A Knight in Central Park(76)
Chapter Twenty-One
Assume a virtue if you have it not.
—Shakespeare
Both Alexandra and her brother struggled to get their bindings loose.
The sun fell fast beyond the horizon, leaving streaks of crimson across the sky. The king’s men dismounted and now stood close by. George had been good enough to give her and Garrett water, but the other man made sure they were gagged afterwards. For hours, George and the other man she'd learned was named Udolf, waited. For what or who, Alexandra was not certain until a third man showed himself. George appeared annoyed by this third man's appearance.
She listened as the three men exchanged heated words. When George disappeared in the woods, the newest man lowered his voice and said to Udolf, “I shan’t take the king’s life until I have been paid in full.”
Garrett snapped to attention, looking at Alexandra, his face stricken.
Alexandra shuddered. The man was a killer. His hair was long, entwined with leather and matted with mud. He glanced over his shoulder at Alexandra. She looked away.
No wonder George and Udolf had argued for most of their journey. She had known something was amiss, but killing the king? Udolf had not been happy about bringing her and Garrett along, and now she knew why. ’Twas clear Udolf had other plans. Now, more than ever, Alexandra feared for their lives. As the two men exchanged money and words, George staggered forth. Udolf glanced at him, then merely shrugged and hurried on with his bargaining. “This should tide you over until the deed is done. Until then, not a shilling more.”
The hired killer took the leather pouch. “Be sure to relay to your friends I will be paid in full one way or another.” With that said, he ran off. No horse to aid him in his travels. Merely a denizen of the forest Alexandra thought after he vanished into the night.
Staring into the woods, Alexandra’s eyes widened upon noticing a silhouette of yet another man. This man stood deep within the moonlit shadows of tall pines. His face was dark, half covered with a mask. It seemed to Alexandra that his eyes glistened in the dark.
How long had he been standing there?
The king’s men had yet to notice the man...his cape dark and ominous as it waved in the breeze. He hardly moved. Only watched her silentl, a sword sheathed at his side.
While George focused on keeping his footing, Udolf mayhap sensed a presence because suddenly he jerked about and grabbed his sword, holding its hilt but not yet bringing it forth. “Is that you Alfred?” Udolf questioned.
“Afraid not,” a voice replied from the shadows.
Garrett looked in the direction of the voice, his eyes wide.
Alexandra leaned forward, unable to believe what she was seeing, or hearing. It was him. Alexandra could feel him, sense him, smell his scent as if he was even now holding her close.
’Twas the Black Knight. And ’twas Sir Joe. One and the same. Goose bumps covered her flesh and her heart soared to think he’d come for her after all.
“Who goes there?” George bellowed.
“’Tis the Black Knight,” Alexandra stated proudly.
Garrett looked at Alexandra as if she’d gone mad. She smiled at him and nodded assuredly.
Alexandra saw only fear on George and Udolf's face. George staggered toward the shadowed man as if he’d been drinking. “It c-cannot be the B-Black Knight. He doesn’t exist...only a figment of the serf's imaginations.”
Sir Joe came forward. Verily he hardly resembled the man she met in Central Park. Instead of hurried and stressed, he looked fit and overbearingly confident. He stopped only a few feet short of reaching the king’s men. With unyielding jaw and sword at his side, he looked utterly venomous.
Instead of using his sword, Sir Joe pulled a dagger from beneath his cape, then jerked his wrists from side to side, startling both men as he arrogantly played with the deadly knife as if it were naught but a harmless stick. Verily he twirled the knife, weaving the blade between his fingers. “Now you see it,” he said, slapping his hands together. The knife disappeared completely. “And now you don’t,&rdquo.
George lunged for his own sword tucked at his side.
“Ah-ah-ah,” Sir Joe warned him. “Before I give myself up, for surely you don’t think me arrogant enough to believe I could best two such loyal servants of His Majesty, I have one more trick up my sleeve.”
George held loosely to the hilt at his side, straightening and then stumbling slightly.