“Henry!” the woman behind Elizabeth commanded. “Fetch my stepfather and Sir Guy. Send them to me and prepare seven horses for a journey. Send a rider ahead immediately and have a ship prepared for travel to France. I want no delay. Is that understood?”
Elizabeth had stopped, gaping at the woman she’d first thought was a servant.
“May I present Lady Judith?” Bronwyn said with some amusement.
Judith brushed her hand at a stray strand of hair and a flurry of golden sesame seeds fell away. “Do you know where Miles is held?”
“Yes, I’ve just come from there.”
“And ridden hard by the look of you,” Bronwyn said.
“Hello, Alyx,” Elizabeth said, extending her hand to the quiet woman who had moved to stand beside Bronwyn.
Alyx nodded in greeting and smiled shyly. She’d never felt so insignificant before as she did now, surrounded by her magnificent sisters-in-law.
At that moment Sir Guy came running. The giant looked as if he’d lost weight. Behind him came Tam, his sturdy form fairly making the ground shake.
“You have word of my Lord Miles?” Sir Guy called, his eyes roaming over Elizabeth. “We were told you were dead.”
“And who told you this?” Elizabeth asked, voice rising. “Did no one search for us?”
“Come inside,” Judith said, her hand on Elizabeth’s arm. “Tell us what has happened.”
Minutes later Elizabeth sat at a big table, eating energetically of the vast quantity of food set before her, while telling her story. Around her were her three sisters-in-law, a man she didn’t know—John Bassett, Judith’s mother’s husband—Sir Guy and Tam.
With her mouth full, she told hu
rriedly of how the three of them were tossed into the hold of a ship, how they’d escaped and traveled south until Roger decided to risk their lives for a bit of a girl who was someone else’s wife.
Bronwyn interrupted with a barrage of hatred directed toward Roger Chatworth but Tam ordered her to be quiet. Surprisingly, Bronwyn obeyed the older man.
Elizabeth briefly told of their rescue of the young Christiana.
Judith asked many questions, both about Elizabeth’s participation in the rescue and about Christiana. “I know of her,” Judith said. “And I know of her husband and his family. The younger brother, not the duke, hates Miles.”
“Why?” Elizabeth blurted.
“There was a young woman who—”
Elizabeth put up her hand. “Tell me no more. I think it’s the younger man who holds Miles and Roger. The duke died in Roger’s hands.”
“He enjoys killing!” Bronwyn said.
Elizabeth didn’t waste time defending her brother but continued with her story, telling of the old duke’s sudden death. She stopped eating when she told of their capture by the dead duke’s brother. Miles had been wounded when he pulled a knight from his horse, tossed Elizabeth into the saddle and slapped the horse’s rump. She’d gone tearing down the weed-infested, rutted road, working hard at trying to get the dangling reins. When she did have control of the horse, she glanced backward to see half-a-dozen men chasing her. She whipped her horse forward and spent the next hours trying to escape them.
Elizabeth skipped over the next ten days of her story hurriedly. She used the pearls of Christiana’s necklace to purchase her way back to England. Praying she wasn’t hastening her own death, she hired three men off the road, men who’d once been soldiers, but their master had died and the successor wanted younger men.
The four of them traveled night and day, changing horses often, sleeping for only a couple of hours at a time.
When they reached the coast, Elizabeth had paid ten pearls for a ship and crew to take them back to England and she’d slept for the whole three days of sailing. They arrived in the south of England, purchased horses and a few supplies and took off again, never pausing until they reached the Montgomery estates.
“So,” Elizabeth concluded, “I have come to get Miles’s brothers. We must set out at once for France.”
A knight entered, whispered something to Judith and left. “Lady Elizabeth,” Judith said, “there are things you don’t know. Soon after you, Miles and your brother were cast into the ship, Alice Chatworth”—Judith nearly choked on the name—“couldn’t resist bragging about what she’d done. She sent a messenger and a letter telling us everything.”
Alyx spoke for the first time, her voice soft but easily heard. “Raine, Stephen and Gavin left for France immediately while we”—she nodded toward Judith and Bronwyn—“came here to wait for news.”
“Then the men are already in France?” Elizabeth asked, rising. “I must leave now. If I may have some men I’ll find Miles’s brothers and lead them to the place where Miles is held.”