Daniel sighed. “I’ve been in every nook and cranny of this castle from the dungeon to the tallest tower, and if Mathew hadn’t mentioned seeing movement up here when he flew over, I would still be looking,” he said, exasperated. “I didn’t even know this tower had a door in it.”
Patrick had found his way up to the top of one of the smaller towers. “Shood’v gonn hep,” he slurred.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Shood hev gotn hep.” He tried again, but his tongue was too thick.
“I should have gotten help?” Daniel questioned.
Patrick nodded, making his friend laugh.
“Help! I couldn’t get anyone to volunteer. And the men I did order to find you might have spent maybe ten minutes walking through the main rooms of the castle before coming back and telling me you weren’t here. I thought you might have gone out for a ride, but your horse was still in the bailey.”
“Mmm bit me,” Patrick grumbled.
“He bit you?” Daniel asked.
Patrick nodded and leaned over against Daniel’s shoulder. “Nuun wats me.” He sounded so pathetic. He had been up here for hours, and the castle hadn’t exploded. In fact, it had probably run better under Daniel’s supervision. Just that thought had Patrick sliding further down into depression. He wasn’t just unwanted, he was also unneeded.
Daniel sighed. “Of course we want you, Patrick.” He was starting to get the hang of Patrick’s drunken ramblings.
So, the depression part of brooding had set in. Of all the things Patrick could have come up with for getting wasted, not being wanted was a poor excuse. He was, after all, supposed to be the lord of the castle.
Patrick just shook his head pathetically.
“How do you think Kathryn would feel seeing you like this?” Daniel asked, trying to reach him through the alcohol.
“Sheee dunt car,” Patrick nearly sobbed. “Hats mme.”
Daniel tried to keep the grin off his face. This really shouldn’t be funny, but it was. “She doesn’t hate you,” he soothed. “You’ve had a misunderstanding that can easily be fixed if you would sit down and talk it out.”
“Hats me.” Patrick oozed over farther, making Daniel’s grin widen.
“Oh, Patrick.” He put his arm around his near-unconscious friend. “What the hell am I going to do with you?”
Gentle snores answered him.
Letting out a deep sigh, Daniel looked around. The first thing he needed to do was get the man down from here. He had picked a fine place to get smashed. The view was incredible, yet the wall Patrick leaned against hid him from anyone looking down from the tallest tower. Daniel knew. He had climbed up there to search for the missing man. Twice. The only access to this tower was through a small hatch in the back of one of the storerooms. A long, rickety ladder reached up through an aviary to the small rooftop. Apparently, someone in this castle had kept homing pigeons at one time.
There was an impressive drop to the bailey below. Patrick could probably have watched Daniel run around searching for him if he hadn't been wallowing in self-pity. It a good thing the man hadn’t tried to get down after drinking himself silly. It would have made one hell of a mess if he had fallen, and that was not a conversation he wanted to have with Kyle. Not to mention what it would do to Kathryn.
As it was, she was probably going to feel guilty over this. Daniel had talked to her and found out what Patrick had said. He could see that she had taken Patrick’s words wrong. She hadn’t let him finish. Daniel tried to explain that there was more to the lord’s story and she needed to hear him out. She had begrudgingly agreed to listen. That had been nearly six hours ago, when Daniel had begun his search.
Daniel looked up to the twinkling sky. Full night had fallen some time ago. That gave him an idea. A dragon would have no problem plucking them from the perch. He pulled Patrick around until he was lying flat on his back. He hated to leave the drunken man there by himself, but the landing was too small for him to shift.
“Be still,” Daniel warned as he shimmied through the hole and down the ladder. All he had to do was slip out of the castle, shift, fly up here, collect Patrick, take him away from the grounds, and shift back without being seen. Cake! Then he could tote the drunken man’s carcass in and say he found him in the woods. No one need be the wiser. Then, he was going to find someone to seal up that damned hole so this didn’t happen again. Bloody, brooding dragons!
Kathryn sat in a ring of consoling faces as she pulled her needle through the hem of a new skirt. Several of the maidens had come to comfort her as she worked on her sewing by the fire’s light. She had told no one of the way Patrick had shunned her the night before, but the castle had been abuzz with it this morning. Someone must have seen her come out of his chambers upset. It was amazing how fast gossip spread around the castle.
Throughout the day, Kathryn had received nothing but sympathy for her plight. She had barely avoided Patrick in the morning, but she managed to elude him throughout the day. At first, it lightened her heart to see so many giving the man a hard time, but as the day wore on, their actions bothered her. Why were they treating him so rottenly? True, he had broken her heart, but did his actions really deserve the level of scorn he was receiving? Did it have something to do with the very public display of affection followed so closely by him turning her away?
Kathryn gave pause to that thought. He really hadn’t turned her away. Daniel pointed out that she had taken what Patrick had said and jumped to conclusions. Had she? It had taken her a while to see it, but she had. When Patrick had not declared his love for her, she was certain he would shun her, and she had grabbed at the first reason she could find to leave. It just so happened that his being royal put him far enough above her station that it really could be an issue. She had grabbed at that straw to defend her heart. Having realized her error, she had stopped hiding hours ago, but Patrick hadn’t found her yet. He hadn’t even come down for dinner. Maybe she should go find him?
“…force himself on you that way. The scoundrel should be beat.” Camilla’s voice broke into Kathryn’s thoughts.
Kathryn reached out and grabbed her arm, interrupting the girl’s rant. “What?”
“I said he should be beat,” Camilla repeated. “He seemed so much better than that.”
“Who seemed better?” Kathryn’s heart froze; something was not right here.
“Lord Mylan. He doesn’t seem the type to force himself on a maiden,” Camilla explained. “And after such a display at dinner. I was completely shocked when he jumped up on the table.”
“Camilla, who told you that Lord Mylan forced himself on me?” Her quiet voice made all the maidens with her stop working.
“I heard it from Bethany,” Camilla said, pointing at the girl across from her.
“And you, Bethany?” Kathryn looked her way.
“I overheard Lillian telling Nana in the kitchen.” Bethany looked confused.
Lillian! Anger boiled in Kathryn’s gut. “What did Lillian say?”
Bethany looked around at the other faces for support, but they were all looking expectantly at her. “She said she saw Lord Mylan force you into his chambers.” She swallowed hard before continuing. “She said he pushed you down in the doorway and fell on you. That you fought with him as he… as he…”
“As he what?” Kathryn pushed; she had an idea where this was going.
“Oh, Kathryn.” Bethany bounced in her seat, frustrated that she was being forced into saying such a horrible thing. “She said he tried to take your maidenhood.”