Strangclyf Secret (18 page)

Once she reached the
lord’s chamber on the third floor, she went to the hearth and
pushed on a stone. The wall beside the hearth sprang open. She
pushed a stool she used for cleaning from under the bed to the
wall, so she could stand upon the step and grab a torch. Then she
slipped inside the passage and closed the wall.

She descended steep spiral
steps, built into the tower wall, and entered the old Roman bath.
Going behind a screen at the far end of the room, she placed the
torch in a wall bracket and changed from the priest’s frock into
her one remaining everyday gown, frowning at the bedraggled russet.
She would have to repair the one Hadwyn had torn on the
morrow.

Crossing the chamber, she
slipped into the maze and hurried to her destination. She picked up
a broken axe handle from the floor and rapped against the ceiling
three times. A moment later, she heard three faint taps in
reply.

She pulled a lever and a
stairway lowered in front of her. She looked up at four jubilant
faces grinning down at her then ascended the steps. “How are all my
little doves?”

The children all clamored
around her, speaking at once, competing for her attention. A happy
laugh bubbled from her lips and she held up her hands. “Slow down
and remember there is only one of me. Let me close the floor before
one of you falls in, then I want proper hugs.”

“
I will do it, Mama.” A
thin boy of seven summers with dark-brown hair hobbled across the
floor on his clubbed foot. He leaned over, opened a stone beside
the steps, and released a lever, closing the entrance, then
replaced the top of the stone.

“
That was very good,
Genius. I am glad you remember your escape latch. Come give me a
hug.” Barwolf held her arms open to the boy whose face flamed over
the compliment. His gray eyes sparkled as he limped to her and
wrapped his arms around her waist. “My, look how tall you are
getting. I bet you grew another whole inch in the last week. Soon
you will be as tall as me.”

“
Uncle Aurick says that
would not take much,” he replied, smiling up at her.

Barwolf laughed and
ruffled his hair then turned toward two young girls of five and six
summers who looked like twins except for an inch difference in
their heights and the color of their eyes. They both shared
identical thatches of chestnut curls and splatters of freckles
across their noses. Their eyes determined their names—Sapphire and
Topaz. “How are my precious gems?”

“
I am happy you are home,”
Topaz, the older of the two, said and wrapped her arms around
Barwolf.

“
I’m happy more, Mama,”
Sapphire cried, throwing herself at Barwolf.

“
I’m happy I am home too,”
Barwolf exclaimed, hugging them back. After a fierce group hug, she
set them back.

“
My Amelia got a tummy ache
and Ravyn sewed her well again,” Topaz said in a solemn tone,
holding up her doll.

Barwolf frowned
appropriately and kissed the doll’s stitches. “Did you thank
her?

“
Aye,” Topaz replied,
tipping up her nose. “I was very polite and gracious.”

Barwolf felt a tug on her
gown and turned to the younger sister. “And were you a good girl
while I was gone, Sapphire?”

“
Most of the time, but I
accidentally broke a bowl, because I am a wild hoyden.” Sapphire
cocked her head and beamed up at Barwolf. “What is a
hoyden?”

A slender young girl of
twelve summers with jet-black hair, who stood only a few inches
shorter than Barwolf, snorted at Sapphire’s question, though a
happy light danced in her pale-blue eyes.

“
I am sorry I was gone so
long, Rayvn,” Barwolf said to the girl. “Come give me a hug and
tell me how you fared.”

Ravyn crossed the room and
kissed Barwolf’s cheek. “I am happy you are home too. Ardith and
Betia stayed with us until today when Padarn came. Genius slipped
through the maze to the kitchen every day and Mae kept us supplied
with food. Cora sneaked us some milk every day. We were staying
inside until ‘twas safe to leave.”

“
Manuel escaped,” Genius
said with an exasperated shake of his head.

“
I know,” Barwolf said,
happy to see that manly little gesture. “He is at the keep, acting
as page for King William.”

“
I saw him,” Ravyn said,
arching a sly brow.

“
Saw who?” Barwolf
asked.

“
Your husband, the new Lord
Strangclyf.” Ravyn released a dreamy sigh. “He is very handsome and
he is huge.”

“
Will he play on the sun
with us?” Sapphire asked as excitement frolicked across her pixy
face.

“
Is he going to be my
papa?” Topaz asked at the same time.

Barwolf grinned at the
children. “Aye, Ravyn. He is huge and handsome. I do not know if he
will play on the sun, Sapphire. And aye, Topaz, he is going to be
your papa. Ravyn, let’s pack.”

“
Where are we going?” Ravyn
asked with a tone of surprise.

“
Home.” Barwolf crossed the
small room and began pulling cloths from pegs and tossing them on a
pallet.

“
But we are home,” Sapphire
said, throwing her arms wide.

“
Your new home,” Barwolf
amended and winked at the girl.

“
Where is that?” Topaz
asked.

“
The keep!” Genius shouted.
“We are going to live at the keep with Mama!”

Four sets of excited eyes
turned toward Barwolf and she nodded. “You certainly are,” she
said, grabbing the corners of the sheet then lifting the makeshift
pouch. “I think this is enough for now, Ravyn. We can come back for
everything else tomorrow.”

Bernon returned to the
keep and went up to the lord’s chamber to check on his bride.
Finding the room empty, he barreled down the stairs to the hall and
saw Medwyn drinking ale with other soldiers.

“
Where in perdition is
she?” he bellowed.

Medwyn glanced up,
surprised, and set down his tankard. “What are you ranting
about?”

“
My bride,” Bernon gritted
out. “Where is she and why are you not with her?”

“
She told me she was going
to rest and she hasn’t come back down. I have waited here to escort
her if she did.” Medwyn gestured to the area about him. “I haven’t
a notion how she could have gotten by without me seeing
her.”

“
The damn maze,” Bernon
muttered under his breath. He wiped a hand over his face and placed
a fist on his hip.

“
Milord, we have a
problem,” Hugo said, coming in the rear door.

Bernon saw a crying
three-year-old boy clinging to the warrior’s leg and recognized
Fiona’s bastard. The woman was a camp follower who had been ailing
for several weeks. “What happened?”

“
Fiona passed. What do you
want to do with her boy?” Hugo asked in a tone indicating he
expected his lord to solve this problem without delay. “None of the
men ever claimed him.”

“
We shall keep him,”
Barwolf called, having just entered the front door with her brood.
“What is his name?”

Hugo looked up, appearing
relieved, as she dropped her sheet-pouch and started across the
hall, followed by two matching young girls, a limping boy, and a
pretty older girl. “’Tis Karl, milady.”

“
We cannot keep him,
woman!” Bernon braced his feet apart as if about to battle his
worst enemy.

“
We have to, Bernon. If he
is a bastard, nobody else will want him and I do.” Barwolf knelt
down in front of the wailing child, who wrapped his arms around
Hugo’s leg and hid his face against the soldier. “Hello, Karl.
Welcome to Strangclyf. This is your new home.”

Karl peeked around Hugo’s
leg and sniffed. The boy sucked in a breath through quivering lips
and gazed at her through teary big brown eyes. “I know you are very
scared, but we are going to take good care of you. Come over here
where I can see you.”

She held out her hand
toward the boy and smiled at him. Karl hesitated then reached
toward her. When their fingers touched, he launched himself at her
chest and wailed, “I want my mama.”

Barwolf wrapped her arms
around the boy and tenderly patted his back. “I know you do, Karl,
but she has gone away. God loves your mama so much that He had her
come live with Him in Heaven. He had her bring you to me first, so
you wouldn’t have to be alone and afraid.”

“
Will I never see her
again?” he asked in a desolate mumble against her
shoulder.

“
Someday if you are very
good, you will see her. But for right now you get to be part of my
family.” Barwolf turned the boy toward the four youngsters beside
her. “Children, come meet your new brother. Karl, this is Ravyn,
Genius, Topaz, and Sapphire. You can meet your other brother,
Manuel, when he finishes his duties for our king.”

The children chattered,
welcoming Karl into the family. Sapphire broke away from the group
and ran to her main point of interest, stopping a foot in front of
Bernon. She tugged on his tunic until he looked down at her. “Are
you him?”

Not knowing whether or not
he was again being mistaken for the devil, Bernon raised an
exasperated brow. “Him who?”

“
My new papa. Ravyn is
right.” Sapphire nodded. “You’re mighty huge.”

“
Who is Ravyn?” he asked.
And who in perdition were these children and what made his bride
think they were keeping Karl?

“
My big sister. I got her
last year.” Sapphire frowned up at him. “Will I still be a bastard
if you’re my papa?”

God’s bones, a question
asker! “If you were born a bastard, then you will always be a
bastard.”

Sapphire flashed her most
endearing little-girl smile. “That is good. I can still be
‘ceptional. You need to pick me up.”

Bernon snorted at her
insolence then rolled his eyes. “Why in perdition must I do
so?”

Sapphire snorted and
rolled her eyes then smiled. “So I do not fall backward and crack
my noggin lookin’ way up there while I tell you somethin’
‘portant.”

Bernon looked upward in a
plea for patience then picked up Sapphire. She threw her arms
around his neck and kissed his cheek. “I love you,
Papa.”

Bernon clenched his jaw
and took a deep calming breath. Hell, he already had one child on
his hands with his bride. “I am being patient, woman. Who do these
children belong to?”

At the cutting edge in his
voice, Barwolf went rigid. She stood and faced him, then clasped
her hands in front of her. She started to bow her head then inhaled
deeply and looked him in the eye. “They are ours. They were mine,
but you married me, so I thought to share them with
you.”

“
Oh?” He let an ironic note
enter his tone and snapped his brows together, making himself look
meaner. “And here I thought a little magic was involved in the
begetting. Would you care to tell me where they came
from?”

“
Genius was my first. I
found him on the shore when he was an infant. Apparently no one
wanted him because of his foot, but he is very smart. I got Manuel
four years ago when he was two summers. His mother was a drunken
whore who beat him. She had an unfortunate encounter with a bear
that scarred her face and she killed herself. I got Sapphire, whom
you’re holding, and Topaz, her sister, two and a half years ago.
Their mother sold them to me for two wineskins. Ravyn’s mother was
killed during the Norman invasion at Hastings. Some fleeing Saxons,
who were supposedly helping her escape, sold Ravyn to Aurick and he
brought her to me. I just got Karl.” She took another deep breath
and squeezed her hands until her knuckles turned white. “I am sorry
if you are displeased, but they’re important to me and I would
rather not hide them away anymore. ‘Twill be easier for me to keep
them here, and you did tell me to trust you and tell you
everything.”

“
We are Mama’s happy
family,” Sapphire announced in his ear.

“
I want Papa to hold me
too!” Topaz screamed then ran to Bernon and hugged his
leg.

“
Topaz, come back here,”
Ravyn called and started after the girl. Barwolf halted her with a
hand on her shoulder.

Bernon reached down and
scooped Topaz up with his other arm and looked at her. “Their eyes
are different.”

Sapphire grinned. “Ravyn
says she could tell us apart even if they weren’t, ‘cause Topaz is
a sweet little fairy and I’m a wild hoyden. What is a
hoyden?”

Bernon snorted. “’Tis a
little girl who causes mischief and mayhem.”

Sapphire snorted. “What is
mayhem?”

Bernon rolled his eyes and
frowned at Sapphire, who promptly mimicked his expression and
frowned back. God’s teeth!

“
I got a message!” A little
boy with dark-auburn curls, chubby cheeks, and impish hazel eyes
burst into the hall. Seeing Barwolf, he ran toward her.
“Mama!”

She caught the boy as he
hurled himself at her and hugged him tight. “How is my
Manuel?”

“
I missed you.” Manuel
tilted his forehead against hers.