Wooing Kate

Chapter: Three

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As soon as Adhemar had gone, Wat yelling a rude retort after him, all eyes turned to Roland. Will closed the door, giving him a serious expression that Roland thought privately was improper for his face. Will's face was better suited for smiles and laughter than anything else. Roland was the serious one, Will the optimist and Wat....Well, Wat was something else. What that was, Roland was still trying to figure out. "What?" He wished he could avoid having to tell Kate's tale and his part in her flight.

"Care to elaborate on Kate and our visitor, Roland?"

He considered the question with the gravest of sincerity. "What's my other option?"

Will blinked. "Roland."

A glance at the others showed them all keenly interested in his answer. Hell, he thought. Why couldn't that man have not come here after her? "Kate's gotten herself in a muddle."

"The sort of muddle with Adhemar involved is highly serious. He's not a man for anyone to cross." Geoff returned to his chair, resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands together. "Kate knows better than to do anything for him."

Roland ran a hand along his neck, massaging the slowly tightening muscles. This was going to be a long morning. Jocelyn and Christiana were sitting on the edge of the bed, Wat digging in to the platter that everyone had lost interest in and Will was still standing staring at him in expectation. "She don't when she's drunk."

Silence. Then Christiana said, "Kate was drunk and she...what? She went with him?"

"Sort of."

"She either did or she didn't." Will crossed his arms, frowning now.

Roland sighed. He'd rather sink into mud and die than explain. "Kate went to bed with him and fled before he told her she could go. Germaine came a bit ago and she left with him. He's running away as well."

"Kate confided in you?" Jocelyn asked.

Now was the hard part. Now he had to admit that he'd told Kate not to run, told her to go back and be a whore for the man so he'd leave the rest of them alone. God help him, he didn't want to admit it. Roland nodded. He'd blurt it out, just let the words fall from his tongue. Don't think about it, man. Say it and maybe they won't blame you. "I told her she should return to him." There, that wasn't so terribly bad.

Silence again. Painful, gut-wrenching silence. No, it wasn't bad, it was horrible.

Christiana's gaze turned so icy that Roland shivered in response. She raised a brow and pasted a little, cool smile upon her lips. "Did you just admit to telling Kate to go back to that man?"

He could foresee many long, lonely nights on the horizon if her expression was any indication. He could kiss being anywhere near her bed goodbye. The temperature in the room had gotten suddenly colder. "I did."

She gave an outraged snort, getting up and turning her back to him. Jocelyn's expression was equally outraged and both Geoff and Will's mouths were open as they stared in disbelief. Wat on the other hand, seemed disgusted, but not at Roland.

"Kate and Adhemar? Oh ick."

"Don't give me those looks, all of you. We don't need more trouble and you know that. You'd have done the same in my place." In desperation, wildly rationalizing, he turned to Jocelyn. It wasn't like she'd become bosom friends with Kate. "Lady Jocelyn, you'd have tossed her into his arms as long as it meant you'd stay free of him."

"Don't even presume to think what I'd do, Roland." Jocelyn was quick to reply. "I'd not hand over a friend to that man, no matter the consequences. You did simply that. You told her to go back and be his...his...toy. Such insensitivity is unlike you."

"Since when is Kate your friend? You've not talked with her for any length of time that I've noticed." A valid question, but perhaps one he shouldn't have uttered. He was beginning to become very good at shoving his feet in his mouth today. Christiana whirled, stormed by him and out the door, slamming it behind her.

"Not prudent, my good man," Geoff muttered on his way to the door, pausing only to pat Roland's back in apparent sympathy.

"She came to you for counsel and you betrayed her." Jocelyn was furious, expression twisting with her anger.

"How did I betray her? She should have stayed where she was and left when he'd finished with her."

Jocelyn's face flushed and Will stepped between them. "Enough. Jocelyn, calm down."

"I will not calm down," she spat out. "Kate is out there without a friend right now, running from Adhemar. From Adhemar. And Roland --"

"Roland was trying to protect the rest of us." His hands grasped her shoulders, squeezing.

"Going about it the wrong way!"

Roland looked away from Will soothing his lady. Wat still ate, his bites slow. Going to the table, Roland joined him, snatching up a piece of bread and nibbling at it. He listened with half an ear as Will defended him. Telling Kate to go back had made sense at the time. It still made sense. It made perfect sense to him. If Kate had stayed there, or gone back, then the man wouldn't look their way. He hadn't been as sensitive as usual, he'd agree on that, but Kate was a grown woman, not a girl. She hadn't led a pampered life and knew she'd have to suffer consequences for her actions.

"If I'd paid her more attention she'd have not gone." Wat licked his lips, wiped them with a cloth and sniffed. "She was all over me in the tavern last night."

Jocelyn focused on those words, turning from Will. "You let her go with him, Wat? You sat there and watched her leave with that man and didn't stop her?"

Wat shook his head. "I didn't even see her with him at all."

"You likely saw nothing but your food, yes?" Will snatched the last piece of bread from the platter and handed it to Jocelyn. "You'd better help Geoff calm Christiana."

"Christiana doesn't need me to calm her. I need her to calm me!"

"Please, Jocelyn." In moments, the lady was gone and Roland was left with Wat and Will. The three of them had been together for long enough that Roland knew what was coming next. Will was going to sit and ask what Roland wasn't telling. True to his expectations, the younger man did just that, sitting and folding his arms on the table top. "Tell me the rest, Roland. I don't know how long before they return."

"There's little to tell. Kate slept with him and ran. The herald, Germaine, came and said he'd help her."

Will shook his head. "Adhemar's herald suddenly picking up and leaving his posting? It doesn't smack true. Could it have been a trick? Could he have been given orders to lure her away?"

Wat sat back, a half eaten apple slice in his hand. "Adhemar came here though. He was looking for her."

"True." Will stared at the table. "I don't trust the herald. All I know of him is what I saw at tournament. Kate could be in danger. He could be leading her straight to Adhemar and the man's visit here an attempt to goad us into following and getting into a fight."

All three sank into silence, contemplating that possibility. If Germaine's actions were false and Kate walked straight into Adhemar's hands, she would never forgive Roland.

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"How free are you really?"

Kate wrapped her arms about her knees, resting her chin on one knee. They'd stopped for the night, braving making a tiny fire, and now discussed the subject of freedom, something Germaine had been mentioning throughout their long ride.

"There are differing levels of freedom for each station."

She frowned. There was freedom and there was servitude and little in between. "Explain."

He took a deep breath. "What is true freedom? Consider the noble. He has riches, titles, monetary wealth and prestige. He comes and goes as he pleases. Is he free?"

Kate tossed a twig on the fire, considered the question. In comparison to a peasant, yes a noble was free. A noble was the freest of men. "Yes."

Germaine nodded his head. "Very well. Now look at the highest class of servant, the man's steward perhaps. That man has prestige within the household. He's well-paid and is a trusted confidante of the noble. He can go about at ease as long as he anticipates the needs of his lord first. Is he free as well?"

"No." She sighed. "Not at all. He's a part of the household, subject to his lord's whims." There was the barest trace of a sad smile on the man's lips and he looked more melancholy as the evening progressed.

"Are you free Kate? Do you look at your life and believe you are free?"

"Yes. I'm indebted to none. My business can go where I go." A stab of pain struck her breast at the thought of having left her tools of trade behind. Unfortunately, there'd been no time to gather them and pack them securely. She knew Will would see them taken care of for her once he saw she'd not taken them. "I'm not tied to one household --"

"Oh?" He turned his head, gaze as sad as that smile she'd glimpsed. "You're indebted to Sir William. You serve him. I've seen you."

Kate gave a laugh and a vehement shake of her head, reaching up and gathering her hair, flipping it over her shoulder. "No, I'm not. I don't serve Will. We're friends. He gave me a chance when none would and we became friends. I stayed for the friendship. It's lonely without friends."

His attention returned to the small fire and he sat back against the tree trunk. "I know. The wanting of a friend, of kindred spirits can make a man do things he should not." Before she could answer, he rushed on. "Freedom then. To consider if a man is free, you must look for the cage that surrounds him. There are cages about each station, whether we realize it or not."

She listened closely. The only noble she'd had a chance to speak with honestly was Jocelyn and she'd found the woman quite unlike her assumptions of her. Jocelyn was bored with nobility, bored with her place in life. Class distinction meant little to her. She preferred to judge people on what she learned on them and not what wealth they had. Titles didn't impress her, nor supreme wealth. If it had, she'd have never bothered with Will in the first place. She'd have jumped at Adhemar in a second because of his wealth and title.

"The cage about the noble is harder to see than that about others, but look close and it is there. He has money and all the things that can bring about feelings of happiness. That happiness is false though, hollowed out and fleeting. It's not real, therefore, he spends his life in one pursuit, one conquest after another, searching for some thing that will give meaning and put light to his life. He is jealous of those who find true, unspoiled happiness, for he doesn't understand that all his wealth and power won't buy him that which he craves. He's a spoiled child, never maturing into what he could have been, trapped in the cage of his nobility."

Adhemar. The thought surfaced in her mind that Germaine was explaining Adhemar to her. Why even bother?

"The servant, that steward, the herald....What is his cage? The biggest part of his confinement is to be subject to every inconsistent, selfish whim of his spoiled lord. He thinks himself happy and content, indispensable to his lord, yet semi-disposable at the same time. He has no trouble walking the fine, thin line he must, until one day, a group of people come into the periphery of his vision and he finds he's been blind to his own cage."

A hardness came into his voice, a rage that Kate realized this seeming gentle man had kept hidden. Hidden emotion could cause festering wounds and the emotion bursting forth now made her wonder how deep and how long the wounds Adhemar had given Germaine had been rotting. What had the man done to his herald that caused this hate?

"The herald considers all those things denied him for years, things he hadn't questioned at the time, such as insultingly casual announcements of the deaths of dear family members. He looks at the things he'd been called to remain silent on. Men followed for no reason save they annoyed his lord. Women maneuvered into his chambers, and not only peasant women, but pretty noble women as well. Lady Jocelyn was one day away from being stolen and finding herself in his private chamber at the inn." He paused, giving his next words extra emphasis. "A lance tipped."

What could she say? She had no words to make things right for him.

"I watched." He moved from pretense into the meat of it. No longer was this a vague discussion of hypothetical people, but one about him. "I watched William Thatcher win where countless others had failed. He gained a new life for himself through his determination. He didn't allow himself to be held back from becoming what he greatly wished to be. He changed his stars and I knew right then, when Alain Adhemar lay in the dust on that field that I could find the courage within me to do the same."

Will had inspired him, that's what he was trying to say. He'd inspired Germaine to do for himself. It was heartening to know that Will had given someone the resolve to change himself. "So you seized the moment when Adhemar sent you to find me."

"Yes." He nodded, smiling. "I left everything I had there, save the little bit I took from my room, the money purse and that bag. I am a pilgrim, embarking on a new life. I will not stop until I am far from the reach of my lord Adhemar."

"Then we are both pilgrims, for I've left my trade supplies behind and have nothing but what's in my bag here." She patted the cloth beside her.

Germaine got up, came to her and crouched down. "Have you coin, Kate?"

"A little. I've enough to get me home should I wish to go that direction."

"Where is your home? You mentioned Scotland."

She looked away. Scotland was her original home, where she'd grown up, but now....Now her home was wherever her friends were. Since she couldn't go back there, she'd have to find a new home. "I'm not ready to go home yet. I'm still up for adventure."

Brave words and untrue. Kate no longer wanted the adventure of life on the road. With her husband, it had been her lot to travel with him and ease his burden and then after his sudden death, it had been her plight to try and earn enough to get back to Scotland. That had been a destination point to labor for.

But then she'd met William Thatcher. Germaine's life wasn't the only one changed by coming into contact with Will. Kate had found herself most changed by the contact. She'd softened under the gentle teasing the men set forth upon her, gradually admitting her feminine side when she realized they appreciated her for it as well as for her harder side. She'd come to enjoy their friendship and the thought of leaving it behind brought tears to her eyes. She'd hoped to set up shop when Will and Jocelyn married, plying her trade wherever they were.

"Here." Gemaine opened the money purse, pouring out several coins onto the blanket beside her. "Take these. If we should be separated, I'll know you can get home without worries of finances. I won't worry as much for you."

She scooped the coins back towards him. "Nonsense. You've no cause to worry for me. I can take care of myself."

His gaze traveled her face, concern there. "Please, Kate. Take them. Give my mind rest on this matter. I would see you somewhere safe any way I can and if that means giving you coin, then so be it."

He wanted her to take it. He meant his words. Kate hesitantly gathered the coins, which were a considerable amount, and slipped them into her bag. "Very well." The matter was settled and they slipped into an easy silence.

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What was it that had awakened him? Germaine opened his eyes, heart beating fast in his chest. There, a twig snapping nearby. Someone was out there. It wasn't a random snap, but the crunch of a man's weight upon branches as he crept stealthily forward. Slowly, and as quietly as he could, Germaine rose from his makeshift bed, senses all alert.

Better become used to this, he thought. For the rest of his life he'd be looking over his shoulder, searching the road behind him for Adhemar. His freedom had a price and that price was his peace of mind. Going around the smoldering fire, he knelt beside Kate, shaking her. She gave an annoyed snort. He shook her harder, whispering her name as loud as he dared. Still, she didn't wake.

With a long sigh, Germaine stood. He'd have to go alone. Unsheathing his knife, he stepped into the dark of the forest around them.