Part 32 (2/2)
”First you tell me you chose to be the kind of warrior whose thoughtful good sense makes you a welcome mate and I think I can tell you all and you will understand. Then you say something as crack-pated as-”
He gripped her arms. ”Tell me.”
”I can't.”
”Tell me.”
”It's not my secret to tell.”
”But you're the one in danger.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
”Have I ever betrayed your trust?”
”Nay.”
”Then let me start you. Your dearest friend was married to Osbern, duke of Framlingford.”
All expression left her face. She became Alisoun, countess of George's Cross, just as he had first met her. But now he knew how to read her.
Calmly, she replied, ”Everyone knows that.”
”She lost her affection for him.” The tension around her mouth relaxed, and he realized he had guessed wrong. ”Or maybe she loved him, but he beat her half to death.”
Her jaw tightened.
So Osbern did beat his wife. This was no surprise to David. Most men did. ”So she wanted to leave him, and you helped her.”
”Why do you think that?”
”There's a wolf and a wolf cub in her coffin, my lady. Do you think I'm a fool who believes she turned into a wolf when she died? That's what you wanted, wasn't it? That if the coffin were ever opened, superst.i.tion would overwhelm suspicion and the wolf would be reburied as furtively as it was dug up.”
Alisoun fixed her gaze over his shoulder, trying still to defeat him as he guessed at the chain of events which had brought them together.
David wouldn't allow it. Not anymore. Not when he was so close. Taking her chin, he made her look toward him and bent down so he filled her gaze. ”You staged Lady Framlingford's death, then whisked her away...somewhere.”
Alisoun's breath escaped her harshly now, and she trembled under his hands.
”Tell me where. Has she gone to a lover? Is she in one of your other castles? Have you sent her to France?”
Alisoun tried to shake her head.
”Ignorance is dangerous, Alisoun, at least in this case. Framlingford is dangerous. At least tell me where she is so I can-”
”Send her back?”
”You do think ill of me, don't you?” He didn't give her a chance to reply. ”I have my friends, and believe me, Framlingford knows them not. If I could send her to them, he'd never find her and you would be innocent of any knowledge of her whereabouts.”
”How would that stop him from stalking me?” She blasted him with the pyre of her frustration. ”He won't be happy until he makes me hurt as he hurt...my friend.”
”I won't let him hurt you.”
”How will you stop him? You say you don't relish killing anymore. Well, Osbern does. He especially likes to do it slowly.” Pale with disgust, Alisoun asked, ”Do you know that he killed one of the pages in his care?”
”I had heard that.” David didn't allow his compa.s.sion for one dead boy to divert him from his purpose. He needed to protect Alisoun and all connected with her, and so he said, ”The lad had no connections...o...b..rn manages his cruelty as a cold-blooded sport.”
”A sport.” She nodded. ”Aye.”
”You are well connected. We can go to the king and-”
”Philippa is an heiress. The king married her to Osbern. If the king knew that I had helped her escape her husband, he would-”
”Philippa?”
Alisoun's hand flew to cover her mouth.
”Did you say Philippa?” Rage blew like a cold wind through his body, chilling his blood and bringing his terror to a new level. ”By G.o.ddes corpus, she's here in this castle now?”
Grasping his arm, she said, ”I had to keep her with me. The babe was just born, and I dared not send her on a long trip.”
Still he could scarcely comprehend the expanse of Alisoun's betrayal. ”She's here? You never sent her anywhere away from you?”
”No one suspected she was anything but an impoverished cousin with an illegitimate child.”
”In my own castle. I'm harboring Osbern's wife in my own castle.” He closed his eyes against the immensity of the disaster.
”Osbern watched George's Cross. I feared to send her anywhere because I feared he would take her.”
”Obviously he suspected, for he dug up that grave.”
”He knew how I despised him. Once he broke both her legs.” She shook him hard. ”That's when he got her with child.”
Pain twisted in David's gut. Aye, he knew Osbern. He despised Osbern. But David had a daughter, and a wife who carried their child. Osbern knew that somewhere his wife lived, and Osbern would never give up until he had her in his hands again. A measure of calm had returned to Alisoun. She knew what should be done but she seemed unable to comprehend the danger. ”I promised I would keep Philippa and the baby safe, and with your help I can do it.”
”You've given me no choice.”
She enveloped him in an embrace. ”You'll see the right of it soon enough. I know you will.”
But she was wrong. He would never see the right of it. Not when they stepped out of the herb garden and heard the hail from the visitors beyond the drawbridge.
”Osbern, duke of Framlingford to visit his dear friend Sir David of Radcliffe.”
21.
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