“Yes, I do.”
“Wonderful! The men and our horses are too fatigued from our journey to start back to London today.” Henry gestured to two of Nicholas’s soldiers. “Take his lordship to the dungeon.”
The soldiers hurried to obey, grabbing the Norman and frog-marching him out of the hall.
“Joscelind!” her father cried out desperately. “Joscelind!”
“Don’t worry, Father,” she said coldly as she followed them. “I won’t desert you. And I’ll do all I can to prove your innocence. Otherwise,I’llbe left with nothing.”
When they were gone, it was as if everyone in the hall exhaled at the same time.
“Who was she?” Henry asked his brother.
“Lord Chesleigh’s daughter. Are there accusations against her, as well?”
“No, and I must say, I’m glad. It would be a great pity to have such a beauty imprisoned in the Tower.”
Riona was glad, too. She didn’t like Joscelind, but she wouldn’t wish disgrace and poverty on her, either.
Henry suddenly started and pointed. “Percival!”
Near the kitchen entrance, Percival stopped and stared as if he’d been shot by an arrow and pinned to the wall.
“What? What do you want?” he demanded as he inched toward the door.
Henry strolled toward him. “So this is where you’ve got to,” he said with a smile. “I hear your tailor is very upset with you—a small matter of a few hundred marks owing, I believe. And your jeweler is unhappy, too. Indeed, I believe you’re in debt to most of the merchants and half the usurers in London.”
“You’re lying!”
“I could be wrong, of course,” Henry replied. “But I certainly wouldn’t let my brother marry any relative of yours until he had the dowry in his hands.”
“Is that true?” Eleanor demanded of her cousin. “What aboutmymoney?”
Like a trapped rat, Percival’s gaze darted from the main door far away to the kitchen doors nearby blocked by Polly and the rest of servants. He broke for the kitchen, shoving Polly and theothers roughly out of the way. Several of the soldiers nearby immediately gave chase.
“Shall I go after him, too?” Henry asked his brother.
Nicholas shook his head. “He won’t get far. My men are well trained. They can run for miles if they must, and I’m sure he can’t.”
Riona put a comforting arm around the distraught Eleanor, who might have nothing now except her title. “Perhaps you exaggerated a bit about the debts?” she asked Henry hopefully.
Nicholas’s brother shook his head. “I wish I could say I had, but I fear it’s all too true.”
“Never mind, my girl!” Uncle Fergus exclaimed. “You’ll always have a home with Fredella and me.”
“She can always stay with us,” Marianne offered.
“Or Nicholas and I,” Riona added.
As Eleanor smiled tremulously, and all seemed resolved at last, the servants began to whisper and murmur among themselves, clearly excited and pleased, while the remaining Norman nobles hurried to speak to Riona and Nicholas, as did Marianne, Adair and Roban.
After a little time had passed, Henry managed to draw his brother aside. “So, what did I interrupt?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“WHAT THE DEVILare you wearing?”
Facing his brother a month later on his wedding day, Nicholas glanced down at his garments. “You should know by now it’s called afeileadh.Fergus Mac Gordon gave it to me for a wedding gift.”
