“The snow was light enough when I left Falstone,” she said. “Now that you know where the child is, you may as well wait until morning. I am sure the child will still be there tomorrow.”
She had a point. No one was doing any traveling on this night, except for Giddy, and she had a reason. It probably hadn’t been wise of her but, to John, it was indicative of the fact that she finally had the information he wanted and she was anxious for her payoff.
But he wasn’t finished with her yet.
“You did well, Giddy,” he said. “I am pleased.”
Giddy flushed. “It was an honor, my lord.”
“What do you know of children?”
She shrugged. “I’ve had two myself,” she said. “They live with my mother in Carlisle.”
“Then you know how to tend them.”
“My mother knows better.”
John looked at his son. “Then we retrieve the child and send it with Giddy to Carlisle,” he said. “That would be the perfect solution so that we are not responsible for the child, but it is still within our control. She can bring it back to us when… when the time comes.”
Nicholas shrugged. “We do not need the child until the summer solstice,” he said. “Pay her well and send the child with her.”
Giddy was listening to the conversation, a volley going back and forth between father and son. “I do not wish to tend this child,” she told John. “I do not even tend my own.”
John shook his head. “You can take it to your mother’s house,” he said. “We will send coin along so your mother will be compensated. Surely she would take care of the child until we retrieve it in the summer.”
Giddy’s eyebrows lifted. “My mother would tend the devil himself for the right price,” she said. “I’ll take the child there. But I want what you promised me for spending those months in de Leia’s bed.”
John nodded. “Do not fret,” he said. “You shall have your due, I swear it. Nicholas, send word to the servants. They are to have our mounts prepared at dawn.”
Nicholas left the chamber without another word, leaving Giddy with John. She was watching the old man run his hands over his face wearily. Something he said had her curious.
“Why do you want the infant returned by the summer solstice, my lord?” she asked.
John’s hands came away from his face and he looked at her. “Do you want to be paid?”
“Of course, my lord.”
“The do not ask questions. If I wanted you to know, I would have told you.”
That shut her up swiftly. She liked living at Hell’s Guardhouse and doing what she did best, and she was quite happy to be away from Falstone and that lord who smelled of compost, so she didn’t want to stir up any trouble.
She backed away, towards the door.
“Is there anything else you require from me, my lord?”
John lay back down, pulling the covers up over him. “Not tonight,” he said. “But be prepared to ride with us on the morrow.”
“Me?” She stopped at the door. “Why should I ride with you to Edenside?”
John turned his head in her direction, glaring. “You do not think Nicholas or I will tend an infant, do you? You are coming along to do just that.”
She almost reminded him that she didn’t even tend her own children, again, but thought better of it. She didn’t think he would take it well.
She had seen what the man was capable of when he didn’t take things well.
At dawn the next morning, Giddy was ready for travel.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Falstone Castle
“My lord, we must have a word with you.”
Lukas and Andreas were standing in the open door of Merek’s bedchamber as the man stood over a basin against the wall, dry heaving because he was so hungover. It was dawn on a surprisingly clear winter’s morning, the storm from the previous evening having cleared out sometime during the night. After a couple of particularly nasty heaves, Merek turned his head to look at the pair.
“God, what?” he grumbled. “Now? Can it not wait?”
“Nay, my lord, it cannot,” Lukas said. “We have something of a mystery on our hands that is… concerning.”
Merek gave one final heave before wiping his mouth and turning for his clothes, thrown in a heap on a chair.
“What is concerning, Lukas?” he asked. “And why is de Wolfe here?”
“Because he was the one who brought it to my attention, my lord,” he said. He passed a glance at Andreas before continuing. “What do you remember of last night, my lord?”
Merek paused, tunic in hand. “Last night?” he repeated. “When?”
“In the feasting hall?”
Merek paused. “I was in the feasting hall?”
That answered Lukas’ question. It was as he’d told Andreas – the man hardly remembered anything after a drinking binge.
The knights entered the chamber and shut the door.
“My lord, your companion, Giddy, left late last night,” Lukas said quietly. “Andreas saw her ride from the stables. She has not returned.”
That brought some awareness from Merek. He looked around the chamber as if he hadn’t noticed she’d been gone. Puzzled, he looked at the knights.
“She left?” he asked.
“She did,” Lukas said. “Did you send her away?”
Merek frowned. “Of course not,” he said. “Why would I do that?”
“I do not know,” Lukas said. “When evaluating a situation, one must eliminate the possibilities one at a time. So, you did not order her away?”
“I did not.”
“Then she left of her own accord,” Lukas said, looking around the chamber. “Is anything missing? Did she steal something and run off?”
Merek didn’t say anything for a moment. He pulled the tunic over his head, clumsily, moving slowly and aimlessly around the chamber. He went to a table that contained a clutter of things, pulling forth a metal box and peering inside. Then, he closed the lid and wandered back over to the bed, sitting heavily.
All the while, Lukas and Andreas were watching him, waiting for an answer, but Merek didn’t seem too eager to provide them with one. In fact, after his initial flash of emotion at the disappearance of the woman who had been his constant companion for months, he didn’t seem to be showing any reaction at all. He was simply sitting on his bed, staring off into the dim chamber.
Lukas and Andreas exchanged curious glances.
“My lord?” Lukas finally said.
Merek turned in his direction but he didn’t look at him. “She did not steal anything,” he said. “And she did not run off. She simply returned to where she came from.”
Lukas and Andreas looked at each other again, this time in puzzlement. “Did you know she was leaving?” Lukas asked.
Merek shook his head. “Nay,” he said. “But I knew she would at some point. She was not meant to stay.”
Lukas was becoming frustrated with the man’s answers. He moved around the bed so that he was standing in front of him.
“My lord, please tell us what you know,” he said. “There was a time when you used to confide everything in me, but that all stopped when that woman came around. You stopped speaking to me as if I had done something to displease you. I am yours to command, my lord, and we have had an excellent relationship for ten years. I am only trying to help you and you know that, so if there is something you know that you are not telling me, I wish you would simply come out with it.”