Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart
Read Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart Online
Authors: Merry Farmer
Praise for The Noble Hearts….
The Loyal Heart
An engaging historical romance
I could not put this book down, in fact I devoured it in one sitting and then immediately bought the second book too!
-The Kindle Book Review
Four and a Half Stars
This is a really entertaining book with love, lust, action, intrigue, humour, stress, happiness and sadness and is well worth taking the time out of your day to read.
-Lindsay and Jane’s Views and Reviews
The Faithful Heart
Entertaining and informative
As with the first book in this series, it is un-put-downable! The characters are real, the action is realistic and you really care about it all! … Not your ordinary bodice ripper!
-Amazon Review
A rollicking, lighthearted adventure
There is enough adventure, romance, and moments of genuine heartbreak here to keep readers glued to their e-readers for the duration.
-InD’Tale Magazine
COPYRIGHT
Copyright ©2012
by Merry Farmer
Smashwords Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Pehr Graphic Design
www.facebook.com/pehrdesign
Romance Fatal Serif font used with permission from Juan Casco www.juancasco.net
Tower of London on cover:
© Stephen Finn | Dreamstime.com
The
Courageous
Heart
By Merry Farmer
Thanks once again to my wonderful editor, Alison Dasho.
I always say that
I couldn’t do this without her
, but that’s more true of this book than any other so far
.
Her help made this story what it is.
Thanks also to my dear friend, Jonathan Longstaff, for creating yet another gorgeous cover design.
Very s
pecial thanks to my
beta reader extraordinaire and best friend
,
Kristine Medley
, and all of my fabulous friends online who
have given me encouragement and who
remind me why I love writing so much.
For
my brother, Brian Kelly Farmer,
who died suddenly as I was writing this book.
Like Joanna, I am lucky to have had a brother who was so loving, so selfless, and who lived every day of his life to care for the people he loved.
You will never be forgotten.
Table of Contents
The Courageous Heart
Chapter One
Derbyshire, 1194
Joanna paced through the
rows of headstones in
Windale church graveyard,
a bundle of simple wildflowers
clutched
to her stomach.
The
ache
that
hadn’t
left her heart
for two and a half years throbbed
as she reached the end of the third row. She stopped
but couldn’t look at the stone. She
bit
her lip and stared
off over the hills and fields of
her home,
Windale Manor,
instead
.
The winter chill
had gone
. Spring was in the air. A promising breeze wafted the rich s
c
ent of the orchard blossoms
from
Kedleridge, on the other side of the hill. The rhythmic
melody
of the farmers singing as they furrowed sleepy rows through the fields should have cheered her
, today of all days
.
She swallowed and forced her eyes to the name carved
on the stone where she stood.
Toby Dunkirke.
Two and a half years
and still she expected to hear her brother’s gentle voice in the manor halls, to see him waving to her as she walked through the fields
. Her handsome, hopeless
, wonderful fool of a brother.
She
knelt beside his headstone
and squeezed her eyes shut to keep her emotions at bay. Toby had been all she had, the last of her family. They’d shared a womb, shared everything, from the day they were born to the day Toby
left home
with Et
han to fight in King Richard’s c
rusade.
She swallowed, opened her eyes, and lay the bundle of flowers at the foot of the headstone.
“Happy birthday, Toby,” she told him, blinking back tears. “I miss you.
I’ve been so lonely without you. I-
”
There was so much more she wanted to say to him, so much that had been left unsaid. Too much. Toby had been wrenched away from her long before his tragic death.
In the five years since he had left for the crusade she hadn’t had one rambling conversation with him. They hadn’t had a chance to stay up all night sharing their secrets, laughing over the futility of their dreams until they cried in each other’s arms. They hadn’t had each other to keep the loneliness at bay.
And she knew full well whose fault that was. Her grief coalesced into bitter resentment.
“Joanna?” A small hand
tapped on her shoulder
. Joanna blinked and pivoted to
face
the black hair and solemn blue eyes of little Wulfric Huntingdon. “Joanna?”
“Yes, my lord?” She cleared her throat, blinking to banish her tears, and forced a smile.
Her little lord, a sweet replica of his imposing father, stared up at her, chubby cheeks giving
him the
frown
of
a stoic cherub. “There’s a man at the house.”
“Oh?” Joanna squatted to look the boy in the eye. “Is it your papa?”
Wulfric shook his head.
“Is it Uncle Jack?”
He shook his head again.
“Uncle Tom?”
“It’s a stranger.”
“A stranger?” Joanna repeated, brushing an unruly strand of hair away from Wulfric’s face. “What kind of stranger?”
“
He
told Mama
his name
is
Ethan.”
Joanna’s heart plummeted. She shot to her feet, hands balled into fists at her sides,
turning
towards the manor house. Her pulse
roared
when she saw an unfamiliar horse standing near the edge of the common. Aubrey
stood talking to
a man in a traveler’s cloak.
“I’ll murder him!” she hissed, out of breath after just those words.
How dare he show up
today, after all these years.
What gave him the right to disappear for years and then just walk back into her life at random?
“Come on, my lord.
”
Joanna
scooped
Wulfric
into her arms, resting him against her hip and
charging out of the graveyard and up the road to the manor. She would strangle
Ethan
with her bare hands. She would gouge his eyes out with a red-hot iron. She would slice his balls off with a rusty dagger. Ethan would regret the day he walked out on Windale,
walked out on her,
stealing
Toby
with him.
Her
rage fizzled when she reached the common and the cloaked man turned to face her. He was in his middle years with graying hair and a scar on his cheek. He was not
her
Ethan.
“Oh,” she stuttered, gl
ancing past the man to Aubrey.
Aubrey
looked as confused as Joanna felt
.
She
softened at the sight of her son. Wulfric held out his arms to his mother and Aubrey crossed in front of the stranger to take him from Joanna.
“Joa
nna, this is Sir Ethan Eversham.
”
“Sir
.
”
Joanna curtsied, straightening and sending Aubrey a questioning look.
“Sir Ethan has come from London.” Her voice was thready and puzzled.
“I’ve been sent by the crown, my lady,
to bring word to the nobles of Derbyshire,
” Sir Ethan said
. He
continued as if he had already been making an explanation before Joanna arrived. “King Richard has returned to England. He has taken up residence in
London, in
the Tower.”
“The king is back?” Aubrey shuffled Wulfric in her arms as he poked at the netting holding her hair back. “We hadn’t heard he’d been released.”
“Emperor Henry released him last month, my lady.
King Richard
arrived in London last week and is eager to resume complete control of his kingdom from his rebellious brother, Prince John.
” He shifted his weight, glancing back towards the manor house. “
I have a specific
message for your husband, my lady. Is he at home?”
“No.”
Aubrey
pushed Wulfric’s hand away from her ear where he was now trying to stick his finger. “No, he and Jack,
that is,
Lord John, are in Derby today.”
“Ah. Lord John of Kedleridge?”
Aubrey nodded.
“This message concerns him as well. It is a message of utmost urgency.”
“I could ride into Derby to fetch them,” Joanna offered. Heaven only knew that she needed something to take her mind off her troubles.
“Thank you, Joanna, but I need you here,” Aubrey said.
“Joanna?” Sir Ethan blinked and looked at her as though just seeing her. “Not Joanna Dunkirke?”
Joanna’s eyebrows rose. She glanced to Aubrey who seemed just as surprised. Then she turned back to Sir Ethan. “Yes. That’s me.”
“I have something for you,” he said as though he coul
dn’t quite believe it himself.
He walked back to his horse and unfastened the portmanteau. Joanna and Aubrey followed him and stood waiting as he sorted through its contents. He
took out a bundle
and stepped towards them,
present
ing
Joanna with a thick packet of battered old parchment tied with dirty string.
“I’ve
been charged with delivering a backlog of missives that have accumulated in the court offices these last few years. So many l
etters arrived in the court offices in London at various points as soldiers returned from the Holy Land
that we haven’
t been able to deliver them all.
”
Sir Ethan
held up the packet
. “
We’ve had these
particular letters
for over three years
.
I have stacks of the things to deliver all across Derbyshire, but yours are the only ones not addressed to a noble. To tell the truth, I didn’t think I’d actually find you
.”
Joanna took the bundle. Her curious frown tumbled into a look of shock at the writing on the top letter of the pile
.
Joanna Dunkirke, Windale Manor, Derbyshire
. The lump in her throat squeezed and all color drained from her face.
“What’s wrong?” Aubrey put a hand on her shoulder.
Joanna
’s
stinging eyes flew up to meet Aubrey’s. “They’re from Toby.”
“What?” Aubrey stepped to her side and craned her neck to look at the letters.
“That’s his handwriting,” Joanna explained.
S
he picked at the string holding the letters together
with trembling hands
.
Her heart fluttered. The feeling that Toby was standing just behind her, that she could touch him, hung heavily over her.
She separated the top letter, tucking
the rest
under her arm, and turned the
letter over to break the seal.
“Dear Joanna,” she read aloud. “We’ve reached Marseille at last. The jou
rney was long and uncomfortable and
I don’t think my backside will ever recover. Ethan is in good spirits though.” She lowered the letter and stared at Aubrey, eyes round. “It’s dated June, 1189.”
“Five years ago,” Aubrey whispered.
“I do apologize for taking so long in delivering them,” Sir Ethan said. “I suppose
by now
this Toby
has told you all about his adventures in King Richard’s crusade.”
Joanna shook her head. She tried to read more but
tears blurred
her eyes.
Her moment of joyful hope squeezed to the pain of loss.
“Toby was killed two and a half years ago. He … he never had a chance to tell me abou
t his time in the Holy Land.
We were never together long enough once he came home
.”
“I’m
so
sorry.” Sir Eth
an lowered his head in respect.
He shifted
his attention
to
Aubrey. “My lady, it is imperative that I speak to the earl as soon as possible. The king’s business cannot be delayed.”
“I’ll
send a messenger to Derby to fetch them.” Aubrey took charge, leaving Joanna’s side to start towards the stable.
“If I may, my lady,” Sir Ethan stopped her. “I will ride into Derby myself. This cannot wait.”
Aubrey frowned. “Fine, then w
e’ll take the carriage and come with you.”
Joanna
cleared her throat and pushed her pain down to focus on her duty. “I’ll see to it, my lady.
”
S
he
folded the letter
, kissed it,
and
slid
it and the others
into the pocket of her kirtle.
She couldn’t think about her brother now. She didn’t have the strength.
His
first few
words
had sounded so cheerful, so like Toby. She couldn’t bear to hear them. Instead
she did what Toby would have done and
pushed everything else out of her mind but duty.
The War Room in the dungeon of Derby Castle had taken on an almost festive feeling. A fire roared in the
hearth
and several candelabras had been set around the edges
of the room
. Crispin had ordered the servants to keep the rushes on the floor fresh and someone had brought boughs of blossoms from the castle garden’s fruit trees to hang on the walls and lend their scent to the air.
“So that’s three new permits to build
shops
.
”
Tom Tanner gave his report while Crispin and Jack listened from their seats at the room’s large table. “With the growth along the south side of town there should be about an eight percent increase in city revenue by the end of the year.”
“Good, good.” Crispin nodded. “What about the cathedral? I’ve seen a lot of activity
at the site
, but have they started building again in earnest after the winter?”
Tom’s answer was delayed by the cry of a fussy baby. “They have, my lord. Brother Robert tells me they
’ll
need to hire at least a dozen more workers this year, which should increase the population even more.”