Page 20 of The Earl

She’d hoped Sabine wouldn’t notice her silent regard.

“Cait, please,” she said, taking a bite of stew. “I am a fool.”

“Nay,” Sabine whispered back.

Cait hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud.

“We’ve not had an opportunity to speak much.” Sabine placed her wine goblet onto the table, a single drop of red dripping onto the white linen below. “But I know.”

Although Sabine was a virtual stranger, the words didn’t surprise her. These men, her brother and the others, were as much brothers as Terric and Rory. Their wives, it appeared, had forged the same type of bond.

Suddenly, she wanted to be a part of that nearly as much as she wanted Conrad back in her life.

“Lady Sabine—”

“My given name, if you please.”

Cait glanced toward the center of the table, but Conrad was no longer watching them.

“I am not sorry you know some of what is between us. But there is more. Much more. And I am a fool,” she said with conviction.

Sabine leaned so close a faint scent of roses drifted toward her.

“I know more than you realize. I’ve wintered here, you see. I have grown quite close to Conrad.”

Sitting up, Sabine lifted her wooden spoon and began to eat. As if she’d not just given Cait a clue to the puzzle that was the earl.

She waited for the mercenary’s wife to say more, but she did not seem inclined to do so. Instead, Cait ate in silence as Sabine spoke animatedly to her husband. He teased her mercilessly, and Sabine teased back. Neither stopped smiling for the duration of the meal, and it was only as dessert was served that Cait remembered the odd comment from earlier.

“Two of four?” she asked as Sabine licked a bit of tart from her lip. “What does that mean?”

“’Tis just us remaining. We still need to convince them,” Roysa answered beside her.

Cait had not realized she’d spoken loudly enough to be overhead.

“Convince whom? Of what?”

Suddenly looking quite guilty, Roysa glanced at Terric, who was looking at something near the hall’s entrance, then leaned toward her.

“That we will not be staying at Licheford when they leave.”

Terric leaned forward, touching Roysa’s arm. In an admirable effort to distract him, Roysa lifted her goblet for a toast.

Cait could not be more confused.

We will not be staying at Licheford. ’Tis just us remaining.

She thought back to their earlier conversation, working out the details. So the women did not wish to remain here as their husbands left for the south. Sabine and Idalia had convinced their husbands already, which left just Roysa and . . .

Her eyes flew to Sabine’s.

The men were not traveling together. She knew that much from Roysa. Each had a mission, all ending outside the gates of London, where they would meet in a final bid to force the king’s hand.

In preparation to possibly take over the greatest city in England.

And the ladies were joining them. All but Roysa and . . . “Surely she does not mean . . . ?”

But Sabine was already nodding her head. Apparently Guy and Conrad were the only two remaining who still needed to be convinced to take a companion to London.