The Irish Princess by Karen Harper Read Free Book Online

foolish to think our people—and our enemy too—would not panic when he came up missing, I thought, but I said only, “I wish you were being sent to our uncles or kin, not to Christopher’s family.”
    “Collum said the same, so mayhap . . .”
    Gerald raised both reddish eyebrows and put his finger to his lips, as we had so oft done to avoid saying something in front of Cecily that she could tat-tale to Mother. Gerald squeezed my hand before Christopher pulled him away. In the wan lantern light I saw tear tracks glistened on Magheen’s face as she gave a final wave to her husband. She came to me, and we stood arm in arm to see our dear ones swallowed by the maw of that dark tunnel. One of Christopher’s most trusted men, fully armed, led the way, and Christopher himself, stooped down, thrust a cobweb away and brought up their rear.
    About an hour later, I realized with wonderment that the siege guns had gone suddenly silent, as if mourning the loss of not only Father and Mother, my sisters and Edward, but now Gerald too. Despite Magheen, the others around me, and the garrison defending us overhead, I had never felt more alone.
     
    “Wake up! Gera, wake up!” Magheen whispered, and shook my shoulder. She was on her knees beside me. I ached all over from sleeping on thin straw and floor stones, but I came instantly alert. And realized the guns were still silent on both sides. Bodily and emotionally exhausted, I had fallen into the first solid sleep I’d had in days. Then I remembered—Gerald and Collum were gone.
    “What is it?” I asked, my pulse pounding as I elbowed myself to a sitting position. Wynne raised his big head as he lay beside me.
    “Some sort of truce, I hear. One of the garrison told a cook’tis some sort of arrangement between Christopher and the English.”
    “He didn’t give them Gerald as a hostage, did he?”
    “Sh! I’ll be getting in trouble for so much as warning you, but no, wasna that. A strange man just came through here with a lantern, looking in every corner of the cellars, searching for Gerald, I think, so the English must be searching the castle for him. The stranger said with a snort, ‘Only women,’ and went back upstairs.”
    “You should have wakened me. Maybe it was a man brought in to talk about Christopher’s terms to get Thomas a pardon, and he wanted to see whether Gerald or Thomas was here.”
    She shook her head. “By Saint Brigid, there’s worse news.”
    “What then?” I whispered.
    “’Tis not yet dawn, and the fog’s thick as pudding outside, but’tis said Christopher indeed got Gerald and Collum away, then sent his man with a white flag to speak to the English general.”
    “That’s what I said. He’s found a way to parley with the—”
    “No. He’s invited more than just one of the English in, that he has.”
    “It was a flag of surrender?” I gasped. “To the Gunner?”
    “We’ve let you sleep several hours, but we’ve been praying Thomas gets word and that there’s to be pardons all ’round. But the garrison man told the cook that our braw constable Christopher be taking money for it too, as well as the enemy’s promise that he can remain in command.”
    “Better Christopher than the whoreson English!” I hissed, using one of Father’s curse words. Ignoring Magheen’s gasp at what I’d said, I shoved my feet into my shoes.
    “Wherever are you going? You must stay hidden here.”
    “I’ll not. Only a girl, not the heir, I know,” I said, getting to my feet and pushing past Magheen, who made a grab for my skirt. I could hear Wynne’s claws scrabbling on the floor as he fell in behind me like my shadow. “Stay here!” I ordered Magheen instead of Wynne, and let the dog follow me upstairs. I looked tousled and wrinkled, but I had to know what was going on.
    I climbed halfway up the narrow, twisting stairs to the great hall and, with a sigh of relief, saw a man in Fitzgerald livery on guard there. Torches set in wall sconces