Vow of Deception (31 page)

Panting with exertion, he continued, “'Tis no exit this way. The doors are jammed and impassable.”

“Where are the other exits? Have you tried them?”

“There is only one other exit; it leads to the cloister. But I've checked it too.” He shook his head and continued, voice despairing, “A fallen burning beam blocks it. We are trapped. Unless someone comes to our rescue, all we can do is pray.”

Rose shot her gaze to Rand's. A palpable wave of despair seemed to draw them together. The debilitating emotion hovered for several beats of her heart, until suddenly, a light of determination flamed in the gold flecks of Rand's colorful gaze. His confidence imbued her heart with courage. She rubbed Jason's back to ease his fear and in return to gain comfort and strength from him. His breath came in labored pants.

Rand turned back to the monk. “Pray, brother? I intend to do more than pray. I shall continue looking for a way to escape till my dying breath.”

Rose blurted, “What of the windows? I noticed several windows in the infirmary.” Her breath wheezed.

The monk shook his head. “The infirmary is almost completely ablaze. I'd not advise you to enter. 'Tis too dangerous.” As if to emphasize the brother's words, a beam crashed to the ground in the direction of the infirmary, sounding like a crack of thunder. “You see, 'tis not safe. I beg you come with me. Those of us who were unable to escape are seeking refuge in the sanctuary to pray for our souls.”

“Before long, nowhere shall be safe. I regret we must part here. But tell me, good brother, before you go, what of the windows in the infirmary? Are any reachable from the ground?”

“There are two windows in the west bay that are lower than the rest, but I am unsure how or if 'tis possible to access them.”

“If there is a way, I'll find it.”

Jason began coughing violently. Rand patted his back, worry marking his brow. Rose smoothed Jason's hair back from his forehead in a soothing gesture.

“Come, Rose. We must hurry.”

The monk said, “May God and His angels be with you.” He made the sign of the cross, blessing them, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen,” before he hurried away.

They followed on his heels, Rand leading the way again. As they approached the infirmary entrance, great billowing clouds of smoke discharged from the chamber, the flames flickering on the walls like ghastly images of what Rose imagined demons from Hell looked like.

Rand stopped suddenly. Caught unawares, Rose bumped into him. Above the din of the crackling fire, groaning timbers, and terrified moans of the remaining inhabitants, he shouted, “Take off your wimple and veil!”

Wondering what he intended, she nevertheless obeyed. As she removed the hairpins from her headdress, he set Jason down on the floor, pulled the cope he wore over his head, and shrugged out of it. When he stepped aside, she saw the stoup, a basin of holy water set upon a waist-high stone pedestal.

She handed him her wimple and veil and he dunked it, along with his cope, into the basin of holy water, ignoring the rose-shaped sprinkler attached to the basin by a chain.

“Put your arms up.” When she did, he pulled the robe over her head and she shimmied to help ease the clingy wet material down her body. A quick, soft smile graced his face, and then he handed her the veil he'd wrung out. “Use this to cover your mouth and nose so you can breathe easier. The wimple is for Ja—” His words cut off abruptly as he looked down.

Rose glanced down too. Jason was nowhere in sight. They spoke in unison. “Oh, God, where's Jason?”

“Jesu. He's gone.”

A pounding ache seized her chest. “We have to find him.”

“We'll check the chapel first, then the infirmary.”

She plucked his sleeve to stop him. “'Twill be quicker if we search separately.”

He paused, frowning. “I don't like the idea of us parting, but…The fire has not spread toward the chapel yet. While you go check in that direction, I'll check the infirmary.”

“Mama!” Jason's cry came from the direction of the infirmary.

They spun around as one and raced through the infirmary entrance. The monk was correct. Flames consumed the beds lined in rows down both side aisles. Several burning beams had fallen from the ceiling and were strewn about. The intense heat made it difficult to breathe.

Jason stood in the first bay and pointed at one of a handful of beds not on fire. “Mama. Look. Under the bed.”

Rose knelt down beside him and hugged him tightly. “Darling, thank the Virgin Mary you are all right,” she whispered fiercely. The tempo of her heart beat like a drum.

Rand squeezed her shoulder in sympathy. When Jason began to squirm, she pulled back and said sternly, “Don't leave my side again. 'Tis very dangerous. You can get badly hurt. Do you hear me?”

“Aye, Mama. I promise not to leave you. But I heard the woman moaning.”

Rose turned and stared in shock. A woman huddled under the bed, raving as she yanked at her wiry gray hair. Her aged eyes stared unseeing through a milky film.

Rand coughed. Once he could speak, he said, “We'll leave the woman where she is, for now, till we can find a way out of the building. We don't need the distraction.”

Rose nodded and covered Jason's mouth with the wet wimple. “Here, son. Hold the cloth to your mouth and breathe into it.”

She duplicated the gesture with the veil to her mouth. The cloying smoke lessened somewhat, and she could breathe easier.

As she stood up, Rand headed for the beds. Jason molded himself around the back of her hip, while his left hand tightly clutched her skirt behind her knees.

Near the second bed, a stained-glass window was situated about nine feet above the ground. It appeared to be about five feet high and four feet wide. Rose glanced at Rand, who yanked the bedclothes off the bed. She noticed he subtly angled his body away from the flames and averted his gaze.

“Do you think you can reach the window and climb out?” She heard the undercurrent of anxiety in her voice.

“I have an idea I think may work.” He ripped two strips from the linen bed sheet and then tossed her the remaining material. As he wrapped the linen around his palms, he explained, “Tear the sheet in long strips and knot them end to end to make a rope. Time is of the essence. This ceiling can collapse at any moment.”

Once she had about twelve strips, each one four inches wide by eight feet long, her fingers worked quickly knotting the ends together. “But how are you to get through the sealed window?” Nervously, she glanced at the approaching flames.

He raised his palms up, briefly. “I can tell you, but 'tis quicker if I show you,” he said as he marched to the nearby tall branched iron candle stand in front of the stone column.

Grunting, he hefted the candle stand over his right shoulder and carried it to the bedside, where he set it back down. Then she watched as he jumped onto the bed, and once he balanced his right foot on the bed frame, and his left foot on the bed ropes, with both hands he gripped the rod holding the bed curtain and yanked it down with a strong tug, chain and all. He removed the other bed curtain the same way, clearing the bed of all impediments. Then he hoisted the candelabra again and smashed it through the window like a spear. Shattered glass sprayed down over the window ledge and clinked on the stone floor as it rained down.

A great whooshing sound like a gust of wind startled Rose. She looked up to see the fire was spreading rapidly over the ceiling beams toward them. “Oh, God, we have to hurry, Rand!” she shouted. “What can I do to help?!”

He jabbed the candle stand through the window several more times till there was naught but a few slivers of glass clinging to the rectangular window frame. He set the candle stand down on the floor, then sprang off the bed. He shoved the iron stand over so it propped against the wall under the window. The top of the three branches reached just four feet shy of the broad stone window ledge.

As he removed the linen strips round his hands, he spoke quickly of his plans. He tied and double knotted the two linen bands onto the candle stand, spacing them four feet apart in the center of the twelve-foot-long pole. The thickness of the knotted fabric served as foot and hand supports as he climbed up the candle stand to the branched top, where he jumped the few remaining feet onto the stone ledge jutting out in front of the window.

In a crouched position, he grasped the window embrasure. Their eyes met, a long, lingering gaze of shared elation, and dare she hope, love. It seemed to blaze in his eyes like a beacon, guiding her home, encircling her in safety and comfort, warmth and protection. She marveled, unable to believe her fortune. But they were not free yet.

A great thundering rumble erupted above them. Rand's eyes grew wide in horror. Rose gazed up at the ceiling, clutching Jason in a fierce grip, her fear so palpable she trembled. Then as if all the mythical Roman gods on Mount Olympus gave a shuddering roar, a section of the beamed ceiling broke apart and came tumbling down toward them.

Rand, hearing the shrieking crack of the timbered ceiling, a distinctive sound he had been unable to forget, even after fifteen years, leapt down off the ledge, grabbed Rose and Jason in his arms, flung them against the wall, then crouched over them protectively.

A great whoosh of air buffeted him as the beams crashed behind him, and crackling heat pulsed at his back. He clutched Rose and Jason, both shaking with fright. Residual echoes of fear, shame, and guilt over the stable fire were subsumed in his desperation to get Rose and Jason safely out of the burning building. Then…

A keening wail rent the air, sending a chill down his body. He turned his head around and gaped in horror. Through a wall of fire shooting into the air, he watched the old woman jump up from under the bed, flames engulfing her. She ran around madly in circles screeching in agonizing pain.

Rand froze, paralyzed, gripped in a nightmare where truth and reality shattered in a prism of images. He could not move or think or feel. Just envision his mother consumed by flames till she was nothing but charred remains. His cognizance warped in a black void of pain and fear. The blaze of the fire coming ever near him, like a burning phantasm wailing in misery and despair.

A whirring, buzzing sound rushed in his ears. “Rand. Rand.” A wraith reached out with long, bony fingers and sharp nails.

“Rand, prithee. I love you. I need you. Jason needs you. Come back to me.” Rose's breath hitched with a ragged sob. “I love you so much.”

Blackness shattered as Rose's words reached him and her tears bathed his cheeks.

He was crouched down on his haunches, his back to the infirmary wall. The fire was so close the heat blasted as strong and hot as a coal-fired forge. “Rose?”

Her eyes glimmered with hope and love. “Rand, we have to go. Now!”

Giving him the knotted rope she made, she lifted Jason in her arms. Rand jumped to his feet. His wits returned. Her confession that she loved him giving him strength, he took charge. “I'll tie Jason in your arms, then pull you both up once I've climbed into the window.”

Jason clung to Rose face-first, with his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck. After tying them securely, Rand vaulted up the candle stand and into the window embrasure.

Rose twitched nervously back toward the chapel. “What about the brother and sisters?”

A sheen of sweat covering his face, he shook his head sadly. “The infirmary entrance is completely blocked with burning debris from the collapsed ceiling. 'Tis hopeless. Once free from here, we can try to get help for them. Toss me the end of the rope.”

Snatching the rope out of the air, Rand coiled it around his forearm, then braced his body against one side of the window and pressed his foot against the other to gain leverage. “Use your feet to climb up the wall when I pull you up. Can you do that?”

She bit the corner of her plump lip and nodded determinedly.

“Very good,” he said, smiling with encouragement. “I'll pull you up on the count of three. One, two, three.”

Pressing his shoulder and foot against the embrasure, with a loud grunt, he tugged Rose and Jason up. Sweat broke over his back, while his leg and arm muscles flexed and strained. His jaw clenched tight, teeth aching. He pulled on the rope a foot at a time. Inexorably, Rose climbed up the wall step-by-step. When her foot hit the wide ledge, he gave one last great heave and pulled her into his arms. Jason was cradled between them.

His arms quivered, not with strain, but with the restraint not to squeeze her too hard, in an overwhelming urge to assure himself she and Jason were safe and unharmed. A huge pressure in the vicinity of his heart felt near to bursting with the need to confess all of his feelings—his fears, his hopes, his dreams. And more importantly, how much he loved them both.

But the groaning roof was on the point of collapse. Rand wanted to be as far away from the hospital as he could when it caved in. He removed Jason from his harness and carefully steadied him at Rose's feet. Rose was securely placed against the embrasure, crouched behind Jason and facing out toward the dark night.

Rand vaulted off the ledge, the cool breeze a relief after the blaring heat of the fire. He hit the ground with a jarring thump. Quickly climbing to his feet, he maneuvered himself directly below the window. In the shadow of the building, he gazed up at Rose, his arms stretched up to her. “Hand Jason to me and then I'll catch you when you jump down.”

Clutching Jason's arms, Rose lowered him down. Rand caught hold of his dangling legs. “I've got him. You can let go.”

After setting Jason on his feet, he turned back to the window. Rose gazed nervously behind him at the city walls. “Hurry, Rose. Jump. I won't let you fall.”

Rose held her arms out and jumped.

She slammed into him, causing him to stagger, but he held on to her tightly. Chest heaving, he flipped his hair out of his face. Her face was inches from his. He smiled. “We made it. Are you ready to go?”

She smiled back. “Aye, let's go.”

Rand swung Jason into his arms, then grabbed Rose's hand. They ran and ran until Rose pulled up, clutching her side and breathing heavily.

Rand set Jason down and wrapped his arm around Rose. “Take a moment to catch your breath. But we need to find a place to hide. We're fortunate we have not run into any of the castle guard, who surely by now have come to investigate the fire.”

Staring back at the hospital, Rand watched what was left of the roof collapse, causing a section of the wall to crumble. Debris floated above, illuminated by the red glow of the fire. He shuddered at how close they had come to being buried in the rubble. His eyes met Rose's, a shared gaze of gratitude and relief passing between them.

“Rand,” Rose said, her head cocked, “do you hear that?”

“What?” Rand gazed toward the castle walls.

The sky was clear now and the full moon illuminated the outline of a small troop of soldiers rapidly advancing. They slashed their swords through the thick reeds lining the ditch they traversed as they approached the hospital.

He grabbed Jason. “We must hurry before they see us.”

They ran headed west, away from the soldiers. Suddenly, Rose cried out.

Rand slid to a stop and spun around. He hurried back to where she was limping on one foot. “What is it? Are you hurt?”

“Mama,” Jason piped up, fear in his voice.

She smoothed Jason's cheek. “I'm all right, darling,” she said, a smile on her face, but Rand saw the pain glazing her eyes. Then she looked up at Rand. “I stepped on a rock and turned my ankle. I think it's sprained.”

A shout came from the direction of the soldiers. A man in front pointed toward them.

“Jesu. We've been spotted. Can you run on it?”

She put her weight on her foot and tried to walk, but she pulled up short again. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I can't walk on it. It hurts too much. You must go without me. I'll only hold you back. Run. Take Jason with you and keep him safe.”

“Absolutely not, Rose. I am staying with you. I shall not leave you alone to the mercy of the king's guard.”

“Rand, I beg you.” She clutched his hands as her soft blue gaze implored him. “Go. Before 'tis too late.”

He shook his head, his voice tempered with steel. “I swore I'd never leave you. I have never broken a vow to you before and I shall not start now.”

At that moment, half a dozen soldiers converged on them, their swords drawn. Rand wrapped his arm around Rose protectively.

He recognized their dark-haired lieutenant, who stepped several paces forward. “Sir Rand, you are under arrest by order of the king.”

“On what charge, Sir Reginald?”

Sir Reginald shifted his head toward Rose, then back to Rand. “For abetting and harboring a confessed felon.”

Rand jerked his gaze to Rose, curious why they were not arresting her. “What of Lady Rosalyn?”

“Sir Golan's clerk brought the king evidence of the lieutenant-justiciar's various corruption and extortion schemes, including Lady Rosalyn's coerced confession. Charges have been withdrawn. Lady Rosalyn is free to go.”

Rose gasped.

“Will you give me a moment to bid Lady Rosalyn fare well?”

Sir Reginald nodded. “Make it brief.”

Rand waited until the lieutenant rejoined his men. He gazed into his son's face, saw the familiar dimples, and jaw-line. The sweet smile so like his mother's. He felt his heart cracking. Jason patted his face. “Why are you so sad, Papa?”

Unable to speak for the emotion in his throat, he turned to Rose. Fear shimmered in her gaze. He leaned down and kissed her. Her lips, soft and supple, clung desperately to his. Holding her tightly, he poured all his love and devotion into his final, parting kiss.

“'Tis time, Sir Rand. Step away from Lady Rosalyn.”

Rand handed Jason over to his mother.

She clung to Jason, her face twisted with pain and grief. “Rand, I need—”

“Do not grieve for me, Rose,” he whispered softly in her ear. “Never doubt that you are worthy of love. One day you will find a man who will love you. I am sorry I cannot be that man.” He embraced Rose and Jason one more time. “When he's old enough to understand, tell Jason I love him.” Then he moved away from them, his hands out to his sides to show his cooperation.

Two soldiers rushed forward and restrained him, while a third clapped manacles on his wrists, pushed the cup in place, passed a chain through the cross-shaped slot, and securely locked it.

As Rand stood stoic while he was shackled, Rose memorized every detail of his precious face, from his green-gray eyes shrouded with thick dark eyelashes, to his sensual lips framed by endearing dimples, to his strong jaw clenched with courageous resolve.

As she watched him being dragged away, a terrible ache unlike any she ever felt tore her heart in twain.

“Nay. Don't want Papa to go.” Jason reached out, struggling in Rose's arms. “Papa. Papa.”

Legs trembling, she dropped to her knees. Rose tried to hold her emotions inside, but a deep, dark chasm, where she kept her feelings buried, burst free and would not be silenced. She sobbed, hugging her son, afraid she might shatter into a thousand pieces if she let him go.