Once Upon a Castle - Jill Gregory [55]
“Yes, oh, yes, that’s good.” A smile bloomed across her face. “And once you get him out?”
“Sir Castor’s men will have horses ready. They’ll make for the drawbridge with him and stop for nothing. I’ll remain here, still in disguise.”
“No, you must go, too,” Arianne cried, fear bright in her eyes as she stared up at him. “Nicholas, they’ll be hunting for you…”
“I’m not leaving without you. Or without bringing Julian to his knees,” he replied quietly. His eyes lit with ruthless anticipation. “I’ll wait until Marcus and the others have marshaled our combined forces. When the signal for the attack is given, I’ll be well positioned to draw my sword against Duke Julian.”
She was silent. The immense danger looming before them lay like a rock upon her heart. Through the flickering candlelight, she studied Nicholas’s face, the fierce scar, the harsh readiness in his gray hawk’s eyes.
“What can I do?” she asked steadily, suddenly realizing that after this night she might never see him again. Anything might happen once their plan was set in motion. Anything at all…Death could come swiftly to him, to Marcus, even to herself.
“Keep close to Duchess Katerine. If fighting breaks out, lock yourselves in her rooms and stay there—“He broke off, frowning. “I recognize that look, Arianne. You don’t intend to follow a word of my instructions, do you?”
Her chin lifted higher. Violet eyes locked with his gray ones, reflecting back an implacability every bit as firm as his. “I promise to look after Katerine as best I can, but if fighting breaks out, I will not hide in a corner. If I have a chance to run Duke Julian through, I’ll seize it!”
“All hell you will!” Nicholas dragged her to him with a roughness born of alarm. “You stay away from Julian. He’s ruthless and he would cut you down, woman or no, without a second glance.”
“Not if I drove a blade through his evil heart first!”
Fury swept across his face and smoldered in his eyes. His fingers tightened around her wrists painfully, but Nicholas didn’t notice how fierce his grip was until she winced. He let her go and stepped back, studying her with a darkening expression that had been known to strike terror into the hearts of armed and helmeted men. But she met his gaze unflinchingly.
“Arianne, if you don’t give me your word, I’ll have to lock you in the tower room. There’s no way in hell I’ll leave you to get yourself killed while I’m busy breaking Marcus out of the dungeon—“
“Tower room? What tower room?”
“Don’t change the subject,” he told her impatiently.
“I’m not, but…the gypsy said something to me about the tower room today. I’d forgotten about it until just now.”
“What did she say?”
“She just whispered something about the tower room. Oh, and something about the blue panel.”
Nicholas’s mouth tightened. “Now how would she know that? There is a secret door, opened by pressing on the blue panel near the stairway. Few know of the tower room. It is a sort of royal dungeon. My great-grandfather kept his enemy, the Earl of Axwith, a prisoner there for nearly three years until a kingly ransom was paid. One hundred years ago, a royal prisoner went mad after being confined there and threw himself out of the tower window onto the stone courtyard below. I thought at first that perhaps Julian would have kept Marcus there instead of in the dungeon.”
“He is not so thoughtful.” Arianne paced up and down the length of the small chamber, her feet whispering over the rushes. Candlelight gilded her hair, and the shadows thrown by her delicate strides played across her daintily elegant features. “I wonder why the gypsy told me of it,” she mused.
“Perhaps she knew that it was your destiny to be shut away there for the duration of this siege, if you will not give me your solemn oath to keep away from the danger.”
He gripped her around the waist, and without thinking his