Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (36 page)

“Your trial is scheduled for
tomorrow
afternoon,” Joanna told him.

Jack gaped at her. “You’re bloody joking, mate!”

“I wish I was,” Joanna replied. “The king is returning to France
on Sunday
. He wants all of his business in London taken care of before he goes.”

Jack leaned back against the pillar and sighed at the vaulted ceiling. “That’s it then.” He
gulped for
breath, blinking rapidly. “My poor Meg! I wanted so badly to watch her grow up
, to beat the crap outta some nob who wanted to marry her someday
.”

The tears Jack fought caused Joanna to cry herself. As desperately as she
longed
to reply, to tell him that everything would work out and that he would be home in Madeline’s arms, Meg safe with him, by the end of the week, she couldn’t speak.

“
What about Ethan?
” Simon’s voice remained stony and his expression hard.

Jack
snorted
. Joanna frowned.

“
He is close to King Richard, is he not?
” He didn’t seem at all happy about his statement.

“We already tried,”
Joanna
told him.

Simon’s expression darkened. “He refused?”

The faintest flicker of hope formed in Joanna’s gut. “He didn’t commit to anything, one way or another.”

There was still a chance. He had been willing to give his life for her.
He had told her he loved her, made love to her with abandon and held her through the night.
He kept her hope alive.

“Ethan may be nothing more than a self-serving, dispossessed noble, but I don’t believe he is the sort of man to let others die when he has a chance to save them,” Simon
spoke his thoughts aloud
.

“Yeah, well you don’t bloody know the man like I do,” Jack
drawled.

“No,” Simon met his eyes, “but I do know men who would not only let a man die, but take up the knife to kill them himself.”

Joanna gasped. “Simon! Your son, Roderick. He’s here, in London.”

“What?” Simon snapped to alarm.

“You didn’t tell him?” Jack gaped.

“We didn’t have a chance,” Joanna said. “
He must be working for Pennington, like everyone else seems to be
.”

“Is he here at the Tower?”

“I haven’t seen him,” Joanna answered.

“Just because you haven’t seen h
im doesn’t mean he hasn’t been
here.” He searched the shadows as though he would find Roderick lurking
with knives drawn
. “We need to get back to the inn immediately.”

“What, you’re not gonna stay for tea?” Jack’s teasing hid genuine fear.

“I am sorry, my lord.” Simon nodded to him. “If my son knows the lady Madeline is nearby then I must see to her safety and that of your daughter.”

“Of course.” Jack nodded, face twitching as though he was working not to be disappointed. “You better go and keep her safe then.”

“I will work on Ethan, my lord,” Simon promised him. His shoulders softened a hair. “I will not rest until I find a way out of this, for all of you.” His eyes darted to Joanna.

“We should hurry then,” Joanna agreed
.

“Use your position within the Tower to gather as much information as you can,” Simon directed her.

It was a mark of Joanna’s desperation and her respect for the man that she didn’t take him to task for ordering her around when she wasn’t his servant.

“Take heart, Jack.” Simon clapped Jack in another embrace that seemed both out of place and touching to Joanna. Jack clung to him as though he were life itself. The gesture reminded her so much of Toby’s dependence on Ethan, and vice ver
sa, that she had to look away.

At last Simon broke the embrace and turned to Joanna. “Lead the way.”

Chapter
Twenty

The moment Roderick had been looking forward
to for weeks had finally come.

The Stag Hunt was crowded with midday patrons.
Ethan and the maid Joanna
had gone off to the Tower
on their fool’s errand
. The inn’s staff was busy cooking and serving and cleaning up. Too busy to keep an eye on the back garden where Madeline sat
muttering
over
some stupid rosary.

Not a soul noticed as he strolled into the inn’s courtyard, two of Pennington’s thickest brutes in tow.
It was nice of Pennington to lend them to Matlock. It was nice of Matlock to order him to do something
he’d planned to do all along.

Huntingdon’s dark-haired whelp glanced up from where he was playing in the grass beside a wooden cradle.

“Hello, my lady.”
Roderick
gave Madeline a toothy grin, stepping on flowers in one of the beds as he approached her. “Lovely weather we’re having.”

“Roderick!” Madeline gasped.
“What are you doing here?”

“Where’s my father,” he hissed, his grin and his eyes narrowing. He wrapped a hand around the dagger at his belt.

Madeline lost what little color she had. “He … he’s not here.”

The cold rage in Roderick’s gut hardened. “What?” He whipped his head towards the inn, searching.
He
didn’t make mistakes and he
couldn’t have miscalculated.

“He
went with Ethan to the Tower.”

When he snapped back to glare at Madeline she gasped and clutched her hands around the rosary.

Dammit, she wasn’t lying.
If Simon was there he would be within sight of his beloved Madeline.
His bastard of a father had given him he slip. “Well isn’t that just a shame,” he seethed.

“What are you doing here?” Madeline stammered.

“I’ve come to fetch you.”
His rage morphed into a twisted smile as he
jumped
to the second part of his mission
.
“Your papa wants a word
with you.”

Without breaking stride Roderick marched up to Madeline and scooped her over his shoulder.
Huntingdon’s whelp roared and jumped up to pound a tiny fist against his leg. Roderick planted a boot on the boy’s chest and pushed him over. The boy burst into tears and scrambled away as Roderick laughed.

“Help!”
Madeline
shouted
, trying in vain to wriggle free
. The baby in the cradle
on the ground
began to wail.
A maid poked her head out of the kitchen door
.
Just as quickly she jerked back inside and shouted.

“Come, come now,”
Roderick
scoffed.
Time was wasting.
“What’s there to scream about? It’s just a lovely little family reunion.
Won’t you be happy to see your dear papa?
I would have been delighted to see mine,
”
he growled.

“Help me!” Madeline scream
ed
and flail
ed
. The blows she landed on his back would have hardly bruised a fly.
He stomped back through the garden towards the courtyard.

“Sack!” he called to one of Pennington’s brutes.

The man came forward with a large grain sack. His friend helped him hold it open as he dumped Madeline inside.

“No! Let me go!” she
pleaded
.

“Tie it closed,” Roderick ignored her. “If she doesn’t quiet down when you get her out to the cart you can hit her over the head,” he directed the men
in a voice loud enough for Madeline to hear
.

Madeline shrieked inside the sack as the larger of Pennington’s men slung
it
over his shoulder.

As fast as they’d entered the yard they strolled out again.

Joanna led Simon out of the dungeon and through the clusters of expectant nobles still lingering around the White Tower.

“David and Rebecca de Talemunt are good people,” she assured him. “They have helped us in so many ways. They won’t let any harm come to Madeline or the children.”

“I have no doubt that is their intention,” Simon
agreed, “but I do not trust my son.”

They wove their way out the door and onto the wooden steps. Word about the impending trials had spread. A page stood in the middle of the yard with a parchment in his hand. Nobles crowded around him. Joanna assumed he held the king’s dreadful
schedule
. Worry made her short of breath.

S
he
stopped entirely when she caught sight of
Ethan leaving one of the out
-
buildings.
“What is he still doing here?”
For the briefest moment her heart soared with hope before she tamped it down again.

She pushed away from the railing and hurried down the stairs, Simon
struggling
behind her. Most of the crowd on the Tower yard was focused on the page, so
Joanna and Simon
were able to make their way across the lawn
towards the gate
unimpeded. Ethan saw them and changed directions to meet them in an open patch.

“I thought you’d left,” Joanna clipped, trying not to look at him as she charged for the gate.

“I’ve been to see Aubrey.
”

She stopped.
“You have?”

“I had to let her know what’s going on,” he explained. He glanced briefly to Simon but focused on her. “Joanna, she
doesn’t approve of your plan, but she
wants you to do whatever it takes to keep yourself safe above all else.”

Joanna let out a short breath. She searched past Ethan’s shoulder to the building he’d come out of. “That’s all well and good,” she began but dropped her thought. Her resolve tightened with a frown. “
I need to speak to her.
” She started towards the building.

Ethan reached out to stop her. “She’s fine where she is,” he said. “We’ve got other things to worry about.”

Joanna gl
ared at his hand on her arm, but her anger snuffed when she looked up at him. He stared off across the yard towards the gate. Pennington
marched
down the path with half a dozen armed men.

Pennington
grinned when he noticed their group watching
and
veered away from
his
men. “What an interesting combination,” he drawled as he drew close. “A soldier, an assassin, and a beggar who cleans up after dogs.”

Ethan and Simon tensed and stood straighter, but Joanna wanted nothing more than to run away.

“What do you want, Pennington?” Ethan challenged him.

Pennington’s grin spread. “Oh, I think we all know what I want.” He glanced between Ethan and Joanna. The look he gave her made Joanna’s blood run cold.

“I
don’t have time for your games
,” Ethan replied. “I have a trial to prepare for.”

Joanna’s heart stopped. She held her breath. It was too much to hope that Ethan had changed his mind, that he planned to speak on Crispin and Jack’s behalf. But as he met her eyes head-on she knew he wasn’t planning to stand against them.

“I thought you might say that.”
Pennington’s grin could have cut glass.
He
pivoted to wave to his thugs.

The men jumped into action, surging towards the door to the house where Aubrey was being held.

“What are they doing?” Joanna demanded, her voice sounding far
braver
than she felt.

“Taking possession of my new toy,” Pennington answered with a benign smile. “I petitioned the crown to have Lady Aubrey released.
I told
King Richard
we had come to an understanding. He
was all too happy to oblige, of course,
especially considering the contribution I just made to his French campaign
.”

“You bastard!” Ethan growled, balling a fist.

“Yes, I always have been a bit of a bastard,” Pennington laughed. “But it would take one to know one.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Ethan raged on. “I’ll speak to Richard directly and demand-”

“Demand what?” Pennington stopped him. “Demand that he free a woman who is already free? Demand that he turn her out of luxury and hand her over to a man without a penny to his name and his treacherous servant?”

“King Richard knows that I am a true and loyal subject!”

“King Richard knows that your lovely servant tried to poison him and that you defended her actions. He also knows all about how the Earl of Derby
was granted
your land
due to your neglect
and how you turned outlaw, plaguing Derbyshire and the earl in revenge.”

“That’s not what happened,” Ethan railed, but Joanna saw the twist of fear in his eyes.

“As far as the king knows it is.”

Pennington’s speech was cut short by screams. Every eye in the Tower turned towards the row of out
-
buildings as Aubrey was carried, kicking and screaming, out the front door by the
pack of armed me
n
.

“Put me down!” she yelled. “Let me go! You can’t do this! You have no right!” she squirmed in the arms of the man who held her, catching sight of the group in the yard. “Ethan! Joanna! Don’t listen to him!” she shouted. “Don’t let him fool you!”

“My lady!” Joanna shouted in reply. It had been
too long
since she had seen her friend and mistress. The sight of her now, pale and angry as a hornet, filled her with dread. She tried to run to her, but once again Ethan stopped her. “Let me go!” she shouted in echo of Aubrey’s pleas.

Pennington’s men carried Aubrey away towards the gate as dozens of people watched and did nothing. Joanna spun around and surged towards Pennington. Ethan caught her with both hands and held her back ag
ainst his chest as she roared
.

“My, my,” Pennington said, checking his nails instead of meeting Joanna’s fierce eyes. “I’ve never seen a girl so upset over her mistress being granted freedom. You’d think that you didn’t care to see your
betters
freed at all.”

“Let her go!” Joanna demanded.

“Alright, I will.”

Pennington’s casual statement drained all of the fight from Joanna.
She sagged against Ethan
, staring at Pennington, chest heaving. The excited crowd of nobles began to bleed closer to them, tryin
g to find out what was going on.

“Name your price,” Ethan answered Pennington in a dangerously low voice. Joanna could feel his heart pounding against
her
back.

“You already know my price,” Pennington replied with a coy grin.
“Time to let that arrow fly, Sir Ethan.”

Ethan’s arms tightened around Joanna. They were a comfort and a prison in one.

“I’ll do whatever you ask,” Ethan murmured, “but keep Joanna out of it.”

Pennington arched an eyebrow. “How sweet. But you might find that your charming friend there is a useful tool. You might want to use her. As more than just a bedfellow.”

“How dare you,” Joanna growled. Her will to rage was swiftly draining.

“My dear, if you knew half the things I’d dared it would turn your lovely golden hair white.” Pennington smiled. He took in a short breath and said to Ethan, “I can promise you that Lady Aubrey will come to no harm, at least for the
twenty-four hours
, to give you some time to take care of my little problem.” He nodded past Ethan’s shoulder to the White Tower.

King Richard and a retinue of richly dressed noblemen had stepped out onto the stairs and were heading down to the courtyard. The nosy nobles who had inched closer to their group lost interest and rushed towards the foot of the stairs. A contingent of guards held the crowd at bay while pages brought
finely outfitted horses up from the stables.

“I have no faith that you will keep your word not to harm Aubrey,” Ethan told Pennington in a low growl.

“Well that’s your problem, not mine.” Pennington grinned and turned to go. “I expect to see results as soon as possible.”

Joanna struggled
against
Ethan’s arms
as Pennington walked away
. “Let me at him! I’ll kill the bastard with my own hands!”

“No.” Ethan held her closer. “He’s too well protected. If you attack him where there are witnesses he will have you executed before you know what hit you.”