"True enough, but my cousin's treatment of me was most unusual and… and unnatural." Katherine looked down at her tightly clasped hands. "He… he forced himself upon me."
Alice stared at her in shock. "Oh, Katherine." She touched the healer's arm with grave gentleness. "I am so very sorry."
"And then he tried to marry me off to Sir Matthew in order to obtain lands of his own." Katherine's face was rigid with pain. "God forgive me, but I hate Eduard with a degree of passion that other women reserve for love."
The scrape of a boot on stone made Alice stiffen. She turned her head to peer into the shadowed passageway. Torch light flared in the opening. A moment later Eduard loomed into view. His face was a mask of fury.
Fulton scrambled to his feet. His eyes went to Eduard's empty hand. "Sir Hugh has not yet paid the ransom?"
"The bastard taunts me." Eduard slammed the torch into Fulton's hand. " 'Tis now dawn and he has not left the green stone at the north end of the stinking ditch. The damned fog grows worse by the minute."
"Mayhap he does not believe the lady is worth the price." Fulton cast an aggrieved look at Alice. " 'Tis not hard to comprehend that he might prefer to be rid of her." He rubbed the palm of the hand that Alice had bitten. "The wench is tiresome."
Eduard rounded on him furiously. "You fool. You know nothing of this matter."
"Mayhap," Fulton muttered. "But I know that I do not like it much."
"Sir Hugh values his wife right enough." Eduard combed his beard with restless fingers. "He indulges her to the point of idiocy. You saw how he was that night in Rivenhall Keep. Because he had given his word to her on a whim, he allowed the lady to deprive him of his long-sought vengeance."
"Aye, but—"
"Only a man besotted would allow a woman to manipulate him in such a manner. Aye, the fool places great value upon her. He will bring me the stone, thinking to exchange it for her life."
Royce scowled. "I agree with Fulton. I do not like this business. Surely the stone is not worth the risk of being cornered like trapped rats by Hugh the Relentless."
"Cease your whining." Eduard began to pace the floor of the chamber. "We are safe enough in these caves. Now that Calvert is dead, no one else except me knows these passageways. Not even Sir Hugh would dare enter this maze."
"Aye. So you said." Royce dropped the dice into his belt pouch. "But that changes nothing. This cavern may be a clever place to hide for the moment, but it could just as easily become a snare."
Eduard stopped pacing and turned, eyes slit with menace. "Do you think to defy me, Royce?"
Royce did not cower. Instead he regarded his master with a considering expression for a moment. Then he appeared to come to a decision. "I believe I have had enough of this futile endeavor."
"What? You are my man," Eduard roared. His hand went to his sword hilt. "I'll kill you where you stand if you think to desert me now."
"You are welcome to try." Royce reached for his own sword.
Fulton stepped back out of the way. "Blood of the demon, this is truly madness."
"Traitor." Eduard jerked his blade from its scabbard and leaped forward.
"Stay back," Royce warned. He raised his heavy blade.
"Stop this nonsense," Fulton shouted. "Or all is lost."
Alice reached for Katherine's hand. "Come," she whispered. "This may be our only chance."
Katherine sat frozen on the stone. Her eyes were lit with horror. "We cannot flee into the caves. We will be lost."
Alice tugged impatiently on Katherine's wrist. "Nay, we shall follow Eduard's trail."
"What trail?"
"He has been through these passages often enough to mark them well with the soot from his torch." Alice prayed that would prove true. One thing was certain, the quarrel that had broken out between Eduard and Royce was an opportunity she and Katherine could not ignore.
"Do you really think we can escape?" Katherine looked confused. She had obviously set her mind on death. Hope was a difficult concept for her to grasp at the best of times. At this moment it clearly left her bewildered and befuddled.
"Come."
Alice kept a wary eye on Eduard and Royce, who were shouting and circling each other. Fulton paid no attention to the women. He was laboring in vain to calm the other two men.
Alice kept her grasp on Katherine's wrist as she edged cautiously toward the nearest torch. The hair stirred on the back of her neck just as she reached out to grab the torch. A shiver of awareness went through her.
There was no sound to herald Hugh's arrival, but Alice knew he was close by. She whirled to gaze at the passageway that Eduard had used a moment earlier.
A cold, ghostly wind wafted from the dark corridor. It carried before it the promise of doom. The torches in the large cavern flickered and sputtered wildly.
"Hugh," Alice whispered.
A faint amber glow appeared in the black tunnel. A few seconds later it revealed the shadowed outline of a man.
The quarreling men behind Alice did not hear the sound of their enemy's name on her lips, but there was no mistaking his voice. It cut through the tense atmosphere with the impact of lightning slicing through a night sky.
"Enough." The single word thundered off the cavern walls. "Lay down your arms or die where you stand."
Everyone in the vast chamber went still for an instant. They all stared at Hugh, who stood framed in the opening of the stone corridor.
Alice was as stunned as the others, even though she had been expecting him to appear. She knew without being told that tonight Hugh was a thousandfold more dangerous than she had ever seen him.
Katherine made the sign of the cross. "The Bringer of Storms."
Hugh was vengeance incarnate, a dark wind that would sweep all before it. His eyes were cold and utterly without mercy. His black cloak enveloped him from his shoulders to the tops of his black leather boots. He wore no helm but light glinted on the steel of his drawn sword.
Dunstan and Aleyn, one of the household guards, quickly emerged behind Hugh. They flanked him with gleaming blades. Benedict came up behind them. He held a torch aloft. His eyes anxiously searched the cavern until they settled on Alice. When he saw her, his face glowed with relief.
Eduard was the first to recover from the paralysis that had gripped everyone in the stone chamber.
"Bastard," he cried. "You have ruined everything. From the very day of your birth, you have tried to deny me what was rightfully mine. You shall pay."
He lunged, but not toward Hugh. He turned and bore down on Alice. She realized with horrified amazement that he intended to kill her. For an instant she was literally frozen with fear.
"Alice, move." Hugh surged forward, but he was several paces away from Eduard.
Hugh's command broke the spell of terror that had trapped Alice. She sprang to the side just as the heavy weight of Eduard's sword crashed downward. It struck the floor where she had been standing a second earlier. The dreadful clash of metal on stone rang out across the cavern.
Alice's stomach churned. She felt a cold, clammy sensation on her skin. If she had not gotten out of the way, she would have been cut in half by the force of Eduard's blow.
Even now he was spinning toward her once more. He raised his sword with both hands.
Alice stumbled backward. Her foot tangled in the hem of her skirts. "Blood of the Martyrs." She struggled desperately with the folds of her new black and amber gown.
"Devil's own whore. This is all your fault." Eduard's small eyes were those of a savage beast as he crowded Alice back against the cavern wall.
Fury swamped Alice's fear. "Get away from me. Do not come near me."
"Die, whore."