Page 80

Confused, and saddened, Jordan turned away from William, making her way over to the bed where Adelaide lay, a bandaged arm over her eyes as she dozed.

Seeing that there was nothing more she could do at the moment, Jordan whispered instructions to the servants, to watch over the woman and to send for her if needed, before motioning to William to follow her from the chamber.

Together, they quit the chamber as the weeping German nurse slipped in.

In silence, they moved to the chamber across the landing, only to see that Caria and her nurse were missing.

Thinking they were probably in the yard somewhere, as it was a mild day outside, Jordan and William took advantage of the vacancy of the chamber to catch up on some much-needed rest. It was what they had been trying to do when panicked servants had told them about Northumbria’s tattered escort.

In fact, William was almost afraid to close his eyes, afraid that something else would happen.

Wark had been in chaos since nearly the moment they arrived, so he forced himself to lay down next to his wife on the very large, comfortable bed that belonged to Thomas.

This was his chamber, after all, loaned to his parents, William no sooner shut his eye than Jordan was gently shaking him awake.

“English,” she whispered. “Get up. Tommy has returned.”

Opening his eye, William could see that it was now dark outside. That suggested a significant amount of time had passed, but it hardly felt like any time at all.

Rubbing a hand over his face, he sat up wearily, giving a yawn. He could see that the chamber door was open and a soldier stood there, one Jordan quickly sent away and shut the panel. William shook his head.

“I did not even hear anyone knock on the door,” he said. “How long have I been asleep?”

Jordan was running her hands over her pinned hair, smoothing back the strands. “Several hours,” she said. “It is supper time. Tommy just rode intae the bailey, so let us go down tae greet him.”

William stood up, more tired now than he was when he’d lain down. “Nay,” he said quietly. “I will go. You go in to Adelaide and sit with her. I will deal with Thomas.”

Jordan turned to look at him. “I should go with ye,” she said. “Tommy wouldna dare fight back if I’m there.”

William simply shook his head, running his fingers through his mostly-gray hair.

He still had a head full of hair, but it had been very dark once, thick and wavy.

Oddly enough, he didn’t have a vast amount of wrinkles for a man his age, so it was really the hair color that gave him away more than anything, and it had probably gotten far more white during Thomas’ betrothal.

The situation was aging him rapidly.

“I will go alone,” he reiterated, going to the door.

He put his hand on the latch, pausing, and there was some lethargy in his movements.

His expression turned wistful. “It is times such as this where I miss Kieran. We look at the situation as Thomas’ parents, but Kieran had the ability to look at it from another angle.

It was always the right angle and he was always able to advise me. God, I miss him so much.”

Kieran Hage had been William’s best friend and second-in-command until five years ago when the man had passed away.

Kieran had been the most enormously powerful man on the border, a knight of incredible skill and a vast amount of wisdom.

Kieran and William, and a third knight, Paris de Norville, had squired together at Northwood Castle and had literally spent their entire lives together.

Their children had all intermarried, and the three men themselves had married cousins from the same family– Jordan, Jemma Scott Hage, and Caladora Scott de Norville.

They were all first cousins and the marriages irrevocably made the knights family.

The three knights had been closer than brothers, bonded by blood and marriage in the end.

While Paris still commanded at Northwood Castle, Kieran had gone to Castle Questing with William when the man assumed his new earldom nearly five decades earlier, and William had come to depend greatly on Kieran.

His brother . There were times when he still wept for the loss of Kieran, whom he’d held in his arms as the man died.

It had been one of the most difficult moments of William’s life and something he still hadn’t recovered from.

He never would.

Jordan knew that. Every time William brought up Kieran’s name, she knew he was feeling particularly emotional and vulnerable.

Though she loved her husband deeply and they shared a bond that few couples did, she knew that the bond William had shared with Kieran had also been powerful and deep.

When William lost Kieran, he’d lost a piece of his soul.

Quietly, she made her way over to him, putting her gentle hands on him in a show of support and sympathy.

“I know,” she whispered, hugging him. “He left a hole with us that will never be filled. Mayhap, ye should consult with Paris about this. Ye know he’ll tell ye the truth.”

William wriggled his eyebrows. “I have spoken to Paris about this,” he said. “You know that Paris sees the logical side of things. He believes that Tommy should marry Adelaide. To have Tommy as Northumbria would bring great stability to the region.”

“And he knows that Adelaide is an unstable lass?”

William nodded, pursing his lips irritably as he opened the door. “He knows,” he said. “His solution was to tell Tommy to keep her drunk all the time so she would be easier to manage.”

Jordan opened her mouth in outrage, but that sounded very much like something Paris, the perpetually arrogant and flippant man, would say. In fact, she realized that she had to fight off a grin.

“That is not funny,” she said. “And not helpful.”

William stepped through the door. “Helpful enough that I may end up suggesting it to Thomas myself.”

As he walked away, he could hear his wife calling after him. “Dunna ye dare!”

He knew she was smiling.

*

“Tommy!”

Thomas had no sooner dismounted his horse than he heard Caria’s cry. Turning around, he saw her running into the stable yard, heading right for him. Opening his arms to her, he scooped her up.

“What are you doing out at night?” he asked, even though the whole of Wark was brightly lit with torches against the cold spring night and there were people all around. “You should be in your chamber, eating sup.”

Caria’s arms were wrapped around his neck. “I was waiting for you,” she said, and Thomas caught a glimpse of her nurse over by the yard entrance. “I knew you were coming back, so I was waiting. Did you go into Scotland?”

Grabbing his saddlebags with one hand, he carried them in one arm and Caria with the other as he headed out of the stable yard.

“I did,” he said. “I went to Edenside. Do you remember hearing us speaking on it last night at sup? It is a foundling home. Do you know what that is?”

Caria thought on that. “Is it sinful folk?”

He shook his head. “Not really,” he said. “It is for children who do not have mothers or fathers. I met them today.”

Caria’s face lit up. “Can I meet them, too?”

He shrugged. “I do not see why not,” he said. “But we must ask Matha and Poppy.”

They were in the outer bailey now, heading towards the great hall.

Light streamed from the lancet windows and the ventilation holes at the roofline, with smoke billowing from the chimney and out into the night.

But Caria wasn’t looking at the hall or anything else; she was still fixed on Thomas and the idea of the foundlings.

“Why do these children have no mother or father?” she asked. “What happened to them?”

Thomas glanced at the child; technically, she was a foundling, too, with both parents dead, only she didn’t know that. Caria had no idea who she really was and probably never would if his father had anything to say about it.

“They must have died,” he said. “I did not ask them what happened to their parents, but I am sure they must have died. Now they live at Edenside and Lady Bowlin is going to take care of them.”

Caria remembered Lady Bowlin and how she’d described how a penny could feed the poor. “Lady Bowlin is nice,” she said.

“Indeed, she is.”

They were drawing near the hall now and Caria seemed surprised to see just how close they were, as if only noticing it for the first time. Her arms around his neck tightened.

“Tommy,” she said slowly. “I… I must ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“I want to live here with you.”

He came to a halt. “We have been through this before, Caria,” he said. “You must return to Castle Questing with Matha and Poppy. Think how heartbroken they would be if you did not live with them.”

Caria frowned, looking very much like Tacey in her expression. “But I want to stay here with you,” she said earnestly. “You have no one to take care of you and I could do that.”

He smiled. “And you would do a remarkable job,” he said. “But it would hurt Matha and Poppy terribly if you came to live here. Would you be so cruel to them?”

She was beginning to tear up. “Can I stay for just a little while?”

Thomas kissed her cheek. “Mayhap you can stay a little while,” he said. “The next time I go to Edenside, mayhap you and Matha can come with me so you can meet the children. Would you like that?”

Caria nodded, wiping at her eyes. “I would,” she said, pushing the issue. “But I do not want to go back to Castle Questing. Will you ask Matha if I can stay with you?”

From the corner of his eye, Thomas caught sight of William as his father emerged from the inner bailey, heading towards the great hall. Knowing he and his father had much to discuss, he kissed Caria on the cheek and set her on her feet.

“We will discuss this later,” he said. “I must speak with Poppy now. If you want to wait for me, I shall eat supper with you.”