The other girl smiled. “Then you’d better start brushing your hair a bit more often and wearing better clothes.”
“Must I, in faith?” So she could either be a castle or a coiffure and a dress. Was Susannah right? Was this how Simon saw her? And Brautus, too—his first thought had been that Simon was trying to charm her to get at Charmot. “Enough,” she decided. “I am going downstairs.”
Simon rode back over the drawbridge at a gallop, following the wagon Kevin had driven ahead. “They’re here!” he heard someone shout from the battlements. “They’re home!”
Kevin’s wife, Hannah, rushed out to meet them, throwing herself into her husband’s arms as soon as his feet touched the ground. “It’s all right, girl,” he soothed her with a laugh, hugging her close even so. “We never saw a thing.”
Isabel walked out onto the steps, silently counting the cottagers as the women and children climbed down from the wagon into the arms of their men. Everyone seemed to be accounted for, even ancient Mother Bess, Kevin’s grandmother, who had not left her own hearthside for as long as Isabel had been alive. “We brought them all, my lady,” Raymond said, coming to join her. “Most had already heard and were glad enough to come, once they had an escort to protect them, and Sir Simon convinced the rest.”
“Did he, in faith?” Simon was still on horseback; indeed, he looked as if he had been born in the saddle, as if he and Malachi were one. So why had he arrived at Charmot with no horse of his own? “How did he do that?”
“He told them the woods were not safe, and that you had charged him with the duty of bringing them into the castle,” Raymond answered. “I cannot tell you how it convinced them, but it did. Blind old Mother Bess had already told her own grandson to sit on an acorn and hatch an oak, that she’d not be run out of her home by any beastie, wolf or not. But when Sir Simon spoke with her, she said, ‘As you will, my lord,’ as pretty as you please.”
Simon saw Isabel watching him and waved. She had changed her gown, he saw, and her hair was different, and when she waved back, she almost smiled. But something was still troubling her, he could tell. Something more than a wolf in the forest. As he watched, Orlando emerged from the castle as well. He touched Isabel’s arm and spoke to her, but his eyes were on Simon, their meaning unmistakable. They didn’t have time to rescue peasants, not with the Chalice so close and another vampire so close on their trail.
They had seen evidence of others of Simon’s cursed kind many times before, often at the very haunts they had chosen to search themselves on their quest for the Chalice. But none had ever killed so near to them or so openly as this. Whoever had killed the girl at the church had found her less than a day after Simon had fed from her himself. Out of this whole countryside, his rival had found the same prey. It was a warning, a threat. For the sake of the people of Charmot as much as for their quest, he and the wizard could not linger here.
One of the women from the wagon had a small child, barely more than an infant, and seeing her, Isabel left Orlando with a happy cry of greeting. She took the little one from his mother and lifted him high in the air, both of them laughing, and what passed for a heart in the vampire’s chest clenched more tightly than a fist. What madness was he playing at to even speak to this girl? What could he give her but pain, and what sort of monster would he be if he pretended otherwise?
Isabel kissed little Euan on either cheek and handed him back to his mother. “He’s beautiful,” she said. “Come, bring him inside.” Simon had dismounted, throwing the reins to Kevin, and was coming toward her fast, his face set with a grim, determined scowl. “Raymond said you brought them all,” she said as he reached her.
“I suppose,” he answered, barely meeting her eyes. “Everyone seems to be safe.” He walked past her to Or lando. “Come, wizard; we’ve lost too much night already.”
“Simon, wait.” She put a hand on his arm, and he started as if she had struck him. “I need to talk to you,” she reminded him, confused. “You said—”
“I can’t,” he cut her off. “I’m sorry, my lady, but we have no time to lose. My quest is too important.” He looked at her at last, and she saw anguish in his eyes, the same pain she had seen there his first night at Charmot when he told her of his curse. “You must forgive me—”
“I won’t,” she cut him off in turn. “I can’t.” The others were moving past them into the castle, and she lowered her voice, not wishing to be overheard. “Simon, Charmot must have your help, not as a cursed scholar but as a knight.”
“I cannot be a knight,” he said. “I told you—”
“Then you’re going to have to pretend.” Kevin and Hannah passed up the steps and through the arch, among the last to go in. “You’ve made a good show of it already tonight.”
“I know, and I should not have done it.” Orlando had joined them, but he said nothing. “But you needed to bring those people inside—”
“Yes, we did,” she agreed. “Now we need to protect them, to protect Charmot.” She let go of his arm. “I’m sorry, Simon; I know how dearly you want to break this curse of yours, and I want to help you. But you will have to help me first.” She took a deep breath, bracing herself to go against a lifetime of conditioning. He was a nobleman, her kinsman; she was supposed to obey him or at the very least keep out of his way. But she could not. “I will not give you the key to the catacombs until you hear what I have to say and promise you will help me.”
Simon could hardly believe what he was hearing. This innocent girl, this delicate creature he feared so to harm, was telling him he had no choice but to do her bidding, his own desires be damned. “And if I refuse?”
“You and Orlando can go.” Her little jaw was set; her mouth was a thin, determined line even though her lower lip was trembling. “Orlando didn’t seem to think the wolf we saw was any threat to you; I shall pray God he was right.”
She was serious; that much he could not doubt. How she meant to eject them from her castle was a mystery, though he supposed Kevin and the others would come to her aid if called. “You cannot turn me out,” he said, using a touch of his vampire powers of persuasion, a talent that had already served him more than once that night. “I am your kinsman.”
“What use is a kinsman who will not help me when I need him?” she answered, looking him square in the eye.
“She has a point, master,” Orlando said slowly, and Simon thought he could detect the faintest hint of laughter in his tone. “Besides, what harm can there be in listening to her request?”
Everyone else was finally gone from the courtyard; the three of them were alone. “Where is the key?” Simon asked.
“Why?” she said, taking a step back. “Would you take it from me?”
“Of course not.” He shook his head, nonplussed. In truth, he didn’t know if he should be angry or amused, the vampire held hostage by a redheaded slip of a girl. “I just thought perhaps Orlando might take it and begin his study while I hear your suit.”
Isabel reached into her pocket but didn’t take out the key. ?
??And you will do as I ask?”
“If it is within my power, yes.” She still didn’t look convinced. “You cannot expect more than that.”