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Chapter Twelve
Fin
The sound of shouting voices and the hard pounding of boots on the stone floors beyond his chamber doors pulled Fin out of sleep. He was out of bed and on his feet in a heartbeat, his body taut, his mind alert. Something was going on in the castle.
Fin quickly got dressed and dashed out into the corridor. The castle was a hive of activity with the household guard filling the halls and a palpable sense of tension among the men. The men were obviously upset, and Fin could feel the anger and bloodlust that saturated the air around them. Hollis appeared by his side, and together, they pushed their way through the anxious crowd, finally arriving at the Duke’s bedchamber door.
A tall, hulking man in the Duke’s livery with chain mail armor beneath it and a steel helm upon his head blocked the doorway. He was not letting anybody through. Fin recognized him as Henry Carson, Captain of the Duke’s personal guard. Fin had become acquainted with him over the years, and they got on well, but Henry was a man of strict duty and kept people held at an arm’s distance. But he knew what Fin and Hollis were doing there and had already vowed to assist them in whatever way he could.
He glared at Fin and Hollis with fire in his eyes, but Fin knew the man’s anger was not directed at him.
“What happened, Henry?” Fin asked.
The man gritted his teeth. “The Duke was the victim of another assassination attempt,” he growled.
“Is the Duke all right?”
He nodded. “We got to the assassin before he could finish the job,” he said, sounding relieved. “The Duke is fine.”
“Good. That’s good news,” Fin said. ‘But how did it happen? I saw guards on the door--”
“He created a diversion. Murdered somebody in the physician’s chambers first,” Henry said. “Got the guards down there then tried to slip into the Duke’s bedchamber. Luckily, somebody saw him going in.”
“Do ye have him in custody?”
He nodded. “He has been taken to the dark cells already.”
Fin felt his heart and stomach lurch. He could not believe a second assassin had tried to kill the Duke. Fin was relieved they’d caught him in the act. His mind flashed back to images of Castor and the mystery man in the garden, and it made him wonder about the timing of it all. Had Castor ordered the unseen man to kill the Duke?
As he turned it over in his mind, a second thought belatedly occurred to him. He cut a glance at Hollis then turned back to Henry.
“Who was killed in the physician’s chamber?” he asked.
Henry’s jaw clenched. “The kid who tried to assassinate the Duke before.”
Fin felt like he’d been punched in the gut. Marcus had been murdered. And another attempt had been made on the Duke’s life. Which meant there was an even larger conspiracy afoot. But something didn’t feel right about this whole thing. He could not say what it was exactly, but some things were not adding up for him. It all seemed too… coincidental. Too neat and tidy to be believable to him.
Fin thought that if Marcus had been coerced into attempting to poison the Duke it stood to reason that this second assassin had been made to do the same thing. Which brought him back to what he had seen in the garden. If the man they had in custody was the same man he had seen in the garden, it meant that Castor was the one ordering the Duke’s assassination. It meant he was the one pulling strings behind the scenes.
But how would he prove the assassin was the same man he had seen in the garden with Castor? Marcus had proven unwilling to name the Baron of Elix as the man who had coerced him into attempting to kill the Duke, and Fin did not see any reason to think this other man would be any more willing to name Castor either. But he would not know for sure until he questioned the prisoner.
“Has he said anythin’ yet?” Fin asked. “Anythin’ at all?”
Henry shook his head. “No. He’s refusing to speak.”
Fin nodded. “All right,” he said. “I will need tae speak tae him. Which means I am goin’ tae need him alive, Henry.”
The Captain gritted his teeth, and a low growl escaped his throat. He, like his men, wanted nothing more than to string the would-be assassin up by the neck and hang him from the curtain wall parapet. Henry and his men were loyal to the Duke. They would die for the man in a heartbeat. Fin had always considered that the best testament to the mans’ character he could find. That other men would lay down their lives for him spoke well of Duke Hamilton.
“I mean it, Henry,” Fin pressed. “Ye can have him when I’m done with him. But until I am, he’s nae tae be harmed. Dae ye understand?”
He blew out a long breath. “I understand.”
“Please pass the word along tae yer men.”
Henry nodded. “I will.”
Fin nodded, content to take the man at his word. Though a hard man, he knew that Henry was a man of honor. A man of his word. And when he gave that word, he would follow through with it or die trying. It was good enough for Fin. He turned to Hollis and gave him a nod.
