The Faithful Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

home.”
    Jack shrugged. “I thought good old Richard
got himself captured in Vienna. He ain’t comin’ home any time soon,
mate.”
    “That’s not the point, Jack.” Crispin sighed
and tossed the parchment on the table. “Look, you’re a good Bailiff
and … and the best friend I’ve ever had.” Jack grinned under the
praise and popped an apricot in his mouth. “But if you want to
succeed as a noble you have to learn to play their game. Believe
me. I know.”
    “Oy, and look where that got you, mate.” Jack
argued offering Crispin an apricot. “How long were you Buxton’s
whipping boy before Prince John came along?” Crispin glowered, his
face flaring red. “Sorry,” Jack mumbled an apology. “That was low.
I know you didn’t deserve none of that. Buxton was-”
    “You can deny it all you want,” Crispin
changed the subject with a scowl, “but if you want to keep your
estate and that orchard I know you love so much when King Richard
does come home you have to play along. Men like Gerald of Wyndham
and Stephen of Matlock would just as soon see you hang as call you
their peer.”
    “That’s all well and good,” Jack brushed off
the dire warning, “but don’t we have bigger things to worry about?
Like this emissary for one. What’s he want anyhow?”
    “Money.” Crispin scowled, pushing away from
the table and motioning for Jack to follow him. “It’s always about
money when they send an emissary.” He headed back into the hall,
Jack half a step behind him. “I want him in and out and on his way
as quickly as possible,” he continued his thought as they climbed a
narrow staircase and marched through the hall and along a side
corridor that took them past the chapel and out through the
cloister into the bright Spring morning.
    “Your good friend the Prince say anything
about it in his latest letter?” Jack questioned.
    Crispin frowned. “He’s still blessing his
good fortune that Richard was captured. He seems to think that it’s
just a matter of time before Prince Leopold does him in, leaving
the way open for John to take the throne.”
    “And what do you think?”
    Crispin shook his head. “I think that Prince
John is getting ahead of himself.”
    “Maybe that’s what the emissary is come
about.”
    They strode out into the sunlight of the
courtyard and across it towards the armory. For half a second Jack
thought he saw his brother speeding through the garden. His back
went up and he whipped his head around to look for Ethan and the
others, but no one was there.
    “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Crispin muttered.
If Crispin hadn’t seen anything then there probably wasn’t anything
to see.
    Aubrey was on her way down the wide steps
leading from the castle’s main entrance to the courtyard as they
passed. Crispin stopped to wait for her and Jack scanned the
bustling courtyard, looking for another hint of people who
shouldn’t be there. Ethan and Tom and their friends had been
causing enough trouble in the forest without showing up in Derby on
a day like this. A dozen servants in black and silver were
scurrying about with bundles of supplies for the kitchen, banners
to be hung to spruce the castle up for the emissary’s arrival, and
piles of laundry that the visiting nobs demanded be washed for
them. Two or three of the nobs themselves were loitering around.
When they spotted Crispin they leapt like vultures going after prey
to have a word with him.
    “Oy! Where do you think you’re goin’?” Jack
shouted at one of them, Lord Gerald of Wyndham, the very same
wanker Crispin had just warned him about. He grasped the sword in
his belt for good measure. Ethan and Tom were forgotten.
    Lord Gerald stopped and stared at Jack as
though he were a leper. “I wish to have a word with the Earl.” The
man glanced right past him to address Crispin with a bare half nod
and a reluctant, “My lord.”
    “Not now,” Crispin dismissed the man. “I will
be holding an audience in the Great