Elizabeau lay in his arms, sniffling faintly, weeping with the joy and pleasure of it. Rhys held her tightly, his gentle kisses raining on her hair and face, her shoulder, until he felt himself growing hard again and he resumed another round of tender thrusts. Elizabeau moaned softly as he moved within her once again, her arms wrapped around his neck as she completely turned herself over to him. This time, Rhys took his time with her, holding her slender softness against him as he made love to her, his actions infused with the deep love he felt for her more than the overwhelming lust. When they finally found their release, it was together. When she fell into an exhausted sleep with his body still within her, he did not have the heart to move. He lay there and held her tightly, his mind wandering as the sun rose.
My God… what have I done?
Rod was a good knight and very astute. He had followed his brother’s path to St. Briavels and was told that the master had left the day before towards the southwest. So Rod followed along the path presumably taken by his brother, riding hard and fast. Based on what Rhett had told him, he knew that his brother would be taking the lady to Ogmore Castle so he could only assume that Rhys was taking the coastal route to get there.
Rod followed the Wye Valley from St. Briavels to the Severn River and followed the river to the sea. He reasoned that Rhys would not hide in any of the smaller towns along the road simply because it would be too difficult to blend in with the crowd. As big a man as he was, he would be easy to locate so Rod presumed he would find him in a larger town with more people to cover his tracks.
Rod stopped in Chepstow, the first larger town he came to, and investigated three inns but no one had seen a very large man and small, red-haired woman. Rod even hung around for a short while as seven well-paid street urchins ran about the town looking for a massive knight with black hair. But no one caught a glimpse of such a man so Rod spent the night there and then moved on.
The next major town after Chepstow was Caldicot. It was actually a collection of several smaller towns along the seaport, so Rod started at the northeast end of the town and began to move from one inn to the next. After checking five such establishments, he came across another collection of orphans milling in the street and, after some persuasion and a few coins, the children set out to find the enormous black-haired knight. Rod told them that he would settle in a tavern somewhere around Caldicot Castle and wait for them.
Some of the nicer inns in the center of the town were filled to capacity. Apparently, several merchant vessels had made port the night before and it was standing room only. Rod moved out of the area and to the north near an unattractive area known as Highmoor Hills and settled in one of two unnamed, unknown taverns in the vicinity. It was quiet and less traveled and he settled down to a meal of cheese, brown bread and some kind of meat. Just before the serving wench left the table, he asked her the standard question that he had asked countless times before over the past two days.
“I am looking for a big knight with black hair and blue eyes, bearing the seal of de Lohr,” he said as he drank from his cup. “Have you seen such a man?”
Much to his surprise, the girl nodded. “I have, m’lord.”
Rod perked up, slamming his cup back to the table. “Are you sure? Where?”
The girl pointed up the steps. “Up there. The door on the left.”
It was too good to be true. Rod looked up to the landing she was indicating. “Is he a very big man with black hair and blue eyes? He looks rather like me. And there is a woman with him.”
The wench nodded again and continued to point up the stairs. Rod was on his feet, taking the steps two at a time. They were rickety steps and groaned under his weight. Reaching the landing, he went to the door on the left and pounded on it.
“Rhys,” he called. “’Tis me. Open the door, man.”
The room on the other side of the door was perfectly silent. Rod pounded again. “Rhys,” he hissed. “Open the damn door.”
More silence. Just as Rod was about to pound again, the door flew open and a very powerful arm reached out and yanked him into the room. Rod stumbled in and fell to his knees, stopped from falling on his face by the position of the bed. He crashed into it and stopped his momentum. When he looked up, it was into Elizabeau’s startled features. She was in bed and, from the way she was clutching the sheet against her chest, quite naked. Rod put a foot underneath his body and turned to his brother as he stood up.
“Why in the hell did you do that?” he demanded.
Rhys’ face was taut with anger; clad only in his breeches, he looked disheveled. “Because you make enough noise to let every one of John’s assassins within a ten mile radius know that we are here. Do you not know anything of stealth, you idiot?”