The Black Lyon (31 page)

"I go now, but early on the morrow you must ride out on that black horse of yours. Say the packs carry cloth for the serfs, if anyone asks, but do naught to arouse suspicion. The ship will be gone when they discover you missing." She left the room.

Lyonene did not move, but later, when Kate helped her to bed, she began to cry and did not stop until the sun showed pink through the glass windows. It was to be her last night as mistress of M alvoisin, her last night in Ranulf's bed. She rose late—not until the sun was full up—and hurriedly slung garments into the leather bags. She took no jewelry save the lion belt. As a remembrance, she took a small ivory box of Ranulf's, carved with the lion of M alvoisin. It was made to hold his seal, but now it stood empty.

She gave one last look at the bedchamber where she'd been so happy and shut the door.

Her passage to the ship that waited at St. Agnes' Point was quite easy. Only Kate had mentioned her mistress's swollen face from the long night of tears, but Lyonene easily explained that away with a short sentence about pains caused by the babe she carried.

Her stomach was definitely rounded now and she stroked the curve of it, again hoping she did the right thing in her flight.

She could see the sails of the ship ahead, knew it to be one of several belonging to Ranulf, used to buy and sell goods with other kingdoms. Amicia came to her from her hiding place among some brush.

"You are late and M orell needed to make excuses for not sailing," Amicia said, accusingly.

"M orell?"

"You do not think I could arrange your escape alone? Sir M orell is one of Ranulf's garrison knights, although be should, by rights, be one of the Black Guard. But this is no time for that Here, you must hide your clothes and your hair." She handed Lyonene a cloak of russet.

Lyonene dismounted and donned the mantle. "You will see to Loriage? That he is returned?"

"Now is no time to concern yourself with your precious horse. Aye, I will see to the beast. We must go, now. M orell is not sweet-tempered when his plans are mislaid. Keep your head down and look at no one. I do not wish the guards to see you."

She followed Amicia onto, the ship, standing quietly as the Prankish woman spoke to a man she couldn't see.

"Get her below then," came a querulous voice, and Lyonene looked up to see the man who was to take her to Ireland. She had seen him but few times before, yet each instance was etched in her memory. She recalled the times she had seen him standing in shadows where only she could see him, a smirk on his face. He always looked at her as if he seemed to know more of her than he did, as if he but waited for a time when be would discover all that he desired.

Instinctively, Lyonene turned away, her steps going toward the side of the boat and home.

"M y Lady Lyonene." The blond knight held her arm. "Do not be afraid. I will take you to your father's relatives, and I will protect your safety and your honor with my life. Come below. I have seen to your cabin myself, for I would that you were comfortable."

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She could not look at him.

"I am Sir M orell, late in your esteemed husband's employ. I say late for I do not think he will care much for me now that I take his wife away, albeit for a good cause. Come with me and be assured that you will be given every consideration."

Lyonene allowed herself to be led below, more unsure of herself each moment. The cabin was tiny, cramped and airless.

"Lady Lyonene," he said to her, moving his head nearer hers.

"Yes." She forced herself to look into his blue eyes. He was handsome in a way, fashionably fair, with brilliant eyes, a thin nose and a straight, firm mouth.

He seemed to understand her scrutiny of him and gave her a one-sided smile. "Lady Lyonene, I must beg an indulgence from you.

M y men are not knights; in truth, they are not honorable men, and although I would protect you with my life, I fear I have only one life. You are a beautiful woman and I would not like to risk such beauty in contact with the coarse men who ride with me."

"What is your meaning?" She managed to get words out at last.

"I would protect you from my men."

"Can you not order them to stay away from my cabin?"

He smiled, his eyes devouring her, the hair cascading about her shoulders, the rise and fall of her breast, the swell of her hips beneath the coarse woolen cloak. "I fear I am not a man to be feared such as the Black Lion; nay, I am more of a lover than else." He touched a curl along her breast, and a frown creased his brows when she jerked away.

He stepped back from her, seeking to control himself.

"I... I wish to leave this ship."

"To leave, so soon? But our journey has just begun— our long, slow journey, I might add."

"There is something wrong. I do not know what, but I have decided that I would rather face my husband than ... than what lies before me."

Sir M orell strove to control, his anger. "M y lady, your fears are foundless. There is no one here who seeks other than to help you. I know all concerning Lady Amicia, and you must consider your child." His eyes went to her gently rounded stomach and she covered herself. He continued, "You have made the wisest decision, and when you are safe again amongst your relatives, you will realize it. Until then you are surrounded by strangers and it is only natural that you have some reservations. I am older than you, have seen more of the world, have seen too many young wives discarded for another. Here, sit, my lady."

He guided Lyonene to the narrow bunk, his fingers running along her forearm for an instant before he relinquished his hold on her.

"I must continue what I began. To assure myself that you are in no danger from my unchivalrous men, I must lock your cabin door."

"You would lock me into this tiny place?"

"It is for your own safety, no other reason. Trust me. I will help you escape what could be a dangerous situation."

"I do not know..."

"I have paid homage to Ranulf de Warbrooke, and whatever else you seem to think me, I am a man of my word."

She nodded then, submitting to what the future held for her.

"You will not regret your trust of me. I go now to see to the safe passage of the ship. I will return soon with food, and mayhaps I may join you in your dinner."

He left her and Lyonene heard the key turn the lock. She felt helpless, beyond despair, and she could only lay back on the hard cushion and stare, sightlessly, into space. It seemed that her life was at an end.

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Hodder rode straight through the night and only by chance met the Earl of M alvoisin as he returned home from the long siege.

Corbet helped the tired little man from his horse.

"I must speak to Lord Ranulf."

"I am here. What has happened? Why have you traveled without guards?"

"M y lord . . ." he gasped, sitting on a rock. The moonlight made eerie figures of the seven dark guardsmen and their even darker lord. "She has gone," he continued, panting to catch his breath.

"Who has gone? That Prankish woman? I am well rid of her."

"Nay. It is the Lady Lyonene who has flown."

Hodder found himself lifted from the rock by his shoulders. Eight faces glared at him, and he couldn't help his shudder of fright.

"I could not hear what was said and so did not know her plans. She rode into the village this morn with cloth for some of the serfs, but at sunset she still had not returned. I alerted the guards, and the island was searched. We spent hours, but she was nowhere to be found."

"We ride." Ranulf turned to his men. "Hugo, assign a man to care for the baggage. M y guard goes with me to M alvoisin. Hodder comes with us. I would hear more of the searches made."

It was not easy to talk on the long journey back to the island. Hodder's head near burst with the pressure of yelling above the horse's thundering hoofs, but Ranulf showed no mercy to the man. After awhile, Ranulf stopped and put Hodder on the back of the Frisian and the man continued his story.

Ranulf knew that Hodder was an accomplished eavesdropper, but even he was unaware of the valet's expertise. He doubted if there was a word he'd ever said to anyone in his own house that Hodder had not heard.

Hodder told Ranulf all of Amicia's treachery. He told of the letters, the ribbon, the woman's braggings.

"Lyonene did not believe these things the woman said?"

"Aye, she did, but not at first. She was angry when she felt the woman's words to be true, but she believed you meant no ill toward her as your wife."

"That was good of her," Ranulf muttered sarcastically, barely heard above the noise of their fast travel.

"You cannot blame Lady Lyonene. Even I would have believed the woman's threats did I not know you so well."

Ranulf half-turned in the saddle to stare at his valet "And what reason do you have to believe in me when confronted with such proof?"

Hodder shrugged. "I but looked at Lady Lyonene and then the bony Amicia. I have come to know the type of woman your greedy lust leads you to."

Ranulf would have laughed had not the moment been so serious. "These letters are what caused my wife to refuse to answer my letter. I knew something was awry when I returned home. The woman is a fool, a brainless fool, to think I write words of love to one woman and then neglect my duties when I but think my wife has a low mood. There is joy in a wife, but there is much pain.

Think you twice before you take a wife, Hodder."

The valet was indignant. He recovered himself and continued. "She was happier after your visit, but Amicia brought more news."

"What news—more letters?"

"Nay, my lord. She came with the news that she carried your child."

"M y child! That any man's seed could take root in that barren ground is a wonder. Lyonene did not believe her?"

"Nay, she did not. She said she would go to you and see that there was naught between you."

"This is the only bit of sense I have heard. She did not come, though."

"Nay, but she did. Kate and I rode with her to your camp."

Ranulf was silent for a moment, cursing the foolhardi-

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ness of a wife who would travel across the turbulent Engish countryside with only a girl of a maid and a thin, weak man for protection.

Hodder understood his master. "We dressed as merchants' apprentices. We had no trouble."

"Why did I not see her then?"

"We sat on a hill by your tent and watched."

"Go on, man! There must have been more reason as to why my wife refused to see me, why she has fled me."

"She saw the woman Amicia in your embrace, my lord."

"Nay, she could not have!" Then he remembered the time when Amicia had barged into his tent and he had gone outside to escape her. There she had kissed him, and he had had to control himself from striking her. Sh& was no better than a bitch in heat.

She came often to his camp during the siege, and from the sounds, several of his garrison knights had enjoyed her favors. She had made numerous advances to Ranulf, but he had been repulsed by her—her long thin arms, her whining voice, her false avowals of being a duke's daughter.

The day after the storm Ranulf had sent a message to France to learn of the Duke of Vernet. The answer had arrived only this morn. The Duke had indeed been on the wrecked ship, but the man was near eighty years and had never had a daughter. Amicia had merely used the story for a purpose as yet unknown to Ranulf.

Filled with foreboding, Ranulf urged Hodder to continue his story.

Hodder told of Amicia's last visit, how she said King Edward would force Ranulf to marry Amicia to prevent a war. Ranulf could only shake his head in amazement that Lyonene could believe such a story.

"What of the rest of it? You have not explained where or why my wife is hiding. Have you searched all the cabins, the glade?"

"Aye, everywhere, and she is not to be found."

"I shall shake her teeth from her body when I find her," he said through a clenched jaw.

"I believe the woman Amicia had some hand in planning Lady Lyonene's hiding."

"I do not understand you."

"The woman is most clever. I could not listen longer for she routed me from my place and fell into whispers. I should have guessed her intentions."

They rode on, silently, to M alvoisin, Ranulf alternately cursing and praying for his wife. His pride wounded, he berated her for her lack of trust, for believing that be would choose such a woman as Amicia for the reasons that had been given. He cursed himself for leaving her to such a villainous woman, for not forcing her, when he bad returned to M alvoisin, to tell him what plagued her.

Hodder repeated more of Amicia's words concerning the babe; how Ranulf intended the child to be servant to Amicia's and how Lyonene's child would be known as bastard. Finally, he revealed Amicia's offer of the earldom to Lyonene's babe.

Ranulf began to see what had caused his wife's fears. She knew little of court laws. Ranulf could choose what son or even adopted son he desired to pass on his wealth and title to. It did not go by birth, as Amicia had insisted.

The ferry to the island seemed to go tediously slowly, and the expressions on the facea of his men were as grim as Ranulf s. He told them briefly of the treachery that had been wrought in his absence, for he had begun to suspect a plot from Hodder's story.

The men were divided into pairs and given areas of the island to search. Before the ferry came to rest, men and horses were already wading ashore.

The Black Guard went first to the castle to change horses, but Ranulf stayed on Tighe, the horse having been bred for stamina and endurance.

The entire island was roused, torches lit, and not one person was not called into the search. Beginning to fear that she had been taken to be held for ransom, Ranulf sought to find the hiding place of her captors.