Free Noble Hearts 03 - The Courageous Heart by Merry Farmer Page A

chausses and the floor. Joanna slammed the door behind him.
     
    The moment Joanna’s feet hit the cobbles of the foggy London street in front of The Stag Hunt her courage faltered. In Derby , even the longest city street had air, grass, and an end. T he t all buildings packed in the narrow London street had no end in either direction, like she was trapped in a maze. S he chose the direction she thought was right and started walking .
    She had no idea where she was going. Ethan had ducked and dodged through so many road and side alleys in their flight from the Tower the day before that they could have been miles aw ay or right around the corner.
    Ethan. She closed her hands into fists as s he memorized the street that The Stag Hunt sat on and turned to a larger street , follow ing the merchant traffic. Ethan may look like something a cat coughed up now, but he was every bit as stubborn and arrogant as he’d been before the crusade. Let things take their course? She shook her head as she charged on. As if Sir Stephen of Matlock and Arthur Pennington would let things take their own course. Jack had been right to balk at the sight of the men. Ethan didn’t understand what Crispin and Jack were really up against. Her fear swirled up again.
    To her surprise, the merchants led her in the right direction. The flow of their traffic turned a few more corners and suddenly the massive structure of the Tower rose up in front of her. Joanna sent an anxious glance up to the heads on the wall and quickened her steps.
    Her heart sank when she crossed the moat to the huge, closed front gate. A slew of guards stood around it. A small gang of filthy children waited with their faces pressed up against the gate, peering inside. Joanna watched them for several seconds to see if the guards would scold them. When they didn’t she grew bold. Keeping a watchful eye on the guards, she tiptoed up to join them.
    The world inside of the Tower was a sharp contrast to the streets around it. The morning fog settled peacefully over the lush green lawn. The imposing White Tower seemed almost sleepy in the first feeble rays of morning light. A f ew people, servants by the look of them, worked within the enclosed area. The out-buildings lining the inside of the wall buzzed with the same morning energy as homes along a village green even though s ome of them were as imposing as the White Tower itself .
    It was t he White Tower held her attention though. That was the last place she had seen Aubrey and Crispin and Jack. If she could just get inside to speak to them she could figure out how to work for their freedom.
    “Step back.”
    Joanna gasped when one of the guards spoke. The panic that the sight of the White Tower had raised in her blossomed a thousand fold.
    “I need to get inside,” she told the man in a trembling voice. “My master and mistress are bein g held prisoner. I need to….”
    “Step back,” the guard interrupted . His voice was neutral, his expression neither bored nor irritated.
    “But … but I ne ed to get in,” Joanna pleaded.
    The guard loosen ed his stance at her distress . “You can’t get in, miss,” he explained with a touch of kindness in his tone. “ Not with the king in residence.” He bowed his head in respect. “If your master and mistress have been taken into custody then you’ll have to find some personage of noble blood to reach them for you.”
    “But I don’t know anyone else of noble blood. ” Damn Ethan’s hide for being right .
    “Come on, Delbert,” one of the other guards chastised the first. “Get the pretty little bird to move.”
    “Sorry miss.” Th e guard, Delbert, extended his arm and used it as a goad to shoo her out of the way.
    Joanna stumbled back, hugging herself against a new cold that had nothing to do with the fog. She watched as guards on both the inside and outside of the Tower worked with the locks on the gates to swing them open. The helpless panic of being completely alone