The Beast of Renald (The Northern Knights) (35 page)

He could not hide his shock at her words. It should have mattered, but it did not now. Her nerves were worn, raw and deeply bruised from him having beaten them to death. And she told him thus. She struggled to her feet and walked over near where her bath sat.  ‘I wish to have at my bath ere the water grows cold. Think you that is alright? You can question me further if that is what you seek, but I ask you now, why bother? You have already made up your mind not to believe aught I tell you.’

‘I made that mistake once. Never again.’

She knew he was angry at her response but again, she no longer cared.

Caroline gave him her back, too weary to even cry and she began to remove her clothes. Naked, she did her best to ignore her aching heart that he did not even offer a hand to help her. The gentle beast in him was gone now too.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt his hand at her elbow. Something deep in her split and she was thankful for the lukewarm water as she sunk in it up to her neck with a sigh. She closed her eyelids to hide the tears filling her eyes. He was not the only one hurt and angry.

‘Have at your bath, Caroline. I will be back later.’

His brusque tone made her wince and she said nothing. When the sound of the door closed the last of her thin will cracked and Caroline lay her head back against the rim of the wooden tub and let the tears flow freely. He would forever doubt her when it came to Raven, his deep loathing for his brother would not allow him to see different.

His refusal to trust her was unbearable and Caroline was tired. How could she prove his doubts untrue with his brother rotting away in the dark earth now?

Darc had gotten what he wanted.

He’d broken her.

True to his word, he came back to her later and Caroline turned on her side in the bed away from his scowling face. He did not say aught and she had thought he had left at one point, till he spoke.

‘Drink this.’

She groaned and rolled away from the dripping cup he held out to her. She got off the bed on the other side. She walked over to where her platter sat and the smell of the food churned her gut. Her throat was dry and she was thirsty. Still, she would not accept it from him. Damn the pitcher was next to him by the bed.

Caroline got back up just as he picked it up and they met halfway. ‘I can pour my own. Your concern is too late, husband.’

He handed her the pitcher and his gentle fingers swept over her cheek. She felt the hesitation in his touch just before he dropped his hand as he stepped away to adjust his tunic.

‘So be it. Well then.  I shall be gone a few days.’ Her head perked up then at his words. But he’d already turned his back to her to walk to the door.  ‘There is a matter I need see to. The guard will not be lessened. Do keep yourself busy and Caroline, Melbert will remain at your side.’

Before she could utter a word Darc left the chamber and made sure he slammed it.

Caroline fumed and it gave her energy. If she could she would have run after him, mayhap called him back to talk through their darkness, but she closed her eyes to such thought. He did not deserve her giving in first.

Caroline sat back down and picked at the platter, her thoughts on the babe. This time her food and drink stayed down. She soon felt well enough to call Mildred in to help her dress. She needed to go to the chapel and pray.

After the chapel, Caroline rounded the corner near the great doors and stopped in her tracks when she saw that Darc still was in the bailey with a handful of fully armored men. Dread creased her brow. What sort of errand required their full suits?

He turned his blue eyes on her and Caroline lifted her chin higher. She went the other way just as he started in her direction. He called her name and she turned to face him when the clink of his mail drew closer. He turned his sharp blue eyes on her and Caroline lifted her chin higher. She had no wish to talk to him. She turned away and heard his growl. He shouted her name, but she kept walking toward the gardens.

Soon she heard his footsteps no more and when she turned, she saw no one but young Melbert hanging back a few feet. Releasing a sigh, Caroline stopped walking and called him to her.

The nervous and obedient Melbert approached.

Caroline asked, ‘Where is the lord keeping Agnes and the boy Cal?’

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Darc sat quietly and hidden among Raven’s group of men, his hooded cloak and the caked mud concealing his true identity. His eyes taking in the scene before him.

How could fate be on his brother’s side always it seemed? Raven indeed had nine cattails.

Darc took in his brother’s appearance. Not one burn mark marred his body. As Darc had felt in his gut, his brother had not perished in that fire. His spies he’d sent out on Raven’s trail after the fire had brought all full circle and him here. Careful planning and a handful of those not so loyal to his brother and eager to keep their lives had helped get him inside.

The place was rank with every pungent smell imaginable yet it seemed not to bother any of the men seated at the trestle table in the corner gobbling down the meager meal before them.

Darc broke away from the group, dropping the hood of the cloak to his shoulders. Gasps from the table rent the air as did wood scraping against wood, the clink of mail as he made his way to the dais.

Raven turned his head from the bosom of the wench seated next to him.

His eyes went wide with shock and horror and he turned, scrambling toward the bed behind him hurriedly to reach his blade. When he turned back he was just in time to make a hard swing of his blade at Darc’s legs and let out an angry roar when Darc jumped up. The blade missed, cutting air.

‘You and that blond axe-ever agile!’ Raven’s face contorted with rage as he scrambled to his feet to stand toe to toe with his brother. The room behind them in chaos as Darc’s men fought with Raven’s men.

Raven said, ‘Hello, brother, you sly beast! I knew it would not be long ere you deduced it was not I in that shack. However, I did not come away unscathed by a flame. Loyal help comes in handy these days. Taste this!’ Raven chortled and backed away a step.

He took a hard jab at Darc’s chest and missed again.

Darc said. ‘There will be no escaping the punishment due you. It all ends today, Raven.’

‘Is that so? Despite your clever ruse to get in here, I think not, brother. For the many times that you have tried and failed, have you not yet learned that I am invincible?’

Darc simply said. ‘I will not join you down that path of lunacy.’

With a graceful move Raven had no chance to see coming, Darc’s sword tip sliced into Raven’s chest just above the spot where his heart sat. By the time he blinked and felt the pain of the flesh wound, Raven saw the blood soak the front of his tunic. Blinking in surprise, his eyes followed Darc’s blade back to his side.

Raven shook his head clear. ‘Ah, the gift of a gentle killer. The enemy never sees you coming till it is too late. Glad to see you have not lost that trait.’

‘Proves my point that you are not what you think.’ Darc said and circled him.

Fury at the mockery in Darc’s tone blurred Raven’s vision and he puffed out his chest.  ‘I've been stabbed, nigh cleaved in two by my own axes, thrown off a cliff, left to starve, nearly burnt to a crisp by your hand, and yet I still stand and breathe before you. That alone proves that I am invincible.’

‘Nay.  just the luck of the devil, little brother.’

Raven growled with rage and jabbed his sword at him, Darc easily met the blow. Insanity flashed clearly in Raven’s eyes as he slashed his sword madly through the air. Darc easily deflected his blows until he tired of the game and knocked the sword from Raven’s hand. The sword sailed through the air and landed out of his brother’s reach near Darc’s feet. 

They stared at each other in challenging silence. Darc swung and slammed his fist into Raven’s mouth.

Raven turned and ran for the far end of the dais. Darc swung his blade and it made a whistling sound as it sliced through the air.  

‘You would strike an unarmed man? Even I thought that was beneath you, brother.’ Raven said, turning to face him as he wiped the blood from his lip with a chuckle.

‘There is only one man in this room guilty of such cowardice.’ Darc returned.

Raven laughed with a shrug of truth. 

Darc stood, sword at his side awaiting his crazed brother’s next move. He had not long to wait. Raven pulled what he had picked up from the dais floor from behind his back and lifted his double bladed axe with one hand high behind his right shoulder, and gestured for Darc to approach.

Darc made the same gesture back knowing it would only fuel his brother’s anger and it did. With a cry Raven lunged for him off the dais.

Sword met axe.

Blow for blow.

Darc could feel his brother tiring by the weakening strength of the strikes that shook and vibrated down his sword. He thought, if Raven spent less time talking he might not have spent his strength so quickly. Another fault he’d always possessed. Raven loved the sound of his own voice. 

Breathless, Raven spat now, ‘You strike at me now with the devil’s strength on your side. I like that. I know well of it and it tells me you do care for me still. I am your equal, brother!’ He wiped the back of his blood smeared wrist across his perspiring brow.  He drew in a difficult breath. Where Darc had kicked him earlier had cracked something on the right side of his chest. Raven ignored the blinding pain and the dimming vision in his one eye.

He remembered that day his brother and Rourke had cornered him.

He had fallen upon a ledge after they had cast him over the cliff. Had they bothered to crawl down for a look they would have seen that he’d fallen upon an obscured ledge and not to the jagged rocks below which would have crushed his skull. The miracle ledge had led him to a cave.

He told Darc this now, finishing with, ‘When Adelay came to the cliffs, she screamed out for me over and over again in her sorrow. Rage at you gave me the
devil’s strength
to answer. She nursed me back to health right before I killed her.’

‘Aye. You killed the woman you declared so much love for.’

‘Know why I killed her?’ Raven ran his thumb up the end of the sharp blade of his axe until blood bubbled. His face like stone. ‘After everything…after…’ Raven shook his head and an angry growl left his throat before he went on. ‘In the end she was going to return to you.’

Darc drew in a deep slow breath as he stared at his brother. ‘Your lies no longer surprise me. It will gain you nothing.’

‘Ah, this one is no lie. I did love Adelay like nothing in life I ever did. Not mother, never you and naturally not our beastly sire. Afore her last breath she called your name. Your name! Though I loved her. I was no fool. Everyone from England to Normandy had tasted her charms.

‘Think you I was her only lover? You are a bigger fool than I was, brother. Your wife was a well-tried and used harlot and all knew it except you. My only crime was that like you, I fell madly in love with her. The only good thing she did was try to rid herself of your devil brat. Ha! What is love? I tell you I do not care for it nor have a place for it in my cursed life. She did us both a favor. Born evil I might be but I do not think I could murder my own nephew. Then again…’ Raven held the blade to his chin with a tapping motion feigning thought.

‘I will kill you.’

‘Oh, of that I am certain you believe. But as I told Rourke when he uttered those same words…You will fail. Not a chance. You will not escape me as he did. I have more loyal fools working for me this time. John and his friend learned what happens to those who betray me in the most gruesome way possible. You know, Johnny soiled himself when I opened his neck.’

Darc turned a feral glare on the men in the corner. The few mercenaries hesitated and hastily abandoned Raven’s side for their lives. His bellow of outrage followed the men out the door.

Darc turned back to his brother with a smile and Raven, blinded by his envy and rage made a mistake coming front on at him. With a flick of his wrist, Darc sent the axe soaring out of Raven’s grip.

Chest heaving, Darc flung his own blade to the floor and said, disgusted, ‘This ends now.’

‘I say when it ends!’ Raven roared as he backed away, eyes wide. ‘I say!’ He choked and coughed up phlegm. ‘Inflicting pain upon your friends was just to hurt you. A warning, so to speak to let you know that I was alive. And coming for you. Your precious Rourke’s eyes all but bulged out of his thick skull when he saw me. I shall cherish that look till my dying breath.’

‘Then savor it now because that time is here.’

Raven did not laugh and his neck reddened as his gaze warred with his. Darc read in his brother’s eyes that Raven knew he’d spoken the truth. Darc told him. ‘Aye, one of us indeed will die this day, brother.’

His firm words sent Raven into a fit of fury as Darc knew it would.

His shoulder caught Raven’s weight as he ran toward him in an uncontrollable rage. They fell to the ground and Darc got a solid hold onto him first. Raven screeched like a possessed boar and tried to scramble out of the choke hold, arms flailing, legs kicking air but to no avail.

‘Your vengeance on things you wrought eats at you because of you. No one else. You were given the same opportunities as all of us. It was your own evil doings which spoiled and turned all you were given rotten. You are your own worst enemy. That has always been the way of it. Your ruthlessness and aim to blame others for wrongs in your life were always misplaced. Put the blame where it belongs.’ Darc growled.

Raven chortled and tossed his dark head back into Darc’s shoulder, but the action did not dislodge Darc’s iron hold on him. ‘And where is that dear brother?’

‘At your own feet,
dear brother
.’ Darc mocked him back. ‘We came from the same womb you and I, but only one of us left it with our father’s devil blood.’

Raven’s outraged cry shook the rafters. Darc spoke right over it, taunting him further. ‘Every scheme. Always a failure.’