Secret Heart (43 page)

“
Oh,
Roarke!” she gasped.

He took her into his embrace and it was pure
bliss to feel so safe in the circle of his strong arms, though she
quickly discovered that chainmail was a useless material for
blotting tears.

“
Roarke?”

“
Yes, my
sweet.” His lips brushed her forehead.

“
Are you
truly unhurt? Lord Giles and Sanal and I did the best we could
against Walderon. Elwin helped,” she added, not wanting to leave
the valiant squire out of the matter.

“
Then I
must thank all of you.” His arms tightened around her. “Later, when
we find a safer place to camp, I want to hear every
detail.”

At a
sound behind them they turned to find Lord Giles watching them.
Roarke took one arm from Jenia’s waist to clasp his friend’s hand
in thanks.

“
Sanal
cannot possibly ride any farther,” Lord Giles said. “Judging by the
bruises on her face she has been badly treated, and I’ll wager that
Walderon wasn’t any kinder to you, Jenia.”

“
I’ll be
fine once my hands have completely recovered,” Jenia said. She
wiggled her fingers, testing them. “But poor Aunt Sanal was carried
upside down for hours.”

“
We saw,”
Lord Giles said dryly.

“
Very
well, we will camp here, just where the trail widens,” Roarke
decided. “Jenia, stay with your aunt. Lord Giles and I have much to
do.”

“
I’ll
have a couple of my squires gather as much wood as they can along
the roadside and make a fire for you,” Lord Giles offered. “My
dear, I haven’t yet thanked you adequately for your assistance.
Without you and Sanal, I’m not certain I could have overcome
Walderon. I had no idea how strong he was.”

“
And no
doubt will be again,” Roarke added.

“
Not for
quite some time,” Lord Giles said. “Not until after he reaches
Calean City. Then let the Lord Mage Serlion attend to
him.”

“
He
deserves whatever Serlion and King Henryk may decide to do to him,”
Roarke said coldly. “Walderon must be divested of his magic, and
then punished.”

Suddenly
unable to speak, Jenia started toward Sanal, only to find that once
again her legs wouldn’t carry her. Within a heartbeat Roarke slid
an arm around her waist to support her until she reached her aunt.
Sanal looked at her from sunken eyes. Her hands were as red and
swollen as Jenia’s.

“
We’re
safe from Walderon now,” Jenia said to her.

“
Oh,
Jenia,” Sanal whispered, “I was sure he’d kill all of us. I was so
afraid. I have always been alone with my Power. All I could ever do
was shield myself from Walderon and hope he wouldn’t guess the
truth about me. Until an hour ago I never dreamed how strong I
could be if I linked with others.”

Jenia’s
hands being still too sore to use, she wrapped her arms around her
aunt, pulling her close until Sanal’s head rested on her
shoulder.

Under
Roarke’s direction a makeshift camp was quickly established and
sentries were posted around the edges of it. The men who were not
on sentry duty made fires and began to prepare their evening meal
of bread, cheese, and ale.

With Walderon bound hand and foot and three
men-at-arms guarding him to be sure he did not find a way to escape
again, Roarke was free to turn his attention to the women.

They sat
close to the fire, looking weary and bedraggled, their cold and
swollen hands held out to the warmth of the leaping flames. Thanks
to Elwin’s thoughtfulness, Roarke’s cloak covered Jenia’s
shoulders, while Lord Giles had wrapped his own cloak around Sanal.
Pathetic as they seemed to his sympathetic gaze, still Roarke felt
they deserved a stern admonishment. He had always found it best to
separate culprits when he interrogated them, but he didn’t want to
call either of them away from the fire, so he sat down between
them.

“
I am
thankful to know you were not seriously hurt,” he began.

“
We were
hurt badly enough,” Sanal said, flexing her fingers. “My hands are
still numb. I wonder if I will ever be able to use a needle
again.”

“
Of
course you will.” Lord Giles was reassuring as he seated himself
next to her. “Here, Sanal, let me rub your wrists. That often helps
my squires who have overworked at sword practice and thus have
strained their wrists and hands. You will see; the feeling will
soon return. Expect prickles and stings at first, and then a
burning sensation.”

He took
one of Sanal’s lower arms between his big hands and began to stroke
gently from above her wrist to the tips of her fingers. Roarke
frowned at Lord Giles, who only smiled back at him.

“
May we
return to the subject of how you two were seized by Walderon?”
Roarke demanded, looking from Sanal to Jenia. “How could either of
you be so foolhardy as to visit the dungeon, alone, in the middle
of the night?”

“
I went
there to confront Walderon,” Sanal said, “to prove to myself that I
was no longer afraid of him. Just as I reached the cell where he
was being held, the door opened and Mott came out with Walderon
close behind him.”

“
Aunt,
did you know Mott?” Jenia asked.

“
No,”
Sanal said. “Until that moment I had never seen him. But then,
Walderon has many servants whom I have never met. I became aware of
that fact some time ago, as I listened to him from the secret
passages in the walls. Walderon would give orders to Burke, who
then relayed his wishes to those men. They probably lived in the
lower levels of the castle. Keeping them out of sight was to
Walderon’s advantage. And now I realize that, contrary to what I
previously believed, my nieces and I and the older servants are not
the only castle dwellers who are familiar with those passageways.”
She paused to smile at Lord Giles, who took her other arm and began
to rub it.

“
Go on
with your story, Lady Sanal,” Roarke urged. “What happened after
you met your husband in the dungeon?”

“
As I
said, Mott came out of Walderon’s cell and Walderon was close
behind him. I knew at once that Mott was in the process of
releasing him and that the two of them were up to no good at all.
Even though Giles had bound Walderon’s magical power, he still
could inflict physical harm.

“
I turned
to run up the steps and raise the alarm. Plenty of men-at-arms and
squires were sleeping in the great hall; help was just a short
distance away. But Mott’s hand clamped over my mouth so I couldn’t
cry out. On Walderon’s command, Mott dragged me into the cell and
bound my hands. That was when I saw the poor, dead guard on
Walderon’s pallet. “At first, I thought they were going to kill me,
too, or at the very least leave me there with a corpse. But
Walderon said he was going to use me as a hostage. Mott pushed me
out of the cell and we were just starting down the stairs when we
heard footsteps coming our way from above. Mott thrust me into
Chantal’s cell and threatened to stab me if I made a sound. I think
they expected to see Garit and thought they’d have to fight him,
but it was Jenia who appeared, and they captured her,
too.”

“
Jenia,”
Roarke said when Sanal finally paused for breath, “why were you
there? You hold such distaste for the dungeon. You must have had a
very good reason for visiting Chantal’s cell. You were going to her
cell, weren’t you? Not to Walderon’s?”

“
I
wakened with the feeling that Chantal was calling me,” Jenia said.
“She has been guiding me since the moment when I jumped into the
sea from that dreadful ship. I’ve been wondering all through this
terrible day why she told me to go to the dungeon. I have concluded
that it must have been so I would confront and recognize Mott. He
needed to be punished, for his was the hand that struck her down.
Mott was the brute who stabbed Chantal.”

Roarke could not speak; he just stared in
amazement at the woman he loved while a chill slid down his
spine.

“
How
interesting,” Lord Giles murmured, his gaze on Jenia’s
face.

“
Yes,”
Jenia agreed. “You know, Roarke, I should have been terrified when
Walderon seized me and forced me to go with him. Yet I haven’t been
frightened so much as certain that you would find me. Chantal is
the reason I wasn’t afraid, the reason why I could think with such
clarity about what I needed to do. I could feel her protection
around me. And now it’s truly over,” she finished. She’d tell him
the rest of it later, tell him their conclusions about Walderon’s
treasonous plans had been correct.

“
It won’t
be finished until Walderon is punished,” Roarke said. “He is the
villain who instigated your troubles, whose unbridled ambition
caused Chantal’s death. He will be punished as he deserves, Jenia.
I promise you that. But for the moment, you can rest. And you, too,
Lady Sanal. Your long ordeal is over.”

Knowing
they’d have to travel slowly, Roarke sent Elwin and two men-at-arms
riding ahead to Thury with the message that the ladies were safe
and Walderon was a prisoner.

When they reached the open area where the
confrontation with Burke had taken place and where their
men-at-arms still guarded the prisoners from that encounter, Lord
Giles again suggested they spend the night, to give both the women
and the wounded more time to recover. Seeing how pale Sanal
appeared, and how Jenia struggled to sit upright on her horse,
Roarke agreed.

Thus,
they did not return to Thury until late afternoon of the third day.
Hal and his men, still camping in the meadow, greeted them as they
rode toward the drawbridge. Roarke turned aside to speak with the
leader of the remnants of Walderon’s little army.

“
Tomorrow
morning I am going to turn the lot of you over to Lord Giles and
Lord Garit,” Roarke said. “They will speak with each man here and
determine who is willing to forswear allegiance to Walderon and
bind himself instead to the man whom King Henryk will choose as the
new lord of Thury.”

“
Most of
the men with me will do so gladly,” Hal asserted. “We did not like
Walderon because he was not an honest lord.”

“
Fair
enough. Lady Jenia told me that you treated her decently.” Roarke
looked around at the little troop. “I’ll have ale and fresh bread
sent out to you this evening.”

“
Thank
you, Sir Roarke.”

Their
approach had been noted from the battlements and Garit had ordered
the drawbridge lowered. As the sun set in flaming glory, turning
the pale stone walls to gold, a partially recovered Walderon
entered Thury to face the stares of the people and Garit’s cold
glare.

“
You!”
Walderon exclaimed, glaring back at Garit. “This is your doing,
yours and Roarke and Giles.”

“
No,”
Garit responded with a smile of genuine amusement. “You’ve been
brought down by the very women you mistreated: your wife and Lady
Jenia. I would express my hope that you have learned a lesson from
all of this, but I fear it’s too late for you to learn
anything.”

“
Don’t
expect me to believe you,” Walderon said, his arrogance
undiminished by the draining of his Power or by the ropes that
bound him. “No woman could possibly be clever enough to defeat me.
Not even your precious Chantal succeeded in outwitting
me.
After all, she’s
dead, isn’t she?”

“
I’ll
stay away from him from now on,” Garit said to Roarke, “lest I lose
my temper completely and kill him with my bare hands. Such an act
would not be diplomatic of me and might well embarrass the king of
Kantia.” With that, Garit pivoted on one heel and stalked out of
the bailey.

Not
deeming the dungeon secure enough to hold his slippery prisoner
even in his present diminished condition, Roarke ordered Walderon
confined in one of the smallest guest chambers on an upper level, a
room with only one narrow slit window that was too small to let any
man in or out. He posted three of Garit’s best men at the door to
guard it.

Jenia, meanwhile, made certain that Sanal was
comfortably established in her room, with her maid to see to her
needs. When Jenia entered her own bedchamber, she found a large tub
of steaming water awaiting her.

“
The
moment the sentry called out your approach Lord Garit ordered the
fires built up in the laundry as well as the kitchen,” the
maidservant attending her said, “so there would be enough hot water
for everyone when you arrived.”

“
Bless
him for his thoughtfulness.” With the maid’s help, for her hands
were still causing her some slight problems, Jenia stripped off her
clothes and sank into the water with a sigh of pleasure.

“
Shall I
wash your hair?” the maid asked.

“
Yes,
please. My fingers aren’t nimble enough yet.” Jenia sat back and
let the maid tend to her. When her hair was clean the maid toweled
it dry, combed it, and pinned it atop her head. Then she took a
bowl of herb-scented soap and washed Jenia as if she was a helpless
baby.

“
My lady?
Will you stand now, so I can rinse you?” the maid asked, rousing
Jenia from a delicious somnolence.

“
I’ll do
it,” Roarke said. He lifted Jenia to her feet, holding her upright
so he could pour a pitcher full of warm water over her. The maid,
smiling and obviously amused, handed him a large linen towel and he
wrapped Jenia into it. She was so drowsy, so relaxed, that she made
no objection.