Page 13 of Insurrection (Guard of Six #2)

CHAPTER TWELVE

T hey’d been traveling for two days.

Out of the mountainous region where Pentwyn was located, the Welsh had retraced their tracks back to Penderyn. Two days of returning to the vale that was once their home. Once Ivor entered the narrow valley he was so familiar with, the one he’d grown up in, he began to feel both comfort and rage.

Rage that he’d been forced out.

Comfort that he’d come home.

But he wasn’t exactly home yet. Ivor and Dai and Fud had come in from the north with ten other men, men who were told to blend in with the villagers and find out what they could about the new English army that had arrived, the one bearing Henry’s standard. Since the vast majority of Ivor’s men had grown up in this vale, it wasn’t a difficult assignment. They knew where to go and what to avoid. They ran home to mothers and fathers and sweethearts. Sweeping in from the north just as the sun dipped below the western horizon, Ivor’s men scattered.

But Ivor, Dai, and Fud continued toward the village center.

Ivor was heading for The Bryn’s cottage. Astride his sturdy Welsh pony, he dismounted the animal just as they entered the village proper because he didn’t want to stand out on horseback, especially if there were English soldiers in the village. Fud took the horses and disappeared down an alley as Ivor and Dai continued on into the town, trying to stay out of sight. They were just nearing the apothecary shop when they saw it.

Madelaina speaking to a man in the darkness.

That had Ivor ducking into the nearest doorway, concealed by a beam and part of a fence. Dai pressed in behind him, and the two of them watched as Madelaina seemed to be having an animated conversation with the man. At least, she was animated. The man was not. And he was a very big man, with incredibly broad shoulders and big arms. Since the village was lit by torchlight and a night watch had already lit several iron lampposts, they could see him well enough to notice that he was dressed in traditional Welsh clothing.

“Who is that?” Dai whispered. “Do you know him?”

Ivor shook his head. “I do not,” he muttered.

“What do we do?”

Ivor’s dark eyes were riveted to the man. “I do not know,” he said. Then he began to look around. “Where is The Bryn? And why is he allowing Maddie to speak with this stranger?”

“Mayhap he is not a stranger to them.”

That didn’t please Ivor, especially when everyone in the village knew that he was sweet on her. Madelaina belonged to him, even if he hadn’t asked for her hand yet. Yet . He hadn’t asked because he hadn’t wanted the added burden of a wife at this point in his life, but now he was starting to regret that decision.

“Quickly,” he said. “Into The Bryn’s garden. We’ll enter from the rear of the cottage.”

The pair ducked low and scooted across the small alleyway where they had been hiding. There was a chance the man speaking to Madelaina could see them, but they would have to take that chance. Swiftly, they moved, and ended up in Madelaina’s prized garden. Rushing through, they bolted in through the unlocked rear door to find Celyn standing in the kitchen area, surrounded by bowls of food. When she looked up and saw Ivor and Dai, whom she knew, she gasped in surprise.

“Ivor!” she said. “What are you doing here?”

Dai quickly went through to the apothecary’s shop, where he could watch Madelaina and her mystery man through the front window, but Ivor went to Celyn.

“Never mind that,” he said. “Whom is Maddie speaking with?”

Celyn looked at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about. “Man?” she repeated. But then it occurred to her. “A traveler, I think. He came around yesterday. Trevyn d’Einen is his name. She invited him to sup.”

Ivor scowled. “A stranger?” he said. “What does your father have to say about it?”

Celyn sighed sharply and indicated all of the food at the table. “He has said nothing because he is not here,” she said. “I have prepared supper and he is off with an old man who pays him a good deal of coin to provide him with potions for his imaginary illnesses.”

Ivor raked his fingers through his damp, dark hair. “A stranger,” he grumbled. “I should go out there and send him on his way.”

Celyn shook her head. “Do not,” she said. “You know if you do that, Madelaina will be furious with you. She does not like it when you try to take charge of her.”

Ivor was still grumbling. “She is going to have to get used to it.”

“Not unless you ask for her hand, Ivor.”

He frowned. “I will when I am ready.”

“It may be too late by then.”

He stopped frowning and looked at her seriously. “Do you think so?”

She shrugged, putting a loaf of bread on the table. “I cannot say,” she said. “I have warned her about men. I have warned her about speaking to everyone who talks to her. You know she is friendly and finds interest in people who are not from this vale. She has the heart of a wanderer, Ivor. That is something you cannot contain.”

He was listening to her seriously. “But I cannot marry right now,” he said. “I have just lost the home I grew up in. My world is in chaos. I cannot marry her and I cannot feed that wandering spirit by taking her out of this vale. My place is here and so is hers.”

Celyn looked at him. “Then mayhap you should find a wife who will be content being in your shadow and living in this vale for the rest of her life,” she said. “Because that is not Maddie. There is more to her. She deserves more.”

“More than being the wife of a prince of Elfael?”

Celyn shrugged. “A prince with no lands,” she said. “A warlord who lost his castle to the English. Ivor, I’m simply saying that she may not be right for you. You cannot marry the woman only to make her miserable. That will make you miserable, too, and you will have a miserable life together. Do you not deserve more?”

Before Ivor could answer, Dai was suddenly in their midst. “She is coming,” he said, closing the door between the living area and the apothecary shop. “And she is alone.”

Ivor immediately focused on the return of Madelaina. “The stranger has departed?”

“He has headed south, down the road.”

“Then I shall get to the bottom of this.”

“Careful, Ivor,” Celyn said softly. “Tread carefully.”

He turned to reply but she was leaving the room, disappearing into the sleeping chambers. Cleary, her move was meant to leave Ivor alone with Madelaina, but Dai was there, so they weren’t exactly alone.

But alone enough.

He would never forget the look of surprise on Madelaina’s face when she came through the door.