Page 79 of Stay with Me

“I don’t think anyone is coming, sire,” said the archer closest to him.

As before, Nicholas had the strange premonition that something was amiss. Had Simon lured him here to Reider but taken Sybil elsewhere? Or were Simon’s men even now surrounding them from an opposite direction to take them by surprise? After all, Simon was conniving, and perhaps Nicholas had underestimated his brother this eve.

The tension inside continued to mount until at last, Nicholas slowly began to rise from behind the hedge. He had to make the first move. They could tarry no longer.

As he showed his head above the leafy branches, he braced himself, waiting for an arrow to fly his direction. But nothing happened.

He edged a little higher. When his men started to do the same, he motioned them back down, not wanting them to take risks when he was already doing so. Within a moment, he was standing tall so that anyone upon the castle walls would be able to observe him and call out a warning.

Yet no shouts echoed in the bailey, and still no arrows zipped toward him. Only a red kite circled above a nearby meadow with its distinctive forked reddish-brown tail.

He slipped through the hedge until he stood out in the open. Maybe he was being foolish, but he had to put an end to the standoff. In a moment, Simon would also come out from behind one of the merlons into the open crenel.

But the only face that appeared anywhere was one in the gatehouse tower window. And it was distinctly feminine.

Nicholas took another step forward, then another. No one rose from the battlements to speak to him, and none of the guards shot at him.

“What if it’s a trap, sire?” another archer whispered loudly from the brush.

“It very well could be,” he whispered back. “But I must move forward now that I have made my presence known.”

“We’ll be ready to shoot.”

“Good.”

“Ready your bows,” the archer called to the others. “Nock. Mark. Draw.”

Nicholas positioned his own bow as he continued to creep across the grassy open area, making his way toward the bridge. He was halfway there when someone appeared in the gatehouse. From the long tunic and wimple, he could view a woman, possibly the same from the tower.

Sybil?

His heart gave an extra beat but then evened out at the realization that Sybil didn’t wear a wimple. Besides, she wouldn’t have stood back so timidly. She would have kicked and punched her way free and found a way to open the outer gate.

From what the men had told him, she’d handed herself willingly over to Simon to quell the slaughter of any more villagers. She’d sacrificed herself for people she hardly knew to keep them safe.

As the woman moved through the gatehouse, a stooped-shouldered man cowered several paces away from her.

Nicholas’s pulse gave a jolt, and he paused his striding. Was his mother standing there? With her faithful old servant?

The woman held herself regally and with grace, just as his mother had always done. Had Simon instructed her to lure him in, to take him off guard before the coming confrontation?

She didn’t speak or move, as though she wasn’t sure of his intentions either.

Even if Simon was using her, Nicholas had come too far now to turn back. He started toward her again, and as he reached the bridge, he tensed, waiting for the gate to lift and Simon and a group of knights to come charging across the outer bailey toward him.

But strangely, all remained quiet, and he faced no opposition.

As he stepped onto the bridge, his mother held up a warning hand. “Come no farther, Nicholas.”

He halted and beheld that she was unharmed. Although pale and thin, she was still a beautiful woman, even if only a shell of what she’d once been.

“What is this about, Mother?” The bailey behind her was deserted, not a soldier in sight. But he tensed anyway. He couldn’t let down his defenses, kept his bow and arrow ready to shoot.

“The castle is besieged by the plague.” She spoke as softly as always. But her voice contained a thread of urgency. “You and your men must go away lest you are exposed to it.”

At once, the strange silence of the castle, the lack of the presence of any guards, the failure to engage in combat—it all made sense.

His mother wrung her hands together. “The first of the servants became ill more than a day ago. And now the plague has spread to almost everyone. My servant brought me news just a short while ago that even Simon is ill.”

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