Secret Heart (19 page)

“
As for
Walderon’s duty to me,” Jenia said, continuing her story, “he chose
to neglect me. I was the lesser heiress, after all. I imagine he
thought he’d find a husband for me after he had married off Chantal
to his advantage.

“
You must
understand that when we were alone together, Chantal was
mischievous and delightfully funny. She was completely different
with Walderon because she was afraid of him. She tried to be mild
and sweet with him, and I never saw her openly defy him. As a
result, Walderon apparently thought she would be easy to
manipulate. He spent his matchmaking energies on arranging a
marriage between Chantal and Lord Malin of Malemon. The fact that
Chantal detested Malin made no difference to Walderon. The two men
had some private agreement. I’m not certain exactly what it was,
but I do know Walderon stood to benefit greatly from Chantal’s
marriage.”

“
My lord,
I can attest to the truth of this portion of Jenia’s account,”
Garit said. “Chantal told me much the same story. She hated and
feared Walderon, and she was repulsed by Lord Malin.”

“
Who can
blame her?” murmured Queen Hannorah. “Malin is a despicable man,
who preys upon young girls and boys, not caring which he lures into
his clutches, so long as his victims are pretty and innocent.
Henryk, I have warned you about him and you promised to look into
the matter.”

“
I did
so,” the king responded. “Malin doesn’t know it yet, but he is
about to be punished and the marriage he recently contracted will
be annulled. Lord Serlion has assured me of that.”

“
So I
have,” the Lord Mage spoke up from behind the throne. “Within a few
days, Lord Malin will be in custody and divested of all his
properties.”

“
Now,”
King Henryk said, “let us return to the question at hand, which is
Chantal’s fate. What happened to her, Jenia? Make the story brief,
for I warn you, I am growing impatient.”

“
Chantal
had grown fond of Garit, and he professed to love her,” Jenia said,
choosing her words carefully so as not to embarrass Garit. “Chantal
told me that, as is required for a Kantian nobleman, Garit had
applied to the king of Kantia for permission to wed her. He was
only awaiting the king’s letter of response before speaking
directly to King Henryk. He hoped thus to bypass Walderon’s plans.
But clever Uncle Walderon forestalled Chantal’s hopes by insisting
she was to wed Malin in ten days,” Jenia added with sarcasm worthy
of Roarke at his coldest.

“
Chantal
was in despair at the prospect of marriage to so loathsome a man,”
Jenia continued. “She told me she would rather die than be bedded
by Malin. She told Walderon much the same thing, and promised that
during the ceremony she would declare she was being forced and
she’d refuse to sign the marriage contract. Walderon threatened
her, saying if she did refuse, King Henryk would confiscate all of
her lands, leaving her a pauper, which would mean no nobleman would
want to marry her. I suspect he knew about Garit’s plans and that’s
why he hastened the wedding date. Chantal’s feelings did not matter
to him.

“
Garit, I
am sorry to reveal your secret, but it is part of the story,” Jenia
said. “Chantal told me about your plan to flee together before the
marriage to Malin could take place. You intended to take her to
Auremont, didn’t you? I have slept these past few nights in the
room you prepared for her and I’ve sat in the garden you had made
for her pleasure. I have worn some of the clothes you collected for
her to use.”

“
It’s all
true,” Garit said, “and I am not ashamed of those preparations. I
would have done anything to protect Chantal from Malin. I tried to
convince Lord Walderon of Malin’s unsuitability, but he refused to
listen to me. Chantal and I decided we had no other choice. The
night before her wedding day, Chantal was to slip away from her
attendants and from Lady Sanal and join me. She said she could
leave without being noticed, but she didn’t tell me every detail.
When she did not appear at the appointed hour, I knew someone had
stopped her. I never saw her again.” Garit blinked several times,
clamping his mouth shut as if fighting back tears.

“
Roarke,
did you know about this scheme?” King Henryk demanded.

“
Only
later, after Lady Chantal was gone and after you assigned me to
find her,” Roarke said. “Knowing of Garit’s devotion to Lady
Chantal, one of the first things I did after accepting your orders
was question him. He told me about their failed plan and swore me
to silence. I saw no reason to create a scandal by revealing the
tale, especially since Garit was utterly bewildered and very
frightened by the lady’s disappearance. It was clear to me that he
had nothing to do with it and that he was seriously worried about
her.”

“
I will
not comment on a plan devised in defiance of a noblewoman’s legal
guardian,” said King Henryk “except to say I cannot approve of it.
Chantal should have come to me and made her concerns known to me,
as her liege lord.”

“
Would
you have listened to her?” Jenia asked, her voice heavy with scorn.
“More importantly, would you have helped her? Chantal believed you
would not help, that you would favor the wishes of two of your
noblemen over the pleas of a mere woman.”

“
She
should have come to me,” Queen Hannorah said softly. “I would have
spoken to the king on her behalf.”

“
What’s
done is done,” King Henryk said. A quick, chopping motion of his
hand silenced all comments on the subject for everyone except the
woman standing so defiantly before him. “Jenia, I expect you to
tell us without further delay what happened to Chantal.”

“
She
asked for my help and I gave it. How could I deny a blood relative
who was also my dearest friend? It was my suggestion that we should
switch our clothes as we used to do when we were children and I
should appear in the great hall that evening as Lady Chantal,
wearing a silk gown and jewels, while she dressed as me, in my role
as her attendant. We hoped my usual plain manner of dress would
make it easier for her to slip away unnoticed at the appointed
hour.”

“
So, she
did try to meet me?” Garit asked. “But, what happened to
her?”

“
The same
thing that happened to me,” Jenia answered. “Chantal and I parted
that evening, she to meet Garit and I to continue my deception by
pretending to be Chantal heading for her bedchamber. Somewhere
along the corridor, here in your own fortress,
Henryk,
I was assaulted
on your orders, struck on the back of the head, and carried away
unconscious by men who believed that I was Chantal.”

“
What?”
exclaimed the king. “I never gave such an order.”

“
Did you
not?” Jenia challenged him. “Then why, when Chantal and I awakened
in a cold and damp dungeon, were we told that you had ordered our
removal from Calean?”

“
I would
not do such a thing,” Henryk repeated.

“
We were
told, over and over again, that you were responsible for our
imprisonment,” Jenia insisted. “We were informed that, because
Chantal was causing so much trouble over her proposed marriage, you
had decided to confiscate her lands. Disloyal noblewomen must
expect such treatment. That’s what our guards told us. In view of
how Walderon had threatened Chantal, saying that was exactly what
would happen if she continued to refuse to marry Lord Malin, both
of us believed what the guards said.”

“
What
they said was untrue, a bald and slanderous lie,” King Henryk
declared. “I’ll soon get to the bottom of this ridiculous claim.
Where were you held?”

“
I do not
know,” Jenia said. “I was unconscious before I left the corridor
here in the castle. Chantal received the same harsh treatment. We
both tried to discover where we were, in hope that we could find a
way to escape, or to get a message to Garit. All the guards would
tell us was that they were acting on your orders.”

“
They
lied,” Henryk said yet again, speaking through clenched
teeth.

“
Jenia,
listen to me,” Roarke said. “I talked with King Henryk several
times after Chantal disappeared. I know him well, and I do believe
he was honestly upset and worried about her. I am absolutely
certain he had nothing to do with your abduction.”

“
I agree
with Roarke,” Garit said. “King Henryk did everything possible to
find Chantal. We didn’t even know about your disappearance, or we
would have been as worried about you as we were about Chantal. But,
after all, since you pretended to be an almost invisible servant,
you should have expected that your sudden absence wouldn’t be
noticed,” he finished, glaring at her.

“
Jenia,”
said Lord Giles, speaking in a kinder tone than Garit’s, “I have
known King Henryk for many years. I cannot believe he was a part of
the plot you describe. As proof, I offer the fact that he has never
since Lady Chantal’s disappearance made any attempt to seize her
lands.”

“
The
guards repeatedly said he was to blame,” Jenia insisted.

“
Perhaps,
the guards were lying,” suggested Lord Mage Serlion, who so far had
listened in silence. “Isn’t it possible they were told to lie in
order to implicate a good and honest king in so foul a
deed?”

“
Told by
whom?” Jenia asked, her former certainty wavering in the face of so
many testaments to King Henryk’s honor.

“
By the
true villain, of course,” said Serlion.

“
It must
be Walderon,” Garit exclaimed. “I have believed from the beginning
that he had something to do with Chantal’s disappearance. Roarke
and I both questioned him, to no avail. We went after Malin, too,
and questioned him as well. Neither man would admit any knowledge
of this affair.”

“
It pains
me to suggest any good of Lord Malin,” Queen Hannorah said, “but
perhaps in this case, he told you the truth. If Walderon arranged
to have his nieces abducted, the last person he would include in
his plan would be Malin. If Malin did not marry Chantal, he’d never
take possession of Thury, or of her other estates. It seems to me
that those lands, added to Jenia’s estate of Gildeley, provide an
excellent motive for a dishonest man to rid himself of a pair of
wards whom he considered troublesome – assuming Walderon is in fact
the guilty party.”

“
You may
well be right, my lady,” Roarke said with a glance of approval for
the queen’s clear thinking.

“
Jenia,
continue your story,” King Henryk ordered. “We must know all of it
before we can reach any sure conclusions. How long were you and
Lady Chantal imprisoned?”

“
I
believe for half a year or more. At first, I tried to count the
days, but the chamber where we were kept was so dark that I finally
gave up trying to distinguish one day from another. But it was
springtime when we were seized and now it’s early
autumn.”

“
Were you
tortured?” the king asked. “Or molested in any way?”

“
No. I
thank heaven for that much,” Jenia said, “though we were left cold
and hungry.”

“
What
else can you tell us?” Roarke asked. “Come on, Jenia, you must
remember something useful.”

“
Only one
detail,” she answered. “Because of the way we were dressed, the
guards assumed that I was Chantal, and she was me. We never
corrected their mistake because Chantal hoped we would eventually
find a way to use their error against them. In the end, our
masquerade led to her murder.” Jenia fell silent then, thinking of
the manner of Chantal’s death.

At that
point Lord Giles took Jenia’s hand.

“
Surely,
you know,” he said in a gentle tone, “that you must tell us how
your cousin died. The king must know so he can administer justice,
and you must speak the words aloud before witnesses if you are ever
to recover.”

“
I never
will recover,” Jenia whispered. Lord Giles pressed her hand in
obvious sympathy. Then, to her surprise, Roarke slipped an arm
around her waist.

“
I
believe every word you’ve spoken here,” he said. “Tell us now,
Jenia. For Chantal’s sake, complete your quest to obtain justice
for her. Fulfill the promise you made in that dungeon.” He looked
deep into her eyes, encouraging her.

“
One day,
or possibly it was one night,” Jenia said, speaking as calmly as
she could, “the guards stormed into our cell and seized us. When
Chantal demanded to know what they were going to do with us, they
said only that they were taking us away on King Henryk’s orders.
They slapped her and pulled her hair and told her that a servant
ought to know her rightful place. When I screamed at them to leave
her alone, they hit me, too.”

“
Oh, dear
heaven above,” Garit said with a sob. He covered his face with his
hands, and Lord Giles placed an arm across his shoulders as if to
lend support.

“
Go on,”
Roarke urged Jenia, tightening the arm he’d kept around her
waist.

“
The
guards began to drag us out of the cell. Chantal made a very loud
and vigorous protest, demanding that her ‘mistress’ be released at
once. I think she believed we were being taken out to be executed
and perhaps she hoped to save me.”