Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (34 page)

Chapter
Nineteen

Joanna
stood stunned, watching
for
the room full of nobles
begi
n to clear
. The king was leaving on Sunday. She had kept her panic inside as
a
kind
lady’s maid
had translated his words for her, but now she was close to the edge. Four days. Less than that if Crispin and Jack’s trial was to be held sooner. If she had any hope of saving her master from death at Pennington’s word she would have to kill the king in the next four days or less.

As if he could read her thoughts, Pennington grinned at her from halfway across the room where he spoke with Matlock. Matlock was white with fury as he watched Ethan and Simon. Between Matlock and Pennington the specter of death hung in the air.

Joanna drew in a deep breath to steady herself
before crossing behind the throne to where Lucy stood.
If someone was going to die it was not going to be any of the people she loved.

“Can you give me five minutes? I need to talk to someone before he leaves.”

Lucy picked up the tray of goblets that had hardly been touched. “He?” A smile touched her lips. “Absolutely. I’ll take this to the kitchen and come back to get the table with you.”

“Thanks.”

Joanna nodde
d and slipped off of the dais
to march
straight to Ethan. Pennington followed her with his eyes.
She met his glance without apology. He was
still
her best hope for freeing her master and mistress, if
it could even be called hope.

“What are you doing here?” she accosted Ethan in a tight whisper when she reached the spot where he stood in close conversation with Simon. “Matlock looks like he wants to tear your heart out and have it for breakfast.”

Ethan straightened,
sending a vague glance
over his shoulder to where Pennington
had continued his discussion with Matlock.
“I know,” Ethan said. “But there’s
nothing I can do about it now but keep him from finding The Stag Hunt and Madeline
.”

“The king informed Ethan
that Sir Crispin and Jack’s trial
will be
tomorrow
afternoon,” Simon
revealed
.

“
Tomorrow?
”
Joanna
balled her fists in her skirts to keep from screaming in frustration. “
That doesn’t leave us any time.
”
S
he
searched
around the emptying room of nobles
as if the means of murdering a king on short notice would leap out at her
. Theirs wasn’t the only group that stayed behind to whisper frantically and wring their hands.

“It doesn’t matter if the trial is
tomorrow
or in an hour,
”
Ethan said
. “
What matters is that we do what we can and trust the rest to God’s hands
.
”

“What do you me
an?” Simon narrowed his eyes.

“I can probably convince the king to give me Aubrey, but
if
Pennington
supports Matlock’s claim about
those letters
, then
the best
we can
hope for to save
Crispin and Jack
is that they’re seen for the forgeries they are
.”

“That is not acceptable,” Simon snapped.

“And it’s not true.”
Disappointment in Ethan bored deep into
Joanna’s
gut, but her resolve strengthened. “
I
can still give Pennington
what he wants
.
If there’s no king tomorrow, there will be no trial tomorrow.
”

“No.” Ethan was adamant. “There has to be another way.”

“It’s our only choice.”

“Joanna, I won’t let you-”

“This time, Ethan, you don’t have a say,” she cut him off. “You either help me or leave.”

Ethan’s eyes flared wide. He balanced on his spot, holding his breath. He only broke eye contact with Joanna long enough to glare across the room at Pennington.
He studied the room as if another plan would
come to
him.
After a long pause he
took a breath and said, “Fine. Have it your way.”

Without another word he spun away and marched off. Joanna watched him go, heart tumbling to her toes. He’d left her
.
After all of his promises he’d left her alone
to climb an impossible mountain again.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Her world threatened to shatter around her.

“I must speak to Jack,” Simon
broke through her silent torment
. “Can you take me to where he is being held?”

“Yes, I can,” Joanna answered,
pulling herself back from the edge of despair
.

“We should be quick about it.” Simon nodded and flinched as if he would run off.

She nodded,
steeling her courage
. “This way.”

Ethan pushed his way through the crush of nobles in the audience room and into the main guard room. He searched over the heads of the milling nobles until he found the largest cluster of
soldiers
.
The man he knew was the head of the Tower guard stood among them.
Joanna would have his hide for this, but if it meant saving her life it had to be done.

“You there!” he said as he approached the head guard. “We’ve got a murderer in our midst.”

“What?” The guards snapped to attention, drawing their weapons. “Where?” The head guard flexed his hand around his sword.

Ethan swallowed, begging Toby’s forgiveness. “Arthur Pennington. He’s been conspiring against the king. He’s enlisted the help of one of the Tower maids to-”

“Ssh!” the head guard hissed. He clamped a gloved hand over Ethan’s mouth and yanked him to the side of the room. “Are you mad?” he whispered as the other guards shielded them from the curious
spectators
.

A rock of suspicion filled Ethan’s gut. “Pennington is conspiring to kill the king. You have to put a stop to it, double the king’s guard, question Pennington.”

“Sir Ethan, I’ve nothing against you,” the guard said. “I admire your valor in the crusades. That is why I will not strike you down or cut out your tongue right here. But if you value your life you will hold that tongue and forget anything you may or may not have heard about Pennington.”

The dread in Ethan’s gut spread. His skin tingled. “You’re on Pennington’s payroll, aren’t you.” The guard shuffled anxiously. “This is treason!” Ethan whispered.

“
I am a faithful subject,” the guard hissed back. “But Pennington is powerful. The last thing I want to
do is let him win, but
I
had two men disappear last week after they were caught mocking Pennington behind his back. I don’t want myself or any more of my men to join them
.”

“So you will stand by and let the king be killed?”

The guard didn’t answer. He sheathed his sword and glanced warily around. “I will protect King Richard against any threat I know of. Don’t tell me more than I want to know.”

Ethan jerked away from the man. Anger twined in his gut with far darker helplessness. Richard’s own guards were unwilling to move one way or another. He turned and marched across the hall. He could run upstairs and revea
l the plot to Richard himself.

Cold loathing stopped his feet. He’d seen what Richard could do, seen what he was capable of. Maybe God had anointed him as king, maybe not. Maybe the head of the guards had a point in waiting with his fingers plugged in his ears.

He switched directions and stormed
out of the White Tower to the yard. He needed to breathe, to clear away the jumble of everything that was happening.
If he could just think, just talk the situation through with Toby, he could find an answer. But Toby wasn’t there. He was on his own.

His gaze shifted towards the house where Aubrey was being kept.
It was the only option that cut its way through the panic of his thoughts.
If anyone would have the strength to know what to do now it would be
Aubrey
.

“You’re getting to be quite the frequent visitor,” the
soldier
on duty chuckled as Ethan burst through the door
to Aubrey’s prison house
.

Ethan ignored him, rushing past and up the stairs.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” the harried
soldier
told his mates before following Ethan. In spite of his familiarity, the
man
still carried his drawn sword, but he tucked it under his arm in the hallway at the top of the stairs to free up his ha
nds. “I had no idea a country c
ountess could be so popular,” he added while searching for the right key and fitting it in the door.

Ethan was in no mood for banter. He shifted anxiously from side to side until the guard swung the door open. He made no apology for jostling the man as he charged into the room.

Aubrey stood by the window, looking out over the yard. “What’s going on?” she demanded when she swung to face him. “I’ve been watching the crowd. I saw you
shoot out of the White Tower like it was on fire
. What’s happened?”

“The king is leaving for France on Sunday,” he broke the news. “He wants all unfinished business over with by then. Crispin and Jack’s trial will be tomorrow afternoon.”

The color drained from Aubrey’s face. “So soon?” She grabbed the arm of the chair beside her and sunk into it. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know.” His answer went far deeper than her question. “I don’t know what to do about anything.” He paced the floor in front of her, running a hand through his hair and breathing fast. He couldn’t s
hake Joanna from his thoughts.

“What?” Aubrey asked, eyes narrowed.

He stopped pacing and faced her, taking a breath. “I’m in
love with Joanna,” he blurted.

Aubrey huffed. “God save h
er then!”

He deserved every ounce of her scorn a
nd bowed his head accordingly.

“So what are you going to do then?” Aubrey went on, mocking him. “Run off and petition the king of France to give you Windale back while she deals with the catastrophe here on her own? Isn’t that what you do?”

“It’s what I did.” He lifted his head and met her eyes. Her scowl softened at the contrition painting his face. The sting of the lash would have been easier to endure than the shame of everything he’d done to hurt the people around him surfacing all at once. “Aubrey, I’m sorry
, but my love for Joanna is a thousand times what I thought my love for you was. I can’t leave her to fight this battle on her own. I’m sorry
.”

“Are you?” Her sharp question was tempered by a hint of genuine curiosity. “I’ve never known you to be sorry a day in your life.”

He hadn’t been. He had only been sorry for himself. Until now.

“What happened to me?” He dropped to his knees in front of her chair. “I used to be so sure of things, so full of life and promise. I used to know what was right. And then one day that all disappeared. What happened?”

She
stared
at him. Her shock turned into a sigh. “You were wrong, that’s what happened.” There was no more anger in her voice. In fact, she sounded more tired than he had ever known her to be.

“I thought I was right to join King Richard’s crusade,” he told her. “I thought I was brave to fight for England and for the glory of God. I left everything that I knew and loved. I left Joanna.”

“Yes you did,” Aubrey agreed with sadness in her eyes. “You left me too. I had such a
sweet spot for
you, I always had.”

“I didn’t know.” His eyes grew unfocused as he looked back into the past. “The only woman I cared about back then was Joanna. And I didn’t care about her enough.”

“Joanna?” Aubrey tilted her head as though considering it for the first time. “Did Joanna love you?”

He shifted to focus on Aubrey again. “Yes, she did. Didn’t she tell you?”

Aubrey shook her head. “She never told me a thing. I tried to wheedle it out of her now and then, tried to figure out if she’d ever had a special someone in her life. I figured she had, but every time we spoke about it she would turn sad. So I let it go.” She took in a breath. “That was you?”

“I broke her heart,” he confessed. “Just like I broke your heart. And Toby’s heart.” He reached out to lay his hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry.”