of seeing just how impressed I was. “When will we meet with his majesty?” I asked.
“He has already been informed of your arrival. I should expect he will send for you when he is ready.”
“What is your name?” I inquired.
He seemed mildly surprised, “Adam sir.”
I liked to know the names of the people I was dealing with, “Adam, could you give me an idea when that might be? I fear I am new to the royal court and have no clue what to expect. I’m sure you possess far more knowledge on the subject than I.”
Adam was definitely surprised now; I would guess he wasn’t used to being spoken to so directly. “I would venture to say he will probably call for you sometime before dinner. Otherwise you will see him at the evening meal.”
“I appreciate your candor, do you know if the Duke of Lancaster has arrived yet?”
“He sent his man over yesterday to announce his presence,” Adam replied.
“He isn’t staying at the palace?”
“The Lancasters maintain a residence in the city my lord.” That was news to me, but then I knew very little about the city. I knew Marc was here somewhere as well, but I had assumed he would be staying at the palace.
“How would I send a message to him? I am loath to leave myself, not knowing when the king’s summons might arrive,” I asked.
“Simply give me the message sir, or one of the other servants. They will see it delivered promptly,” he answered in a tone that made it clear I should already know these things.
“Very good, I’ll write a note out and give it to someone shortly. You may go now,” I made it clear that I was dismissing him.
After he had left Penny spoke, “You handled that well. You sound more like a Count every day.”
“Is that a compliment or a rebuke?”
“I’m not sure; I’ll let you know when I make up my mind,” she said, winking.
I wrote a quick note for the duke and gave it to a servant I found outside. Apparently the king could afford to have servants just waiting around for that sort of thing. After that I found myself at a loss for something to do.
We couldn’t exactly go sight-seeing. It was mid-afternoon and there was always the possibility we would be summoned by the king, which effectively tied us down. I gave serious thought to a nap, but Penny had other ideas.
“Don’t lie on the bed! You’re dirty,” she admonished me.
She was one to talk, “You’re not much better.” In fact the chain mail had her smelling significantly worse.
“Let’s try out the bath,” she suggested. Normally I wouldn’t have been a huge fan of that idea, but taking a bath with Penny reversed my usual misgivings.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” I replied. My enthusiasm showed though, and I could see caution in her eyes.
“You have to behave, or you’ll be bathing alone,” she said with a warning tone, naturally I agreed immediately. I had no dishonest intentions either, I swear. You believe me right? Yeah, she didn’t either. We wound up sitting on opposite sides of the tub. She was more wary than a deer in the forest, so there was little chance I would be able to sneak up on her.
Penny herself was enjoying the warm water and watching Mordecai watching her almost made her laugh. She enjoyed the attention even if she wouldn’t admit it. Closing her eyes she leaned back, letting the water wash away her cares. Drifting she could see a blue sky studded with fluffy clouds. It might have been beautiful if not for the smoke spoiling the picture. Glancing around she realized she was standing just outside Castle Cameron. Men in armor were rushing around her, readying weapons and pulling back the wounded.
At a glance she knew it was spring, which seemed odd. For some reason she thought it should be late summer, but she pushed the thought aside.
She looked for Mordecai for a minute before she spotted him. He was standing on a rise, holding his staff and sending lines of fire into the enemy. He cut a heroic figure standing there but he looked tense. She felt an uncommon sense of urgency and she knew he was in danger. Running she reached the top where he was standing and looked down. Thousands of soldiers were arrayed against them, advancing steadily.
Mordecai raised his staff again and a cone of fire surged forth. Cries went up and men died, yet still they came on. The enemy answered with crossbows but few of the bolts found their marks, the men of Cameron were well sheltered. Looking out across the field she suddenly spotted a ballista, a large crossbow-like weapon that fired bolts the size of heavy spears. Somehow she knew its target.
In slow motion she saw the heavy shaft soar out over the battlefield. Light glinted from the steel head as it flew. She opened her mouth to yell, to warn him, but no sound came out. Time snapped back as the great bolt slammed into Mordecai, striking him squarely. It ripped through his chest as if it were no more than tissue paper and drove him back several feet. Falling backward he struck the earth, blood running like water from a broken vessel upon the ground. He was dead within seconds.
I watched Penny relaxing in the bath across from me. A better vision I couldn’t imagine. Her hair floated in the water as she slid down ever further into the warm water. I couldn’t even see her eyes now, she had submerged herself. I kept trying to think of ways to coax her into dropping her silly premarital prohibition but I doubted any of them would have worked.
She hadn’t come up for air in a while, which seemed odd. She had been under for nearly a minute now, so I leaned over to check on her. She was lying on the bottom of the huge tub, and she didn’t look right. Something told me she was unconscious.
Grabbing her by the arms I dragged her up quickly. She was limp as a ragdoll, which scared me even more. I pulled her out of the tub and laid her on the tile floor, “Penny! Penny! Breathe damn you!” I turned her onto her side and tried to get her to expel the water from her lungs. I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was doing.
She drew a great gulp of air and opened her eyes. No water came out but she looked at me, terror marking her face. “Mort!” I realized she hadn’t swallowed any water at all, she simply hadn’t been breathing.
“What the hell was that?” Fear and anger had me almost shouting. She ignored me and sat up, throwing her arms around me, sobbing. At this point I remembered a crucial factor; women are strange and mysterious creatures. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked at last.
She grabbed my head between her hands and looked at me, tears still in her eyes, and then she kissed me. I’ll be the first to admit that was pretty much what I had been hoping for when we first undressed for the bath, but this was too strange. I pulled back, “Damnit, will you talk to me? Why are you so upset?”
“Shut up,” she replied and kissed me again. Her hands weren’t idle either. I struggled with her for a few minutes, but as they say, ‘When a woman is willing all any man can do is go along’. I try to live by that motto.
She made love to me with a desperate ferocity that was almost frightening, but I’m nothing if not brave. That’s what I tell myself all the time. She wasn’t satisfied quickly either and an hour later she had thoroughly exhausted me. I hoped she was tired too. If not I was in trouble.
“Are you ready to talk yet?” I asked.
She started crying again. I have that effect on women. It was particularly unsettling considering I figured I had done a damn fine job of making her every dream come true. Finally she slowed and choked out a few words, “We have to leave Mort. We can’t stay here.”
“What? I’ll be exiled or banished or worse if we run from the king’s summons!”
“It doesn’t matter; you can’t be the Count di’Cameron. You just can’t, we have to run. Anything is better than… than…,” she started weeping again.
“I can’t and won’t leave my people. They need me, they need us. We have responsibilities Penny. What brought all this on?” The thing that really worried me was that I knew she wasn’t irrational. Whatever had started
