Exile's Return (Book 1) (33 page)

It was good work, and necessary. The Church had lost the legal right to run this hospice, but no Guildesman had yet appeared in Fenlock to take charge. Jacob believed they never would. With such a conspicuous display of noble patronage for the hospice, Jacob was determined to show his contempt and defiance of the King. It was a small thing, but Jenn had seen the fire in his eyes as he had spoken. These small rebellions were all that were left to him now. But rebellion or not, for Bella, these visits had another purpose, to teach Jenn about duty.

Bella talked about it as though Jenn had never heard the word before. But of course, with her innkeeper’s upbringing, Jenn couldn’t possibly know anything about duty! Nevertheless, it had proved, over the entire winter, to be the single
most important lesson Bella had tried to instill in her. Oh, the writing and reading and the accounts and the household management and the clothes and the needlework and everything else were very important, but all those were nothing unless Jenn understood her duty!

It had got to the point where Jenn was ready to scream at the very mention of the word. It had developed, in her mind, the shape of a prison. Cold steel bars of Expectation atop walls of stone-carved Duty. The stupid thing was that Jenn was happy to do all this and more, and forget all about the concept of duty: she did it because she loved it.

It had been so difficult to get used to the idea that this was where she belonged. This was her home, her family, her people. This one single place. She had long since stopped waking in the morning wondering where she was today. But she had no time to miss the past, no time for anything other than her lessons. No time to reflect on what she’d done, on how she’d come here – no time even to think about sorcery!

Now that was the really difficult part. Robert had been right, it was so very hard to see those people in the hospice and not help them in some way. Of course, to her knowledge (which, she knew, didn’t amount to much) no sorcerer could actively heal anything with the direct use of power. Nevertheless, she did have Healer’s Sight and could see, without any effort at all, deep into the heart of a wound, or into the fits of a fever. She knew just what was needed to fix it, but she could say nothing, at least for the time being. At least until she’d learnt enough to be taken seriously by the physicians at the hospice. The good brothers welcomed their visits and were always happy to listen to any suggestion Bella might make, but then Bella had been doing this for years and had gained quite a bit of knowledge along the way. Jenn found it very frustrating, especially as she didn’t even know how to do that trick Robert had used, on the old man at the farmstead, to ease someone’s pain.

And she’d needed to do that today. Poor Ruth with her tired old body, riddled with evil-smelling polyps and blood-encrusted
sores. She’d cried out to the gods to take her, to stop the pain, to let her walk willingly into their arms. But instead, she’d lain there for days, in agony, beyond even sobbing for relief. Jenn had sat with her a long time, holding her hand and saying nothing. She’d tried to shut out the things her senses told her, but it was useless. She sat there and suffered along with Ruth in a way she’d never thought possible. If only she could have reached out. If only she could have eased the lines of pain from Ruth’s face. If only she could use her …

‘Are you going to stand there all day or are you coming into the market with me?’

Jenn whirled around to find Bella standing on the steps beside her, hands on hips. It was a common stance for Bella and one which made Jenn cringe. ‘Sorry. I was thinking about Ruth.’

‘Well, she’s with Mineah now and beyond suffering. Come, we should get moving, otherwise Father will wonder what’s happened to us. Look, there’s Lawrence.’

Jenn came down the steps beside Bella just as Lawrence pushed his way through the crowd to meet them. As always, Lawrence’s gentle brown eyes lit up at the sight of his wife, and as always, Bella smiled in response. He was a lovely man, but one of the best things about him was that Bella always softened in his company.

‘I left the horses with the innkeeper at the Boar and Oak, my dear. It’s much too crowded here to bring them through. Do you want to leave now or do you want to make some purchases?’

Bella glanced around. ‘Well, if you’re in no hurry?’

Lawrence bowed with graceful irony. ‘I’m at your service, my sweet.’

Jenn stifled a giggle as Bella sniffed and moved on. Following behind, Lawrence paused from time to time and pointed things out to Jenn he knew she would be interested in.

‘Now this is a beauty!’ He picked up an embroidered
shawl rich in greens and golds. ‘By the look of it, it’s true Alusian.’

‘Aye, my lord, it is indeed.’ The woman behind the stall grinned. ‘My son did a pilgrimage there last year and brought that back with ’im. ’E brought these other pretties as well.’

Jenn stood beside Lawrence and glanced over the trinkets displayed before her. There was a whalebone jar carved in the design of Alusia’s shrine to Mineah, several more shawls, and a small grey stone box, plain and square. Curious, Jenn picked it up and turned it over. It felt warm in her hands and instantly she wanted to buy it.

‘What do you want a thing like that for?’ Bella demanded, peering over her shoulder. ‘It’s not even pretty.’

Jenn wrapped her hands around it. ‘I think it is.’

‘Hah!’ Bella turned away, giving Jenn the brief opportunity to pay for the box. Lawrence gave her a quick smile and they turned to follow Bella through the crowd. Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed Jenn’s shoulder.

‘It’s you, isn’t it!’

Jenn shrank back from the hideous face that leered down at her. The man was huge. He wore rags which hung loose from his body and his eyes bore the gleam of madness. ‘It was you, you lying little whore …’

‘Let her go!’ Lawrence bellowed, launching towards the man. He struggled for a moment before he could finally release the man’s hold on Jenn.

‘No!’ The man roared, ‘I’ll kill her! It’s all her fault!’ He flailed around with his arms, knocking people aside. By now the crowd had parted around the man as he continued to spit curses. Jenn remained frozen to the spot, with Lawrence standing protectively between them.

He roared again and dived to get past Lawrence, who stood firm against the bigger man. Then the crowd came to their rescue. Strong hands pulled the man back and although he struggled, they kept their hold. He continued raging against them until suddenly Bella moved forward, her voice cool and soothing.

‘Stop it, Joseph. That’s enough. You’ve scared her plenty, now leave it alone. You’ve done your job. Go home.’

Joseph stared at her with glazed eyes which abruptly filled with tears. ‘But my lovely Tali, my lady. She’s dead, you know. She died because of that whore …’

‘Enough,’ Bella murmured again. ‘Leave it, Joseph. You can do no good now. Go home.’

With a nod from Bella, the men holding him led him away, but even as he went, Jenn could hear his mutterings. The crowd dispersed and went back to their normal business and immediately Lawrence turned around to Jenn.

‘Are you all right?’

She nodded, her eyes still on the retreating men. ‘Who was that? What did he mean? Why did he call me …’

‘Pay no attention to him, Jennifer,’ Bella replied crisply. ‘He’s quite mad. I doubt he’ll bother you again.’

‘But who is he? I want to know.’

Bella sighed. ‘You wouldn’t remember him; you were too young. Still, I suppose you should know. His name is Joseph Yates. His wife Tali was your nurse. When you disappeared by the river you were in her care.’

‘And everybody blamed her for my death?’

‘Everybody shunned her, no one would take her in, nor even speak to her. Then one day she was found dead in the forest. Joseph has been a little unbalanced ever since. I suppose now that he knows you’ve returned, it just makes it so much harder for him.’

Jenn closed her eyes. A weight like stone sat on her chest and she breathed deep to ease it. She’d never thought of the wider consequences of her abduction, or the effects it had had on other people. If only she could help Joseph in some way, but she couldn’t. He was beyond her help. She couldn’t even tell him why she’d been taken.

‘Come,’ Lawrence murmured, putting his arm around her shoulders, ‘I think it’s time we were getting home.’

Jenn nodded, then looked down at the little stone box in her hands. Lawrence followed her gaze. ‘Oh no! It’s broken!’

It was true. Somewhere in the scuffle with Joseph, Jenn
had gripped the box so hard in her hands that its delicate stone sides had cracked in two. She held one in each hand then, with a shrug, put them into her pocket. ‘This is becoming a habit.’

‘What?’

‘Nothing. Let’s go.’

They made their way through the crowd to the Boar and Oak where Lawrence retrieved their horses. He held Jenn’s as she mounted, but the moment she got up on to the horse, a strange feeling washed over her, like cold water.

Someone was watching her.

Instantly she looked around at the passing villagers and at first she saw nothing. Then—

There, a face in the crowd – but as soon as she saw it, the face disappeared. All Jenn was left with was the memory of a pair of hazel eyes and a deep feeling of disquiet.

*

Jacob sat in the long walled garden in the shade of a yew tree his great-grandfather had planted. It had been a symbol of peace between two brothers who had fought for years. On the day the eldest had ascended the throne, the younger had planted this tree and had sworn from that day on allegiance to the crown of the Earls of Elita. The tree had flourished and grown, tall and proud. Such could not be said, however, for the House it sheltered. Fate or the gods themselves had decreed that the Ross family should fade and perhaps even die. Without a son to take his name forward, Jacob had only his daughters to follow him, and one of those had been married for seven years without issue. As for the other?

Despite his sombre mood, Jacob still could not help smiling when he thought of his Jennifer. After so many years, so much pain and anguish … If only Elaine had lived to see it. If she could only have known her child still lived, she might have had the strength to live herself. But it was not to be. Jennifer was back, that was the important thing. All the rest were only memories of things he could not change.

But it was the past and its memories which kept him in the garden today. Jacob glanced across the grass. Latham Campbell had travelled a long way to see Jacob, and all because of the past. Old and worn, Campbell was still a man to be reckoned with. And he’d seen a lot of tragedy in his life, not the least of which was the loss of his son and heir in the final battle against Selar, at Nanmoor. The very same battle in which Jacob had almost died.

Campbell sat on a bench, his lean legs stretched out before him. With almost forced patience, he kept his hands together and gazed up at the yew branches high above. There, celebrating the first weeks of spring, a pair of finches prepared to nest. In a musing voice, Campbell finally spoke. ‘You’re not telling me what an old fool I am, Jacob. Is it because you feel pity for me?’

Jacob shook his head slowly. ‘No. You’re no fool, Latham – unless you’ve changed a lot over the years. You follow your heart just as you should.’

‘Even now? After all these years?’

‘Even now.’

Campbell nodded and threw Jacob a wry glance. ‘But you do feel pity for me?’

‘I feel you are a man searching for some small ray of hope. If that is pity …’ Jacob shrugged and left the sentence unfinished.

Abruptly Campbell stood and began pacing up and down the path in front of Jacob. The rose border at his feet had yet to bloom, but the tiny green leaves trembled with his every step. ‘Where are they? What can be keeping them?’

Jacob was about to reply when sounds from the courtyard beyond the wall told him the waiting was over. Moments later, the garden gate opened and Bella walked through, followed by Jennifer. He waved them over, then turned his attention to Campbell. The old man had stopped his pacing and was now staring openly at Jacob’s younger daughter.

Jacob introduced them, adding, ‘He’s come a long way, Jennifer. Baron Campbell would like to ask you a few questions.’

Jennifer’s wide blue eyes seemed dark in the sunshine and a brief smile flashed across her face. ‘What kind of questions?’

Campbell indicated the bench under the tree. ‘Please sit down. I’m sorry I’ve done this so abruptly, child, but I came here as soon as I could – as soon as I heard. I live on the other side of Lusara, you see, and with the winter being harsh, I couldn’t make the journey earlier. These old bones won’t do the riding they once did. Please, do sit.’

Jennifer glanced once at Jacob and for a moment, she looked quite nervous. He smiled reassurance to her as she sank to the bench. Bella waited beside him. From the expression on her face, Jacob felt she had a pretty good idea of what this was about.

‘What would you like to ask me?’

Campbell stood before her and twisted his hands together. ‘I’ve heard the story about how you were abducted – and how you were found again and brought home. I need to know …’ He paused, fighting for his words.

In response, Jennifer smiled up at him then reached out and took his hand. ‘Go on, my lord. What do you need to know?’

Jacob couldn’t take his eyes from them. It was incredible. Campbell, until now worn and tired from his journey and almost reeking anguish, visibly relaxed at the touch of Jennifer’s hand. He looked down into her eyes. Jacob could only guess what he saw there, but whatever it was produced a sad smile. With a sigh, Campbell sank down onto the bench beside her.

‘I need to know … if you remember anything about the men who took you. I realize you were very young but – do you remember anything? Who they were? Where they took you? Did they ever say why? Would you know them if you saw them again? Did you ever see any … others?’

‘Others?’ Jennifer murmured with a frown. Then abruptly, her eyes widened. ‘You lost someone? In the Troubles?’

‘My grandson, Keith. He was abducted two months after you. He was barely three years old. His father was killed
fighting Selar and I just thought … I hoped you might be able to tell me something – anything that might shed some light on his fate. Did you never see any other children? Any others with a House Mark?’