He knew the de Soulis family.
Wicked to the bone.
He had heard about the incident last year when the daughter of Merek de Leia, Lord of Falstone, had been cornered by a group of unidentified knights. The lovely young woman had been in the village with a pair of her maids, visiting the merchant who imported silk thread, when she was set upon her.
As the story went, because Harman had not witnessed it personally, Lady Gavriella de Leia was caught off guard by the men. When they’d grabbed her and spirited her away, she’d never even made a sound. Everyone knew Lady Gavriella and everyone loved her, and there had always been such peace in Deadwater in spite of the fact that it was on the Scots border, that any kind of violence was unheard of.
And that’s what her attackers had been counting on that.
News of the terrible incident spread quickly. Lady Gavriella hadn’t know her attackers and that she had seen the only identifiable thing they had – a brand on one of the horses. She’d drawn it for her father, which told the man all he needed to know.
The brand for Hell’s Guardhouse.
De Soulis.
It was the same brand that Harman saw now through the open door. Those from the castle known as the Hell’s Guardhouse usually didn’t venture over to Deadwater. They kept to themselves, spreading their filth over the villages closer to them. The father and son pair were known as unfair lords, harsh and terrible, taxing their vassals into starvation to fund their coffers, yet the castle itself was strangely in disrepair. The fear was that they could no longer squeeze blood out of their vassals and had somehow turned their sights on Deadwater and even Falstone. They’d come into Deadwater and had caught Lady Gavriella off guard.
They seemed to know who they were looking for. They’d caught her like a cat in a trap and dashed off with her before anyone really realized what had happened. But someone sent word to de Leia over at Falstone and his men went on the hunt, only to find Lady Gavriella in a livery in the far corner of the village, bruised and beaten and raped.
Therefore, the physic had lied to the pair. He’d seen Gavriella de Leia after she’d been assaulted and raped, presumably by Nicholas from what he could now gather. The young woman had been badly beaten and her innocence taken in a most hideous manner. Nicholas also knew the rape had resulted in a pregnancy, but Harman had been truthful when he said he hadn’t attended the birth and neither had his wife.
But what he couldn’t figure out was why John and Nicholas wanted information on that child.
Perhaps it was time to stick his neck out a little.
“Then allow me to go to Falstone and see what I can discover,” he said after a moment. “They know me and they trust me. I will do this for you, but for my service, I wish to be paid.”
Nicholas started to berate him, but John held out a hand and stopped him. “What do you wish?” he asked.
“How valuable is this information to you?”
John eyed the shrewd old man. “Go to Falstone and find out what you can about Lady Gavriella and her child,” he said. “Return to me with the information and I shall pay you a full pound. Tell anyone what you are doing, or breathe a word of this, and I shall return and kill your wife before your very eyes. Do you understand me?”
The old physic nodded. With a deal reached, he figured the worst of the storm was over, at least for now, so he stood up and shuffled over to his wife, pulling her off the floor. As he stood with her next to the hearth, the father and son ducked out of the cottage to where their men were waiting outside in the mud, unaware that the brand on the hip of one of the horses had been recognized, as it had been before.
“What good is it going to do to simply find out the wellness of de Leia’s daughter and the child?” Nicholas asked his father once they were outside. “We want the child.”
John nodded. “I know,” he said. “But you must have patience, lad. We discover what we can about the child and Lady Gavriella, and then if the old physic is trustworthy enough, with enough coin we can probably pay him to smuggle the child out of Falstone. But first things first – we have to determine how the child and its mother, fare. It is possible that neither have survived to this point.”
Nicholas was impatient. He swung himself onto the back of his steed. “Why are we even bothering with this?” he hissed. “Why not simply go to Falstone and take what we want?”
John nodded slowly, fussing with his stirrup. “Because Falstone has big walls, a good army, and the backing of de Wolfe,” he said. “Need I remind you of that? Nay, lad, we must be careful about this. Let us take the child by stealth, not with a big show of force. That would gain us nothing. Let the physic do his work.”
“And when he does?”
“When he does, we shall reward him,” John said. “A very special reward.”
Nicholas knew what his father was alluding to – death and destruction. That was always what he meant. He looked over the village of Deadwater, a surprisingly prosperous village with a gloomy name.
“When we have fulfilled the prophesy and begin our advance against de Wolfe, this village will make a nice spoil of war,” he said. “I have fond memories here already.”
He flashed his yellow teeth rather lewdly. John simply shook his head at is crass son, though he did not dispute him. They had the beginnings of what they’d come for – information on the infant delivered by de Leia’s daughter. There was nothing more they could do but return in a few days to ensure that the task had been completed.
All they could do now was wait.
As they mounted their fat horses and headed out of town, Harman the Wise stood in his open doorway, watching them go. He’d heard their conversation because they hadn’t shut the door when they’d quit the cottage.
He’d heard every word.
It was quite possible that Merek de Leia was going to hear every word, too.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Andreas saw her walk into the river.
In utter disbelief, he watched her walk right into that swirling, dark water. He was standing at the end of the avenue on the river’s edge, watching her red dress through the fog. There was some illumination on the river walk because of some public torches lighting up the narrow walk that had several taverns still open for business.
If not for those torches, he wouldn’t have been able to see her at all.
He’d heard her walking and weeping. That was how he’d been able to follow her so easily. Her tears weren’t just of a woman who couldn’t find her way home, or of a woman who had spent the evening in a guild filled with debauchery. She’d wept painfully, tears of something much deeper than what had happened that evening. He’d thought her suspicion of him was driven by something else, something deeper, and now he was suspecting it was perhaps deeper than he’d thought.
This wasn’t a woman who was frightened or angry.
This was a woman who was filled with despondency.
Whatever she was feeling was something beyond the obvious and he was drawn to her. It was true that she was beautiful and it was also true that he was a man of compassion and understanding. He still wasn’t sure what drew him to her because he’d known his share of women. He’d been pursued by some truly beautiful and accomplished ones.