“It’s been so long that I feared he did not seek my return,” she confessed. Only now did she admit to herself how deep her doubts had grown.
“You will be happy to know your husband looks quite ill with worry,” Robert said, lifting her chin with his finger. “I doubt he’s had a full night’s sleep since you were taken.”
It was wrong to feel so pleased that William suffered, too. Of course, Robert could be lying.
“I see you have news for him,” Robert said, letting his eyes drop to the slight swell of her gown.
She smiled. “Aye, the babe should come after Easter.”
Robert turned to the business at hand. “We have two possible plans for getting you released.”
When she heard them, her response was adamant. “He must talk with Maredudd. I will not have harm come to—”
She stopped at the sound of the door creaking. With growing horror, she realized that she had failed to bar the door behind Robert. She watched helplessly as it eased open.
Marged’s head peeked through the opening. Her eyes bulged almost comically, then she leapt into the room and closed the door behind her.
She fixed her gaze on Catherine and began speaking in a rush. “I beg you, do not do it! I know you fear you shall never see your husband again, but I promise you shall. And when you do, you will regret what you are about to do.”
Marged stopped her lecture long enough to cast a good long look at Robert. “I can see the temptation.” It was evident she could, from the way she flushed. “Truly, I can.”
Marged could not seem to drag her eyes away from Robert. Her color deepened when Robert brazenly winked at her.
“ ’Tis true, in your condition you need not worry about bringing another man’s babe home to your husband, but…” Marged’s will to argue her point seemed to fade the longer she stared at Robert.
“Marged!” Catherine said sharply. “This man has not come to bed me! How could you think it?”
Catherine turned to Robert. “You must see we cannot wait. We have to tell her and Maredudd now.”
Robert said in a low voice, “Are you sure this is wise, Catherine?”
She took Marged’s arm. “Robert is a friend who has brought a message from my husband,” she explained as she walked Marged to the door. “Go wake Maredudd and bring him here so we may talk in private while the servants sleep.”
Once Catherine finally convinced Marged to fetch her husband, she turned and found Robert leaning out the window.
“Unless you are certain this Tudor is willing to come to terms with your husband,” he said over his shoulder, “we should make our escape now, before the lady wakes him.”
Though Maredudd’s easy manner might fool some into believing he was not a careful man, Catherine knew better. Robert may not see the guards outside, but they were there.
“What I am certain of,” she said, “is that we would not make the gate.”
Chapter Twenty-six
Aharsh wind blew the rain against William’s face in icy pellets. He’d been keeping watch on the ramparts of the outer curtain wall of Beaumaris Castle since dawn, and he was chilled to the bone. He paced back and forth to keep warm. At each turn, he stopped to squint through the driving rain toward the west.
He looked again. In the dull gray light of the dismal morning, he picked out a lone figure riding toward the castle.
The troubadour was back.
A quarter hour later, he and Robert were conferring in his room in one of the sixteen towers along the outer wall.
“She has been treated well,” Robert assured him again.
William narrowed his eyes at Robert. There was something he was not telling him.
“In sooth, she has grown quite fond of her captors,” Robert said. “She made it clear she wants none of them harmed.”
“She thinks it worth the risk, then, of approaching Maredudd Tudor?”