Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (21 page)

“I….” He intended to argue, to protest. He couldn’t even form words. Windale was waiting for him. He could once again own the land where his mother and father were buried, where Toby was buried.

“I’m not giving you an answer,” he spoke with a stunned slur.

“I didn’t expect you to. Think about it. We’ve got time. The trial isn’t for
another
fortnight
. Although the sooner you give your evidence to the king the sooner this will all be over.” Pennington grinned,
perfect
benevolence.

Ethan closed his
slack
mouth. After all this time he could finally go home. He could feel Windale at his fingertips.

He gripped the reins of his horse tighter and turned it away from the noise of the courtiers. Pennington continued to smile at him. Ethan hadn’t thought he would ever hate anyone more than Crispin or King Richard, especially not a man who offered him his heart’s desire. He narrowed his eyes at the man then kicked his horse to a run, fleeing the answer to his prayers.

Joanna made her way out of the Tower and past the line of people, rich and
poor, waiting to get in. Her
mind and heart
were
in a thousand places. As fiercely as her head argued that
seducing
Ethan was the best way to light the fire under him that she needed to save her master and mistress, her heart could only think about how good it would feel to hold him again. Her lips tingled with the brief taste of him, with far more memories than she needed to dwell on. Her stomach ached as though she was walking into a disaster.

“Well, my dear, I should have given you more credit for being a clever little fox.” David shook her out of her troubled thoughts. He strode across the street to meet her as she stepped off th
e bridge over the moat.

“David.” The
shame of being caught disobeying him painted
Joanna’s
cheeks pink
, but she remained defiant
. “I’m sorry, but I did what I had to do.”

“I can see that,” David answered, still smiling. That smile put her at ease, as wrong as she felt. “Now it’s my turn to do what I have to do and fetch you home.”

She nodded and let him place a hand on her back, steering her through the street and rushing her home like a child who had gone missing all morning.
Her mission now lay at the inn anyhow.

“I trust you found what you needed to find?” he asked as they went.

“I visited Lady Aubrey,” she conceded that much. “We discussed a plan to
…
to encourage Ethan to speak up
.”
The butterflies
in her stomach roared at the thought of what she was going to do that night.

“I’ve always been told that country folk
were
simple and artless,” David laughed. “I’m glad I didn’t pay for that information because it’s as false as can be.”

Joanna didn’t answer. She walked on with him in silence. The foreign sounds and smells of the London streets did nothing to soothe her anxiety. Even the familiarity of the inn couldn’t still the buzzing in her heart that had spread out over her skin.

Madeline met her in the kitchen garden at the back of the inn as David marched her behind the safety of the gate. She jumped up from the bench where she had been praying over her rosary, cradle on the ground at her side.

“Thank you for finding her, David,” she sighed in relief.
“I was so worried!”

David arched an eyebrow at her. “Clever as country foxes, the lot of you.” He winked to show Joanna that he had no hard feelings then disappeared into the inn.

“Did you see Aubrey?” Madeline rushed to ask. “How is she? Does she know where Jack is? Has she thou
ght of anything that might help our cause
?”

“I did speak to Aubrey.” Feigning confidence to calm Madeline helped to cut through Joanna’s own
fluttering nerves
. “She hasn’t heard anything new about Jack or Crispin, whi
ch is as much a good thing as
a bad one
,” she finished when Madeline grew pale. “She still thinks that our best option is to have Ethan speak directly to the king. I … I have a plan to persuade him.”

Madeline surprised her by brightening. “Good! You’re in luck. He’s returned early from the king’s hunt. He’s sitting in the room off the kitchen having lunch.”

All the resolve Joanna had built up to do what she needed to do crumbled. She glanced over her shoulder at the inn. Thoughts of Ethan had made her pulse with anger all week, but it was something els
e that pulsed through her now.

“Go on,” Madeline encouraged her. “We’ve no time to lose, right? Whatever you have planned, you could convince Ethan and have him whispering in the king’s ear tonight.” She went so far as to take Joanna’s arms and spin her towards the inn, giving her a push.

Joanna stumbled a few steps forward before catching herself and standing straight. She took a deep breath, smoothing her kirtle. She could do this. She’d seduced Ethan a hundred times before over the littlest things and she could do it again.

Her heart was thumping hard as she stepped into the steamy kitchen and crossed to the side room. Sure enough, Ethan sat at the table, a bowl of stew
and mug of ale
in front of him and Wulfric sitting on his lap.

“Windale is the best place ever,” Wulfric
was in the middle of a discourse
. “It’s big with houses and a church and even a mill down by the stream!”

“Is that so?”
Ethan
looked exhausted in spite of the early hour. His shoulders sagged as he ate.

“And the forest is nearby, but I’m not allowed to go there,” Wulfric went on. “I’m not allowed to go anywhere without Joanna. But there’s a big pond by our house with frogs in it and a big tree.”

“I see
.
”
Ethan
nodded
. “What kind of a tree would that be?”

“I don’t know,” Wulfric mumbled.
“A big one.”

A weary smile touched Ethan’s mouth. He glanced u
p. His face tightened as he met Joanna’s eyes. The sharpness of guilt electrified the air between them. She only hoped he could forgive her for what she was about to do.

“Papa likes to build things.
”
Wulfric’s continuing story of home went on in spite of the tension
.

“What is he building?”
Ethan
focused on the boy
.

“Lots of stuff,” Wulfric answered. “The church, um, a
nother building and another
, and, um, another mill.” He scrunched his face, trying to remember details that no child his age was going to remember.

Ethan
stole a sideways look at Joanna
. “I would have th
ought of that,” he muttered.

The spark in his eyes was much deeper than anything Joanna had seen there all week. If she let herself she might actually believe he would have done everything Crispin had done and more. Too much more. The butterflies in her stomach swooped lower.
She marched up to the table.

“Run along, Wulfric.” She cleared her throat when the words came out strangled. “Aunt Madeline wants you in the garden.”

Ethan pushed his chair back. As Wulfric slipped off his knee
,
he knocked Ethan’s mug of ale over. It spilled across the table and Joanna’s kirtle. She hardly noticed. Her heart was pounding too hard. Wulfric
scurried out of the room
as Ethan
stood.

Joanna’s heart caught in her throat as she noticed his cloak.
She
ignored her own ale-soaked clothes to
step close enough to him to run her fingertips along the patched and faded material
, lingering over his heart
. “This was Toby’s,” she choked. It would be too hard. Everything she knew she needed to do would be too hard. And far too easy.

“It is.” He reached across his chest to lay his hand over top of hers. “
I’ve kept it close.”

Emotion squeezed her chest. Standing so close she could smell the fresh scene of the woods and the familiar spice of Ethan. It touched powerful memories.

“Ethan,” she began, leaning closer to him. She stared at the fastening of Toby’s cloak across his neck. All she had to do was look up into his eyes and plead with him to speak to King Richard for her. The warmth of his hand still holding hers seemed to stop the words in her throat. Just look up at him and beg, she told herself.

Steeling her courage, she glanced up. He stared down at her, h
is lips inches away from hers.

Her mind went blank

“
My
clothes
.
I should go change,” she whispered.

Ethan shook his head. “No, no you shouldn’t. The world should change for you.”

Dangerous bursts of heat flooded her chest. “That’s ridiculous.”

Some sort of reso
lve in Ethan’s eyes snapped. His
bunched shoulders
loosened
.
“I w
ill change the world for you.”

His arms were around her and his mouth had crushed over hers before she could react. She mewled in protest but kissed him back with equal ardor. Her fingers threaded through the short hair at the back of his head. Her tongue curled against
his
. His hands splayed against her back, one dipping lower to caress her backside. He pressed her up into him.
The strength and warmth of his arms grounded her.
Anything seemed possible.

“Come home with me,” he whispered against her ear. “
Forget this mess.
Leave
it
all behind and come with me.”

She tried to answer but her words came out as nothing more than a vocal sigh. She clung to him, giving her heart to him with hungry lips. She wanted him
, wanted that years’ old promise fulfilled
so desperately that her body pulsed with need. As he circled his hand under backside she hitched her leg across his hip. His kisses dropped to her neck, his tongue licked across her pulse. She pressed her fingers
into his back, leaned into him. It had been so long since she’d had him like this. The memory of how he felt inside of her made her feverish.

“
I can get our home back,” he whispered between kisses.
“
It can be yours and mine. Marry me and you will be a lady. You will be who you were always meant to be.”
His hand slid up to squeeze her breast. “King Richard
will
restore Windale to me.
Nothing else matters.
It will be ours, as it should be.”

He
captured
her
lips
again
,
even as the full impact of his words cracked through the heady temptation of his body and his kiss.
They could be together. They could go home at last. He could be hers as he was always meant to be.
For a price.

“I can get Windale back
with just a word,” he went on
.
“
Forget
Crispin and Aubrey
.
It can be ours again.
Just ours.
”

Cold, bitter reality smashed into Joanna. She heaved a breath and
pulled away
. Ethan tried to
renew their embrace
.
Too much of her wanted to fly back into his arms.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that all it will take is a word. If Richard condemns Crispin, Windale will be
mine again. It will be ours.”

The searing pain of a truth she should have known flayed
Joanna
.
He would let people
she cared about
die to get what he wanted.
“
You bastard
!”
She pulled back and slapped him.

Ethan reeled, holdi
ng a hand to his face. “Joanna!
”

She hadn’t thought it was possible for him to break her heart any more than he already had. “You unspeakable bastard! This was your plan all along.” Her chest ached as she panted.

“I love you, Joanna. I want to be with you. I always have.”

She slapped him again as hard as she could. This time the shock of the blow shook him out of his ardor.

“You never wanted to help me free Crispin and Jack
!
” she shouted. “
You never even cared about Aubrey’s wellbeing.
You only wanted to bed me.
I should have known!
” Hot tears of shame blurred her vision.
She had been so close to playing into his deceit.