Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart (9 page)

“How do you know?” She was being deliberatel
y contrary, but genuine fear radiated from her
.

“They’ve been having trials for weeks. Nobles
have
been summoned from every corner of the kingdom. Some of them have been executed, yes, but most are getting slaps on the wrists and fines. You’ll be far better off waiting things out than rushing into even more trouble.”

“How do you know?” She crossed her arms in challenge. “Are you a courtier now as well as a stable boy?”

She was arguing just to argue. It was her favorite weapon to use against him, always had been. “I’m not a courtier now and I never have been. You know that. But you can’t live in London these days without knowing what goes on at court.”

“Well I most certainly do not live in London,” she snapped. “So forgive me if I go to court to find out what everyone else already knows.”

His patience hung by the thinnest of threads.
“
Listen to me.
Court is held at the Tower and you can’t get in
.”

“What?”

“Only nobility are allowed in the Tower without specific orders from the crown. They won’t let you in.”

“They let you in yesterday and you look like a vagrant.”

Ethan flushed. “I snuck in with a retinue of servants.”

“You’re lying.”
She was trying to keep up her end of the argum
ent but her certainty wavered.

“Am I?”

“Dunkirke!” Ada shouted at him from the kitchen. “What in the bloody hell are you doing loitering over there when I need that water over here?”

“If you will excuse me,” Ethan barked, “I have work to do.
Listen to someone who knows what they’re talking about and stay out of trouble. Let things take their course.
”

He
brushed past her
into the kitchen, sloshing water from the buckets to his chausses and the floor. Joanna slammed the door behind him.

The moment
Joanna’s
feet hit the cobbles of the foggy London street
in front of The Stag Hunt her
courage faltered.
In Derby
,
even the longest city street had air, grass, and an end.
T
he t
all buildings packed
in
the narrow
London
street
had no end in either direction, like she was trapped in a maze.
S
he chose the direction she thought was right and
started walking
.

She had no idea where she was going. Ethan had ducked and dodged through so many road and side alleys in their flight from the Tower the day before that they could have been miles aw
ay or right around the corner.

Ethan. She closed her hands into fists as s
he memorized the street that The Stag Hunt sat on
and
turned to a larger street
,
follow
ing
the merchant traffic.
Ethan
may look like something a cat coughed up now, but he was every bit as stubborn and arrogant as he’d been before the crusade. Let things take their course? She shook her head as she charged on. As if Sir Stephen of Matlock and Arthur Pennington would let things take their own course. Jack had been right to balk at the sight of the men. Ethan didn’t understand what Crispin and Jack were really up against.
Her fear swirled up again.

To her surprise, the merchants led her in the right direction. The flow of their traffic turned a few more corners and suddenly the massive structure of the Tower rose up in front of her. Joanna
sent an anxious glance up to the heads on the wall
and quickened her steps.

Her heart sank when she
crossed the moat to
the huge, closed front gate. A slew of guards stood around it. A small gang of filthy children
waited
with their faces pressed up against the gate, peering inside. Joanna watched them for several seconds to see if the guards would scold them. When they didn’t she grew bold. Keeping a watchful eye on the guards,
she tiptoed up to join them.

The world inside of the Tower was a sharp contrast to the streets around it. The morning fog settled peacefully over the lush green lawn. The imposing White Tower seemed almost sleepy in the first feeble rays of morning light.
A f
ew people, servants by the look of them, worked within the enclosed area.
The
out-buildings lining the inside
of
the wall
buzzed with the same morning energy as homes along a village green even though s
ome of them were as imposing as the White Tower
itself
.

It was t
he White Tower held her attention though. That was the last place she had seen
Aubrey
and
Crispin and Jack.
If she could just get inside to speak to them she could figure out how to work for their freedom.

“Step back.”

Joanna gasped when one of the guards spoke. The panic that the sight of the White Tower had raised in
her blossomed a thousand fold.

“I need to get inside,” she told the man in a
trembling
voice. “My master and mistress are bein
g held prisoner. I need to….”

“Step back,” the guard
interrupted
. His voice was neutral, his expression neither bored nor irritated.

“But … but I ne
ed to get in,” Joanna pleaded.

The guard
loosen
ed
his stance
at her distress
. “You can’t get in, miss,” he explained with a touch of kindness in his tone. “
Not
with the king in residence.” He bowed his head in respect. “If your master and mistress have been taken into custody then you’ll have to find some personage of noble blood to reach them for you.”

“But I don’t
know anyone else of noble blood.
”
Damn Ethan’s hide for being right
.

“Come on, Delbert,” one of the other guards
chastised the first. “Get the pretty little bird to move.”

“Sorry miss.” Th
e guard, Delbert, extended his arm and used it as a goad to shoo her out of the way.

Joanna stumbled back, hugging herself against a new cold that had nothing to do with the fog. She watched as guards on both the inside and outside of the
Tower
worked with the locks on the gates to swing them open.
The helpless panic of being completely alone threatened to swallow her
.

The waifs who had been staring
through the gate
with awed eyes spread out
as
it
opened
. When the first of the finely dressed nobles who had spent the night in the Tower
exited
,
the children jumped into action, thrusting out their hands and begging.

Joanna
couldn’t stand to watch it, couldn’t bear to comprehend how close to those children she was now. Her eyes searched wildly within the Tower complex for any sort of clue as to Aubrey or Crispin or Jack’s whereabouts. There was simply nothing to see.

A lone rider
trotted
through the gate. He was swathed in a cloak, his face mostly hidden.
Joanna looked closely at it as he passed. Her
heart stopped. She knew the face. She had seen it once before, heard Aubrey’s story of how he had worn a disguise when he first came to Derby. Prince John.

A jagged shard of hope
pushed
her
to leave
the gate
and
trail
him.
The prince
steered his horse on a slow walk through the people that had gathered near the Tower. He kept his broad shoulders low
and moved with
purp
ose, trying not to be noticed.

Joanna
walked
only a few paces behind him, willing him not to kick the horse into a run. Prince John could help her. Crispin was
his friend
. He had been there when the arrest had happened. Surely he could speak to his brother
on Crispin’s behalf
.

Without warning the prince kicked his horse to run. Joan
na’s hope plummeted as the steed
burst forward. She opened her mouth to stop him but nothing came out. Panic welled
in her chest, choking the air from her lungs. She was alone. Everyone had left her, just like before.

S
everal yards on the horse stumbled and broke stride. The prince cursed and dismounted.
Joanna shot forward.

“
Your highness
!”
She was so overwrought that when the prince turned to blink at her that she grabbed his arm with both hands. “
Your highness
, you must help me!”

The shock in Prince John’s eyes flickered to amusement. He
scanned the immediate area to be certain no one was paying attention, then he
swept an assessing gaze up and down her body. “Have we met?”

Joanna gasped as she realized she had laid hands on a prince. She dropped to a curtsey, faltering and sinking to her knees. “I am Joanna Dunkirke, your highness, lady’s maid to Countess Aubrey of Derby.”

Prince John’s amusement melted into a frown.
A few curious merchants were beginning to look too closely.
His horse limped a step back, threatening to trod on her. He lifted her to her feet, moving her out of the animal’s way.

“My mount appears to have thrown a shoe,” he said, patting the horse’s flank to calm it. “How very inconvenient.”

Joanna licked her lips, twisting her fingers together in front of her. The prince hadn’t dismissed her, but he hadn’t reacted to her announcement of who she was. She shifted her weight, watc
hing as Prince John examined his
mount’s foot.

“Your highness,” she put e
verything on the line and spoke.
“I need your help. My master and mistress have been arrested and imprisoned.”

Her heart pounded against her ribs as she waited for him to
acknowledge her
answer.

An hour seemed to tick by before he straightened
.
“I know.” He said nothing more. Instead he pulled the hood of his cloak forward and searched up and down the street.

The prince was anxious. Joanna’s gut quaked as
it
dawned on her. He was the prince of England, next in line to the throne, and he was alone and disguised in the street at dawn.

“My horse needs attention,” he said with the barest hint of tension in his otherwise commanding voice. “It is a matter
of some urgency. Forgive me.”

He nodded
without seeing her and grasped his horse’s reins, leading it forward at a fast walk.

Whatever Prince John was doing, Joanna had no right to waylay him or even to speak to him. Sh
e had no right to look at him.

She lunged after him.

“Your highness, the earl, Sir Crispin
,
needs your help as no man has ever needed it before.” Whatever consequences might befall her, she couldn’t le
t this chance go. “Sir Crispin and Lord John -
even my mistress
,
Lady
Aubrey -
have
served you
and
your brother well these last few years. They have not sought their own glory or enrichment in any way.
They have worked tirelessly for the betterment of Derbyshire and England. They are not traitors and they do not deserve to be locked away.”

Prince John slowed his steps, turning to Joanna with a renewed grin. “Are all Derbyshire women fiery and outspoken?”

Heart trembling, Joanna answered, “They are when injustice is thrust
up
on them.”

The prince laughed. He continued to walk, allowing Joanna to keep just a step behind him. Her heart raced so fast that she had to
will herself not to pass out.

The prince
knew where he was going. He led his horse up one street after another, away from the Tower and the river. Joanna watched the city, trying to remember the way, but every street blended together. The only thing that dis
tinguished one building f
r
om
another was the increasing wealth of the streets they walked.

Joanna was close to speaking again when Prince John said, “
I am very sorry for your plight.”
He
gave
her a compassionate half-smile. “You are right, Sir Crispin and Lord John, and your indomitable Lady Aubrey, have served me well. I
do not
regret my decisions
to raise them up
for a moment.”