Greenwood Knight

Chapter 58

"Come." Erec stood and offered his chair.

"I will not stay long. I only need to tell you that when Hugh's caravan was first spotted, I was summoned to Lord Brecken. When I left there to come to these rooms, I heard voices upon the stair and stepped into a room to listen without being seen. They called themselves Bram, Beck and Remy. It was the one called Bram who's voice I recognized."

"And from where did you recognize this voice?" Berk asked.

"It is a voice that haunted me on many a sleepless night. But... it was the one called Remy that I once speared through the leg with a pitchfork."

Erec clenched the back of the chair and cursed. Gil stood so quickly his chair nearly toppled, but he caught it up and set it hard to rights.

"Am I to understand from your reactions that these men are to be watched?"

"I know not why they are here, but it can only be trouble. I shall let Erec tell you the tale, as I shall leave you now. But first I must depart this also. I deferred that they were hired by a Lord, as they referred to displeasing his lordship. Also, they said that his plan was near its completion and there would be more gold than could be spent in a lifetime."

"They are going to try to kill the king." Cameron said with certainty.

"Or both of them." Erec added grimly.

---

"I am sorry, my lord Bishop." The gate guard said to the old man, withered and dying as he lay upon a bed of first in the back of the covered wagon that was stopped at the gates for inspection prior to entry to the inner courtyard and the festivities within. "But the healer has gone from Brecken. We have a woman who can tend you, but it is not the healer you seek."

"I do not seek a healer, my son." The bishop's voice was surprisingly strong, given the obvious state of his poor health. "I was given these eighty years as a gift and I have spent them in HIS service. I have nothing to regret and no wish to linger. I do, however, wish to speak with his lordship."

"I can send an escort with you to the castle entrance. I shall send a man ahead so that Lord Brecken will meet you there."

"It is not Lord Brecken to whom I refer. I need the Baron of Greenwood. Lord Erec is returned, is he not?"

The guard was impressed. While his body was fragile as the finest blown glass, his mind was still sharp and strong as ever it was in his youth.

"He has returned, my lord Bishop." The guard answered, "That is he WAS returned. Lord Erec has gone away again. No one knows when he left or where he went, only that he has gone from his rooms and his family with him."

"His family?" the bishop inquired, "You mean his wife, the Lady Gwyndolyn?"

"Aye, my lord Bishop." The guard answered, "And the two children. The Lady has a son, Robin, and she has taken an orphaned girl into her heart and home as well."

"It is good to bestow the generous gift of a mother's love upon the motherless child. And his lordship shall be blessed, for it is written that we are to care for the fatherless boys..."

"There is much that his lordship has done that will secure his place in the heavens, my lord bishop. By negotiating this lasting peace betwixt our people and the people of the Far North, he has spared hundreds of souls and preserved our kingdom for generations to come. Surely the Lord will look kindly upon such a one."

"To sue for peace, and to secure it is indeed a great act of goodwill. But only HE can say if his lordship's place is secured, for HE alone can judge a man worthy."