“But to pledge yourself to Kelsey’s daughter?”
Simon took a deep breath and another drink of the cool ale. “I know. ’Tis an untenable thought.”
Christian said. “What precisely did the king say? Perhaps you have not understood him aright and there is another way….”
Simon halted him with a raised hand. “I understood all too well for he put it baldly enough. ’Tis the axe or Kelsey’s get.”
“But why? What purpose does it serve?”
“Because, my friends, he wants me where he can be sure that I am being watched and by one whose loyalty to him is unquestioned.” Simon gave a rueful laugh. “The king informed me that he does not really wish to kill me lest he must. He feels that my death will bring about a certain amount of dissent amongst the nobles and he would avoid that if he is able. It is really a question of what will bring him the least amount of inconvenience.”
The scowl on Jarrod’s face was as black as his hair. “We should have stayed in Jerusalem. Life there was hard but the enemy was better known, more easily identified.”
Simon shook his dark head. “I had to return to Avington when I got word that Arthur was gravely ill.”
Christian spoke up. “Aye, and my own father is getting on as well and has been ill of late. His death would leave no one but my sister, Aislynn, to look after the lands. You are free to do as you will, Jarrod, we are not. Your brother will see to Kewstoke.”
Simon watched for the familiar darkness that hovered in the back of Jarrod’s black gaze whenever he thought of his family, for it was only his place as bastard that precluded his inheriting the lands and titles his younger brother now held. Jarrod turned away as he said, “King John is correct in one thing at least. There would be an outcry against him at your death.”
Into the weighty silence that fell Christian said, “You must agree to this marriage.”
Simon nodded. “As I had realized.”
Jarrod looked at them as if they had surely lost their minds, once again standing up from his place on the bench across from them. “What say you? Have you both gone mad?”
Casting a quick glance about the crowded chamber, Simon motioned for him to sit down. “Pray remember yourself, my friend. The king allowed me to go where I would, but there is no reason to believe he would not have me followed. You must have a care lest we be overheard.”
“But you can not marry Kelsey’s daughter.”
Christian shook his head. “What real choice has he, Jarrod? John is king. Even if Simon were to escape to the continent, he would not be free. He would know that he had forfeited his lands, left them to the mercy of whatever toady the crown finds favor with at the moment. As things stand, that could very well be Kelsey, lest the king be wise enough to see that granting any man more power than the earl already wields would be a mistake. Simon can not abandon Avington no matter that he must marry the daughter of the very devil himself.”
“But to marry himself to that family? What know you of her? I recall her but little, other than that our foster father seemed to dote on her as he did his own Rosalind whenever she was visiting.”
Simon was not unaware of the regret in Jarrod’s voice as he spoke Rosalind’s name, nor that the sad expression in Christian’s gaze matched his own. None of them could forget the sight of her crumpled body beneath that sheet.
He took a deep breath and forced himself back to the matter before him. He vaguely recalled Isabelle Kelsey from visits to Dragonwick with her father. He had seen little of her, though, as he and his friends had preferred to make themselves scarce when their foster father’s brother was about. He had a vague recollection of a solemn child with overlarge eyes and dark hair that had been arranged carefully at all times.
Simon shook his head. “I know nothing of her, but that she is the get of my enemy. Yet what matter if I did? I must fall in with King John’s wishes. I can only assume that he has already informed Kelsey of his intent in this because the girl has been sent for and will, I assume, be awaiting me on the morrow.”
“That was presumptuous.” Jarrod frowned.
Christian added, “The king must have been planning this all along. Listening to the evidence was a mere formality.”
“Aye, the letter condemned me from the beginning. It takes more than a day to travel here from Dragonwick. If the girl is to be here by morning…” Simon took a deep breath. “Christian has indeed come to the crux of it. Even if I could escape the king’s ‘justice’ I could not abandon my responsibilities.”
“But marriage?”
Simon leaned closer to them, pitching his voice so it could not possibly be overheard. “The king has offered only two alternatives of which I have told you, and marriage, though only slightly more so, is the most palatable of the two. Yet haps the marriage might not be such a drastic step. Haps there is a way to leave my options open.”
Christian leaned toward him, his blue eyes intent with new interest. “And what way might that be?”
Simon shrugged. “If the marriage is not consummated, an annulment might be obtained at some point in the future.”
Now Jarrod smiled coldly. “You mean at some point when we lay siege to Dragonwick and win her.”
Christian shook his head fiercely. “Nay, there is no hope of that now. Not with Simon already under punishment from the king. We could never convince him that our cause had been just.”
Simon nodded, his regret tingeing his voice. “Aye, it is too late to hope to win Dragonwick from the knave. What I must think on is getting free of his control.” He turned to Christian. “Your father was friend to mine.”
Christian nodded. “Of a certainty.”
“Then perhaps, for the sake of the lands he held so dear he would do me a service.”
Christian sat up straighter. “What have you in mind?”
“My father was friend to many. If your father was to write those who might be willing to come to my aid and enough of them did so, John might be forced to free me.”
Christian nodded. “Of course. John would be forced to release you if enough pressure was brought to bear. I am certain there will be no difficulty in finding those who are willing. Kelsey has made many enemies.”
Jarrod scowled. “I will not offer to approach my brother. He would not be likely to even grant me entrance to Kewstoke.”
Again Simon heard his pain, and knew he had no answer for it, but his own love. He faced him. “I would ask a different, but equally dear, boon of you, my friend. Could you make your way to Avington and watch over it in my absence?”
Jarrod bowed. “Of a certainty.” He then raised a tight fist. “Kelsey can not be allowed to roam free, to escape retribution for all he has done, including this new evil. He must meet his reward.”
“And he will,” Christian added. “Eventually we will find a way to get to Kelsey in spite of King John’s support.”
Simon
