Gavriella still had a grip on him, holding tightly to his warm, powerful form. “He usually does not,” she said. “In fact, he usually…”
She suddenly trailed off and he looked at her, noting that she was looking at something over in the stable yard. Andreas turned to see what had her attention. He could see a small figure moving through the snow towards the stables before disappearing inside.
“What is it?” he asked her. “Who was that?”
Gavriella cocked her head curiously. “I’ve seen that cloak,” she said. “I think that is Giddy.”
“Who is that?”
“The woman who will not leave my father’s side.”
The light of recognition went on in Andreas’ mind. “The woman with the red hair.”
“Aye,” Gavriella said. “It is strange that she would be out here on this night.”
Andreas cocked a disapproving eyebrow. “It seems to me that everything about her is strange,” he said. “After you fled the hall, she disappeared. Your father was on the ground and she was nowhere to be found.”
Gavriella looked at him. “Why was he on the ground?”
Andreas looked at her, trying not to appear contrite. “Because I struck him,” he said. “He was speaking of… madness and would not shut his mouth. I struck him to shut him up.”
She regarded him for a moment. “He was speaking about me, wasn’t he?”
“Aye.”
He averted his gaze and Gavriella smiled faintly. “You have made yourself my champion, have you?” she said. “Even against my father?”
“Especially against your father.”
She started to chuckle, touched by his actions and words, but was cut short when a horse and rider suddenly thundered from the stable, heading for the gatehouse. It was dark, and a light snow was falling, but still, the rider was heading out of Falstone on a night when travel would have been inadvisable.
Andreas released Gavriella and tried to peer through the dimly lit bailey as the rider reached the gatehouse.
“That’s Giddy?” he asked.
Gavriella could see the distant figure as the gate sentries opened up a small section of gate, a man gate, to allow the figure to pass through.
“Aye,” she said. “But where in the world is she going? She has not left Falstone since I returned home those months ago and now, abruptly, she must leave? Most peculiar.”
Andreas didn’t have an answer for her but he knew, instinctively, that it couldn’t be good. As he watched, the horse and rider slipped through the gate and disappeared out into the night.
He grasped Gavriella by the hand.
“Come on,” he said.
She held on to him with one hand, lifting her skirts away from the snow with the other. “Why?” she asked. “Where are we going?”
Andreas didn’t look at her. He had much on his mind. “To find answers.”
Gavriella didn’t say anything. She simply went along with him. Whatever he needed to accomplish was fine with her.
Her champion.
Something was rotten at Falstone and Andreas was going to find out what it was.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Hell’s Guardhouse
“Edenside,” Giddy said breathlessly. “The child is at Edenside!”
She had just burst into John’s bedchamber and the man had been dead asleep, but Giddy’s shrill voice had him sitting up in his bed before he even realized he’d moved. In fact, he nearly pitched himself over the side of his bed as Giddy ran to him, grasping at him.
“Did you hear me?” she said urgently. “The child is at Edenside!”
John was struggling out of a deep sleep. He rubbed his eyes furiously. “Edenside?” he repeated. “The child of de Leia’s daughter?”
“Of course,” Giddy said as if he’d just said something foolish. “Who else? God’s Beard… six long months with that… that animal and he finally revealed the whereabouts tonight. I had to come and tell you as soon as I heard!”
John was more lucid now as he processed what she was telling him, but her shouting had brought Nicholas. He was suddenly in the doorway of his father’s chamber, dressed in smelly, crumpled clothing and rubbing his eyes.
“What has happened?” he yawned, then realized he was looking at Giddy. “You? What are you doing here?”
Giddy sauntered up to him. “I found your bastard, my handsome lad,” she said seductively. “All of those months plying the man with wine mixed with that weed called vervain finally came to fruition. The old fool finally revealed that he’d sent the infant to Edenside.”
Nicholas peered at her in disbelief. “The truth serum actually worked?”
Giddy nodded. “It must have,” she said. “Whatever the apothecary in Gretna Green sold you as effective in prying the truth out of a man finally worked, but it took six long months for it to have an effect. The child is at a place called Edenside. Have you heard of it?”
Nicholas hadn’t. He looked at his father, who was sitting on the bed, scratching his head. “Edenside,” John muttered thoughtfully. He looked at Giddy. “And he said no more?”
Giddy shook her head. “Why should he say more?” she said. “He has revealed where the child is. Now you must go and get it!”
Nicholas frowned as he stumbled to his father’s bed, eyeing the man. “What is Edenside?”
John was thinking seriously on that very thing. “The name sounds familiar,” he said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “I seem to remember attending a gathering at Roxburgh Castle a few years ago and they were speaking of… something. A great scandal had happened involving Kelso Abbey. Something about their foundling home selling children. I swear to you that they mentioned Edenside.”
Nicholas’ eyebrows lifted. “Edenside is a foundling home that sells children?” he said, aghast. “If de Leia sent the child there, then mayhap they’ve sold my child.”
John held up a hand to his angry son. “They did it illegally and were punished, as I recall,” he said. “This was a few years ago, as I said. Damnation… I wish I had paid more attention to that conversation. But I am fairly certain that Edenside is part of Kelso Abbey.”
Nicholas was electrified by the news. “Then we have a location,” he hissed, smacking his hand on the post of his father’s bed in triumph. “God’s Bones, we have a location! We must leave immediately!”
“The snow is falling,” Giddy said. “It may be difficult to start such a journey tonight.”
“But you made it here from Falstone,” John said. “How did you find your way?”
She shrugged. “I was born here,” she said. “I know the land and the roads. The road that passes Falstone Castle intersects with a road that leads to Hell’s Guardhouse. I simply had to make sure to stay on the road. The clouds must not be thick because there was a glow to them, as if the moon was right behind them. You know what I mean, when they seem silver and the land is the color of steel. It is still dark, but one can see.”
“Even through the snow?”