Reckless (Age of Conquest #5) - Tamara Leigh Page 0,97

his feet.

Dougray was certain two things delayed the meeting between enemies—that William would not risk Vitalis revealing to an audience the reason he, more than any other rebel, was sought by England’s ruler, and William took pleasure in knowing his captive was aware of his arrival and left to wonder the hour or even the day when he would stand before the king he rejected.

Whatever passed between Guarin and Maël was done out of sight and began and ended quickly, the former returning minutes later.

“Ardith,” Nicola said, “would you refill my goblet?” She extended it, nodded at the trestle table on the far side of the hall laden with refreshments though these were the hours between dinner and supper. All changed when a king visited.

“There are servants for that,” the girl said. “Shall I summon one?”

The little Saxon might be lost among Normans eager for her to grow to a marriageable age, but she was well aware of her superiority over common folk.

It was Dougray who found the words to give the D’Argents a few minutes’ privacy. “Ah, but Lady Ardith, if your loveliness, grace, kindness, and consideration for overworked servants better catches the king’s eye, more likely he will take an interest in finding a husband for you when you are grown. No old man with empty purse for Lady Ardith—a handsome, wealthy husband.”

She was too young to fully understand that with which she was bribed, but his tone and smile made her snatch the goblet from Nicola and hasten toward the sideboard.

“Slowly,” Dougray urged, causing her to falter. “Head high, small steps as befitting the lady of a great castle as you shall become.”

Ardith did as told, and Dougray and Nicola turned their attention to Guarin who had resumed his seat.

“Vitalis fares well, Nicola,” he said and looked to his brother. “He knows William will not parade him before all lacking a gag in his mouth, and now that three times the king has had Maël deliver word to him to prepare to meet his enemy a half hour hence, Vitalis believes the soonest they will face each other is the morrow.”

Nicola shot the king a foul look. She had never liked William, but after the harrying and now this… It would take a miracle to redeem such a man.

Lord, she sent heavenward, if only William did not make it so easy to be the side of the Saxons. More, why must there be a side at all?

She exhaled the breath tightening her chest. “Though much I am afeared, I wish it were this night.”

Her brothers raised their eyebrows.

“To more quickly get to the morrow, of course, or the one after,” she said. “Whichever sooner ends this cruel waiting.”

Glad they did not voice the pity in their eyes, she stood and crossed to the sideboard to intercept Ardith who played a game with rules she was years from grasping. Or longer. Still Nicola struggled to grasp them.

Because they are man-made, she thought. Were Hawisa and I to establish the rules of play…

She nearly put her head in her hands. Still it would be a game. Perhaps men would suffer more loss, but women as well.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Two days, Vitalis thought as he settled in for what he believed the balance of the night, Sir Maël having an hour past reported all those in the hall were seated for supper.

“Aye, two days ere William sends for me,” he murmured as he stared at the grate on the other side of which torchlight flickered and the guards spoke low. “He wishes me to know I am no more than a flea nipping at his buttocks—a nuisance he has only to sit upon to end its existence.”

That is, if his son has done or will do as agreed, Vitalis silently amended. If William had any reason to keep him alive, it was the cloth. Once he had that, he might order the rebel leader’s death. Would he? That Vitalis was noble would give William pause, but so would the possibility this rebel would escape were he merely sentenced to lifelong imprisonment.

Vitalis turned onto his back and laid a forearm across his eyes in the hope his thoughts would turn off in the absence of light, allowing him to sleep the night through. It might have if not for the distant sound of boots.

Sir Maël again? He wearied of the visits the same as the chevalier commanded to deliver false warnings to Vitalis.

Nay, not Maël. The guards were respectful of him, but never