Free Lord of a Thousand Nights by Madeline Hunter Page B

attack. The machines are built and ready. Once the ship arrives with the men King Edward promised, it will be done.” He paused. “It will be bloody.”
    “Does he want me there? Anyone could hold this tower now.”
    “When it is time, he may call for you. Now, however, he wants you here, keeping an eye on the roads down from the Armstrong manor at Clivedale. We expect Thomas Armstrong to attempt a relief action. Your news that Maccus is inside Harclow explained much, by the way. How did you learn that?”
    “Lady Reyna let it slip.”
    “We learned from the men whom you sent that she led you to the tunnel. Did you seduce her into it?”
    “Is that what the men said? Aye, I did, but not in the way that they mean.” Ian described the events of that day.
    “Shrewd of you to see through her plan. A vainer man might have decided she had fallen in love watching from the tower, and used the ruse to fulfill her desire.”
    “No such good fortune. She came to kill me.”
    “A brave woman. Quite lovely. When I first saw her, she reminded me of Elizabeth at first. Much younger, of course.”
    Ian flinched at this casual mention of the widow with whom he had spent two years of his life.
    “She sends you her affection,” David added. “She was wounded that you did not visit her when you passed near London.”
    Aye, she had sent her affection. But she had sent Morvan Fitzwaryn her love. One of the old tensions between them.
    “Tell me about Lady Reyna,” David said.
    “She is bold and willful and nothing but trouble. A little hellcat. She has caused the well to go dry, I am sure, and never speaks to me without cursing me.”
    “Your men also brought the story of Sir Robert's death.”
    “I do not believe that of her.”
    “Still, strife which you do not need.”
    “Strife or not, she will be safe here, as Morvan ordered.”
    “The men who came with Gregory also say that she has become your lover.” David spoke with the tone of a man being casual but wanting information nonetheless.
    “I let them think it to protect her from them. I understand Morvan's goals here, David, but these men have lived a rough life a long while now—”
    “I am not here to criticize, Ian. But I am glad to hear you have not taken up with her, because it will be best if the lady leaves.”
    So that was why David had come. To remove Reyna. The realization that she would disappear soon, that he would not even have her company at meals, numbed him in a strange way.
    “As you know, Ian, Morvan has promised her safety to her father. Duncan Graham's neutrality is important.” David explained as if he sensed that Ian needed convincing. “Morvan can not be fighting the Grahams while he also deals with the Armstrongs. With the accusations against Lady Reyna, the issue of her safety takes on new meaning. If the Armstrongs abduct her from here to judge her, the Grahams will interfere.”
    Ian listened to the relentless logic that would remove Reyna from Black Lyne Keep. “Where will you take her?”
    “To her father, Duncan Graham. The colors of Senlis are permitted to cross his border.”
    “She may not want to go back there. She has asked to leave, but not to go to her father.”
    “She will be safe there. Call the lady, Ian.”
    His squire John waited outside the door, and Ian sent him to fetch Reyna. While they waited he asked David about Christiana and their children. David's normally inscrutable face lit when he talked about his family, and a warm expression suffused his eyes at the mention of Christiana in particular. Ian had seen that look on young men newly enraptured, but rarely in a man married for years. He glanced away, because the emotions that he saw left him a little hollow.
    Reyna arrived, looking like a servant in the simple gown she wore in the kitchen. At least she had removed the kerchief.
    David invited Reyna to sit in the chair, and then perched himself on the stool behind the desk. “I met with your father before this