The Black Lyon (34 page)

Sir M orell threw back his .head and laughed. "Such training as you give your men does not prepare them for battle, but rather drams them of what little strength they have. Now tell me no more of your strengths. The very reason I chose this place was because no one would believe such a wreck of a castle held such a valuable captive as the Countess of M alvoisin."

Lady M argaret did not seem to be offended by Sir M orell's words. "You underestimate me, as you always have." She clapped her hands twice and four men appeared from the comers of the room. They were ugly men, scarred, their noses and cheeks distorted from many blows and wounds. Their hands clutched weapons, ugty weapons—the spiked mace, the chained flail, the sharp, hooked war hammer, the heavy battle ax. From their belts dangled other deadly weapons.

"I am pleased to see you so well protected. Lady M argaret, but do you think a mere four men, even these four men, could hold out against the Black Lion, were he

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to make an attack? He is followed always by those seven devils of his." His hands tightened in anger.

"Do not destroy the cup, M orell! I know your campaign to be one of his guard, but he saw you early for what you are. No man wishes to guard his back from his own man. Nay! I would not advise you try to strike me. M y own little guard would not take so kindly to your love taps as I have born them in the past. You do not seem to understand my guard. They are not to protect me, but they are for her."

Lyonene looked up to see the woman pointing at her.

"M y men will never leave her. Should one from M alvoisin attempt to take her, the men will kill her before they even look to the attacker."

Sir M orell grinned. "You are more than I thought. The man will attempt naught when her life is in danger. You could hold her in an open field, in the midst of his own castle, and he would do naught but hand us the ransom, wagonloads of it. Aye, you are clever."

"I thank you, fair knight." She rose and slid her arms about M oreU's neck. "Now I will tell you that my men keep her from you also."

The knight pushed her from him. "Nay, I want the woman and will have her."

At a quick gesture from Lady M argaret, the four burly men surrounded Lyonene's slight form on the bench. She looked even more lost, more alone, when they clustered around her, towering above her.

"The woman will be held, but as befits her, not as a whore for your use. From what I hear of this Black Lion, such treatment would enrage him, cause him to forget his senses, and he might force an attack, out of anger. If the woman were killed, we would receive no ransom. If the earl were killed with no heir, M alvoisin would revert to the English king and there again we would lose our ransom."

"There is an heir, she carries him now!"

"You are a sorcerer and know the child's sex or even that it will live? The woman looks even now to be at death's door." Her voice was heavy with sarcasm. "Nay, she will be well-cared for while she stays here. Alice!" She turned to a large, heavy woman who emerged from the shadows. "This is Lady Lyonene. She is to be your charge. Take her to the tower room that has been prepared and care for her. Do you remember all I have told you?"

The woman nodded and walked toward Lyonene, taking her arm in hers, firmly but kindly.

"That woman is to be trusted?" Amicia asked as she watched the two leave the room. "Lyonene has a way of endearing herself to servants."

"I am sure you have no such problems." Lady M argaret's eyes raked Amicia's emaciated form. "Alice is a mute and so cannot tell our secret. She is also simple-minded. I have told her of the coming child and she will care well for the precious little countess." She sneered at the closed door through which Lyonene had gone. "The woman's life seems to have no hardship. Born a baron's daughter, married for love to a handsome, rich earl... there is naught she does not have."

"Aye," Amicia said, grinning. "It is time she shared some of her happiness with others."

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"Alice?" Lyonene stretched in the cold air, the heavy wool blankets inadequate for the damp cold of the drafty donjon. "You are well this morn?" She looked at the heavy woman bending over the fire, slowly coaxing it to life.

Alice turned and grinned at Lyonene, nodding her head.

"Your mother's cough is better?"

Alice pantomimed someone drinking from a cup and then pointed at Lyonene.

"Ah, then the herbs I recommended helped her. I am glad. It is too cold to be ill." Lyonene tried to sit up and instantly Alice was there to help her. "It is enormous, is it not?" She smiled as she rubbed her extended stomach. "Ranulf would be..."

Alice gripped the slim shoulders, frowned and shook her head vigorously.

"Nay, I know I should not. The memories are too painful even yet Do you think there is a chance the boy gave my belt to someone? When Sir M orell caught him, he no longer had it."

Alice turned away.

"I know what you would say. It has been so long and there is no word. Lady M argaret says Ranulf does not answer her demands. Think you he will not pay the ransom? I have ever been a trial to him."

Alice turned to her with a bard expression, eyes narrowed in threat

Lyonene gave a weak laugh. "I will not begin anew. You have heard too much already. What shall we do this day? Don ourselves in cloth of gold and ride our stallions across the hills of Ireland?"

Alice smiled at her and then went to a plain wooden chest set in the corner of the room. With reverence, she opened it and lifted the leather pouch which contained the precious book.

Lyonene smiled. "It is a good day for reading. Tell me, are my guards well? They have not forgotten me?"

Alice shivered as she cast a fearful look toward the heavy oak door.

"Alice, they could not be so horrible as you seem to think. I have been here for four months and they do but sit and watch."

Alice merely looked at her. They had discussed the four guards before and nothing had been solved. She helped her mistress from the narrow bed, the heavy pregnancy making the younger woman awkward and clumsy. Alice loosely fastened the woolen garments about her mistress and then combed her long hair neatly into place.

"Think you I should cut it? Brent told me some of the women at court seemed to think it too long. I have told you about Brent, have I not?" At Alice's indulgent smile, Lyonene caught the big, work-hardened hand and held it to her cheek. "Of course, I have told you all there is to tell about me. You must be greatly bored with my stories."

Alice stroked her mistress's cheek in answer.

"Lady M argaret thinks .you simple-minded. She would not like to know she is far from the truth. I do not think she would have you as my guard 'twere she to know your cleverness. Now, come and sit by me and I will read to you a while and then I will teach you more of your letters. A while longer and you will read this book yourself. Did I tell you Ranulf owns six books?" She stopped and laughed. "Do not look at me so. You are a fierce critic. I will tell you no more of my Ranulf this hour, but beware of the next, for I may remember a thing I have not told you. I doubt it, but I may."

They both turned as the heavy door creaked open and Lady M argaret appeared. "Well, you do not seem to be the mistreated prisoner." She sat down on a stool before the fire. "We have had no word." She looked ominously at Lyonene. "I understood this husband of yours loved you overmuch, yet he does not seem anxious to have you returned. M y messenger returned yester eve and says the Earl of M alvoisin makes merry at court with the

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ladies there. This does not seem to be the bereaved husband who misses and longs for his wife." She watched Lyonene. "Have you no answer to this riddle?"

Lyonene looked away. "Nay, I have not," she answered quietly. "It was not I who said he loved me, but Amicia. I am a baron's daughter and mayhaps ... Ranulf"—the name caused her to blink back tears—"has found another."

"Bah!" M argaret rose to walk to the large window, the shutters poorly latched, the cool early morning air whistling under them.

"Whatever be feels for you, I would not expect this. You are by law his wife and he must know the babe is near full-term now. If not you, then his child. M orell will return to England soon to see for himself why no ransom is being prepared. I should have guessed' Amicia to be such a liar. Your precious husband's steward has said he hopes you never return." She laughed at the expression on Lyonene's face. "You thought yourself well loved by everyone. You are a vain creature. Has no one said so to you before?"

"Aye, they have," Lyonene whispered.

"I am pleased that there is at least a whisper of truth somewhere in this old castle. Your guards grow restless. They wish to meet this husband of yours, for they have ever heard of his strength. What think you of seeing him pitted against the four of them?

M orell thinks he could take them. Ah, I see you are not so sure. If I did not chance losing the ransom, I would stage such a show, for the man angers me at his insolence in not answering my messages." She looked away to the fire.

"If I am worthless to you, will you not let me go? I must cost you much in food and soon there will be the babe to care for."

"Aye, you are worthless to me, but there must be some value in you. It is true you have cost me much and you will need to repay these monies. After you rid yourself of the babe, mayhaps I can find your body to be a means to repay my generosity. Sir M orell might, I think, pay much for the use of it." She laughed again. "I will wait only a while longer. Your husband might think differently when you deliver his child alive." She left the room.

Lyonene was unaware of the tears that ran down her cheeks and only gradually felt Alice's rather violent shaking of her. "Why do you do this?" she asked as she looked into the maid's stormy face. "You are angry with me. What have I done?"

Alice pointed toward the closed door, then frowned at her mistress, vigorously shaking her head. They had been together for four months and in that time they had developed their own communication.

"You wish to tell me I am a fool," Lyonene stated flatly.

Alice released her and stood above her, hands on wide hips, a disdainful look on her face as she glared down her nose.

"I believe everyone. First Amicia's lies about Ranulf and now Lady M argaret's false stories. But what of William de Bee? Why would Ranulf's steward hate me?"

Alice threw up her hands in disgust.

Lyonene laughed. "I know what you say. It is hard for me to not believe them. Their lies are so logical."

Alice dropped to her knees before her mistress, taking the little hands in her own, her eyes imploring. She tapped her head with one fingertip.

"Aye, I should think for myself. I am sure Ranulf ... cares for me. He must, but there was so little time. He hated me for so long and it is not easy to believe he changed. Do not shake your head at me. I believe I know my own husband. Hal" She frowned at Alice's gestures. "I am sure I am smarter than my unborn babe. Why then has Ranulf gone to court? King Edward will not give him money for my ransom. The king wishes Ranulf to marry a Castilian princess."

She watched Alice. "You are right. M ayhaps Lady M argaret lies and Ranulf is not at court." She smiled at Alice's sigh of exasperation. "I am a countess, you know. At home there are servants who treat me with respect."

Alice put her head on Lyonene's knee and the young woman stroked the coarse hair. "Whatever I say," she whispered, "you are more than maid to me. Had it not been for you, for your long hours, days even, of listening to my endless stories I might have thrown myself from yon window. Would you like to hear more of the Round Table?"

At Alice's nod, she began, for she knew the woman loved to hear of the pageantry, the games, the food, the 237

clothes, the powerful knights who wrestled and jousted with one another. There was not one second of the three-day tourney that Lyonene had not related to Alice, but they both loved to hear it again and both knew it kept Lyonene from thinking too realistically of the stone walls enclosing her or hearing the lies that surrounded her.

Late in the afternoon, Lyonene slept and Alice went about her duties outside the castle. When she awoke, she lay still and thought of the time since she had been taken captive. M ostly her days were spent with Alice in the tower room. Ireland was warmer than England, but still the stones created their own dreary and oppressive atmosphere. She had never even been outside the castle walls since she had first entered them, and this lack of sun and exercise did not help her mood.

Only lately, since the child had grown big in her stomach, had she dared leave the cramped little room, for Sir M orell always lurked near her, touching her hair, her shoulder, smiling in a way that left little doubt of his thoughts. She recalled with a shudder a conversation with him when she had first come to the castle.

"Why? Why do you do this?" she had asked.

He had sneered insolently at her. "Is not the great wealth I will receive from your husband enough?" His eyes raked her soft form. "Is not the person of the lovely Lady Lyonene enough?"

She had raised her head and met his eyes steadily. "No, it is not. I have been a fool to not believe in my husband, but you I do not think are a fool. There is more behind this than gold."

He smiled slightly and looked into his empty chalice. "Such knowledge from one so young! Shall I tell you a story?"

She had not answered and he had continued.

"You did not know your husband as a young man. He has changed greatly since he has known you. I came to him as a squire, as one of several young men, soon after his wife's death." He did not notice Lyonene's pained look. "Young Lord Ranulf! So strong, so ungiving, so black!"