Page 71 of The Earl

Chapter 28

Three days simply wasn’t long enough.

The days had been spent strategizing, the nights with his friends, at supper, and then alone with his wife. After that first frenzied night, he had taken more time to learn every curve of Cait’s body.

To relish the quiet moments just before they slept.

And to wake before dawn with her in his arms, watching her sleep for a few moments before dressing for the day. It had quickly become one of his favorite rituals, no less so for the knowledge that they had so little time before the maneuver.

That morning, their last, was even more bittersweet than the others. He soaked in the sight of her, the hair feathering her cheek, and stood from the bed.

“You would leave without saying goodbye,” she murmured. Conrad sat back down, the feather mattress sinking under his weight.

“I didn’t want to wake you.” He kissed her forehead. “And we did say goodbye last eve.”

Cait blinked away her sleep, opening her eyes fully.

“We did but . . .”

But they both knew there was a strong possibility he’d not return. They’d not spoken of the order’s plans in detail, but Cait knew enough.

“I will return to you.”

He said it with as much confidence as possible, knowing he would die trying to make it so. When she closed her eyes just briefly, Conrad lay his hand on her delicate cheek.

“Sleep, my dove.”

Unable to look at her any longer, not knowing when, or if, he would return, Conrad left the bedchamber to find the others, her final whispered parting, “Adieu,” still ringing in his ears. Only Guy appeared as cheerful as ever as he accepted a bundle from Lord Sarnac’s squire.

The sun had not yet risen, but the courtyard brimmed with activity.

“I do not understand,” Guy said. “Cait is quite a woman,” he mocked, “but you dote on her in a way I would not have expected from you.” Laughing at his own jest, or what Conrad supposed to be a jest, Guy mounted. His next comment was for Terric. “We’ve called ourselves brothers, but now the three of you are brothers in truth.”

By marriage, both Conrad and Lance could now call Terric brother-in-law.

“If only I had another sister,” Terric said, “or Stanton another daughter.”

Guy winked at him, and Conrad rolled his eyes. “I would dearly love to say the same, but I love my wife more.”

“You are our brother regardless,” Lance said. The rest of them offered their agreement.

“All appears to be ready,” Conrad said.

For as far as he could see, mounted men filled the courtyard. Sarnac would be outside the gates by now. He’d requested to lead with Conrad at the back.

“Aye.” Terric was the last to be prepared, and when he was finally ready, he nodded to Guy, who would ride in the middle with him. “To Aldgate.”

“To Aldgate,” they all repeated, Conrad staying back with Lance.

Although they did not expect trouble on the two-day ride, their group numbered at over five hundred men, and it would be a slow slog with so great a party. Alone, Conrad could have made it there by dark. Instead, they would camp for the night at Renwith and then arrive outside the city’s gates by nightfall the following evening.

“The noise,” Lance said as they waited for the others to ride ahead. “’Tis what surprises me most.”

As strong and fierce as any of them, Lance was the only one who had not been raised as a knight. His training had been with a blacksmith’s hammer, not a broadsword. And though he had learned to wield one in their time together, this would only be his second battle.

The first had been at Dromsley Castle.

“It is as many men as I’ve ridden with as well,” Conrad admitted. “Of the four of us, only Guy would have seen forces of this size.”