Page 270 of Historical Hotties
Domnall shook his head. “I do not know yet,” he said. “Mayhap we pay a call on the new couple to apologize for the scene in the church and congratulate them on their marriage. Mayhap we offer a truce and pretend to be one happily family. Mayhap that will be his downfall—we will pretend to be loving relatives and his guard will be done. If de Reyne does not suspect we are coming for him, how can he prepare for us?”
“True.”
“Then we must return home immediately,” Rotri said, a sense of urgency in his tone. He picked up the old pewter bell he used to summon his servants and rang it loudly. “We must packthe household and go as soon as possible. Peregrine said they had departed six days ago, so they are well ahead of us by now. We must hurry.”
Domnall didn’t need to be told twice. As he headed down to the stables to make sure the escort was prepared, Rotri whipped his servants into a frenzy to pack the house so they could return to Dordon Castle.
Now with a new scheme to carry out.
Thor de Reyne’s days as a free man were numbered.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Stafford Castle
They were waitingfor them.
The morning they had left Birmingham, Thor had drafted a missive to be sent to Stafford Castle announcing his approach. He was clear in the missive about who he was and what he was, and he was clear that he was returning with his new wife, the former Lady de Tosni. He sent the missive ahead with a swift messenger from among his escort, a very young man, skinny and spry, riding a skittish horse that probably ran faster than a bolt of lightning. Therefore, by the time they reached Stafford Castle toward sunset, the entire house and hold was waiting for them in the bailey.
Thor had never been to Stafford Castle before, so it was a new experience for him. Not only was this an unfamiliar castle, but it was now his holding. There was something infinitely satisfying about riding through the gatehouse of his very own castle. He glanced at his fellow knights, men who had been with him for years, and he could see the approval in their eyes.
He felt puffed up like a peacock.
But that was tempered by his concern for Caledonia’s reaction to returning to a castle that she had presided over intheory, yet a place that held no fond memories for her. She had mentioned that all of her children had been born at Stafford Castle because Robert had insisted on it, so in that respect there was some sentimentality attached, but that was all. Nothing more. Thor made sure to ride next to her carriage as they came in through the gatehouse because he wanted her to know that he was with her. He would always be with her. He wanted her to know that he was thinking about her even as he entered his new property.
This was an important moment for her, too.
Stafford Castle was a large but unspectacular fortress. The stone castle sat on a tall motte in the center of a vast village-and-castle complex and was built in the shape of a cloverleaf. It had four big towers on all four corners with a small bailey in the middle of it. But even if the fortress on the hill wasn’t too terribly impressive, the complex of Stafford Castle as a whole was.
The entire campus, with the motte in the middle of it, was surrounded by a moat encircling another bailey that included stables and outbuildings. There was a wall that surrounded the moat and butted up against that wall, and a village spread out toward the south. Interestingly enough, the village seemed to be one big fortified facility of cottages, businesses, and outbuildings that were directly related to the castle. However, the wall built around the castle proper was stone while the one built around the village was made of wood. Giant logs that had been harvested from local forests were rammed into the ground, with the tops of them carved into a sharp point. Anyone trying to mount the wall could very easily impale themselves on the point, which was good for defense. In all, Stafford was built for protection and had been well designed.
Thor found it all quite fascinating.
As his party entered the upper bailey at the top of the motte, he could quickly see that it was too small to hold the hundredsof men he had brought with him from London, so he had Truett take the bulk of the escort back to the lower bailey, where there was more room for them to assemble. Thor remained with about twenty men from his escort, his remaining knights, and the carriage. As the bulk of the army cleared out, he happened to notice the messenger he had sent with the announcement of his approach. The young man was hovering near the gatehouse at first, but quickly rushed to blend in with the royal army when it entered the compound. He didn’t think much of it until the soldier approached him and tried to get his attention.
“My lord?” the young soldier called. “Lord Tamworth?”
Thor heard him. He’d just dismounted his horse, perhaps a little wearily, and he removed his helm before answering.
“What is it?” he said.
The young soldier seemed nervous. His eyes kept shifting around, looking at the gathering Stafford soldiers, but also at three knights who had just emerged from the keep. They’d been on the roof of the structure, watching Thor and his party enter, but now they were in the bailey.
The messenger was mostly focused on the knights.
“They are not happy you are here, my lord,” the young soldier whispered. “They have opened Stafford to you, but the knight in command—he calls himself Cristano de Lucera—has said that he requires proof you are the Earl of Tamworth and Stafford. He says that marrying de Tosni’s widow is not enough for him and, if you do not prove it to him, he will order you out.”
Thor’s expression cooled. “Did you hear him say that?”
The young soldier shook his head. “Nay, my lord,” he said. “But I have been confined to the gatehouse and heard those men speaking of it. The other two knights who serve de Lucera have the same family name, but they are known as Adan and Benedicto. Be careful of them, my lord—the rumor is that even if you can prove that you are the new earl, they will try to kill you.”
“Have you been threatened at all?”
“Nay, my lord, but they forced me to stay at the gatehouse. I could not wander.”
“Do we know anything more about these knights?”
“Only that they rule Stafford as if it is their own private domain. Everyone says so.”
