No Dark Place Read Free Page A

hazy blue. The air was hot and muggy, and the line at the castle well was a long one.
    “And how will the present earl and count receive the news of a possible usurper?” Bernard asked shrewdly.
    “Lord Guy has only daughters. There is no son to succeed him,” Nigel said. “The way would lie open for Hugh.”
    Bernard raised skeptical eyebrows. “Do you really think that because he has no sons, Earl Guy would be willing to put aside his own claim in favor of a nephew he does not know? For that is what Guy would have to do if he recognized Hugh as his brother’s true son. He would have to step aside.”
    Nigel’s lips twitched, and he did not reply.
    A man on a magnificent black horse attended by a guard of knights rode in through the bailey gate. Stableboys scrambled to take the horses.
    Bernard said, “Before he could even think of approaching Guy, Hugh would first have to prove he is who you say he is.”
    “He wears his proof on his face,” the other man returned.
    Bernard went on as if he had not heard. “And, of course, there is always the possibility that Hugh will not want to prove it.”
    Nigel looked at him as if he were mad. “No man would turn his back on such a heritage.”
    And Bernard said wryly, “You don’t know Hugh.”

2
    R alf Corbaille’s manor of Keal lay in Lincolnshire, a part of England Nigel Haslin was not overly fond of. The fen country of Lincolnshire might be beautiful to those who lived in it, but to a Wiltshire man like Nigel, the endless, flat, watery expanses were not only unattractive, they were a nuisance to travel across.
    It was March 1139, seven months after the Battle of the Standard. Time enough, Nigel thought, for Hugh to have recovered from his grief. Time enough for him to be setting his sights upon the future.
    The weeks and months had also given Nigel a chance to think more clearly about the wisdom of resurrecting a possible heir to the earldom of Wiltshire. He had been so stunned to see Hugh at Northallerton that he had acted instinctively in talking to Bernard Radvers. The last seven months had given him a chance to consider whether or not he would be wise to proceed in this matter, or if it would be more sensible simply to pretend that he had never seen the boy at all.
    As Nigel well knew, Guy de Leon would not be at all happy to find that his nephew had miraculously risen from the dead. Furthermore, he would be furious with the vassal who dared to sponsor such a claimant.
    On the other hand, there were many reasons why Nigel would like to see Guy replaced as his overlord.
    For one thing, he strongly suspected that Guy had been involved in the death of his elder brother. Nigel had held his former lord in high regard and would very much like to see his murderer punished.
    He also gravely disapproved of the dissolute way in which Guy lived.
    And finally, he did not approve of Guy’s refusal to declare his support for the king.
    In short, Guy was the complete opposite of the brother he had succeeded. Roger de Leon’s name had rung through all of the Christian world for his deeds during the late Crusade. It was Roger who had led the attack upon the gates of Jerusalem, the attack that had won the Holy City back from the infidels. Under Roger, Chippenham had been a model of morality and propriety. Roger, Nigel was certain, would have upheld his feudal oath to his overlord, King Stephen, and not been solely on the lookout for his own advantage.
    Nigel would far rather owe his own feudal duty to Roger’s son than he would to Guy.
    And then there was Isabel.
    What would it mean to her to know that her son was still alive?
    When Bernard thought of her, and all her beauty, hidden away in that convent for the last thirteen years, his heart lifted with the hope that Hugh’s return might also mean the return of his mother to the world.
     
    It was late in the afternoon of a cold, blowy day when the party from Wiltshire finally saw the stockade fence of Keal rising in the