Elizabeth Elliott by Betrothed Read Free Book Online Page B

Lonsdale pointed out.
    “They will be in a rage. We will hand them Claudia. I doubt she will last an hour in their keeping. They will not believe anything she babbles in that half-English of hers. Even if some suspect her innocence, they will hang her anyway in their vengeance. Then we may tell the king that Montague’s own men served justice, that they did accept and execute the murderess. Once Claudia dies, we will be beyond the law.”
    “There are Montague’s vassals and family to consider,” Lonsdale mused. “Most especially, his brother. Kenric of Remmington is not a man to accept his brother’s death so lightly.”
    The bishop waved his hand to dismiss the matter. “One does not challenge the word of a bishop without great cost, and his bastard brother has no reason to interfere. He will gain all of Montague when his brother dies without an heir. It will be in his best interest to let the matter rest. He will have his brother’s lands and estates, and we will have his brother’s gold.”
    Claudia knew she had to leave the chamber before shebecame ill. She backed into the passageway with both hands clamped over her mouth. She made a vow her uncle and the evil bishop would never know, one that she would make true or die in the effort. These would be the last tears she shed within Lonsdale.

3
    C laudia pressed her back against the wall of the gatehouse and held her breath. She glanced down and nearly cursed aloud. The two brass goblets she held gleamed like beacons in the moonlight. She thrust them under her dark cloak and watched the shadowy figures of two guards walk across the bailey. They passed less than a dozen paces from her hiding place as they made their way to take the midnight watch in the west tower. Only the sounds of the guards’ footsteps disturbed the silence of the bailey, and those faded away soon enough. She ventured forth once more.
    With the goblets balanced in one hand and the leather flagon of wine tucked into the crook of her arm, she reached for the latch to the gatehouse door. The leather hinges made a small creak and she opened the door just wide enough to slip inside. Darkness greeted her in the passageway, along with the pungent smell of tar and pitch that was stored in the bowels of the gatehouse, kept ready in case of siege. Uncle Laurence might need those defenses soon if her venture tonight proved successful.
    With her free hand held against the wall to steady herself in the dark, she felt her way along the damp stones until she came to the base of a staircase. A rush torch at the top of the steps cast its dim, flickering light down the stairwell. There she hesitated. Once she ascended this staircase, there would be no turning back.
    She was his only hope.
    Guy was her only hope as well. Those thoughts gave her the courage she needed to climb the stairs, to lean around thecorner and peer down the deserted passageway at the top of the steps. If only she had discovered a secret passageway in this part of the castle. A hidden passage or two would be a comfort right now.
    Her slippers made no sound as she walked the length of the flagstone hallway to the next set of stairs. Behind one of the wooden doors that lined the passage she could hear someone snoring. More than a score of soldiers were assigned to gatehouse duty, and if her luck held, all were asleep behind those doors. If not, the wine she carried should take care of any soldiers set to guard the prisoner. There would be only one more place where she might encounter opposition to her plan—outside the chamber on the floor above her. She had visited the chamber once before and knew it to be a luxurious prison, built to hold noblemen captured in tournaments or battles until their families paid their ransom. Tonight it held a man marked for death.
    She had always known Baron Lonsdale was a despicable, greedy man. Until today, she had never guessed the depths to which he would sink. Her own uncle would put her to death without