanted to so badly explain her
maid’s behavior, even as truth and the missing pieces started to fall into
place.

“Camm, what have you done?” Alexa shouted across to
her.

The cackle that came from Camm’s mouth had Alexa
balling her hands into fists.

“Lisbeth? My father?”  Alexa said in a painful
accusing whisper. Blood roared in her veins as she took a step toward
Camm. 

Camm continued at a hurried and well-practiced pace,
with large steps in her direction.  A second of alarm washed over Alexa as
dawning came to her and she felt the wind at her back. There was no place to go
but down. 

She had walked into a trap.

Camm’s sneering grin widened and Alexa knew the maid
knew she’d just figured it out.  “You planned this.”  Alexa whispered
hoarsely what they both already knew.

“Aye, you high and mighty whore. And well too.
You’re not so smart now are you?”

Camm let loose a wild and crazy laugh.  She was
almost upon her and Alexa calculated her movements and what she could do next.
There was not enough room were she to try to subdue the maid on this thin piece
of wood plank. But a shove in the right direction….Alexa did not take her eyes
from the advancing woman and planted her feet as firmly as she could in the
little space allotted. 

“My father and Lisbeth loved you. We all loved you.
How could you have done something so horrible?”  Alexa snarled as white
spots of anger swam before her eyes. She wanted to wrap her hands around Camm’s
neck and squeeze the life from her.

“How could you have done something so horrible?”
Camm repeated in a mocking deep tone. “Your voice is so manly and sounds like
it’s full of rocks. God, how I hate the sound of it! All these years of ‘Camm
do this’ 'Camm do that’ ‘yes mistress’, ‘no mistress’. Sickening is what
‘tis.’ 

Alexa stood there in disbelief. She had never known
this woman at all.  She had fooled them all.  “We were always good to
you and did nothing to hurt you. We treated you like a sister.” 

The mask of rage twisted Camm’s face as she stopped.
A sneer curled her lip as she said, “Treated me like a sister? How aptly put.
Do you know what 'twas like to watch all of you? The both of you enjoy this and
that, the finer things that should have been mine too. ‘Twas not fair.”

Alexa frowned over her words. “What do you mean?”

"You are just as blind and dumb as your mother
was. We have the same father! I was born right here under her nose and her
cruelty to my mother knew no bounds. She worked my poor mother into an early
grave and kept me on to see after her brats! Aye, 'tis no wonder we were
close."

Alexa's blood pounded in her ears. "That’s a
vicious lie!"

Camm cackled. "I wanted it to be known but
our
father threatened to send me away or worse. I chose to show him or worse. His
lies took all I loved away. My mother! He’d no right to do that to her. 
To me! He had no right. So I took away everything he loved.  I just erred
by not getting rid of you first."

"You are evil! I do not believe this
madness."

"I don't need you to believe me. I just need
you
dead
."

The girl was crazy and the cunning gleam fixed in
her eyes froze Alexa and she braced herself. Camm let out a shriek and leaped
forward.