Secret Heart (37 page)

“
No,”
Garit said.
“Not
where Chantal and Jenia were held. Chantal was killed
there, on Walderon’s orders. His presence would only contaminate
the place that’s hallowed by her death.”

“
Take him
to the cell where we found the old man yesterday,” Roarke ordered.
“After Walderon is securely locked in, set a dependable guard
before the door. We don’t want him to escape.”

“
Just one
more thing before you leave us, Walderon,” Jenia said, raising a
hand to stop the men-at-arms from dragging her uncle away. “Where
is Chantal buried?”

“
How
should I know?” Though he was tightly restrained by the men
surrounding him, Walderon responded with an indifferent shrug that
made Jenia yearn to slap him. “Once she was dead, she was no
further use to me, just a piece of dung; offal, no
more.”

“
Curse
you, Walderon!” In one long leap Garit was off the dais. His
fingers closed around Walderon’s throat, squeezing until Walderon
slumped in the grip of the men-at-arms, who made no effort to aid
their captive. By then Roarke and Lord Giles caught Garit, pulling
him away from Walderon.

“
Don’t do
it, lad,” Lord Giles admonished, tugging hard on Garit’s right arm.
“If you kill him now, you’ll regret it later. Even a villain must
be accorded a certain fairness. He’s unarmed and unable to fight
back.”

“
Stop it,
Garit,” Roarke commanded, holding fast to his friend’s other arm.
“Walderon isn’t worth the explanation you’d have to make to King
Henryk about his death. Later, we can all watch his slow and
painful execution knowing we’ve done the right thing.”

Garit
subsided. Removing his fingers from Walderon’s throat he turned
away to Jenia, who caught his hands and held them fast against her
bosom.

“
Dear
friend, I know what you are feeling,” she told him. “No one knows
the true cost of Chantal’s death better than you and I. Don’t let
Walderon drag you down with him. Chantal wouldn’t want that. She
loved you because you are a decent and honorable man, all that
Walderon is not.”

For a
long, painful moment Garit’s fingers nearly crushed Jenia’s hands.
Then, slowly, the red glaze of near-madness disappeared from his
eyes and he relaxed his grip.

“
When I
think of her,” he said, “of all her bright, youthful goodness
destroyed by her own blood kin, my rage overcomes me.”

“
I
understand,” Jenia said.

“
Garit,
you must control your emotions,” Lord Giles told him. “Employ the
methods I taught you as a squire to temper your fury and outwit
your opponent. Now, lad, take a deep breath and make yourself
relax.”

“
I
promise, I will try.” Garit did take a long, shuddering breath.
“Jenia, I’m sorry. Did I hurt your hands?”

“
No,” she
assured him. “Walderon was deliberately trying to provoke you. He
takes a wicked pleasure in disturbing anyone’s peace. He did the
same thing regularly to Chantal and me, and I’ve seen him reduce
Aunt Sanal to tears and then laugh at her for being such a weak
fool.”

“
He will
no doubt keep it up while we transport him to Calean City,” Roarke
added. “Perhaps we ought to gag him before we leave Thury. Or,
perhaps Lord Giles can render him temporarily
speechless.”

“
When I
heard him call Chantal’s body a piece of dung, a red haze enveloped
me,” Garit said.

“
You must
find a way to live with the loss of her,” Lord Giles advised. “Time
will ease your pain a little, as I eventually learned after my dear
wife died. Meanwhile, come with me to the chapel. We can talk
quietly there.” He linked his arm through Garit’s and they went off
together.

“
Are you
all right?” Roarke placed a comforting hand on Jenia’s shoulder.
“This has been a difficult day for you. I admit, I expected
Walderon to put up a fight, but I never expected him to taunt you
and Garit that way.”

“
I didn’t
think of it beforehand, but I am not surprised,” Jenia said.
“That’s the kind of man he is, nasty and vicious, always thinking
only of what he wants, never of anyone else.”

Roarke
took Jenia’s hand and brought it to his lips, holding it there
while he regarded her so tenderly that she could feel the tension
of the last few hours draining away until she became oddly
buoyant.

“
My quest
is almost finished,” she said.

“
Almost,”
he repeated. “Only King Henryk’s judgment on Walderon remains, and
then his punishment. Whatever that may prove to be, your part is
done, I think. Jenia, I want to speak to you in private. When we
reach Calean City, I intend to ask a great favor of King Henryk,
but I need your answer first.”

A rustle of skirts prevented Roarke from
continuing. Sanal joined them.

“
I heard
everything from up there,” she said, indicating the steps to the
solar. “Roarke, do you really think Walderon will be
executed?”

“
Either
that, or permanently drained of his Power and confined to a dungeon
cell for the rest of his life,” Roarke said.

“
Will I
be blamed, too?” Sanal looked distinctly worried. “Must I share his
fate?”

“
I don’t
think Lord Giles will allow that to happen,” Roarke
said.

“
Where is
Giles?” Sanal glanced around the hall.

“
He’s
with Garit.” Jenia spoke sharply, out of irritation. “Leave them
alone. At the moment, Garit needs him more than you do. Aunt, you
really ought to learn to stand on your own, without a man to prop
you up.”

“
I’ve
never had the chance to make any decision on my own,” Sanal said.
“As a child, I was beaten into obedience. My father arranged my
marriage with no regard to my preferences. Walderon used me at his
own pleasure. My son was taken from me at an early age, to be
raised as Walderon wanted, in another noble house that he chose for
his own benefit. The only choice I’ve ever made on my own was my
decision to flee from Walderon and from Thury. And here I am, right
back at Thury again,” she ended on a bitter note that made Jenia
look at her with greater sympathy.

“
The life
you describe is not unusual,” Roarke said, “though I will admit,
women are often treated unfairly.”

“
I trust
you intend to treat Jenia better,” Sanal snapped at him.

“
You may
be certain of it,” Roarke said. “Jenia, we will talk later. Now,
ladies, if you will excuse me, I really ought to return to the
battlements and see what Burke and Walderon’s other men are doing.
We can’t have them storming the main gate without mounting a
counterattack.”

Roarke bowed to them and headed for the
entry. When Jenia finally tore her gaze from his departing figure
she found Sanal watching her with great interest.

“
Sir
Roarke has little wealth of his own,” Sanal said, “because of his
long feud with Lord Oliver, which was over a woman, mind you. Men
are so irrational. It is our misfortune that they are larger and
stronger than women.”

Despite her lingering doubts about Sanal,
Jenia could not repress a laugh at an opinion she shared.

“
Jenia, I
want you to know how truly sorry I am for everything that’s
happened. If I had been braver, if I had dared to stand up to
Walderon, perhaps Chantal would still be alive. But she was so
willful, so determined never to do what Walderon decided was best
for her.”

“
You
mean, what was best for
him,”
Jenia chided softly. “Roarke is right, you know.
It’s over. What happened to Chantal and me is in the past. I can
set it aside now that Walderon is captured. We should not continue
to be enemies, Aunt Sanal. You are my only remaining
kin.”

“
Not
blood kin,” Sanal reminded her.

“
No, but
we share some memories, and not all of them are bad. Perhaps you
and I can begin again, as aunt-by-marriage and grown-up niece. I
promise, I am no longer the recalcitrant child I once
was.”

“
Nor am I
the subservient wife I once was.” Sanal blinked back tears.
“Perhaps we really can forge a new kinship, of friends this
time.”

Overcome
by sympathy, trying not to imagine what Sanal must have endured in
private at Walderon’s hands, or what it must be like to bear a
child conceived in violence and intense dislike, Jenia reached out
a hand to wipe away her aunt’s tears.

Then they
were in each others’ arms, laughing and weeping at the same time,
and Jenia found the laughter and the tears both helped to ease a
little more of the bitterness she had known for too long. Slowly,
very slowly, her anguished heart was beginning to heal.

Roarke
came to Jenia’s room after the rest of the castle had settled down
for the night. He looked a little surprised to see her still fully
dressed and with a shawl about her shoulders, but she intended a
serious discussion and didn’t want either of them to be distracted
by passion. Ever since Walderon’s bold declaration of what he’d
done and still intended to do, questions and possibilities had been
simmering in Jenia’s mind. She thought she had discerned the
answers, but she wanted to talk her conclusions over with Roarke
before revealing them to anyone else.

He didn’t
give her a chance to begin. As soon as the door was bolted he
launched into the matter that was plainly vexing him at the
moment.

“
We have
a minor problem,” he said.

“
Which
is?”

“
How to
divert or get rid of Burke and the men-at-arms in the meadow long
enough for us to escort Walderon to Calean.”

“
Knowing
you, I’m sure you have a plan,” she told him with a
smile.

“
What I
have are several ideas,” he responded. “First, while Walderon’s
magic is immobilized by the spell Lord Giles imposed on him, we
could force him to swallow a strong sleeping potion, then truss him
up like a fowl prepared for the spit, carry him out in the dark of
night, and smuggle him to Calean.”

“
I like
that idea.” Jenia’s smile widened into a grin and Roarke grinned
back at her, looking like a mischievous boy for a moment, before he
sobered.

“
Or,” he
continued, “we could attack Walderon’s people, kill or capture as
many as possible, and then set out for Calean with a heavy guard to
protect us from the remaining men.”

“
I
suspect Garit will favor that plan,” she said. “He’s eager for a
fight and Burke would make a fine substitute for
Walderon.”

“
Actually, Lord Giles has succeeded in calming Garit down
quite well,” Roarke said. “Garit has always understood that, as a
royal emissary in a foreign land, he cannot go haring off killing
people or making threats. Walderon’s cruel remarks about Chantal
infuriated him, but he’s too intelligent to forget for more than a
moment or two that he represents the king of Kantia. After his
conversation with Lord Giles, he has eschewed killing in this
situation, unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“
Well,
then, what decision have you men made?” Jenia asked with just a
touch of sarcasm in her voice. Of course, the men would make the
decisions; they always did. She and Sanal could grumble all they
wanted, but they’d follow, as women were taught to do. However, she
had a suggestion of her own to offer on the subject and she voiced
it before Roarke could answer her question.

“
If
Walderon were an honorable nobleman and we could be certain he’d
not trick us,” she said, “you could tell him to order Burke and the
other men march to Calean to await King Henryk’s
pleasure.”

Roarke
was silent a moment, thinking. Then, “I do like your suggestion.
I’m sure Walderon’s men are used to following his orders exactly as
he gives them. Yes, it could work. Jenia, you are
brilliant.”

“
I am?
Roarke, are you seriously considering my idea?”

“
Why
wouldn’t I? Haven’t I told you several times what are a clever
woman you are? Besides, you know Walderon much better than I do.”
He took her face between his hands and kissed her
eyelids.

“
In that
case,” she said, planting a quick kiss on his cheek before she
stepped away from him, “perhaps you’d care to hear my opinion about
Walderon.”

“
Haven’t
I already heard it? He’s a vile, dastardly villain.” Roarke moved
closer to her and began to nibble on her earlobe.

“
Exactly.” She put up a hand to keep him at bay. “I have
been considering Walderon’s crimes against Chantal and me, and
asking myself what he really wants.”

“
He’s
driven by greed and ambition. He coveted Chantal’s lands, and
yours. The more land a man holds, the more influential he will be
at court.”

“
That’s
true. But I believe there’s more, some greater scheme behind his
actions over the last year or two.”

“
Ah.”
Roarke nodded. “I suspect we’ve been thinking along the same lines.
But tell me your conclusions before I reveal mine.”

“
I began
by thinking about how I was transported from the dungeon to a ship
after Chantal was killed. I can’t have been taken all the way from
Thury to Calean City. That’s much too long a distance for men who
are acting furtively.”