“What is it?” I called to the cluster.
Before they could answer, Sir Darien and Sir Robert stepped out of the armory and strode toward me.
“What news have you?” I said as I scanned the castle grounds for any signs of distress. Had they engaged in a skirmish or fended off an attack?
“Welcome back, Sir Aldric.” Darien reached to take the reins of my horse. I handed them over and slid from my mount.
“Don’t waste time with pleasantries, Darien,” I rebuked.
“Three days past, Lady Glynnis caught Lady Olivia stealing from Lord Pitt’s treasury and had her locked in the dungeons.”
A knot cinched in my gut and pulled taut with both anger and frustration—mainly at myself for not anticipating that something like this might happen. After catching Olivia rummaging in my chamber, I should have known she’d get herself into further trouble, that she wouldn’t be happy with just her mother’s brooch. I should have forced her to finally tell me what she was searching for.
“That’s not all, sir,” Darien continued, his young face solemn.
“Go on.”
“Lady Glynnis has petitioned Lord Pitt to hang Lady Olivia as a thief. We’ve heard rumors the execution will take place on the morrow.”
If Pitt had agreed to the execution then the charges against Olivia were indeed substantial and credible. Pitt wouldn’t move forward otherwise.
Lady or not, he wasn’t afraid to administer justice where it was due. Only last year, Pitt had almost burned Sabine at the stake to determine whether she was a witch. Bennet had denied the charges against her. And although I hadn’t been sure what the markings on Sabine’s arms meant, whether she was truly innocent, I’d fought for her freedom alongside Bennet because he’d loved and believed in her.
If Pitt could threaten Sabine’s life, I had no doubt he’d kill Olivia in order to administer justice as well as show his strength and superiority. I understood he couldn’t allow a crime like Olivia’s to remain unpunished. He had to exact swift justice, or he would only encourage others to question his authority.
I spun and began to stalk toward the keep. I had to convince Pitt not to execute Lady Olivia. Surely he could find some other way to punish her besides taking her life.
My pulse thudded a hard tempo that matched my heavy steps. By the time I entered the dark interior, a quiet desperation had gripped my muscles, making me turn my steps in the direction of the stairwell that would take me to the dungeons.
As I descended with several knights following closely behind, I held up a hand to halt them. “Wait for me here,” I said tersely, as I took the torch from the closest guard and resumed my descent.
When I reached the bottom of the long stairway, I held the torch up and scanned the cells for her.
“Lady Olivia,” I said softly. “It is I, Sir Aldric.”
At my voice, a scuffling in the first cavern drew my attention. I shifted the torch so that its light fell past the grated door. Inside, Lady Olivia rose to a sitting position on a pallet. She blinked, her eyes not accustomed to the light. Her hair had come loose from her usual neat plaits and coils and now fell in disarray over her shoulders hanging almost to her waist.
She hugged her arms to her chest. “Sir Aldric, I have been waiting for your return.” Her words came out stilted through chattering teeth.
A quick scan of her cell revealed its barrenness. She had no blanket, not even a cloak to keep her warm. Although the July day was hot, the temperatures down in the bowels of the earth were always cold and damp.
That she was in the dungeons instead of one of the tower rooms made me angry enough. Surely a woman of her stature should have been given the honor of staying in the tower. The accommodations were sparse but would have been brighter and warmer. To find her here in the dark and cold without any comforts turned my stomach. We weren’t brutes, and we would treat ladies, even those accused of thievery, with the respect they were due.
In two long strides, I was at the base of the stairs calling up to my men, “I want several blankets and a cloak brought to me at once.” I would, in fact, take her to the tower just as soon as I had the chance to speak to Pitt regarding the transfer.
In the meantime, I would provide her with warmth and light.
“Has anyone fed you?” I said returning to the grate and studying her through the darkness.
“Yes,” she stammered, her body visibly shaking. “Several of your men have done what they could to alleviate my discomfort.”
I could guess which of my men had done so, and I would reward them later. For now, I needed to release her from the dungeons. I stalked back to the stairs. “Bring me the keys to the cells.”
“Lady Glynnis has the keys,” Sir Darien called down. “She has made it known that she plans to keep them until it’s time for Lady Olivia to receive her punishment.”
I wanted to curse Lady Glynnis but swallowed my retort. What reason did her ladyship have to get involved? Had Olivia done something to offend her?
“Where are those blankets?” My voice rose to a shout, but I didn’t care.
“They are on the way, sir.”
“Send a servant to fetch a hot meal and warm ale for the lady.”
“Right away, sir.”
I returned to the cell to find that Olivia had moved to the grate and stood only a half a dozen paces away. At the proximity, I could see the smudges of dirt on her pale face, the bits of hay and dust that coated her gown, the evidence that she’d attempted to cover herself with the stale straw for warmth. Her body still shook even as she rubbed her hands over her upper arms in a futile effort to elicit heat.
I was tempted to peel off my hauberk and offer her the tunic underneath. But I was layered in dust and sweat and my garments would smell of the sourness of my travels.
“Come here.” I beckoned her closer as I placed the torch in the wall mount.
Thankfully she obeyed without her usual questions or resistance. I reached through the bars, took hold of her arms, and began to slide my hands up and down. Even through the layer of sleeve fabric, her body gave off a chill.
If the bars hadn’t stood between us, I would have pulled her into my arms and gladly given her my own heat.
“Here are the blankets, sir.” Sir Darien’s voice echoed down the corridor, and his footsteps slapped the stairs in his haste.
I released Olivia long enough to grab the blankets and when I returned to her cell, I rapidly unfolded the first coarse linen and wrapped it around her. When I finally had her bundled beneath three blankets, I began rubbing her arms again, this time over the wool.
“How is that?” I asked.
“Much better,” she said, her voice less wobbly. She was leaning against one side of the bars and I leaned against the other, the cold beams the only thing standing between us. “I am most grateful.”
In the quietness of the dungeons, my breathing was heavy and hers was jagged, filling the thin space between us.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to prevent you from being locked up down here,” I whispered.
“I brought this upon myself,” she whispered back.
“Then Lady Glynnis’s accusations are true?”
“I was in Lord Pitt’s treasury,” she conceded. “But I was not stealing. At least not at the moment they found me.”
“Lord Pitt will find you guilty for simply being in his treasury.”
“I suppose that is what Lady Glynnis would like to see happen.”
My pulse gave a lurch. If what my men told me was true, then Pitt had already declared Olivia guilty based on Lady Glynnis’s testimony, and made plans to execute her.
I released Olivia’s arms. “I must go speak with Lord Pitt.”
She lifted shaking hands as if she meant to grab hold of me.
Again as before, I reached through the grates. This time, I grasped her hands in mine. Her fingers were frigid. I pulled them through the bars at the same time that I bent and breathed out hot air over her fingers.