Romancing the Earl (35 page)

“I can, and I will.” He gazed at her with pity, which only infuriated her more. “I sympathize with your plight, but I’m afraid I can’t let you have the sword.”

Cate longed to hit him as Elijah had. “You can’t ‘let’ me? All these years you’ve suffered from a terrible reputation that I didn’t think you had necessarily earned, but this . . . This far exceeds anything I thought you capable of.”

“Are you speaking of the drinking and whoring, or the rumor that I killed my wife?” The question dripped with scorn. He sounded like a man who knew he was reviled and didn’t care. But she knew he did—at least, she thought he did. She’d seen him after his wife had died. He’d been broken.

“You didn’t kill her.”

“No, I didn’t kill her.” He flashed her a cold smile. This was a side of him she’d never seen or imagined. “But I
was
a horrendous rake, thanks to my father’s tutelage.”
 

“You didn’t have to be like him,” she said softly.

“And what should I have been like with no one else to guide me?”

She wanted to say her father would’ve, but he hadn’t been allowed to spend enough time with Kersey. She felt sorry for him, but struggled to understand why he was chasing the sword. “Why do you want the sword? You aren’t an antiquary. I didn’t even realize you were interested in any of this.”

“Why, because I’m not part of your family’s precious scholarly circle? I know how much your father looks down on my father and his attempts to build a medieval library of his own.”

She scowled at him. “Because your father is a feckless ass. It’s a diversion, just like his women.”

“Why does your family have the right to decide who’s important enough to collect books or trinkets?” The derision in his tone permeated Cate like frost in midwinter.

“We don’t.” She struggled to understand his animosity. “So you want the sword in order to be taken seriously?” She completely understood that goal, since it was hers.

“Among other things.”

Then perhaps you should start by realizing Dyrnwyn is not a “trinket.”
She bit her tongue, lest she provoke him into changing his mind about protecting her from his men. “And are you a member of this Order?”
 

“I’m surprised you know of it. I thought it was secret.”

She lifted her chin. “I know many secrets. What I don’t know is why you would want to join that group. Was it to gain credibility?”

His lips spread into an enigmatic smile. “For now, that shall remain a secret that you don’t know.”
 

His taunting tone grated her nerves to a fine powder of frustration. “Will you tell me what you plan to do with the sword?”

He shrugged, and she was again overcome with the desire to strike him. “It belongs to us—the group.”

It bloody well did
not
. “It belongs to the people of Britain. It should be in a museum. What will your ‘group’ do with it?”

“Another secret I shan’t disclose.” He turned his focus to the sword. His fingers curled around the hilt and he lifted it from the box. Her heart clenched as she watched him hold it and realized she hadn’t even had the chance to.

He stood and brandished the sword, gazing at it in stark admiration. “Look at the steel of the blade. It’s tinged blue. If I turn it thus”—he twisted it in the sunlight and it seemed to glow—“it looks as though it might spark into flame.” He looked at her reproachfully. “You didn’t think it would
actually
burst into flame, did you?”

Cate didn’t answer. She was too distraught that she was about to lose the fruit of her life’s work. She imagined Glendower lifting it in battle, Gareth accepting it from Rhydderch Hael on his wedding day. “It’s . . . everything I ever wanted.” She looked at him hopelessly. “Please let me have it so I may give it to Penn for the museum.”

His features darkened. “Of course you want to give it to your brother. No, this discovery is mine now.”

“At least let her hold it,” Elijah said, his deep voice cutting through the dovecote like an arrow speeding toward its prey.

She looked at him and saw something in his eyes—a suggestion maybe. If she could take the blade, perhaps she could use it . . . “Yes, will you let me? I didn’t have a chance.”

Kersey thought for a moment, his gaze skeptical. “All right, but if you try anything, I’d hate for Norris to pay the price.”

One of the men holding Elijah drove his fist into Elijah’s lower back, eliciting a grunt from him. Cate tensed, but Elijah gave her a reassuring stare.

“I won’t do anything. Just let me hold it for a moment.” She held her hand out and eventually Kersey transferred the sword to her. It was heavy, weighing her arm down.
 

Kersey gave her a sly smile. “I think you
do
hope it will burst into flame.”

That would’ve been extremely helpful. However, for it to do that would mean that she was a descendant of Gareth or one of the other knights, as Glendower apparently had been. And she was fairly certain she was not. The blade grew even weightier. Her arm sagged and she had to tip the blade down. She grunted in frustration and pain.

Kersey snatched it back from her. “Clearly it’s too heavy for you.” And yet he wielded it with no trouble at all. “I know you think I’m a villain, Cate, but I’m not. I’m simply taking what I deserve.”

“What does Cate deserve?” Elijah asked sharply.
 

Kersey frowned at her. “I am sorry that it has to be like this.” He looked to the two men who weren’t occupied with either Elijah or Cate, but who had pistols directed at them. “Tie them up.”

The men stowed their weapons and one went to Cate. He pulled her arms behind her back and bound her wrists, while the man who’d been holding her kept his pistol trained on her. Cate didn’t bother fighting, especially when she looked over at Elijah. He struggled, and it took two men, but they wrestled him to the ground and bound both his hands and feet.

Kersey cast Cate an apologetic glance. “A necessary frustration, I’m afraid. I can’t have you following us.”

“I’m going to find you, Kersey.” Elijah’s promise was low and venomous.

Kersey pivoted to stare down at Elijah. “I wouldn’t bother threatening me, Norris. These men don’t like leaving loose ends. If you can’t swear to let this entire matter go, I think you’ll find they won’t leave you alone. You’ll be the one pursued, not me.”

“He won’t cause you any difficulty,” Cate said, throwing Elijah a pleading glance. For now, they needed to say whatever necessary to survive. She didn’t want him endangering his life—not for this.

The men holding Cate lowered her to the ground and tied her ankles together.

Kersey tucked the sword back into the box and hefted it under his arm. “And now I’ll bid you adieu, fair cousin.” He hesitated, frowning down at her. “Perhaps it would appease your disappointment if I left the tapestry with you. I have no further need of it.” He nodded toward one of the men. “Fetch it.”

“Ye sure that’s a good idea?” the man who’d originally held Cate asked.

“Don’t question me,” Kersey snapped.

The other man returned with the tapestry and set it on the ground.

Kersey tapped the sword box with his free hand. “Your assistance in this momentous discovery is greatly appreciated.” He inclined his head toward his band of villains and disappeared from the dovecote.

The two men standing nearest looked at Elijah as though they wished they could eviscerate him, but in the end they took themselves off. However, the man who’d been holding Cate went over to Elijah and knocked the butt of his pistol against his temple.

“Stop!” Cate tried to wriggle across the dirt to get to Elijah.

The villain only laughed as he left the dovecote, leaving them alone.

It took a great deal of effort, but Cate eventually reached Elijah’s side. She turned her hips and brought herself to a kneeling position. She leaned close and looked at his head, wishing her hands were free. A small rivulet of blood leaked from his blond hairline. “You’re bleeding.”

“Am I?” He turned his head, his blue-gray eyes boring into hers. “Are you all right?”

They were so close—close enough that she could kiss him. But he’d been clear about putting last night behind them. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t even be here.”

“Why not? The tapestry belongs to me, and Kersey is responsible for my brother’s death. Our paths are irrevocably intertwined. You are the one who needn’t be here. I know you wanted the sword, but I should’ve insisted you go home to Monmouth.”

There he went, being autocratic again. “You did, if you recall. But I wouldn’t change anything. You and Wade would’ve been overcome at Harlech, and you wouldn’t have been able to communicate with Berwyn, which is what led us to the sword.” They also wouldn’t have spent last night together—and that was something she could never bring herself to regret.

“Can you sit behind me so that I can try to use my fingers to pull at your ropes?”

She turned and flopped onto her backside behind him, then scooted up against him. “Will that work?”

“It will take some time.” His fingers plucked at the rope between her wrists. “Hold as still as you can.”

“Do you really mean to go after Kersey?”

“Yes. But first, I’m taking you home to Monmouth. And this time, I’ll brook no argument.”

She knew better than to offer one, but that didn’t mean she was going to follow his directive. Monmouth was scarcely ten miles from here and it would be good to discuss everything they’d learned with her father. She wanted—no, she needed—to know what part he played in all of this, if anything.
 

Elijah worked his fingers slowly but methodically as he endeavored to separate the knot holding her wrists together. “I should have asked Kersey if he’d been working with Septon, since they’re both part of the Order.”

“You’re assuming Septon is part of the Order.”

“You seemed convinced that he was.”

It did appear to be the only explanation for Septon’s secretive behavior over the years. However, to think that he could be in league with Kersey and stealing the sword made her nauseated. “I would still like to know what Kersey plans to do with Dyrnwyn.” She was frustrated that he wouldn’t say.

“Perhaps he plans to sell it. What other motive could he have?”

Cate thought it over, but couldn’t come up with one. She also couldn’t come up with a reason for him and Septon to be working together. “Kersey hates Septon. I can’t envision them aligning over this.”

“Money is a powerful motivator and will unite the least likely of people—even foes.”

“Just because they’re in this Order together doesn’t mean they share a common goal. Ifan mentioned corrupt members. Perhaps Kersey is one of them, while Septon is not.” And if her father was in the Order, she had to assume he wasn’t corrupt either. To imagine anything else would completely alter her world.

“You must believe what you will, but don’t expect me to do the same.” With a final tug, he loosened the rope.

Cate pulled her wrists apart until the rope fell away. She brought her hands in front of her, stripped her gloves off, and massaged her tortured flesh for a moment before starting in on the knot between her ankles. “Will you cast my father as a villain then too?” She finished untying the rope and thrust it away before pushing up and kneeling beside Elijah.

His eyes met hers. “We don’t know that your father is even a part of the Order.”

She focused on untying the rope at his wrists. “Just as we don’t know Septon is. All I’m asking is for you not to cast blame before we know all of the facts. We don’t even know that Kersey had anything to do with Matthew’s death.”

“You can’t think he was blameless in that—not when it’s obvious this group of miscreants has been carrying out his commands for quite some time with the goal of obtaining the sword.”

She didn’t know what to think. Her mind was still grappling with the fact that Kersey had been behind all of the attempted thefts. She pulled the knot loose and swept the rope away. Plucking up her discarded glove from the dirt, she used it to dab at the blood that had caked along his temple. “We should find some water. Do you suppose our horses are still outside?”

“I doubt it,” he said. “Kersey didn’t want for us to follow him, but he knew we wouldn’t remain bound forever. Honestly, I wonder why he let us live, particularly when his comrades seemed so keen to commit violence.”

Cate shuddered. “Kersey may be a thief, but I can’t yet call him a murderer.”

Elijah turned his head and her hand fell away. “
I
can.”