Rexanne Becnel by My Gallant Enemy

Author:My Gallant Enemy
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

12

ON THE FIFTH DAY after Lord Barton’s burial, Corbett and his men were sighted. In an instant the castle was in an uproar of preparation. From the fields and the village everyone in Orrick responded to the tolling of the alarm bell.

Lilliane ran as quickly as she could to the gatehouse. South of the village she could see the knights were at least a league from the castle, yet she had a dreadful foreboding. Despite all the planning she and William had done, she felt unprepared for this confrontation. Corbett would not take this easily—she knew that. He would use every weapon at his disposal to take back Orrick.

But what could he do! she reasoned as she watched the villagers streaming up the hill to the castle. He had only a small group of knights with him. All the rest of his fighting men were securely locked in the donjon beneath the north tower of Orrick.

How furious Sir Dunn had been, she recalled with an unpleasant shiver. No matter William’s accusations and her pointed questions, he had maintained his innocence adamantly. But he’d certainly appeared capable of murder as he’d glowered wrathfully at her.

Remembering his vow that they would never keep Corbett out of the castle, her brow creased in concern. She was not reassured even when William joined her at the battlement.

“Sir Corbett has been bested this time,” William boasted, a grin lighting his smoothly handsome face.

“I would not celebrate too quickly,” Lilliane muttered. Then she sighted two riders leaving the village at a hard gallop.

“Dear God, who is that so far ahead of the rest of them?” She gasped, but she knew—even as she asked the question she knew.

“Raise the bridge! Close the gates!” William shouted, then spat a foul stream of curses for he too recognized the massive lead rider.

Lilliane could not move as she watched Corbett’s rapid approach. He had ridden ahead of the rest of his men. But why? Had he known what she was doing? Had he ridden ahead just to surprise her and foil her plan? If so, he’d come very near to doing just that, she realized as the bridge over the moat finally began to inch upward.

But if he’d known the castle would be closed to him, would he and his men have come riding in so boldly at midday? Wouldn’t they have been more covert and cautious?

A frown creased Lilliane’s brow as she watched her husband. He had clearly been surprised to see the ancient bridge once more being raised against him. As his horse thundered down the last stretch of the hard, gravelly road, the villagers who were now locked out of the castle fled into the fields. When he brought his powerful destrier to a stiff-legged halt at the moat’s bank, Lilliane could feel the fury that emanated from him. It took all her strength not to cringe behind one of the battlements.

But she was a daughter of Orrick, she told herself. And she was right in turning him away.

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