Silent Bells: Homeward IX Read online

  Her half-mad words were beginning to slur, and she seemed to be clinging to Jan partially to keep from falling.

  Nadja rose to her feet, staring at her son in horror.

  Julianna was numb. This Gisele wasn’t some peasant girl with whom Jan had flirted. Her dress was silk, and she had left her home and walked a good distance… believing Jan to be in love with her.

  Nadja appeared beyond speech, and in her place, Julianna fought to force one of her own feet to move. It did. The other foot followed.

  Walking silently across the room, she kept her eyes on Jan as he watched her coming. He looked as if he was about to be sick, but he still did not push Gisele away. Instead, he was holding her up now.

  Shaking his head, Jan whispered, “Julianna, don’t think… please don’t think—”

  “Doreena,” Julianna interrupted, keeping her voice impassive. “This lady is weary and ill. Could you and Belle take her upstairs to a bed and bring her broth and tea?”

  Her words broke the spell in the hall.

  Doreena came bustling over. “Yes, yes, of course. Belle, come and help me! Sari, you fetch the broth and tea.” Reaching out, she took Gisele’s small shoulders in her hands. “Come, my dear. You need to lie down.”

  For just an instant, Gisele allowed herself to be drawn away, and then she pulled free and clutched at Jan again. “No! I won’t be parted again!”

  With his face nearly white, Jan suddenly picked her up as if she weighed no more than a kitten and started for the stairwell leading up. “Aunt Doreena, come with me,” he said over his shoulder. “Julianna… go up to my parents’ room. I’ll join you shortly.”

  Then he was up the stairs and out of sight.

  Julianna stared after him in silence, unable to think, unable to feel until something touched her shoulder. Turning, she found Zupan Cadell standing beside her with bleak eyes.

  “Come, my girl, upstairs with Nadja and me… and Jan will join us shortly.

  Somehow, again, Julianna put one foot in front of the other.

  · · · · ·

  Jan was desperate after settling Gisele in his own bed, as he wasn’t about to put her in Julianna’s. He left her in his aunt’s care and went straight to his parents’ bedroom, knowing Julianna would be waiting there for him.

  As of yet, he had no idea what he was going to say. If he’d ever been able to explain what he’d once done to Gisele, he’d have done it a long time ago.

  Opening the door to his parents’ room, he was caught off guard at the sight of not only Julianna, but his mother and father as well. His father’s face was like a thundercloud, and his mother stared at him there in the doorway as if she didn’t know him.

  “Jan,” she whispered.

  Julianna didn’t look at him.

  “Who is this woman?” his father demanded.

  Jan wanted to back out, run, and hide until the right words came to him.

  But he didn’t step out. With slow breath, he entered and closed the door.

  “Gisele is the wife of Lieutenant Braeden, an Äntes nobleman who conscripted me,” he began quietly. “I couldn’t see a way out… couldn’t see a way to free myself… until we stopped for the night at his family manor. I talked my way in by promising to provide entertainment… music… card tricks… and then saw his wife was young and how badly he treated her. I knew I’d be able to use her.”

  “Use her?” his mother whispered, coming closer. “What do you mean?”

  Jan closed his eyes. He’d never wanted anyone to know about this, about what he’d done. But the rest of his life was on the line now, and he had to try to explain.

  “I made her believe I loved her and convinced her run away with me. When she went upstairs to pack, I told her husband what she was doing and, that unless he set me free, I’d make sure everyone in the house, including the other officers, knew that his wife had agreed to run away with a half Móndyalítko peasant.” Jan stared at a spot on the wall. “He’s a proud man. I knew he could never allow that to happen… so he let me go.”

  “And you just abandoned the girl,” Cadell asked. “You left her to face her husband?”

  “I had to,” Jan stated flatly, still not looking at anyone. “I had to get home… to all of you.”

  “How did she know where you live?” Julianna asked.

  “I told her that my father was the vassal of the keep here. I needed to convince her that I could take care of her.”

  The words coming out of his own mouth were making him ill, but these three people, the people who he loved most had not been there. They could not possibly understand what he’d faced and that he would have done anything to escape.

  Anything.

  “So now she’s run away from her husband and come to find you,” his mother asked, “thinking that you’d been sent away against your will and that you indeed still love her?”

  “I don’t know what she…” he snapped, and then realized there was no avoiding this. “Yes,” he bit off.

  “We’ll have to cancel the wedding tomorrow,” Julianna said.

  “What?” His head jerked toward her as anger flooded through him. “No! I won’t have you use this as an excuse to punish both of us!”

  “Do you wish for that young woman to have arrived here,” she asked, “believing you’re deeply in love with her… after leaving her husband and her home, only to witness your wedding?”

  Her voice was so small and hurt that his anger gave way to fear.

  “I didn’t have a choice, Julianna. It was the only way I could see to escape.”

  When she didn’t answer, he ran a hand over his face, and silence hung too long in the room.

  “Maybe you’re right… about the timing,” he said. “The ceremony should be postponed.”

  “Yes,” Julianna whispered. “Postponed.”

  · · · · ·

  The following morning, out in the courtyard of the keep, Julianna walked slowly beneath a piece of canvas stretched between two Móndyalítko wagons. A number of small tables had been set along each side of the space, just as she had requested. As only a few people yet knew that the wedding would be cancelled, there were vases of autumn wildflowers on every table, along with various little bells that had come from the Móndyalítko themselves.

  Julianna had learned it was a Móndyalítko custom after a wedding for people to ring the bells in celebration.

  Now… those bells would stay silent.

  She still didn’t know what to think or how to feel, although she had learned a few things between last night and this morning.

  Doreena had related that when she undressed Gisele, she’d found numerous bruises and other injuries on the young woman. Someone had been beating her where it would not show. Gisele had escaped by waiting until her husband left for an overnight trip to Enêmûsk. She’d convinced a few of the house guards to take her into the local village for errands. After entering a shop alone, she’d managed to slip out the back and run for the forest with nothing but the clothes on her back. She had walked for days—and nights—to reach Chemestúk.

  This must have taken courage.

  Julianna felt no anger or hatred or blame toward Gisele, but that didn’t alter the fact that everything was different now. Perhaps it wouldn’t be if she’d pressed Jan much sooner about how he had managed to free himself. Her mind slipped back to the day he’d returned—after having been conscripted.

  She’d run down the road to meet him.

  Did you… did anyone else escape with you? She had asked.

  No. I was only able to… and I had to do something… awful… to get free.

  She should have pressed him right then, but she feared that maybe he’d killed someone and didn’t wish to ever tell her. She should have realized he would have been forced to fall back on his real strengths.

  Of course she could forgive him for using one of the few skills he possessed: making women fall in love with him. From everything Gisele had told Aunt Doreena, the young
woman was not a fool if she’d managed to escape her own guards, and yet Gisele believed without a shadow of doubt that Jan loved her deeply. In the span of a single evening, he’d convinced her so completely that she’d risked leaving everything behind out of faith in him.

  Was it possible that Julianna had fallen for the same lie?

  No, Jan loved her… didn’t he?

  She wanted to weep. Why had Gisele come last night of all nights?

  Julianna looked back toward the keep, wondering if she should go inside. She knew she’d need to make a formal announcement that the ceremony had been cancelled. Maybe Zupan Cadell would do it? She hadn’t seen Jan since she’d left him the night before and gone to her room to cry herself to sleep.

  “Julianna!”

  She turned to look toward the courtyard’s gate. One of the village boys, Gideon ran toward her. He was about twelve and quite skinny, with crooked teeth and hair that stood up in the front, but Julianna had always found him quick witted.

  “Get everyone inside,” he shouted as he neared. “Soldiers in yellow tabards are in the village, but now they’re coming up here now!”

  Whirling, Julianna ran to the nearest wagon and pounded on the door. “Wake up! Everyone, get inside the keep! There are soldiers coming!” Looking over her shoulder, she ordered, “Gideon, run and tell the guards in the barracks.”

  · · · · ·

  Jan walked down the stairs to the main hall of the keep, uncertain he was up to facing anyone but knowing he couldn’t hide all morning. With Gisele in his bed, he’d slept on the floor of what had been once been a room for servants.

  He’d not slept well.

  Upon entering the hall, the first person he saw was his father staring back at him with disappointed eyes. Well aware that he’d never win his father’s approval, he found that it really didn’t matter; but he had to fix this.

  Jan looked away and around the hall for Julianna, for only she mattered.

  As of yet, he had no idea what he was going to do about Gisele, but he’d think about that later today. Right now, he needed to know Julianna still loved and trusted him. As long he knew that, he could deal with anything.

  Finishing his scan, he realized she wasn’t here. Only his parents and Aunt Doreena were present, along with a few hired servants from the village who were laying out breakfast.

  Could Julianna still be in her room? That wasn’t like her. She was an early riser by nature, but this was hardly a typical morning.

  He was about to cross the hall to speak to his mother when a loud banging echoed from the open archway leading in from the passage to the front doors. Numerous voices and running feet came next, and then Julianna and Gideon dashed through the archway, followed by Rico, Uncle Rosario, the keep’s six hired guards, and the rest of the Móndyalítko.

  “Soldiers…” Julianna panted, “in yellow tabards… riding up from the village.”

  Jan went cold. The Äntes wore yellow tabards.

  “Jan! Rico! Bar the front doors,” his father ordered. “Rosario come with me up to the tower. Everyone else get below into the cellars.”

  Startled into action, Jan raced for the front doors with Rico on his heels. Over the summer, his father had made some improvements to the keep. With the outer wall crumbling, there was no point to fixing the broken gate, and the cost of fixing the wall was far outside of their yearly stipend. Instead, Cadell had installed two sets of iron brackets on each side of main doors, and he’d had two beams made from solid oak.

  Skidding to a stop in the main entryway, Jan pointed left. “Rico, grab that side.”

  Together, they hefted the first beam into the top pair of brackets and then the second beam into the lower ones. Then they heard pounding hoof beats outside in the courtyard.

  Panting, Rico looked to Jan. “Now what?”

  Jan glanced up the passage before answering. “Up to the tower to join our fathers. I want to see what’s happening.”

  With a knot growing in his stomach, he had a terrible feeling he already knew, though he hoped he was wrong. This could be a coincidence. Anything was possible. Running up the passage ahead, he led the way through an interior narrow arch into a stairwell that went up several stories. They both came out onto the turret of the keep’s single tower to find their fathers already peering down over the keep’s front.

  Cadell and Uncle Rosario leaned out between the stone “teeth” or merlons of the turret. Then Jan saw the men weren’t alone. Julianna had disobeyed the order to go below, and she looked back to Jan.

  “How many?” he asked instantly.

  “I count ten,” she answered in a hush. “One is about to try the doors.”

  Jan crept toward her with Rico following, and he leaned out between two merlons just far enough to look downward. The tower stretched up three stories in height above the two-level keep, but that still left Jan with a clear view of the courtyard and everyone in it.

  There nine men on horseback near the front doors. A tenth horse stood without a rider, and Jan heard pounding on the doors, which he couldn’t see from above.

  “Open up!” a voice ordered. “In the name of Prince Rodêk!”

  Jan’s father leaned out a little too far and called down in a booming voice, “I serve Prince Rodêk, and I don’t know you!”

  Booted footsteps sounded as the leader of the contingent below stepped away from the doors and came into view as he looked up.

  Jan quickly jerked backward out of sight as his breath caught in his chest. One glimpse of the tall man with sandy colored hair and a clean-shaven face was all he needed to confirm his initial fear.

  He’d have recognized Lieutenant Braeden, Gisele’s husband, anywhere.

  As Jan dropped low behind a merlon, he found Julianna watching him.

  “Who are you?” Braeden shouted up.

  “The prince’s appointed vassal of this keep,” Cadell shouted back. “Who in the seven hell’s are you?”

  Jan’s father was not easily intimidated. Unfortunately, neither was Lieutenant Braeden. He was probably the most arrogant man Jan had ever met.

  “If you’re the vassal, then I’m here to arrest your son,” Braeden called.

  “On what grounds?”

  “Desertion.”

  “Ridiculous! The Äntes and the Väränj have declared peace.”

  “You will turn over my wife… and your son, or I will take action.”

  The knot in Jan’s stomach grew. Apparently, Braeden had no intention of arguing the point, and he would have known right where to ride to find Gisele.

  Uncle Rosario leaned out an opening between two of the merlons. “Jan’s not here,” he called down. “He was conscripted last spring and never returned, the gods rot you! And we’ve never seen your wife, so if you’ve lost her, that’s your affair.”

  Braeden was silent for a moment and then spoke in a voice that carried. “You are a liar. I’ve already questioned your villagers. A young woman with red-gold hair arrived last night, and she would have only come here for that half-blood deserter. Bring them both out immediately or you will regret it.”

  Jan went cold as he looked to Julianna. He—and she—knew what “questioned” meant. Braeden had been torturing people in the village… because of Jan.

  When Jan looked up, his father was speechless. Uncle Rosario scowled. Both likely reasoned what had happened in the village.

  “What’s he doing now?” Rosario whispered, looking down again.

  When Jan’s father didn’t answer immediately, he couldn’t help rising and trying to peer down without being seen from below. Two soldiers had dismounted and were using flints to light torches as Braeden pointed to the four Móndyalítko wagons.

  “Bring out my wife and the deserter or I’ll burn those wagons. Then I’ll start on your stables.”

  Julianna gasped, and Jan found breathing difficult. The wagons were the only homes his Móndyalítko mother’s family possessed… and their horses were in the stable. Braeden was a
bout to destroy everything they owned.

  “Touch those wagons, and I’ll have you brought up on charges!” Cadell shouted. “They belong to guests of the keep, and this keep and its holdings are the property of Prince Rodêk.”

  But even from this height, Jan could see a sheen of fury on Braeden’s face. The lieutenant was beyond reason, beyond fear for himself, and he pointed to the largest of the wagons—Rosario and Doreena’s.

  “Burn that one,” he ordered his men with the torches before looking up again. “When the stables are gone, I’ll start on the village.”

  The village.

  “Stop!” Jan called, leaning out so he could be seen. “I’m here! I’m coming down! Just get your men away from the wagons.”

  “No!” Julianna cried. “Jan, you can’t.”

  He ignored her, watching Braeden. The tall lieutenant hadn’t called off his men, and he once more faced the wagons, as if his lust for revenge, for destruction had reached a boiling point, and he didn’t want to stop.

  “Burn those wagons,” Jan shouted, “and I’ll stay in here with Gisele until the end of time!”

  “Halt,” Braeden ordered his men, and finally, he looked up at Jan.

  The hate in his eyes was clear.

  · · · · ·

  For Julianna, what followed was like something out of a nightmare from which she couldn’t awaken. Jan ran down the stairs and the rest of them followed, and then Rico helped him unbar the front doors.

  All Julianna could do was watch.

  The instant the front doors were unbarred, two Äntes soldiers shoved them open and grabbed Jan to drag him outside and tie his hands. They searched him for weapons, removed a dagger from his right boot, and he didn’t even struggle. Worse, she couldn’t understand why Zupan Cadell, Rosario, and Rico were allowing all this to happen.

  Why hadn’t they called up the rest of the men? The keep had six of its own guards in the cellars below. Why weren’t they fighting? Why didn’t Rico turn himself into a great cat and attack those two soldiers gripping Jan?

  “Where is my wife?” Lieutenant Braeden bit off as if the words were difficult to say.

  “She’s inside,” Cadell answered. “Upstairs in bed. I’ll have her brought down.”