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But the woman nodded steadily. “It is true,” she said.

“At first, she was fond of them, but then she grew bored. She pushed one down the stairs, and the other one, she poisoned. Her father took the bodies away and buried them in the storage vault. He told the families that the young men had run away. But she killed the second man after she had seen you in Carlisle. She told me about it. You were there with other lords at a great gathering, and she had also attended with her father. Do you not remember seeing her?”

Thomas was struggling to remember what the woman was referring to. “Carlisle?” he repeated. “That was over a year ago. It was a gathering of warlords of the north and I do not recall seeing any women there.”

The old woman nodded. “She was there,” she said. “The herr and Lady Adelaide attended and she saw you and she wanted you. She killed her betrothed and told her father that she wanted to marry you.”

Thomas stared at the woman, torn between shock and disbelief. “She is a murderess ?” he hissed. “I cannot believe that. She is not that clever!”

The old nurse nodded, wringing her hands.

“She is more clever than you know,” she said.

“She paid men to find out what they could about you and one of them told her that you were called StormWolfe. That is why she speaks of tempestarii – if you are the StormWolfe, then she wants to be the storm witch. She thought you would love her better that way.”

Thomas was truly taken aback by what he was hearing. “Then she really does not believe herself to be a tempestarii ?”

The old woman shook her head sharply. “ Nein ,” she said. “It is for your benefit.”

Thomas’ mouth popped open in astonishment. “Then all of that has been an act? The cutting of her arms and the belief that her blood controls the weather?”

The woman nodded fervently. “It is not true,” she said.

“She does not believe it. She does this to gain your attention and your sympathy, and nothing more. But the cuts on her arms… she has been doing that since she was a child. She would do it to gain her father’s attention and get her way.

The earl would always give in to her but I believe the man was afraid of her. ”

The astonishment that had swept Thomas was turning into something else, something dark and terrible. “My God,” he muttered. “She must be mad.”

“She is,” the woman insisted. “Please believe me, mein herr … she is mad. She is mad and she is wicked. You must protect yourself. All of the shouting and the insults you have dealt her, I wanted to tell you to be careful, but I could not. Lady Adelaide is deadly.”

With that, the woman dashed off as if terrified, rushing from the keep, perhaps going to find her charge and pretend as if she had not just divulged the woman’s sordid secrets.

But Thomas simply stood there, struggling to absorb what he’d been told.

Adelaide was evidently not the foolish woman they’d all believed her to be.

All this time, it was an act for his benefit.

He’d always known her to be mad– that was clear.

But beneath that giddy, foolish, mad facade lay the heart of a killer.

Or so her old nurse wanted him to think.

He had to talk to his father.

*

“That would explain a great deal, actually,” William said calmly. “It would explain why Northumbria pursued you so much. I did not initiate this betrothal, Tommy. Northumbria came to me and specifically asked for you.”

Standing in his big, cluttered bower where his parents and Caria were staying, Thomas’ eyebrows lifted to his father’s revelation.

“And you never questioned that?” he said. “It never seemed strange to you?”

William shook his head. “Surely you jest,” he said. “The Earl of Northumbria comes to me and wants to make my son his heir? I did not question that, but as we now know, I should have. Evidently in more ways than one.”

Jordan, who had been listening carefully to the conversation, came to stand next to her son. “What will we do, English?” she asked William fearfully. “We canna allow Tommy tae marry a murderess!”

William could hear the fear in his wife’s voice. In truth, he wasn’t entirely immune to that fear, either. His son had just delivered a shocking revelation to him about Adelaide de Vauden and he was still reeling. But even in his shock, so much of this betrothal made sense to him.

Now, things were falling into place.

“We cannot prove anything,” he said frankly.

“What you heard were the spoutings of an old woman. She could very well be lying and, certainly, if we ask Adelaide, she will deny it. Unless we have witnesses to her madness, I am not sure there is anything we can do. And the fact remains that she is still the heiress to Northumbria’s earldom. That has not changed.”

Jordan was beside herself with worry. “Then ye must send men tae Kyloe tae discover the truth behind Adelaide,” she said. “Discover what they know, English. Ye must!”

William knew that. “I will go myself,” he said. “This mess is of my doing, so I must discover the truth personally. Meanwhile, I will send you and Caria back to Castle Questing. If Adelaide really is a murderess, then I do not want either of you here at Wark. And Tommy…”

“Aye?” Thomas said.

“Get out of here for a few days. Leave Desmond in command and get out of here. If she really has murdered the two men she was betrothed to before you, then I do not want you around her, either.”

Thomas almost refused, but the words of resistance died on his lips. Suddenly, he saw an opportunity he never thought he’d have again– get out of here for a few days . He knew exactly where he was going to go.

There was no question.

Edenside.

“What about you, Papa?” Thomas said. “Northumbria was ambushed trying to return to Kyloe and I will not see you become another victim. We know those reivers are somewhere to the east. If they have struck before, they’ll strike again.”

William held up a hand to ease his son. “I will return to Castle Questing with your mother and Caria first and collect a sizable army, one that will protect against a handful of reivers,” he said. “My army and I will travel to Kyloe and I will get to the bottom of these rumors about Lady Adelaide.”

“And if they are true?”

William sighed heavily. “You are not going to like this.”

Thomas frowned. “Why not?”

William was thoughtful as well as grim. “If there are witnesses to her madness, then by law, she can be arrested,” he said.

“But if she is arrested before your marriage, Northumbria will revert to the crown and we will once again be apprehensive of who Edward will grant the earldom to. But if you marry her first…”

Thomas got his meaning right away. “Then I retain the earldom while she rots in the vault.”

“Exactly.”

Jordan’s hands flew to her mouth. “Nay,” she breathed. “Tommy has to marry that… that killer ?”

William looked at his wife. “I realize that this sounds hard and calculating, but it is the reality of things,” he said.

“Tommy marries her, I arrest her on the king’s authority as a murderess, and Tommy remains the Earl of Northumbria, never to see Adelaide again.

We may even be able to have the marriage annulled while he retains the title.

If Edward is in a generous mood, and the church is convinced that Adelaide is possessed with the devil or worships the devil, as she has professed not to believe in God, then that may be possible. ”

It was complicated. So very complicated. But strangely, Thomas wasn’t opposed to it. He saw what his father was trying to do. If he could get the marriage annulled, that meant Thomas would be free to remarry.

And he knew just who he would choose.

Maitland would make a magnificent countess.

“Then we must do as we must, Papa,” Thomas said quietly. “I am with you.”

William reached out, putting a big hand on Thomas’ shoulder. “Good,” he said. “Meanwhile, we all depart at dawn. Mayhap you will come back to Castle Questing with us, Tommy?”

Thomas shrugged casually. “I was thinking of going to Northwood Castle,” he said. “I will go visit Uncle Paris for a few days. And then I may go to Edenside to see how my money has been spent. Des told me that Lady Bowlin has been doing remarkable things with the place.”

The part about Northwood Castle was a bit of a lie, to throw his father off of his train of thought, but he included the part about Edenside just so he wouldn’t be lying completely.

Still, William was on to him. Knowing how Thomas felt about Lady Bowlin, he didn’t think that was a particularly good idea for the man to go to Edenside, not in the middle of this crisis, but he didn’t say so.

Thomas was a grown man and he was capable of making his own decisions.

The main thing now was that they clear out of Wark.

Adelaide would be left alone, wondering where everyone had gone, but that couldn’t be helped.

No one wanted to be bottled up with a killer.

That night, William, Jordan, Thomas, and Caria slept behind a bolted door in the master’s chamber.

While William and Jordan slept on the bed, Thomas slept in a big chair with Caria snuggled against him.

No matter how much Jordan coaxed, the little girl wouldn’t come and sleep between her parents.

She wanted to sleep in the chair with “her” Thomas.

It had been a tense night and no one but Caria seemed to get much sleep.

But just before dawn, they moved out in silence, loading Jordan and Caria up in the fortified carriage while Thomas informed Desmond that he would be escorting his parents home.

It was a lie, of course, but he did it for two reasons– he didn’t want the man tipped off about Adelaide’s ghastly character because he wanted him to behave normally with the woman, and he didn’t want the man tipped off to the fact that Thomas’ true destination was Edenside.

Given their conversation the day before, he didn’t think Desmond would take that too well.

Therefore, as the sun began to rise in the east, the great gates of Wark Castle opened and the de Wolfe party headed out into the cold, gray dawn.