The Baron's Quest (14 page)

Chapter 18

“My lord, I am so sorry about your mother.” Muriel ran after Nicholas as he made his way down the wharf, his boot heels clunking loudly on the wooden slats as he walked. The winds had picked up and there was a strong smell of fish in the air. The dockworkers scurried about, conversing with the tradesmen and merchants, and they all hurried to get things under cover before it rained. Nicholas headed back toward the dock stable that held his horse. His friends were at his side, and his squire and Isaac followed as well.

“I’ll need someone to cover for me while I’m gone,” said Nicholas, ignoring her completely. “There is deceit and mayhap smuggling on the docks of New Romney, and it is a bad time for me to be away.”

“I can stay at your manor for a few days,” offered Lord Conlin.

“As will I,” added Lord John.

“Then it’s settled. Squire, we will leave for Pensworth immediately for my mother’s funeral.”

“Aye, my lord,” said the squire.

“How long will you be gone?” asked Muriel, trying to gain his attention.

“Roger, run ahead and tell my steward we’ll need provisions.”

“Aye, my lord.” Roger took off at a run, and Isaac followed on his heels.

“What shall I do while you’re gone?” Muriel tried once again to engage him in conversation.

“Do what you want, I don’t care,” he told her.

“I’ll make sure to keep her occupied,” said Lord John, slowing to walk next to her. “Since you are the clothier, mayhap you can make me some clothes while I’m in New Romney.”

“I’d like to see you spin again,” said Conlin, slowing to walk with her as well. “You have amazing fingers. Perhaps tonight you will spin by the fire as Lord John and I drink ale. We’d love to watch.”

“Nay!” Nicholas called out without turning around. “Muriel will not be here.”

“I won’t?” The silly idea of him possibly taking her with him flitted through her brain.

“Nay, you’ll go back to town and stay there while I’m gone.”

“What? Why?” Muriel was flabbergasted that he would even suggest such a thing.

“Aye, why would you do such a thing, Romney?” asked Lord John.

“With you two wolves, she’ll be like a lost sheep being sent to the slaughter. I can’t have that.”

“Come now, Romney, you can trust us,” said Conlin. “We know she is your girl.”

“She’s my clothier, naught else,” said Nicholas, continuing to walk. “And I trust you two, it’s the girl I can’t trust.”

“How dare you say that!” Muriel ran in front of him and stopped with her hands on her hips. He stopped in his tracks. “How can you say that, after all we’ve been through?”

“Get out of my way,” he told her in a low voice. “And do not talk to me that way again. You just deliberately disobeyed my orders back there.” His hand pointed back to the docks. “Was there possibly something on that parchment that you didn’t want me to see?”

“Nay.” She looked the other way rather than right at him. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you purposely released it into the wind, sending it into the water.”

“She did?” asked Conlin.

“Muriel, are you helping the guild cover up something?” Nicholas looked into her eyes when he spoke and she knew he would be able to see through her lies.

“I hold no respect for the guild after what they did to me,” she retorted.

“Then why are you helping the man? There is deceit and disloyalty here, and I’m starting to wonder if you are a part of it.”

“Me? Do you really think I’d do anything to deliberately betray you after all you’ve done for me?”

“Aye, he has done a lot for you,” agreed John.

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” snapped Nicholas, stepping around her and continuing to walk. “All I know is that you are not allowed in my manor until I return.”

“What about Isaac?” she asked. “Are you throwing him out as well?”

“Isaac is welcome to stay and continue weaving.” He got to the dock stables, and a boy brought him his horse. He mounted and looked down at Muriel, and she could see the anger as well as the disappointment in his eyes. What had she done? By withholding information, she was putting a wedge in between them. But she knew what happened to traitors and it didn’t fare well for Cecily’s entire family if they were convicted. She needed to talk to Cecily and find out more information before she told Lord Nicholas the truth. “I expected more from you, Muriel. This has proven to be a major disappointment.”

With that he rode away, followed by the other two barons, leaving her alone on the windy wharf. Her heart sank and her previously wonderful feeling now turned into a sour knot twisting in her gut. She felt like she was going to be sick, and she knew she had no one but herself to blame for the outcome of this situation. If only Nicholas wasn’t leaving immediately, mayhap she’d have time to sort this all out. But now, as he rode away, she had the horrible feeling that he was riding out of her life – forever.

Chapter 19

A week went by, and Muriel was miserable each day she’d had to stay in town and away from the manor. By right, she should have been evicted from her shop by now, but Brother Germain had felt sorry for her, and told her they would do an exchange, since he would owe her rent for having his sheep on the marshlands soon anyway. He’d also brought her food and ale since he knew she had no money.

She’d heard from the monk that the baron had postponed the banquet as well as the trade fair, but that he should be returning any day now. It pained her not to be able to even work on the rest of the nobles’ clothes, but she wasn’t allowed at the manor in the baron’s absence. Nicholas had even told Isaac that he wasn’t to bring anything from the manor to Muriel while he was away. All she’d had to calm her nerves was her lone spindle. But she had no wool to spin, so it did her little good.

She now walked into Cecily’s family’s shop, hoping this time her good friend would talk to her. Each time she’d come by during the week, Samuel had been there and had told her to leave. This time, she’d seen Samuel going toward the other end of town, and knew he wasn’t here, so she thought she’d try again.

“Muriel, what are you doing here?” Cecily looked up from her spinning. Her mother picked up one of the children and attached the little boy to her hip.

“Tell her to leave, Cecily,” said the girl’s mother. “Your stepfather will be home soon and it will make him angry.”

“Muriel, you’d better go.” Cecily put down her things.

“I want to talk with you. Please,” she begged the girl.

“There is nothing to talk about. My stepfather told us that you were trying to have him arrested by the baron.”

“That’s not true!”

“Muriel, everyone knows about you and the baron. The guild has given orders that none of us are to talk to you again, or we will be excommunicated from the guilds.”

“That’s preposterous! Can’t you see they are doing something illegal, and just want to keep it quiet?”

“Your stepfather’s coming,” said her mother with fear in her voice. “Cecily, make her leave now.”

“Muriel, please. You need to go.”

“Cecily, that receipt I released into the water was blank. Your stepfather is cheating the baron and the king, and you need to know it.”

“What are you doing here?” came a deep growl from behind her. She turned to see not only Samuel, but also Thomas, Bertron, and Oliver, the head of the Clothmaker’s Guild with him. She wasn’t sure how many of them were involved in this, and didn’t want to accuse them all while she was unprotected.

“I was just leaving,” she said, trying to step around him, but he blocked the door.

“If you try to cause trouble for me again, I swear you will pay for it, do you understand?”

“What?” asked Cecily in surprise. “Are you threatening my good friend, Stepfather?”

“Samuel, we will be leaving now,” said Oliver, and he and the other men left abruptly.

“Mother, what is going on?” asked Cecily, looking back toward the woman, who put the child down and walked forward.

“Cecily, you need to be quiet now,” her mother warned.

“If you try anything, I will drag you and your brother down with me,” threatened Samuel.

“We haven’t done anything,” stated Muriel. “Why would we be punished?”

“Because your father was running an illicit operation and that is why he was killed. I will tell the baron everything he did, and you and your brother will pay for his crimes. I will tell him that you were a part of it as well.”

“Nay,” shouted Muriel. “That’s not true. My father would never do such a thing, and my brother and I are involved in nothing.” She started to feel very sick again. She pushed past the man and ran out into the street, stopping and turning around when she heard the slap of skin against skin from behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see the man hitting his wife.

“How could you two let her in here after you knew you weren’t supposed to talk with her? Now I’ll be kicked out of the guild because of it,” came Samuel’s angry voice. Then the man grabbed a hold of Cecily’s arm, and Muriel knew she had to help her friend. She ran back and grabbed his arm from behind, and he turned and punched her in the face instead. She moved her head quickly, but still managed to get clipped in the jaw. She fell to the ground, and pain shot through her.

“Muriel, leave now!” Cecily ran over and helped her to her feet and pushed her out the door.

“Nay, I can’t leave you like this.”

“His anger will subside in a few minutes. It always does. I will be fine, now please just go home.”

Muriel hurried through the streets as the sun started to set. She was in a hurry to get home, and took Tanner’s Row, even though it was the bad part of town. Still, it was a quicker way to get to her house, and right now she really didn’t care about anything but getting home. She felt as if she were going to retch from the stench of the animal hides stretched and hanging in the front of the shops. But that wasn’t as bad as the smell of the solution the tanners used to make the hides soft, that they’d dumped into the streets.

Whores stood in the doorways with men in the shadows. She tried not to make eye contact or even look their way, but she recognized a man as he kissed a peasant woman, and turned to leave.

“Henry?” she said in surprise, seeing the baron’s servant. “What are you doing here?”

“Muriel.” The man looked around quickly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“And neither should you!”

“Well, look what we got here. A clean one, fellas.” A drunkard stepped out of the tavern with two men right behind him.

“Leave her alone,” said Henry, putting his arm around her and heading her away.

Before she knew what happened, the drunkard tried to grab her, and Henry punched him, sending him sprawling in the muck-filled street. The other two men started laughing, and more men came out of the tavern to see what all the commotion was about.

“Come on, Muriel, you need to get home.” Henry rushed her off to safety, and finally they entered her shop. She lit a tallow candle by the door and the smell of the burning fat made her stomach roil. She handed Henry the candle, and stuck her head out the door and vomited into the street.

“Muriel, are you ill?” asked the servant, guiding her back inside, and helping her get settled on a lone stool in the middle of the room.

“I – I don’t think so. I’m just upset because Samuel hit me, and hit his wife and my friend, Cecily, as well.”

“Let me see that.” He tilted her chin upwards, looking at her face in the candlelight. “You are bruised, but seem to be fine. You are lucky he didn’t break your jaw or dislodge your teeth.”

“Henry, thank you so much,” she said, putting her hand on his. She felt the tears dripping down her cheeks. “But you mustn’t run away from the manor. Don’t you realize that while you are not a free man, you are still taken care of by the baron? And if he finds you, he will punish you – possibly sever a limb?”

“I am not running away from the baron – I am running to someone else.”

“Oh. You have a . . . a lady friend?” she asked, remembering seeing him kissing a peasant woman.

“I love her, Muriel, and would risk even losing a limb just to see her.”

“I understand,” she said, with a slight smile. “I, too, love someone. Only I think I made a mistake, and now I’ve lost him.”

“I must go now before the guards are alerted. I need to sneak back into the manor before they discover I am missing.”

“Please, can you tell Isaac I need to speak with him? I came to the manor gates twice now, but the guards turned me away each time. The baron has told them not to let me enter.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have deceived him, and I am not proud of it.”

“Then I guess we are both deceiving him, aren’t we?” The servant gave her an understanding nod of the head. “I will give Isaac your message, I promise.” Then he slipped out into the night, leaving her all alone.

Muriel never felt so tired in her life. She walked up the stairs to the pallet that used to be her brother’s and lay down upon it. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. But she was unable to rest, because all she could see when she closed her eyes was the disappointment on Nicholas’s face the day she decided to deceive him by helping a friend instead.