the mantle piece Vitalis had given Nicola at the abbey, she had returned to him upon the river, and he had given to the prince he pulled out of the pit.
Just as she had seen Vitalis do, he drew through his fingers that which he could not know evidenced the great shame inflicted on his sire. “I will tell him what happened in the wood and deliver this, but…”
“But?”
He looked to her. “Lady, you do not know how difficult it will be to further disappoint William the Conqueror.”
Did he realize the blood-red title he granted his father sounded equal parts praise and derision?
“I do not know,” she said, “but I believe you will make good the word you gave.” Surely, if anything would keep William’s blade from Vitalis’s neck, it would be mercy shown even a second-born son.
“You were near the pit the day I fell in, were you not?” he asked.
“I came in answer to your call for help, but Vitalis answered first.”
He returned the cloth to his purse. “Would that so great a warrior were my sire’s side, that offenses which seem too great to be forgiven would be.” He grunted. “A pity the life Vitalis spared was not that of the firstborn. Instead, it was the second who betters Robert only in height—and not by much.”
Nicola had heard the eldest had not grown into the promise of his father’s build, and since Robert was mostly a man now, he would not.
“I wish to give you a gift,” Richard said. “Not only to ease your hurting heart, if that is possible, but as apology for making light of your worth by suggesting your place is at court. I know it is not—that those walls would suffocate you. I knew it was the wrong thing to say ere I spoke it, but it seemed the right thing to say in Sir Daryl’s presence. I do not like him, not because he is a Saxon. Because he is a Saxon who makes himself a Norman when he can never be that. Accept Norman rule, oui.” He nodded. “That is the way forward, the same way the Lady of Wulfen has gone, but do not shed the skin of who you are. It only makes you look a snake.”
Where Daryl was concerned, she could not agree more. “Your gift?” she asked.
“When all are at rest this eve, meet me at the cellar door.”
At her sharp breath, he nodded.
“But what of his jailers?”
“One thing I have learned which De Warenne wishes I had not is silence can be bought. True, its lips come unsealed on occasion, but since I am a prince, the punishment is never so dire it outweighs the reward of gaining what I want. Regardless, there is little chance De Warenne will learn of this night’s events since the only other prisoner held in the donjon died two days past.”
Once more, Nicola caught her breath, this time for fear the man had been tortured or starved to his merciless end.
“He was very old,” the prince said as if sensing her distress.
That did not mean his death was natural. “Was he a Saxon?”
He nodded. “You will come an hour after all bed down?”
Assuring herself as long as Maël was here, Vitalis was safe, and refusing to think on how that would change with the king’s arrival, she gripped the youth’s hand and squeezed it. “I shall be there. I thank you for your kindness.”
“Another thing at which I excel over Robert. Now go to little Lady Ardith who is likely to remain awake until her pet is beside her.”
Nicola did not take offense at being named that. She knew the girl regarded her as such, and since the years ahead could prove turbulent for Ardith who was to wed a Norman when she came of age, at least she would have some good memories of her days at Red Castle.
Nicola stood. “I shall join you soon,” she said and stepped from the alcove. Feigning ignorance of her brothers’ and cousin’s watch over her, she ascended the stairs.
For what seemed the full turning of a night, she stared at the dim ceiling and felt the slow rise and fall of Ardith’s chest against her side and the delicate hand hooked around her pet’s neck. A hand easily loosed when it was time to go to Vitalis.
Chapter Twenty-One
A half hour,” Prince Richard said. “Only that will the guards risk since the next watch relieves them an hour hence. Too, you must be