Page 101 of Exile's Return

‘She was only defending her mistress,’ Daniel said.

Sarah rose to her feet, tears pooling in her eyes. ‘They dragged my aunt and that other man tied to the stirrups. They were in a terrible state by the time they got to the castle. I didn’t have to listen at the door. Ye could hear the Colonel yelling. He said clear as day that if his gold isn’t returned to him, then my aunt, Mistress Fletcher, and the man will hang at dawn. Thieves, he called ‘em, and my poor aunt, a witch.’

Daniel ran his hand through his hair.

‘The man’s my brother,’ he said in a low voice. He turned to face Jonathan. ‘We’ve got to give him the gold.’

Jonathan regarded him with calm, grey eyes. ‘And who is to say if we give him the gold he won’t hang them anyway?’

‘You’re right, he would,’ Daniel turned away and paced the floor a few times. He wanted to hit something, just from sheer frustration. ‘He has no scruples, but what other choice have we got?’

Jonathan’s eyes flickered. ‘If we give up the gold it will be on our terms, not his. We have to choose the ground on which we fight.’

‘Fight?’ Daniel threw up his hands in frustration. ‘Thornton, there’s two of us and he has a private army of at least two dozen soldiers.’

Jonathan’s even gaze met his, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. ‘Oh come, you’ve not shirked from a challenge before, Daniel. I’ve overcome worse odds.’

Daniel stared at him. ‘Challenge? That is sheer lunacy.’

He stumped out of the cottage and paced the ground outside for some minutes before coming to rest on a fallen tree trunk, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

Jonathan joined him.

‘I will offer myself in exchange for the other prisoners,’ Daniel said without looking up.

‘Why?’

‘This was always my mission, not yours and Kit’s. You both have wives and families. I have…no one.’

‘Hmm,’ Jonathan mused. ‘And what of Agnes?’

Daniel looked away. ‘Agnes’s priority has always been the children,’ he said. ‘I was just the means to get to Charvaley.’

‘But you and she … ’

Daniel cut his friend short with a bitter laugh. ‘Agnes came to me because she felt sorry for me.’

‘She told you that?’

Daniel nodded. ‘She is under no obligation to me, or…’ his voice strained as he added, ‘or me to her.’

Jonathan sighed. ‘If I may give you the benefit of my meagre knowledge of women, it seems to me that Agnes is not as indifferent to you as you might think.’

Daniel thought back to the previous night. Agnes had come to him then, throwing herself into his arms. Were those the actions of an indifferent friend? Had that just been the exigency of the moment? He remembered the scent of rosemary in her hair, and her body pressed against him and realized whatever Agnes’s feelings for him, his for her were not those of an indifferent friend. He loved her with a physical ache.

‘What does it matter what either of us feels if Ashby hangs her tomorrow? It should be me. This was nothing to do with her. Come to that, what does my death matter? As far as the world is concerned I am already dead. That’s why I will offer myself in exchange for her and the others.’

‘You Lovells have a death wish,’ Jonathan said. ‘And I don’t think your selfless offer will tempt Ashby. Tell me, you know the man marginally better than I. What matters most to Ashby, the gold or the title?’

Daniel huffed out a humourless snort of laughter. ‘Can I answer, both?’

Jonathan frowned. ‘Both…’ he murmured. ‘I think at this point he may settle for the gold.’

Sarah wandered out of the cottage, her arms wrapped around herself against the cold.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said. ‘There’s a way into the old part of the castle that the Colonel won’t know. It’s an old route, used by the soldiers from long ago.’

‘A sally port?’ Jonathan suggested.