A Knight for Love (29 page)

Anxiety nibbled at Warin. “Should
n’t she be back by now?”

“She enjoys the
woman’s company,” Emma offered. “Time must have passed her by.”

“The next time,
she is not to go out unaccompanied. These are not harmless times for a woman alone.” He glowered at Emma.

“It
’s not my place to instruct my lady on what to do,” Emma replied, tears pooling in her eyes. “The road is safe, Muriel travels it every day.” She wiped first one eye, then the other, with the corner of her grubby apron.

“Muriel is a servant and not my wife.” Warin’s voice cut like a rapier, surprising Hilda and Beatrice from their tasks
. They turned, gape mouthed, to look at him.

E
mma sank to her knees and clasped her hands to her bosom. “As you say, my lord.” Her bottom lip trembled. “I beg you, pardon my heedless words. The village isn’t far. I’ll fetch her if you like.”

“
Nay,” he barked. “Tend to your duties here.” He spun on his heel and strode from the kitchen.

Three astonished sets of eyes followed him out then gazed upon each other in amazement.

“Truly, he is smitten with my lady,” Emma murmured.

Hilda and Beatrice nodded in agreement, looking once more at the empty doorway, then back to each other. “Truly he is
smitten,” they echoed in unison.

*****

Warin’s anxiety bloomed into panic, a panic that pressed against his chest and weakened his knees. He shook it off. He had no time to waste. He must find Alyna, and find her soon. The day grew late and he didn’t want her outside the safety of the keep for the night.

“Bennet! Gerard!” Warin bellowed from the entrance landing. “Saddle your horses, we
must find Lady Alyna.” Sword clattering, he hurried down the stairs to the bailey. Gerard and Bennet dropped their practice rods and fell in behind him, strapping on their swords as they ran.

“Aye, my lord.”

“Aye, to the stables.”

Within minutes, three horses were saddled and t
he men thundered off, Citadel in the lead as if sensing danger stalked his mistress.

T
hey reached the forest and with creeping dread, Warin spied the upended basket in the snow beside the road. He held up his hand to halt the others. His lady had obviously struggled valiantly, for her footprints mingled with that of her assailants. But there was another, more chilling sign that it had been an unfriendly encounter.

Blood.

His heart froze.

B
loodstains darkened the snow and he had no way of knowing if the blood belonged to Alyna or one of her attackers. The panic he had shaken off before now threatened to crush him.

Closing his eyes, he took in deep draughts of air to fight the memories. Odd, how the blood
-stained snow resembled blood-stained sand.

T
he world about him receded and his own private hell rose in its place, a hell peopled by hate-fuelled foes and fallen comrades, bodies twisted in pain, faces contorted in agony and horror. And over all, the hot, merciless Palestinian sun baking the earth below until all beneath it shriveled away to naught.

Remembered t
oo, twisted, blackened bodies beneath England’s leaden skies – his mother yet shielding his brother in her arms, his father close by, arm upraised as if holding a sword even in death.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

Who? Who could have taken her? And in an instant he knew. Philippa and Baldric. His decision to let them go in favor of repairing the keep had come back to haunt him.

His stomach churned and he continued to gasp,
welcoming the chill air creeping into his lungs, fighting the nausea, quelling the bile rising in his throat.

Slowly, his blind panic turned into steely resolve. He inhaled deeply a few more times. Aye, he would find her, and he would find her safe.

“I won’t let you have her!” He bellowed his rage to the sky above.

The sounds of the forest around him came into focus, the slight soughing of the breeze rattling the branches, the chirps of the sparrows. Bennet’s voice
came as if from a distance. “My lord Warin? Are you well?”

“Aye, I am well” he nodded. “But not Lady Alyna.”

He pointed first to the trampled ground and then to the trail leading deeper into the trees. “See, the fight there and there, the escape. Come, the path is clear in the snow.” He nudged Citadel onto the snow-trampled trail.

“Worry eats at you like a gnawing rat.” Bennet pulled up alongside Warin. “We
’ll find her. If her attackers had wanted her dead, we would find her cold body and not the warm trail we follow now.”

“Aye.” Warin inclined his head. Bennet offered him hope that she yet lived and he grasped it gratefully. “And when we find them, they
’ll rue the day they chose to take what belongs to Warin de Taillur.” His grip tightened on his sword hilt.

“She has proven to be courageous and resilient in the face of danger.” Gerard’s voice floated from behind. “
Lady Alyna will fight with every ounce of her being.”

“Then we must ensure the battle is fair and that she doesn
’t fight alone.” Warin leaned forward and urged Citadel to a faster pace. “We waste time talking.”

The trail of footprints soon disappeared into a clump of shrubs. Still in the lead, Warin pushed his way through and into a deserted camp. The hidden clearing easily held the three of them, for bushes and branches had been cut away. A fire smoldered, evidence that some time had been spent here waiting.

“Look, here were many horses.” He sat back in his saddle, resting his hands on the pommel while he searched the ground. “What
do you think, Bennet, Gerard, seven or eight?”

“At least eight, my lord,” Bennet
replied after much deliberation. He looked about. “This camp is well established. I would guess the Lady Alyna wasn’t taken on an idle whim.”

“The trail splits into three, our foe is cunning
,” Gerard interjected. “Which path do we follow?”

Warin looked about, twisting first one way in his saddle, then the other. The kidnappers were clever, knowing their tracks could be followed in the snow.

Which way to go? One path appeared to head back to the road, another towards the village, and the third deeper into the woods. To choose one over another was a game of chance. Of course, they were three and could split up, but valuable time would be wasted in retracing steps and finding the other two in the event one stumbled upon Alyna and her captors.

He cast his gaze about again, slowly, scrutinizing each path taken.
A clue must lie somewhere.

“There.” Bennet
pointed to a scrap of cloth caught on a branch.

Warin guided Citadel close enough to grab it. He recognized the fabric immediately. “Alyna’s cloak.”

“The Lord smiles on us,” Bennet said, pleased. “We follow you, Warin. Go.”

D
eeper into the forest they rode, sometimes trotting, other times walking, their progress impeded by thick woods. It was impossible to guess how far they had traveled and he had no idea where they were going for he hadn’t been at Caperun Keep long enough to become familiar with the surrounding lands.

Once, they lost the trail as it crossed a creek but they discovered it a little ways upstream, more time wasted that chafed Warin sorely. Every delay gave time for the attackers to gain more distance.

Night fell and with great reluctance Warin called a halt.

“We have no choice
. We must stop for the night.” Silently cursing the new moon that shrouded all in darkness, he slid off Citadel.

“Aye.” Bennet and Gerard nodded their assent as they slid off their mounts.

“A fire would be welcome.” Bennet shivered and slapped his arms about himself.

Warin was about to protest then thought better of it. The
cold night promised to be long. “Only a small one,” he warned. “It wouldn’t be wise to attract our enemies.”

“A small fire it is, then,” Bennet
agreed.

Gerard collected branches to sleep on whil
e Bennet busied himself with the fire and soon the threesome sat quite comfortably.

“Ah,” Gerard said longingly, “that we had food to fill our bellies. The day has been long.”

“Is food the only thing you ever think about,” Bennet joked.

“There is food aplenty in your dreams
.” Warin drew his cloak close and leaned back into the branches. “I suggest you search for it there.”

But food didn
’t enter Warin’s dreams that night, rather tawny tresses and sparkling blue green eyes filled his dreams.

Where was she? Was she unharmed? Anguish
over her fate gnawed his guts. He couldn’t lose her now, not when he finally understood what she meant to him. And that was – he loved her.

The realization filled him with peace.

He loved her, heart, body and soul. He wanted her by his side always, wanted her smile to warm him, wanted her gentle ways to wash over him.

He would save her, he vowed. He would save her. He had to
– his very destiny depended on it.

*****

Snow fell during the night. When Alyna awoke,
it weighted down her cloak. She was stiff and cold, colder than she had ever been before in her life. Her captors had freed her hands when they had stopped but they had instead bound her feet so she couldn’t run away during the night. At this moment, her feet were so numb she wasn’t even certain she still had them.

She sat up and tried to make her fingers move, tried to rip the hood off her head.
Its vile odor made her sick to her stomach.

Or mayhap it was the babe. She had heard others talk of morning sickness but had never paid it much heed.

A babe.

When Emma had first mentioned it, Alyna had rejected it immediately as Emma’s usual prattling. She couldn
’t be with child. Or could she? It had been several months since her monthly flux and all her clothes, not just the peacock blue tunic, were becoming snug. Her breasts too, were swollen and tender. Not having a mother to talk to, she had dismissed her symptoms to the rigors of the past few months.

A babe.
Warin’s babe, a gift of life for him. The thought warmed her.

Footsteps approached from behind and someone fumbled about with the hood before it was ripped from her head. She blinked against the light and the sudden rush of cold air on her face.

“Here.” A man thrust a chunk of cold bread into her hands.

“You!” Alyna gasped
and a flush of heat surged through her body as she recognized him. Baldric. The traitor who had scorned both her and David in favor of Philippa.

“Aye,” Baldric sneered.

“Free me immediately,” she demanded, raising her chin haughtily.

“Oh? I am master here, not you.”

“Why have you taken me? I
’m no threat to you. I insist you free me immediately.” She tried to keep the fear from her voice, tried to project an assurance she was far from feeling.

Baldric crossed his arms and looked down his nose at her. A mirthless smile flitted briefly across his face. “No threat? On the contrary, you pose the biggest threat.”

Alyna puzzled on his words. “How so, how does one woman alone do you harm?”

“
Not one woman alone but a woman and her warrior lord. Caperun Keep was my home once but now belongs to your husband and his chosen few.”

“I, we, didn
’t cast you away. You chose to turn your back on us in France. You held a secure position with the Caperun family. You would hold it still for my husband is in need of men and would have welcomed you with open arms.”

Baldric shrugged. “To play nursemaid to one who had no stomach to go on Crusade
didn’t appeal to me.”

“
You speak of David?” Alyna was astonished. “He chose to return to England to safeguard our holdings against Philippa.”

“Bah, he was weak and not man enough to fight the infidels without the coddling of his father.”

“You counted David as your friend, how can you speak of him with such hatred?” Pain seared through Alyna’s chest. “He’s dead, how can you betray him still? You’re the weak one, Baldric, you don’t know the value of loyalty.”

“I
’m loyal only to myself.” Baldric shrugged. “I chose to follow another who promised me more.”

“Where
are you taking me?” Alyna changed her attack.

“To one who yearns for your companionship.”

“You speak in riddles.” Sudden realization made Alyna’s voice shrill. “Philippa. You still serve Philippa.”

“Aye. Philippa pledges much.”

“But we hold the keep now, she can promise you nothing.”

“Are you so stupid
? Think, what better to barter with than a wife gone missing?”