In the Shadow of Midnight - By Marsha Canham Page 0,50
will need to draw a plan, fools. And the plan will have to be looked at this way and that, upside and down, with guts spilled and charted so as to leave nothing to chance. This is no game or gambit to be entered with a righteous toss of plumery and a silvered scarf tied to the lance. This is a few against many, an assault on fortified battlements, with our Little Pearl’s delicate white throat poised on the edge of a blade! Leave at first light, will you?” he groused. “Paugh! Go then. And when you are caught circling the castles with your rumps sour with sweat, offer the king’s men my fond regards before they put out your eyes and roast your livers over an open fire.”
Lord Randwulf gave the chastisement a moment to echo around the small enclave before looking calmly to Alaric. “Friar? A balancing opinion, perhaps? Or a rebuttal against the marshal’s assessment of our worth?”
Alaric steepled his hands together on the tabletop, placing the pad of each tapered finger carefully against its opposite. He spared the briefest of glances for the crutches leaning against the wall before he met the Wolf’s eyes.
“I think … Eduard and Lord Henry have the advantage of speed, if it is needed, and the luxury of noble passion where it is most wanted. In other words, in the time it might take you or I to think of a way to breach a gate, they would be through it and out the other side.” Alaric left his unblunted point to sink in and looked at Sparrow. “I also think the lord marshal has not quite finished laying all out before us. I suspect he would not have come to us without a plan, Puck, and for what it may be worth, we should hear it first before consigning anyone’s gizzards to a fire pit.”
Sparrow snorted again and glared belligerently at the earl.
“I have indeed given the matter much thought,” William nodded. “But until recently could not settle on any scheme that did not offer more risks than rewards.” He paused and addressed Eduard. “Firstly—is it true you have managed to exchange several communications with the princess in spite of the heavy guard placed around her at Mirebeau and Rouen?”
Eduard saw no reason to deny it. “We have passed a letter or two through the walls.”
“Do you think you could pass another through thicker walls if you were to come within striking distance? And would she know beyond a doubt the message came from you and no one else?”
Eduard’s eyes narrowed. For over a decade he and Eleanor had communicated by coded letters—a youthful fancifulness they had begun when she had been six and he thirteen … but how had the earl known of this?
The lion-maned palatine smiled faintly. “The young maid who attends the princess as her personal tiring woman and companion … her name is Marienne, is it not?”
The muscle that tightened across Eduard’s jaw was answer enough.
“Many years ago, her mother and I were … more than just friends,” the marshal confessed softly. “It seemed to be the least I could do at the time to see her situated comfortably. But content yourself; Marienne is a good and loving child. She has betrayed your secret to no one else but me, and then only because she has come to love the princess so dearly she is desperate for some way to save her from a life of captivity and deprivation. She gave me your name in the strictest confidence and trust, and it will remain so, locked by the same vow we all gave as we sat at this table.”
“So,” said the Wolf, “being unsure of how I might react to your request, you came prepared to ask my son to take advantage of the trust and friendship he and Princess Eleanor have developed over the years.”
William weathered the sarcasm without apology. “I never had any intention of asking you to risk yourself in this venture. How could I? John has had a legion of spies watching your every move for the past ten years. It was you the queen dispatched all those years ago to pay the ransom he demanded for the princess’s safe return the first time his greed and ambition prompted him to take her hostage. He will assume any attempt to rescue her now will originate here, at Amboise, and that you would trust no other man but yourself to such a hazardous