Secret Heart (31 page)

“
I
suppose the stones were originally set for the obvious purpose,”
Sanal observed. “They are there so anyone using the secret passages
to leave the castle would not have to swim the moat. But they
aren’t arranged in a straight line; they’re in a staggered pattern.
Matilda Jenia, do you remember where each stone is
placed?”

“
I think
so, though I haven’t used them for years,” Jenia replied. Into her
mind an image floated, of two little girls trying to stifle their
giggles as they jumped from stone to stone, while above them on the
battlements an elderly sentry looked down and smiled, and shook his
head as he pretended not to notice. The sentry was dead of old age
by now, and Jenia was sure he had never spoken to anyone about
those childish escapades, for they would not have gone unpunished
if Walderon knew of them. With the bittersweet memory came a stab
of grief. Fortunately, Sanal did not notice.

“
Good,”
Sanal said. “You and I can guide these men across the moat and into
the lowest tunnels. Sir Roarke, the wooded area that edges the
meadows will be an ideal place to leave your horses. You will
require only one or two men to watch them until you are inside the
castle and can open the main gate.”

“
That’s
good thinking, Sanal,” Lord Giles said, patting her on the
shoulder. “I’ll wager that Walderon has no idea how clever you
really are.”

“
Indeed,”
Jenia said coldly. “Which leads me to ask a question of you, Aunt.
Why did you never try to help Chantal and me? You could have told
someone where we were imprisoned. Garit, for instance, would have
found a way to free us.”

“
I didn’t
know where you were,” Sanal cried. “I still don’t know. Walderon
claimed that he knew nothing, either. I didn’t believe him, but
even listening through the secret peepholes gained me no
information. I think by the time we returned to Thury from Calean
and the royal court, Walderon’s plans were made and his orders
given. You and Chantal were locked away. Not until the ship’s
captain arrived to report how the woman he called Lady Chantal had
jumped into the sea did I know you were still alive. And then, of
course, I assumed you were dead, drowned in that terrible
storm.

“
Matilda
Jenia, please.” Sanal caught her niece’s hands. “Tell me you
believe me when I say that I had nothing to do with Walderon’s
crimes against you and Chantal.”

“
Why
should I?” Jenia pulled her fingers out of Sanal’s grasp. “You
never tried to protect Chantal, or me, either, from Uncle
Walderon’s petty cruelties. You didn’t back Chantal against
Walderon when she refused to marry Lord Malin. And when we were in
Calean City that last time, you treated us as if we were a pair of
criminals. Did you alert Walderon that Chantal was planning to
elope with Garit?”

“
Not I,”
Sanal whispered. She met Jenia’s accusing gaze squarely and spoke
in a clear, calm manner that did much to prove the truth of her
next words. “The maidservants and the men-at-arms who guarded you
were Walderon’s people, his chosen spies. They reported to Burke,
who then relayed the information to Walderon. My best guess as to
how your uncle learned of your plan is that one of the maids must
have overheard you and Chantal talking and told Burke. I do think
it’s odd that no one reported your scheme to exchange
clothes.”

“
We only
decided to do that at the last moment,” Jenia said. “It was my
idea. I thought Chantal could slip away more easily if I were to
divert attention from her by wearing her clothes into the great
hall and pretending to be her. In the end, my clever notion caused
her death.”

“
No.”
Sanal laid a hand over the fingers that Jenia was twisting together
in her lap. “Walderon caused Chantal’s death. You were only trying
to help your cousin. I should have helped both of you, but I am
such a coward. I have spent so many years fearing
Walderon.”

“
What
changed your mind, Lady Sanal?” Garit sounded as if he didn’t
believe her. “Why, after so many years of meek obedience, did you
finally decide to fight back?”

“
Because
I learned beyond any doubt that Walderon ordered Chantal’s death
and that he plans to take her inheritance for himself. When he
appears before King Henryk, he will act as if he’s a sad relative,
deeply disturbed to learn from a sea captain how his niece died at
sea. He’ll say he is concerned about the future of her lands and
the people who live there. He will petition King Henryk to grant
Thury to him.” Sanal’s voice was filled with an unmistakable
disgust of Walderon.

“
He’s
already the lord of Catherstone,” Jenia cried. “Why couldn’t he be
content with that, and with King Henryk’s friendship?”

“
A man of
unbounded ambition like Walderon,” Lord Giles answered her, “will
always crave more land, greater wealth, and as many titles as he
can accumulate. I doubt if anything can satisfy such a
person.”

“
Murder
is wicked enough,” Sanal declared. “It becomes more evil still when
the victim is a sweet and generous-hearted girl and when the
villain is her sworn guardian and her blood kin. To gain land and
great power by such deeds as Walderon has committed is completely
unforgivable. Even I, weak-willed and frightened as I am, can see
that much. I knew I had to do something to stop Walderon. So, I
decided to flee from Thury and try to find Lord Giles. I told
myself he would know what to do, and he’d find a safe place for me
to stay, a place from which Walderon could not drag me forth and
slay me.”

“
Enough
of this,” Roarke commanded. “It’s growing late and we all need to
rest. Jenia, kindly look after your aunt. I regret that you ladies
will have to sleep on the ground along with the men, but it cannot
be helped and it won’t be for long.”

“
I have
slept in worse places,” Jenia reminded him. “After the stone floor
of a dungeon, the good, clean earth is a vast
improvement.”

“
Oh,
Matilda Jenia,” Sanal whispered, looking as if she was about to
weep.

“
Please,”
Jenia said through clenched teeth, “do not call me ‘Matilda Jenia.’
To my friends, and to Chantal, I have always been simply,
Jenia.”

“
Of
course,” Sanal agreed. “It’s a habit on my part, one more detail
that I must learn to change.”

“
Here,
Sanal,” Lord Giles said, interrupting the discussion. “Take this
blanket. It’s rough and scratchy wool, but it will keep you warm.
Sleep with your feet toward the fire, too; that will
help.”

“
Thank
you, Giles.” Sanal returned Lord Giles’s cloak to him, then
accepted the blanket and wrapped it over her own rather thin
cloak.

Noting the way the two treated each other,
Jenia looked at Roarke, who raised his eyebrows at her. Her own
cloak, the one provided by Garit and originally belonging to
Chantal, reached to her ankles and was thick and warm. She folded
it around herself and stretched out next to her aunt.

She told
herself she wasn’t going to sleep at all. She was going to keep
watch on Sanal instead, just in case her aunt decided to slip away
from the camp and warn the folk at Thury of the approach of a
secret army which, though small in number, was brave enough and
determined enough to enter and subdue the place and hold it against
Walderon. She was definitely not going to sleep....

“
Wake
up.” Roarke shook her lightly. “It’s time to be on our
way.”

“
Where is
Aunt Sanal?” Jenia asked, sitting up.

“
Right
here,” came Sanal’s wry voice from beside her. “I didn’t vanish
during the night, in case you feared I would. How easy it is to
sleep well when one feels safe.”

Jenia
didn’t respond to the remark. She looked around the camp. Two of
the squires were putting out the fire, stamping on the last of the
embers and using a small shovel to toss dirt on the remains. The
moon had set, leaving the night dark, with only the stars to see by
as they mounted and left the camp with Sanal riding one of the
extra horses that Garit had brought along from the stable at
Auremont.

The sky was showing a faint lightening in the
east that threw the jagged outlines of the Nalo Mountains into
sharp silhouette. Because the mountains were so close and cast such
long shadows, dawn came later to Thury than to the forest and the
plain west of the castle.

They dismounted at the edge of the forest,
leaving the horses in the care of a single squire as Roarke
ordered. In the complete silence he also decreed, they set out on
foot across the wide meadow.

This,
Jenia knew, was the most dangerous part of their venture. If anyone
standing watch on the castle walls saw them, they wouldn’t live
long. Her heart was pounding and she was finding it difficult to
breathe. But she kept pace with Roarke and Garit, and she held onto
Sanal’s hand as Roarke had instructed her to do, until they reached
the edge of the moat.

“
We’ll
have to be quick,” Roarke whispered to Jenia and Garit. “We arrived
later than I wanted. The sun will soon rise above the mountains. If
we’re spotted, the archers on the walls will pick us off with no
trouble at all.”

“
I
understand,” Jenia whispered back, surprised when her voice did not
quaver. “Go ahead, Roarke. I’ll see you again when we are
inside.”

“
Lady
Sanal,” Roarke said, “since you crossed the moat so recently, you
will lead us to the secret entrance. I will be right behind
you.”

“
As you
wish, Sir Roarke.” Sanal gathered her long skirts in one hand,
holding them high, and stepped into the water.

Jenia quickly realized that her aunt had been
honest about her knowledge of where the stepping stones were
placed. Eight flat stones lay in a zigzag pattern under the water
of the moat, which never dried up, not even during a summer
drought, because it was fed by two springs and a nearby stream.
Sanal unerringly stepped onto each one of the stones, weaving an
erratic path across the moat.

Roarke
was right behind her. He was followed by his squire, Elwin, and
then by Lord Giles and his men. As the men stepped into the water,
Jenia whispered instructions to each on where the next few stones
could be found. Across the water, Sanal was doing the same for the
last stones. When the men reached the narrow strip of land on the
other side of the moat they spread out, pressing themselves against
the outer wall of the castle so they couldn’t be seen from above.
Garit’s men from Auremont crossed last, with Jenia and Garit
bringing up the rear.

“
We are
all here.” Garit’s report to Roarke was just above a
whisper.

“
Go on,
then, Lady Sanal,” Roarke softly ordered. “Show us the entrance you
used.”

Sanal went to her knees to remove a pile of
leaves and grass from the bottom of the narrow door, which to the
casual eye looked to be the same solid stone as the wall. Jenia
knew from her childhood that the door was, in fact, a mere facing.
Stones to match the wall had been cut thin by skillful masons and
set into a specially made metal frame, so when the door was closed
and latched from within the castle, only someone who knew where it
was would notice it.

With the
debris cleared Sanal grasped the thin edge that projected no more
than a finger’s width from the wall. She whispered to Roarke to
remove the flat pair of sticks with which she had braced the bottom
of the door to prevent it from shutting completely. Roarke complied
and Sanal pulled the door wide open. The hinges were well oiled and
made no sound.

“
Very
clever,” Garit breathed in Jenia’s ear. “Who else uses this door
and keeps it in such good repair? I doubt your aunt tends to the
hinges.”

“
Hush,”
Roarke commanded.

Sanal went through the doorway first, then
Roarke entered. A moment later Jenia saw a spark and a torch flared
to life in a wall sconce. Roarke took the torch and used it to
light several others, which he ordered the men now crowding into
the tunnel to pass along to those who came in later, to light their
way. Then he, Jenia, and Sanal led the company along a narrow
passage with a roof so low that most of the men had to stoop as
they walked through it in single file.

“
When I
was a girl, this tunnel was larger,” Jenia murmured, looking
around.

“
When you
were a girl, you were smaller,” Roarke reminded her. “Did you and
Chantal venture this way very often?”

“
After
our parents died, we used the tunnel and the door only when Uncle
Walderon and his henchman, Burke, were absent,” Jenia said. “We
didn’t want them to learn the secret. Some of the servants knew,
but they’d never reveal anything to either of those two unless they
were forced to tell.”

“
I can’t
say I blame them for being discreet.” Garit spoke from directly
behind her. “Tell me Jenia, if we are discovered by a servant now,
what do you think will happen?”

“
I expect
any servant to aid us,” Jenia said, “especially if I pretend to be
Chantal. She is –
was
– their rightful mistress, after all. I doubt if the news
of her death has reached here yet. Thury is rather
isolated.”

Garit fell silent then. Jenia thought he was
most likely dealing with the strong emotions evoked by her reminder
that his love was gone forever.