Page 39 of Beguiled
Even with her reluctant vow, I feared I wouldn’t be able to keep her safe, no matter how hard I tried.
Chapter
14
Pearl
I waited onthe rooftop, where Mikkel had instructed me to stay. The setting sun on the horizon cast a blood-red glow over the town center, as if it had pronounced judgment and death upon the waiting women.
I shifted to get more comfortable, but the ache inmychest remained. It hadn’t gone away since the moment I’d seen Ruby’s name on the sheet of parchment hours ago. Every time I thought about what the queen was doing to my sister, the bitterness swelled until it nearly choked me.
My consolation was that my mother wouldn’t try to murder Ruby, not as long as she needed my sister to draw me back to Warwick. At least I prayed so.
At the sight of a hooded man slipping through the gathering crowd, I rose to my knees, straightened my bow, and took out an arrow. On the rooftop adjacent to mine, Humphrey readied his bow and arrow too, his hood pulled up to cover his large head and ears.
The Inquisitor’s soldiers had been laboring for the past couple of hours at erecting stakes and piling wood around them. The women were still in the stocks where they’d languished all day in the unrelenting sun without food or water. The longer they suffered, the more anxious I was to relieve them.
But like everyone else, I respected Mikkel’s plan and was following every detail. Once again, he’d shown himself to be a cunning and strategic leader. He’d solicited advice from the others and combined those suggestions into an ultimate rescue effort. Now, after the agonizing wait, we would soon set the plan into motion.
Since the Inquisitor still had lookouts posted along the harbor, we guessed he didn’t yet realize we’d crossed over from the island. I prayed that meant our landing and positions hadn’t yet been discovered.
Once we freed the women, we had a narrow window of time for making the escape, and we needed everything to go right. The trouble was that the slightest wrong move could jeopardize the undertaking, putting Mikkel in grave peril. And the thought of something happening to him added to the ache in my chest.
All day, as I’d stayed hidden on the roof, my mind had wandered to Mikkel. Even if he was still somewhat leery about what lay beneath my veil, he’d chosen—no, insisted—on going with me to rescue Ruby.
“I’m your husband now, and we shall face the queen together.”
His passionate words reverberated through me again, as did the remembrance of the way he’d held my hand on the walk to the ash pit. Of course he’d been right to stop me from acting rashly after learning of Ruby. And his comforting hold and his wise words had calmed me.
Through it all, I couldn’t help liking him more and not less.
I watched him weave through the crowd, my chest squeezing with anxiety again. He’d insisted on being the one to make the public appearance, since no one would recognize him as an outcast. Hopefully, by the time the guards realized he was on our side, it would be too late. Irontooth stood on the outskirts along with Toad. With gloves covering his webbed fingers, Toad would blend in as well.
As Mikkel edged closer to the women, the Inquisitor stepped out of a nearby tavern. We’d guessed he would start the fires as soon as the sun set. He was giving us as much time as possible to make the crossing before nightfall. With the fear of being on the sea and encountering Loch Ness, he probably surmised that if we hadn’t arrived by sunset, we weren’t coming.
Little did he know that, since we’d crossed safely last night, we’d decided to chance the return trip in the dark as well. Our hope was that the Inquisitor and his men wouldn’t try to follow us, would leave us to the fate of Loch Ness.
Attired in the long brown robes that priests wore, the Inquisitor was taller and thinner than most people, and his hair was shorn almost to his scalp, giving him a skeletal appearance.
From a distance, I’d once mistaken him for an outcast. He had an odd appearance, and most certainly could have fit into one of the island’s groups. Because of that, his zeal for persecuting the misfits made little sense. I’d concluded that perhaps tyrannizing others made him feel better about himself.
He’d been hunting down and terrorizing the outcasts since before I’d arrived in the area. The last time two of our men had been captured, he hadn’t waited to kill them. He’d taken them directly to the town square and riddled them with arrows.
Apparently today he was hoping to capture more outcasts. Maybe he was tired of the chase. Or maybe his superiors were pressuring him to increase his efforts. Regardless, we desperately needed to succeed this time and send him a message that he couldn’t so easily intimidate us.
As the Inquisitor strode toward the town green, the villagers quieted and parted, making a path for him. Two armored guards followed on his heels, bringing the total soldiers up to ten—at least that I’d counted.
The odds weren’t in our favor. But if we stayed focused and each did our part, Mikkel had assured us we would be fine.
I shifted my attention to his broad shoulders outlined beneath the cloak as he neared the stocks. He hadn’t wanted me to participate in the rescue efforts, only reluctantly agreed to give me the rooftop spot. I’d been frustrated at his stubbornness. But now in watching him inch closer to danger, my stomach clenched. What if he’d simply been worried about what might happen to me the same way I was now with him?
When the Inquisitor reached the center, he proceeded toward the grouping of stakes and wood, walking around each one, picking up a piece of wood and pushing against the stakes. Then he took a spot nearby where he could see everything. He gave a nod to the soldiers guarding the women. They unlocked and lifted the top boards of the stocks so the prisoners could free their legs from confinement.
The women hurried to obey the command to stand. But because they’d been sitting for so long, they struggled to push themselves up, gaining kicks and rough prodding from the soldiers. The oldest of the three, Joan, fell to her knees every time she tried to rise, until Felicity stooped and slipped an arm around the woman’s waist.
Now that the women were temporarily unbound, we needed to act. My attention shifted to Mikkel, and my muscles tensed. He’d already jumped up onto an overturned crate and tossed back his hood, revealing his handsome and yet commanding features. He stuck his fingers into his mouth and produced a piercing whistle that silenced the crowd and drew the gazes of everyone present.
Immediately, from opposite sides, Irontooth and Toad began to weave through the gathering toward the women.
