Page 67 of Forgotten Secrets (Secrets of the Heart 4)

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Whitmore ground out. “You’ll pay for this, you fool.”

“Nay, I won’t.” Bedivere directed the man to a corner where they could speak in private. “Neither will I finish my last job.”

“You have to. If you don’t, you’ll never see your mother again.”

Bedivere was caught in the middle of a hard situation and needed to remedy the matter once and for all.

“I am willing to make some kind of deal for the release of my mother and to be set free of anything to do with you ever again,” he told the man.

Whitmore thought for a second and then nodded. “All right. We’ll make a deal.”

“Sir Bedivere,” someone called out. “I’d like to have a word with ye please.”

Bedivere looked up to see Reed waving him down from across the hall. It was the last thing he needed right now.

“Meet with me in the orchard tonight and we’ll discuss this,” said Bedivere, hoping to set up a meeting where Whitmore would confess everything and the bastard triplets were present as witnesses to hear it. If so, he should be able to lock the man away forever and save his mother as well as the bastards.

“Nay, not there. We’ll meet somewhere more private. In the woods,” said Whitmore. “Meet me at the edge of the earl’s lands in an hour.”

“Done,” said Bedivere. “But don’t try to pull anything over on me, or I swear I’ll kill you.”

“The same goes for me. You had better come alone if you know what’s good for you. If not, you’ll be sorry.”

“Bedivere,” ground out Reed, walking up to join them. “I’ll have a word with ye regardin’ my daughter, Morag.”

“Pardon me, but I’ll be on my way,” said Whitmore.

“Wait!” said Reed, looking at him from the corner of his eye. “Who are ye?”

“This is Lord John Whitmore,” said Bedivere, introducing him.

“Whitmore? The advisor to King Richard?” asked Reed.

“I am,” said Whitmore with a nod.

“Ye are the man who is convincin’ Richard to give ye all the lands and riches of knights and barons that are killed,” he spat. “I’ve heard of ye. My brathairs told me all about ye.”

“I d-don’t know what you’re talking about,” stuttered the man.

“Well, dinna think ye’ll get Earl Rothbury’s fief as well. I’ll see to it that Lady Ernestine doesna give it to the likes of ye.”

“I think you’ve got the wrong impression of me,” said Whitmore. “I am only here visiting and not competing for the earl’s holdings. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.”

“I dinna like him,” snarled Reed as Whitmore walked away. “My brathairs have told me all about him and we are goin’ to do somethin’ about it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Bedivere.

“He’s a crook and needs to be stopped. Even though Richard has never been fond of my brathairs and me because we are his grandfaither’s bastard sons, we dinna want to see him fail. We are goin’ to talk to him soon and expose Whitmore for who he really is.”

That was it, thought Bedivere. Whitmore knew the bastard triplets planned on exposing him to the king and that was why Whitmore wanted Bedivere to kill them. It all made sense now. Bedivere’s father probably knew about Whitmore’s doings as well and might have been going to expose him to Richard and that’s why he was killed.

“I don’t like the man either,” said Bedivere, “so I’m glad to hear you feel the same way.”

“I might no’ like Whitmore but I dinna care for ye, either,” said Reed. “And once again, Bedivere, ye willna marry my daughter.”

“I need to speak with you, as well as Rowen and Rook in private,” Bedivere told him.

“About what?”

“It’s a matter that I think you will be very interested in. I’d like to take you for a ride into the woods in an hour because there is something I need you to hear.”

---