“A ruse,” Tate confirmed. “Let Mortimer pursue the army while we remain at Harbottle. While Mortimer is distracted with our army, we will move west to Carlisle. I have eight hundred troops stationed there. We will be amply protected.”
Stephen, listening to the entire exchange, emitted a low whistle. “I refuse to believe that this was not your scheme all along. It is a brilliant plan.”
Tate gave him a lop-sided smile. “You are too kind, old friend. While I do not regret that I have had a new wife occupying my thoughts, I should have seen the situation clearly enough to realize the long-term implications of exposing our army.”
Stephen scratched his forehead. “Not to have realized the folly would have been to allow it to proceed until Edward was compromised.”
Tate merely lifted an eyebrow and moved to the ladder that led down to the bailey. There he would find the Warkworth commander and let the man in on their plans. And then they would remain at Harbottle and wait for the right moment to travel into the west.
It was, in fact, a brilliant scheme as Stephen had said. Tate only hoped it would work.
*
Another storm hadrolled in by the time Tate’s troops, mingled with Warkworth’s, moved out of Harbottle. This time, however, the rain turned to snow. As the black clouds belched great waves of white powder, Tate, Stephen, Kenneth, Edward and Toby watched the army trickle from the bailey from their posts on the second and third floors of the keep. Tate deliberately had his soldiers remove any hint of de Lara colors so that any onlookers would not be able to identify de Lara men from Warkworth men. Warkworth knights rode up at the front of the column, specifically in groups of three. That was because Mortimer’s men would be looking for de Lara plus St. Héver and Pembury. Groups of three knights would confuse them even more.
Wallace, Althel and four men at arms, including the seasoned Morley and Oscar, had also stayed behind. The men at arms were in the great hall below while the others made their way between floors, making sure to stay clear of the windows in case they were spotted by anyone who might be peering at the castle. For all intents and purposes, the castle must be deserted. Tate arranged to have a provision wagon and seven horses left about a mile north of the castle, to be collected by Tate and his party when they determined the time was right to flee the keep. Now they would wait for the cover of darkness.
Toby had been lingering in the master’s chamber, sitting in a chair next to the hearth that they had let die. There was to be no smoke from the fires to give away their presence. Wrapped in the only cloak she had brought from Forestburn, she sat and listened to Tate converse quietly with Stephen. Kenneth was downstairs, watching the landscape from his post in the solar,and young Edward was with him. Dusk was upon them, made even darker with the storm.
At some point, Stephen left Tate to see to things downstairs. Tate remained by the window as the snow blew in, hitting him in the face as wind whipped it into whirlpools in the bailey below. He could see nothing in the fields beyond Harbottle and only a faint line in the distance as his army faded into the night. He knew they were being watched by enemy eyes and his senses were highly attuned.
As Tate watched the nightscape, Toby watched her husband. She inspected the broad lines of his body and felt the power that seemed to radiate from him. It was like the first time she had ever seen him, when the man was in pure battle mode. She was apprehensive but would not let him know; he was edgy enough and she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to distract him. So she amused herself with a stick, using the ashes in the hearth as a drawing board. She drew flowers and birds and animals with no distinct shape. When she tired of her drawings, she would erase them and start again. It was a process that had been going on for hours.
“What are you doing?” Tate looked away from the window. “I can hear scraping from where I am standing.”
She smiled up at him, sheepishly. “Drawing.”
He moved in her direction and took a knee beside her, his mail grating as he moved. He grinned at the half-erased bees and flowers. “You draw delightfully,” he said. “I am sorry I do not have paint or parchment to offer you to stave off this boredom.”
She leaned her head against his, resting the side of her head against his cheek. “I am not bored so long as you are near,” she said. “I am sorry if my drawing bothers you.”
He kissed her forehead and stood up. “It does not,” he said, his mailed hand on her back affectionately. “’Tis I who am sorrythat I cannot offer you a fire. But we cannot chance that the smoke will be seen.”
She shook her head. “You need not apologize. I am quite warm in my cloak.”
He touched her hair, her cheek gently, before returning to the window. Outside, the storm was lashing the sides of the keep and Toby rose from her chair, making her way to Tate as he stood next to the window. She pressed up against his back and he turned slightly, lifting an armored arm and putting it around her. Together, they stood and watched the driving snow.
“Do you really think we are being watched?” she asked softly.
He was standing to the side of the window so that he could not be easily seen by prying eyes. “More than likely.”
“By the same men who burned Forestburn?”
He turned to look at her, reading her fear. “Some of the same,” he turned her back towards the chair. “Sit down, sweetheart, and away from the snow. You shall be in it soon enough when we make our move.”
She let him put her in the chair, watching him as he went back towards the window. “May I ask something?”
“Of course.”
“When all of this is over with, where shall we live?”
He leaned against the wall, his gaze moving outside the window again. “Carlisle Castle, I suppose. Why? Where do you want to live?”
She shrugged, collecting her stick and resuming her drawing. “I have only lived at Forestburn. I never thought I would ever leave.”
“And so you have,” he winked at her when she turned to look at him. “I think you shall like Carlisle Castle. It is a big place and quite comfortable.”
“Do you have other castles?”