Page 86 of An Earl for the Archeress

“Because Nottingham has abused your people,” Robert proclaimed, confident, standing tall despite his humiliating lack of dress and decorum. “Because my band of men and I, who I refuse to reveal, were the only ones attempting to speak for the masses. And I’ll never come to court to attempt to flatter you into restoring my title. What’s done is done and I’m at peace with it, even if Nottingham’s treatment of me and your people was unfair. All I ask is that my people—the people of Huntington,” he corrected himself, for they were no longer his, “are treated well. I only want my wife. I have no horse, no coin, not even a bloody pair of boots, but I’ll walk to foking Scotland if I have to!”

King Richard’s face split into a grin at Robert’s passionate exclamation.

“You’ll do nothing of the sort!” the king announced. He flicked his finger at his official, who then withdrew a ring of keys. “These, Robert of Huntington, were handed over to me by William de Wendenal…but they belong to you.” He tossed them across the room, and Robert snagged them out of the air with his chained hands, turning them over to look. “I believe those unlock Huntington Castle’s gates.”

“Your Majesty! I must protest!” Nottingham exclaimed, his face splitting into a rage. “Robert’s fate was to be decided here, not my guilt! He attacked and stole from a royal official, and he encouraged Mariel Crawford to shoot at her father!”

“Huntington,” Robert thundered. “She bears my name now!”

Nottingham shook his head in frustration and continued. “Much of what he says is false! I only evicted those who would not pay the rents—”

“And who made those rents so high that none could afford it?” said the king, rising up once more. “You invite my wrath, sire. What neither Robert nor you know is that many more accounts of your cruelty reached me in the Holy Land. His story is, in a saying I’ve brought back with me, simply the final straw upon the camel’s back.”

He turned back to Robert, flicking his finger at the guard who had brought him in. The man brought his own key from the ring on his belt and unlocked the manacles at his wrists. Freedom. Robert pulled his arms apart and rolled his shoulders as the metal clanked away.

“What exactly does this mean, my king?” Robert asked.

King Richard, grinning again, stood tall. “It means, Robert, that you have proven your worth. You’re no longer the famed young bachelor who likes to dally with the willing females. You stood up to injustice as my loyal subject and have grown up.

“It also means your band of thieves may disperse.” The king leveled a glare, his grin turning sly. “There will be no more need to illegally patrol the forests, and may I never catch you doing so again…because you are now appointed to the head of my East Anglian guard and custodian of the Huntington Alms Charity, to which I am donating one thousand pounds.” The king’s grin broadened into a chuckle at the surprise on Robert’s face.

“No such charity exists, Your Majesty,” Robert said.

“It does now,” Richard replied, standing tall. “It also means you are reinstated as the Earl of Huntington and returned all estate and land that accompanies such.” He turned to Nottingham. “If there are any missing properties or finances, I shall be deducting those deficits from your coffers, for despite the pitiful state of this grand castle, I have it on account your personal vaults are wealthy.

“Lock both these men away,” the king said, waving his hand at Crawford and Nottingham. “I have many a question for them before I decide their fate, but in the meantime, Robert…” The king descended from the dais and came to stand before him, not quite as tall as Robert but broader from carrying a broadsword, and laid a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve become a fine young man. One I am proud to call one of my nobles. In a time of duress, your tactics might have been, eh, debatable, but ingenious, and I have it on account your woman is both as unconventional and skilled as you. She was not my pick for you. But it is clear to me now, I should not have been the one picking. I bid you retrieve your Lady Huntington in all haste and bring her to court to present her to me. I offer a contingent of a score of men to assist you on your quest for her and will pen a missive to King William so that he knows of the traitor that was in his flock. Be on your way.”

Robert grinned for the first time in a month, and he bowed low. “My king, if William de Wendenal could see fit to return my codpiece, intact with its contents, I would be much obliged. I don’t think the man has need of one tailored to that, eh, particular size.”

King Richard rolled his eyes. “Mayhap you have yet to become the fine young man I thought… I hope I don’t regret this,” he muttered, and turned to Nottingham to demand where Robert’s effects had been stored.

Nottingham glowered at him as he left the hall at the hand of his own prison guard. Robert winked at him, tipping his head back, and laughed a merry laugh.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Robert made his way back to Huntington in record time, arriving before sundown, though Goliath, who thankfully had been recognized as fine horseflesh and thus had been stabled at Nottingham, was lathered and in need of rest before Robert’s impending departure.

“You’ve come back!” shrieked Bridget, racing down the steps to the keep as his guardsmen all descended from their posts to greet him.

“My lord! We couldn’t believe that the Sheriff of Nottingham attempted to oust you,” greeted a guard, the people of Huntington gathering around. “The steward didn’t hand over your keys to the vaults, sire, for we knew Lord Nottingham would pillage them. We insisted you kept the keys well hidden…”

He wished he could appreciate the warm welcome from his people, but his blood had not stopped racing with need to get to Mariel and determine who had turned traitor. He had at least a sennight of hard riding ahead of him. His face was ill-shaven, his hair hung long and stringy, but he knew there was no time to dawdle in a bath.

He breezed through the doors when he caught sight of Charlotte. Anger gripped him further. If she had betrayed him, how dare she have the audacity to remain at Huntington?

“What do you want here?” he demanded, striding to the chair in which she sat by the great hearth.

She looked up at him with confusion and stood, cowering back at the rage boiling on his face. “Whatever do you mean? I, I heard of your capture and couldn’t believe it was true.”

“Is that so?” he remarked.

“Robbie…Robert…what’s wrong? You look at me as if I’m spawned from the devil.”

“The Beast of Ayr had the luxury of seeing me bound in chains and beaten like a murderer would be flogged in a public square. And he had that luxury because someone within my walls betrayed me, someone he alluded to being a woman. Whoever this traitor was, they spoke of my plans to wed Mariel. I believe you once called her some disobedient waif. I wonder who it could be that I sat with more than a month ago, discussing my desire for Mariel Crawford. Only one woman, I told this. You, perchance?”

Charlotte opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, but still, no sound came out.

“Jonathan,” Robert called, and John stepped forward. “Remove Lady Charlotte to her chamber and see that she is detained.”