“I’ve never been down there,” Juliandra said. “Where are the stairs?”
The cook gestured with her hands. “When you pass through the entry, there is a door to your right,” she said. “That will take you below the keep. You may as well bring up some turnips, too. Take a few servants to help you.”
Juliandra looked around at the kitchen servants, who were already busy doing something. She waved the old cook off, heading out into the kitchen yard where William was just about done. She was going to punish him yet again by making him haul bags of onions for her now.
“William,” she called. “Come with me.”
William tossed aside the rake, glad to be doing something other than menial tasks. “Where are we going, my lady?”
“Into the vault below the keep.”
She was moving at a brisk pace, but William’s long strides kept up with her. They crossed the inner bailey, which was now devoid of Kevin and the other knights because they had moved into the outer bailey. Juliandra missed the sight of her husband and had to smile at herself for it. She found it both silly and wonderful that she missed the man when he was even briefly out of her sight. But those thoughts were pushed aside to focus on the task at hand as the keep loomed ahead.
It was cool and dark inside. Juliandra had William collect two small torches that the servants always kept lit for light, wedged into iron sconces just inside the door. She took one and William took the other as she opened the heavy oak door that the cook had indicated. Pulling it open, she held out the torch to show the surprisingly wide flight of steps that led down into a black abyss below.
“Shall I go first, my lady?” William asked.
Juliandra brushed him off. “Of course not,” she said. “Follow me.”
She took the stairs slowly because they were stone and slippery in places. The torches cast eerie shadows on the walls as they made their way to the bottom. The smell of earth and mildew was heavy in the air, creating an unsettling ambiance. Once they hit the bottom, they could see that the vault was surprisingly large and, already, they could see sacks of food lined against the wall as well as barrels of grain.
There were other things down here, too. As William collected two sacks of onions and started back up the stairs, Juliandra poked around. It was a vast storage area containing a wide variety of things – broken furniture, chairs, implements for a garden among them.
Juliandra walked around, peering at stuff, getting a feel for what was down here. Being that she was chatelaine, she should know everything about the place she was in charge of. She wanted to know what, exactly, was stored down here.
There were two small chambers off the larger one and she could see more things stored in those chambers. It was quite cold in the vault and she wasn’t wearing a particularly warm dress, so she hastened to take a quick look so she could leave. Lifting her torch, she went into the first small chamber.
It was cluttered with things, but stretched out on the floor in the corner was something covered with a blanket. At least, it looked like a blanket until she took a closer look and noticed something familiar about it.
It was a cloak.
Puzzled, she bent over it, realizing that it wasn’t an ordinary cloak. She recognized a cloak that had belonged to her father. She knew that because a corner of it was flipped up and she could see the red woolen lining.
Lining he’d had specially made for it.
Puzzlement turned to something else. She wasn’t sure what else, but it was dark and bottomless, like a quagmire without end. Her heart began to pound against her ribs as fear took hold. She wanted to know why her father’s cloak was here and she yanked on it to get a better look. But it wouldn’t come off. It did, however, fall away, revealing the ashen, and very dead remains, of Gethin ap Garreg.
It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at.
William heard Juliandra’s scream all the way up in the bailey.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“My lord, you must go after her!”
Kevin was at the gatehouse with Sean just as Alexander and Peter were mounting their steeds as William came running towards them, wide-eyed. Before Kevin could say a word, William shouted again.
“My lord, your wife!” he said. “She is running away, through the postern gate!”
Because William was clearly rattled, Kevin’s own panic began to rise. “What?” he gasped. “Running away? What are you –?”
“Hurry!” William pointed to the gatehouse. “If you hurry, you can intercept her as she comes down the pathway from the postern gate.”
“Postern gate?” he repeated. “What in the hell are you talking about, de Wolfe?”
William was pointing, back to the kitchen yard. “I am telling you that your wife is running away,” he said. “I do not know why – she left the keep screaming and ran towards the postern gate. I could not stop her. You must catch her!”
Kevin had no idea what was going on, but he knew that William’s sense of urgency was feeding his. Juliandra was running off, screaming, and Kevin was at a loss to understand any of it. Alexander and Peter were already mounted, but Peter leapt from his horse and shoved the reins at Kevin.
“Go,” he said. “Take my horse!”
Kevin vaulted onto the steed, barely noticing that Alexander was turning his horse over to Sean, who would surely want to go with his brother. As the horses thundered out, they headed across the drawbridge, down the road and to the edge of the village. The path for the postern gate, seldom used, came around the north side of the castle and ended up at the end of the village, so they spurred the horses in that direction just in time to see Juliandra running onto the road.
“Juliandra!” Kevin called after her. “Wait!”
She either didn’t hear him or was ignoring him. In either case, she bolted across a grassy knoll with Kevin in pursuit and Sean right behind him. They chased her into a field, finally cutting her off so she couldn’t run any further. She was running in a panic, blindly, and Kevin was desperate to know what was wrong.
When she was sufficiently stopped, Kevin leapt from his horse.
“Juliandra!” he said, greatly concerned. “Sweetheart, what is the matter? Why are you running?”
Juliandra was weeping and gasping, and at the sound of Kevin’s question, she groaned so loudly that it became a scream.
“He’s dead!” she cried. “He’s dead! My father is dead!”
Kevin froze. That wasn’t what he had expected to hear and, suddenly, his worst nightmare came to life. In that one, brief moment, everything he knew, everything he feared, was in front of his face and he had no idea how to react. His mind went blank, every rational thought he’d ever had slipping away into oblivion.
He struggled to stay on an even keel.
“But… how…” he stammered. “How would you know this?”
“Because I found him!” she screamed. “I found him in your vault. Did you know, Kevin? Did you know he was there?”
She was gasping, panting, pacing in a circle, wanting to run but wanting answers at the same time. Watching her turmoil, Kevin knew one thing – he couldn’t lie to her. It was his lies that had caused this in the first place and he wasn’t going to make it worse. She knew her father was dead, so he did the only thing he could do at that moment.