Chapter 6

Max entered his Master’s bed chamber baring a silver serving tray laden with a bowl of fresh strawberries and crème and a crystal goblet of a rich red wine. “Your guest is safe within her quarters my Lord.” He sat the tray down on a table within easy reach of his master’s hand.

“You take to many risks my Lord.” Max moved quickly around the chamber shuttering all of the large windows and pulling closed the heavy draperies.

Sir Nicholas, reclined in his favorite chair, did not move his gaze from the pages of the book he was reading. “You worry too much my old friend.”

“You have been lucky too many times before.” Max persisted, now turning down the bed linens.

“Oh dear, you are not speaking of those children again?” Nicholas chuckled.

“You are very lucky they did not return here, or worse.” Max’s frustration with his master’s refusal to take matters seriously shone clearly across his reddened face.

Nicholas lowered the book to his lap, folding it closed over one slender hand to keep his place. “It worked out well as I knew it would, the child found what he wanted and had no need to return. And if he spoke of it to the villagers they either thought him mad or it further fueled their fear of the “cursed woods”. And as for the coins I felt responsible, I did, after all, kill their father.” 

“Another unneeded risk” Max went about fluffing the many pillows scattered at the head of the bed. “The villagers could have easily come here looking for him. Many knew his plan to come here to find the secret of these woods.”

Nicholas waved an unconcerned hand, “The man was a drunken scoundrel and a thief, no one in that village felt his absence, least of all his wife whom was made to suffer his abuse.  They assumed he abandoned his family and that was the end of it”

Max was not satisfied or finished. “Too what end did you allow this woman here? Did you kill her father too perhaps?” Max’s placed a meaty hand on each hip, now facing his master.

Whether from Max’s words or the mere image of his stance Nicholas laughed merrily. “I might have indeed my old friend, one never knows.” He tipped Max a wink and resumed reading.

Max’s pursed his lips into a disapproving scowl, “I find your continued well being on this earth not so amusing as you.”

Nicholas put down his book once more. “My dear friend, I do not make light of your concern for me. If it were not for your trust and diligence I would have been vanquished from this world long ago. It is a debt I can never repay. But you have nothing to fear of her. She is no threat to me, far from it. Her presence here amuses me, for now.”

“She is no child, you cannot let her leave here alive.” Max insisted.

“I have no intention of doing so.” Nicholas smiled.