De Wolfe Pack 05 - Walls of Babylon (5 page)

Tab, the serious young man, suddenly looked less than his usual brave self. He was jabbing a finger in the direction of the darkness down below.

“Look, now,” he hissed. “Make no sound or else the ghost will come and get us!”

Kenton truly had no idea what the child was referring to but before he could ask, he heard a door open in the entry below. Curious, he turned to see where the sound was coming from. There were at least three smaller closet-like storage rooms he had come across down there as well as the large solar and the two rooms used by Lady Thorne. He thought he’d swept the keep quite thoroughly for any unknown inhabitants but he evidently hadn’t. As he watched, a small half-door that was built into the wall near the base of the stairs suddenly lurched open.

Kenton could see feet emerge; small, dirty stocking feet. It was clear that a person was emerging from the door but they were doing it lying down, on their belly, as if they were crawling out backwards. It was all very strange. As Kenton and the boys watched, a woman dressed in tatters of a fine pale gown emerged from the small closet and stood up. Her gray hair was wild and long, like ribbons of smoke floating about her. Suddenly, she began whirling around, like a dancer, leaping into the air and twirling about. Her movements were surprisingly graceful and fluid and, at one point, it seemed as if she picked up a partner because then she began to dance as if she were intertwined with a lover.

It was all quite odd but strangely fascinating. The woman’s long, graceful arms swung about as she danced on her toes and then holding her arms to her as if relishing her imaginary partner’s embrace. She had no idea of her audience on the stairs above, watching her every movement. Her dance was a private one, imagining a world that no longer existed except in her mind. At one point, she touched her face, her mouth, and then her hands trailed to her breasts where she fondled herself rather sensually.

On the stairs above, Kenton instinctively put his big hands over Teague and Tiernan’s eyes so they would not see the woman suggestively caress herself. It was a provocative and unseemly show for young boys to witness, at least in Kenton’s view. Tiernan sat there with a hand over his eyes and tried to remove it by shaking his head around, but Teague lifted his hands and pulled Kenton’s fingers away. Teague was torn between great curiosity and terror, just as Tab was, but Tiernan continued to sit there with Kenton’s hand over his eyes, trying to remove it by simply shaking his head. He ended up rubbing snot from his running nose all over Kenton’s palm and, when Kenton realized it, he yanked his hand away in disgust and wiped the mucus off on Tiernan’s tunic and hair.

Meanwhile, the show continued down below. The woman was back to dancing with her invisible lover, leaping over the floor and disappearing into the smaller hall with its two-storied reach. Kenton stood up enough so that he could see what the woman was doing. She was simply skipping and whirling over the floor, avoiding the dogs that were sleeping by the hearth, and climbing up on one of the tables as she continued her bizarre dance. She was in a world of her own, dancing to an unseen orchestra and enjoying the company of unseen partners.

Abruptly, the woman ended her dance on the table and fled the room, rushing into the darkened entry hall and heading for the staircase. Kenton, with two little boys on his lap and one child hanging over his shoulder, watched as the woman ran halfway up the stairs, all wild gray hair and tattered clothing. When her gaze fell upon the four men seated on the stairs, men who had been watching her every move, she let out a hideous hiss and bared her rotted black teeth at them.

Kenton didn’t move; he remained still as stone, preparing to unsheathe his dirk if she took another step towards him. On his lap, Tiernan covered his eyes in horror as Teague shoved his fingers into his mouth, biting his fingers in terror. Kenton couldn’t even see what Tab was doing, but he was fairly certain the lad was taking refuge behind his broad back. In any case, the old woman hissed again, a terrible sound, and rushed back down the stairs. As Kenton peered through the railing, she dove back into her closet and slammed the door.

All was suddenly still and quiet in the darkened entry. Kenton kept his gaze on the closet to see if the old woman would emerge again, but all remained silent. After several moments, he glanced at the boys on his lap to see that they were frozen in the same terrified positions as they had been when the woman had hissed at them. Behind him, he could feel Tab shifting around.

“Who
was
that?” Kenton asked any boy who could answer him.

Tab spoke. “The ghost,” he insisted. “She lives here.”

Kenton craned his head around to look at the boy, only to see that he was absolutely serious. It occurred to him that perhaps Tab didn’t really know who the woman was, but Kenton suspected who did.

In fact, he was sure of it.

It took Nicola a moment to realize that someone was opening the vault door. Down in the dank darkness on the sub-level below the gatehouse, the rattling of metal was deafening against the moss-slick stone walls. Rubbing her eyes of sleep, Nicola blinked her eyes in the darkness, struggling to focus, only to realize that Kenton was entering her cell. And he was not alone.

Tab and Teague were walking beside him and Tiernan was in the man’s arms. Shocked and fearful to see her children, Nicola rolled to her knees and held out her arms to her sons. Tab and Teague rushed to her.

“What is wrong?” she asked, terrified for her boys. “Why are you here? What have you done?”

Tab hugged his mother fiercely. “We tried to scare him away but he would not leave,” he told her. “The ghost could not scare him away, either!”

Kenton stood before her, gazing down at the woman as she hugged her children. There was something very sweet and gentle about it, something quite loving. Kenton had forgotten that there could be such tenderness in the world, for he couldn’t remember a time in his life when he had known any.

He tried to put Tiernan down but the frightened boy clung to him. He couldn’t just force the child to his feet so he stood there, awkwardly holding him. Still, there was something strangely comforting in holding a child. Very strange, indeed. Fighting off unfamiliar feelings of tenderness, Kenton focused on the reason for his visit.

“We saw the woman in the closet, Madam,” he said, his voice low. “Who is she?”

Nicola was somewhat confused by the question. “The woman in the closet?” she repeated.

“The one at the base of the stairs, near the entry.”

The light of recognition went on in Nicola’s eyes. “Ah,” she said. “That is my husband’s mother.”

Kenton was rather surprised by the answer. “His
mother
?” he confirmed. “What on earth is the woman doing in that closet?”

Nicola snuggled with two out of her three boys, almost too much for her petite lap. “She has been in that cubby as long as I can recall,” she said, kissing Teague’s head gently. “She is quite mad but quite harmless so long as she is left alone.”

Kenton mulled over the information. “She hissed menacingly at us.”

“She will do that if confronted.”

“Your sons believe she is a ghost.”

Nicola shrugged. “She comes out at night and dances through the lower floors in her tattered clothing and wild hair,” she said. “If you were a child, what would that look like to you?”

Kenton conceded the point. “A ghost,” he admitted. “She will be removed, however. I cannot have the woman disrupting my keep.”

Nicola gazed up at him, her brow furrowed with concern. “But I told you she is harmless so long as she is left alone,” she said. “If you try to remove her, she could become quite violent.”

Kenton’s face was like stone. “That is not my concern,” he said. “I will do what is necessary in order to remove her. There will be no mad relatives loose in my keep.”

Nicola regarded him a moment. Then she looked away, shaking her head. “
Your
keep,” she muttered. “You have been here less than a day and already it is your keep.”

“I told you it was my keep the moment I entered the gates of Babylon. What part of that statement did you not understand?”

Nicola sighed softly. It was evident she was very weary and somewhat defeated, but the fire of resistance was still in those beautiful eyes. Kenton could see it. He suspected a woman as strong and fiery as Lady Thorne would never be completely subdued, ever.

“It took you days to breach Babylon,” she muttered. “It did not come so easy. It was not as if I easily gave it up to you.”

Kenton’s jaw ticked. Now, she was touching on a subject he had been wondering about since nearly the moment he’d breached the gatehouse -
who
was in charge of Babylon’s defenses?

“And so it did not,” he said, forcing Tiernan down to his feet. As the boy ran to his mother, Kenton crouched down a few feet away, watching the four of them very carefully. Mostly, he was watching Nicola. “As impenetrable as Babylon is, the fact remains that there are only a handful of soldiers and knights seeing to her defenses. You held off a substantial army for days with very few resources which is to be commended, but in the end, you still fell to me. That is a fact.”

Nicola’s head jerked to him, her eyes flaring with rebellion. “You mounted our walls with ladders,” she said. “We stemmed your tide for almost five days before the end came.”

“But the end did come and Babylon is mine.”

He said it with such finality, such arrogance. Nicola, who had thus far remained somewhat calm and submissive throughout the conversation, began to feel the fire of resistance surge in her veins. She didn’t like le Bec’s attitude or his possessiveness when it came to something that did not belong to him. This was the home that her boys would inherit and for no other reason than that, she had to fight for it. She held no grand memories of Babylon. In truth, she equated the fortress to her marriage to Gaylord. It was a cold, sometimes painful, and always an intimidating thing. But it was her children’s legacy and she would fight for it, no matter what.

“It is yours and Henry’s for now,” she said, hazard in her tone. “But soon enough, Edward shall regain it. I hope I am here to see that day.”

Kenton heard the hatred in her words. Hatred of him, of Henry, and perhaps of war in general. It was difficult to know. But he could see such strength in the woman as she spoke. That fire he’d seen since the beginning of their acquaintance was still there, smoldering, waiting to flare once more. She could still be a viable threat to him and he knew it. The logical thing would be to get rid of her for his own protection but he couldn’t seem to make a decision about it, which confused him.

Threats must be eliminated!

“It is quite possible that you will be,” he said evenly. “But until that time, your fortress, and everything within it, belongs to me.”

Nicola held his gaze a moment longer before turning away. She simply couldn’t stomach the triumph in his eyes. “It would not be yours if I had more men,” she murmured, “and if I was better at commanding. If I’d had those two factors, you would still be outside the walls and I would be laughing at your futility.”

A twinkle came to Kenton’s eye, suspecting he now had his answer about the leader of Babylon’s defenses. In hindsight, he knew it all along. He wasn’t surprised in the least and he found himself impressed with a woman that should be strong enough to hold off an army.

“Where are all of Gaylord’s men?” he asked in an oddly conversational manner, as if there was no force or demand behind it. “Babylon has been known to carry thousands.”

Nicola was still looking away from him, her gaze averted to the darkened shadows of the vault. There wasn’t any reason not to tell him everything. It wasn’t as if she had any secrets left to keep.

“Gaylord sent them on to the Duke of York to reinforce the lines for Edward,” she said quietly. “He saw no reason to leave more than a few dozen men to man Babylon, knowing she was unbreachable. Imagine what his surprise would be to know that was not the case.”

“Why did you not recall them from York?”

She shrugged. “I did not see the need until your army came upon us. By then, it was too late.”

Kenton digested the information, thinking that a good deal now made sense. With Thorne’s men away reinforcing Edward, Babylon was truly his. His men were currently still housed outside of the castle walls in an encampment that had been set up before the siege but he now thought it a good idea to fold up camp and bring everyone inside. Word would spread that Babylon was now in Lancastrian hands and he fully expected retaliation at some point, but before that could happen, he wanted Babylon sealed up.