The Velvet Promise Read online

  The sudden, abnormal silence of the hall and the sound of dragging chains drew her eyes away. In the bright light of the great hall, Judith didn’t at first recognize the form being dragged between the two knights as human. It was more an odorous pile of rags than a man. It was these few seconds of nonrecognition that saved her. She became aware of Arthur and Walter staring at her, watching her. She looked in puzzlement to them, and as soon as she turned away, she realized that the figure being carried into the hall was Gavin. She didn’t look at him again, but kept her eyes fastened on Walter. That would give her time to think. Why did they present him to her like this? Didn’t they know she wanted to run to him and help him?

  The answer came to her instantly as she realized that was just what Arthur wanted her to do. He wanted to show Walter that she did not hate her husband.

  “You don’t know him?” Walter asked.

  Judith looked up, as if in surprise, at the filthy man being led into the hall. Then she began to smile, very slowly. “It is as I have always wanted to see him.”

  Walter gave a shout of triumph. “Bring him here! My lovely lady sees him as she hoped he would be,” he declared to everyone in the hall. “Let her enjoy this moment—she has earned it.”

  The two guards brought Gavin to the table. Her heart was beating wildly. Judith could risk making no errors now. If she showed how her heart went out to her husband, that display would no doubt cause many deaths. She stood, her hand trembling, and raised her wine goblet. She threw the contents in his face.

  The liquid seemed to revive Gavin, and he looked up at her. His face, lean and sharp, showed surprise. Then wonder. Slowly he looked at Walter and Arthur, who stood beside his wife.

  Demari put his arm possessively about Judith’s shoulders. “Look now at who holds her,” he boasted.

  Before anyone could react, Gavin threw himself across the table at Walter. The guards who held his chains were pulled forward, stumbling, falling into the dishes of food. Walter could not get away fast enough, and Gavin’s filthy hands closed around the smaller, gaudily-dressed man across the table.

  “Seize him!” Walter gasped weakly, using his fingernails to claw at Gavin’s hands around his throat.

  Judith was stunned as were the retainers. Gavin must be half-dead by now, but his strength was still enough to pull two men off balance and nearly kill his captor.

  The guards recovered themselves and yanked on the chains around Gavin’s wrists. It took three mighty tugs before they succeeded in freeing Walter. The end of a chain was laid heavily across Gavin’s ribs. He grunted and crumpled on one leg for a moment before righting himself. “I will kill you for this,” he said, his eyes boring into Walter’s before another chain was put to his ribs.

  “Take him away!” Walter ordered as he rubbed his nearly crushed throat. He shivered as he still stared at Gavin.

  When Gavin had been removed, Walter collapsed into his chair.

  Judith knew he would be most vulnerable now. “That was pleasant,” she smiled, then turned quickly to the trembling Walter. “Not, of course what he did to you—I don’t mean that. But it was good to know he saw me with someone I could…care for.”

  Walter gazed back at her, his spine straightening a bit.

  “But of course I should be angry with you.” She lowered her eyes seductively.

  “Why? What have I done?”

  “You really should not have brought such dirt into the presence of a lady. He looked so starved, I wonder he did not really want the food. How can he see what I now have when all he thinks of is nourishment and the things crawling on his skin?”

  Walter considered this. “You are right.” He turned to some men by the door. “Tell the guards to clean and feed him.” He was ecstatic. Arthur had said Judith would cry when she saw her husband in such a state, but she had smiled!

  Only Joan knew what that smile cost her mistress.

  Judith turned away from Walter, wanting to leave the room and especially to leave his presence. She held her head high as she walked through the retainers.

  “The woman deserves what she gets!” Said some men close to her.

  “True. No wife has a right to treat a husband like that.”

  Each and every one of them despised her. And she too was beginning to hate herself. Judith walked slowly up the stairs to the fourth floor, wanting only privacy. At the top of the steps, an arm flew about her waist, and she was slammed against a man’s chest that felt like iron. A knife went to her throat, the sharp edge nearly piercing her delicate skin. Her hands flew to his forearm, but they had no effect.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “SAY ONE WORD, AND I’LL TAKE THAT VIPEROUS HEAD OF yours off your body,” said the deep voice, one she had never heard before. “Where is John Bassett?”

  Judith could hardly speak but this was not a man to be disobeyed.

  “Answer me!” he said as his arm tightened and the knife pressed harder against her throat.

  “With my mother,” she whispered.

  “Mother!” he spat into her ear. “May that woman curse the day she gave birth to such as you!”

  Judith couldn’t see him, and she could hardly breathe from his arm cutting into her ribs and lungs. “Who are you?” she gasped.

  “Yes, you should ask that. I am your enemy, and I would delight in ending your vile existence here if I didn’t need you. How is John guarded?”

  “I…cannot breathe.”

  He hesitated then loosened his grip, the knife easing away from her throat. “Answer me!”

  “There are two men outside the door of the room he shares with my mother.”

  “Which floor? Come, answer me,” he commanded as he tightened his hold once again. “Don’t think someone will come to save you.”

  Suddenly it was all too much for Judith and she began to laugh. Quietly at first, but growing more hysterical with each word. “Save me? And pray, who would save me? My mother is held prisoner. My only guard is also held. My husband is kept in a sewer. A man I detest has the right to paw me before my husband while another whispers threats into my ear. Now I am attacked by a stranger in the dark of the hall!”

  Her hands on his forearm pulled the knife closer to her throat. “I pray you, sir, whoever you are—finish what you have started. End my life, I beg you. For what use is it to me? Must I stand and watch my every friend and relative slaughtered before me? I do not wish to live to see that end.”

  The man’s arm relaxed. Then he pulled away from her hands that tugged at the knife. He resheathed the blade, then grabbed her shoulders. Judith was not surprised to recognize the jongleur from the great hall.

  “I want to hear more,” he said, his voice less harsh.

  “Why?” she asked as she stared up into his deadly blue eyes. “Are you a spy set upon me by Walter or Arthur? I have said too much already.”

  “Yes, you have,” he agreed bluntly. “If I were a spy, I would have a lot to report to my master.”

  “Tell him then! Get it over!”

  “I’m not a spy. I am Stephen, Gavin’s brother.”

  Judith stared, her eyes wide. She knew it was true. That was why she had been drawn to him. There was something in Stephen’s manner, if not his looks, that reminded her of Gavin. She was not aware that tears were running down her cheeks. “Gavin said you would come. He said I had made a mess of everything, but that you would set it all to right again.”

  Stephen blinked at her. “When did you see him that he said this?”

  “On the second night here. I went to him in the pit.”

  “In the—?” He’d heard tales of the way Gavin was kept—that much he’d been able to learn—but he could not get near his brother. “Come and sit here,” he said, leading Judith to a window seat. “We have much to discuss. Tell me everything, from the start.”

  Stephen listened quietly while she told of Walter’s murdering her father and claiming her lands, of how Gavin went to counter Walter’s attack.