Page 66 of Retribution

So much had occurred that afternoon that it was difficult for her to comprehend all of it. She’d ended up in bed with a man she was attracted to more than she could control. He had worried that he’d taken advantage of her, when the truth was probably the opposite. Perhaps when he kissed her, he’d meant to just kiss her, but she had let it become far more than just a kiss until he had all of her and she had all of him.

The same man she’d asked to marry her.

Now, they were facing an unimaginably dangerous situation and she was in the middle of it. Cambridge had wanted her to kill the king, which she had been reluctant to do and he knew it. In the discussion with her father earlier, she’d seen that Cambridge had impressed the seriousness of the situation on Everald, and he had impressed it on his daughter in kind. The problem with that conversation was that there had been no compassion and no concern on the part of her father as he told her that she had to kill the king because it was what Cambridge wanted. He hadn’t even seemed worried for her, worried that she was putting herself in mortal danger to do it.

He didn’t seem to care about her at all.

But someone who did care about her was Aidric. She could read it all over his face as he looked at her, undoubtedly contemplating what she was going to be facing. At some point, she had to return to Thornhill. At some point, she would be facing Cambridge. At some point, she would probably be facing her father as well. She wondered if her father knew of the plan to gift her to the king. Since he had been in conversation with Cambridge earlier that day, perhaps he did. More than that, he might have even suggested it. As she’d told Aidrick, it was a pity that they both had parents who only viewed them as a means by which to further their own ambitions. She didn’t know if her father had ever looked at her as a human being, as someone of flesh and blood. She knew that Cambridge had never looked at her that way. He’d only looked at her as a possession.

But Aidric looked at her like a woman.

In fact, all of these men looking at her seemed to have more sympathy in their expressions than anything expressed to her over the years by either Cambridge or her father. She didn’t even know these men, yet she instinctively trusted them. Still, she knew she had one advantage over them when it came to the Archbishop of Cambridge and that was the fact that he would have been on his guard for any one of those men.

But he wouldn’t be on his guard for her.

If she wanted this nightmare to end, than she was going to have to end it herself.

“I should be returning to Thornhill shortly,” she said after a moment. “I have been gone long enough, now into the evening hours, that Cambridge might send men out to find me. If his plans have changed and he no longer wishes for me to seduce Aidric, then he will more than likely be angry that I have been gone so long.”

“Will he punish you?” Aidric asked with concern.

She shrugged. “He has never beat me if that is what you are asking,” she said. “But he has been known to do other things.”

“What other things?”

“Starvation,” she said matter-of-factly. “Sometimes he locks me in my chambers for days on end. Sometimes he shouts and berates me until I weep. There are other forms of punishment than beating and they are equally effective, I assure you.”

Aidric didn’t like that idea at all but there wasn’t much he could do about it. “Then let us put our plans into motion,” he said, looking to Gerard. “How do you wish to proceed? She cannot spend more time in Cambridge’s presence than necessary, so this plan should be acted upon immediately.”

Gerard nodded. “I agree,” he said. “Every minute she is under his influence is another minute that our plan might be foiled, so my suggestion is this—let me move Stefan and Orion to Thornhill. Perrin can use his contact there and place them as stable servants or kitchen servants. They can use anything for their cover so they are close by and have access to the house. With them, I will send the poison for Cambridge and the means to deliver it.”

“How is she to deliver it?”

Gerard looked at Cleodora. “The same way Cambridge wanted her to deliver it to Edward,” he said. “My lady, do you usually wear jewelry when you are with Cambridge?”

She nodded. “He likes for me to dress in jewels when I am with him.”

“Good,” Gerard said. “I will give you a pendant with a compartment in it for the poison, which you will simply dump into his wine when he is not looking.”

She nodded, but seemed hesitant. “He has bought me every piece of jewelry I have,” she said. “If he does not recognize the pendant, he might become suspicious. A ring would be easier to wear. I would wear other rings around it so he might not notice.”

Gerard thought on that. “I will see about getting you a ring, then,” he said. “But you must return tonight. He will want to know where you have been, of course, and you can simply tell him that you were with Aidric because you are under orders to seduce him. That is true, is it not?”

She nodded. “It is,” she said. “I will tell him that I was simply following his order, thought it does not mean he will not become angry. He can be quite unpredictable.”

Gerard understood. “Sadly, that is a chance we will have to take,” he said. Then, he pointed to Stefan and Orion, who were standing a few feet away. “That is Sir Stefan de Lohr and Sir Orion Payton-Forrester. I am sending those two men to Thornhill tonight because they have done this kind of work before. If you get into trouble or need help, look for them. They are there to assist you.”

Cleodora looked at the pair of younger knights, handsome and powerful. “But why them?” she said, looking to Aidric. “Why not Sir Aidric?”

“Because he is not an agent,” Gerard said. “He is the king’s bodyguard. Moreover, I would suspect that Cambridge has already seen him and might know him on sight. Am I correct?”

Cleodora nodded, lowering her head. “Aye,” she said. “He did see him at the feast because de Baume pointed him out when he asked about him. But after tonight, then what? What about tomorrow? Will you contact me with further instructions? Because we do not know when he plans to send me to Edward, and once he does, returning to Thornhill would look suspicious, wouldn’t it?”

Gerard smiled faintly. “You are already thinking like a spy,” he said, watching her grin. “Aye, it would look suspicious, so tomorrow, we will have the entire plan ready to execute. Stefan and Orion will be your contacts.”

She nodded, looking at the pair again, but something occurred to her. “You seem to have a good deal of information from inside Cambridge’s home,” she said. “You mentioned someone named Perrin? Who is that?”

Gerard and Aidric looked at each other, wondering how much to tell her. “He is a man who protects the king,” Gerard finally said. “That means he must be aware of all of the king’s enemies, of which Cambridge is one. He has someone inside Cambridge’s house who keeps watch on the archbishop. If anything of note happens, he tells Perrin. That is how we keep the crown, and England, safe.”