Benedict's expression was one of grim comprehension. "You mean if Alice had not ridden to Rivenhall's defense you would not have done so yourself?"

"Aye. If she had not taken it upon herself to save that manor Eduard could have had it with my best wishes. He knew that. But this… this is quite another matter."

Some new element was at work in this business. Hugh grappled with the possibilities. What did Eduard know about the green stone that made him willing to risk the wrath of a man whom he had, until now, treated with wary caution?

What did Eduard know about the crystal that made him willing to risk death to obtain it?

For the instant Eduard had seized Alice, he had signed his own death warrant. He must surely be aware of that fact.

"This most certainly is quite another matter." Benedict slammed a fist down onto the table. "What makes you so certain that Eduard will kill Alice if the ransom is paid?"

"In kidnapping Alice, he has challenged me directly." Hugh frowned as he studied another passageway. "That means that for some reason he no longer fears me enough to be governed by caution. If that is the case, then he is no longer a fox but a boar. And no creature is so dangerous and unpredictable as a boar."

Benedict froze. Everyone knew that a boar was the most savage of beasts. Only the most skilled of hunters pursued such quarry. Endowed with a massive, heavily muscled body, great tusks, and mindless ferocity, it was capable of killing both a horse and the man unlucky enough to be in the saddle. The most valiant hounds could not bring it down without the aid of an entire pack of strong dogs and the arrows of the hunters.

"What are you going to do?" Benedict finally asked in a voice subdued by shock.

Hugh rolled up the small sheet of vellum on which Calvert had drawn the map. "I shall do the only thing one can do with a wild boar. I shall hunt him down and kill him."

Katherine's somber eyes met Alice's. "After Sir Matthew's death, my cousin spent most of my inheritance and was unable to contract another suitable marriage for me. He allowed me to enter Scarcliffe Convent. I saw little of him over the years and I was very glad of that fact."

"You were happy in the convent?"

"As happy as a woman of my temperament may be."

In spite of her predicament, Alice felt a measure of sympathy. "Prioress Joan told me that you suffer from bouts of melancholia."

"Aye. The work in the gardens is good for those afflicted with such humors, however. And I take satisfaction in mixing my herbs. For the most part I have been content."

Alice shifted uncomfortably on the hard stone floor of the cavern. She had been sitting in the corner of the vast cave with Katherine for what seemed an age. Quiet conversation with the healer was the only thing that was keeping her from succumbing to the fear that threatened to envelop her.

She was vastly more anxious tonight than she had been the day she braved Eduard in Rivenhall Keep.

The difference lay in something other than the obvious fact that on the previous occasion she'd had Dunstan and a contingent of Hugh's men-at-arms at her back. It had to do with a change in Eduard himself. A terrifying change.

There was a frenzied quality about Eduard tonight, an air of violent desperation. Alice sensed that he was far more dangerous this time than he had been when he had attempted to take Rivenhall. Then, he had been wary of Hugh. Tonight his eagerness to obtain the green stone seemed to have driven out all sense of caution.

To Alice's relief, Eduard had left the cavern a short while earlier. He had taken a torch and moved off down a dark passage with the confidence of a man who knew his way about the maze of tunnels.

This was the third time that Eduard had left the caves to spy on the old village ditch.

It seemed to Alice that the walls of the cavern were pressing closer. A torch propped against one wall burned low. Soot from the flames darkened the stone above it. The flickering shadows grew steadily darker and more dense.

A series of clicks on the stone floor caused Alice to glance across the chamber. Fulton and the other man, whose name, she had learned, was Royce, sat cross-legged, playing at dice. Their weapons were close at hand.

"My game," Fulton growled, not for the first time. He had enjoyed a series of wins.

"Bah. Give me the dice." Royce grabbed the small bone cubes and tossed them onto the stone. He glowered at the results. "By the entrails of the Saints. How do you come by all the luck?"

"Let me show you how to play this game." Fulton reached for the dice.

"Sir Eduard should have returned by now. I wonder what keeps him?"

"Who can tell?" Fulton rolled the dice. "He is in a strange mood tonight."

"Aye. He cannot think of anything except that damned green stone. 'Tis unnatural, if you ask me. Everyone knows the crystal has no great value."

"Sir Eduard believes that it does."

Alice hugged herself as she looked at Katherine. "It grows late."

Here in the bowels of the caves it was impossible to determine the position of the sun, but the passage of the day was apparent in other ways.

"Aye." Katherine clasped her hands together. " 'Twill no doubt be finished soon. We shall both be dead and Eduard will have the green crystal."

"My husband will rescue us," Alice promised softly.

She recalled that she had once made the same vow to Emma. Poor Hugh, she thought with a wry and extremely fleeting amusement. He was always having to make good on her promises.

Katherine shook her head sadly. "No one can rescue us, Lady Alice. The roots of the herb that poisoned the past have borne evil flowers."

"No offense, Katherine, but occasionally you do have a way of depressing one's spirits."

Katherine's expression grew more morose. "I prefer to deal in truth and fact. If you wish to comfort yourself with false hope, that is your affair."

"My mother was a great believer in the power of hope. She considered it as important as medicine. And I have every hope that my lord will deal quite satisfactorily with Eduard. You will see."

"You certainly seem to have great faith in the power of your husband," Katherine muttered.

"You must admit, he has not failed me yet." Alice straightened her shoulders. "And if you think that Eduard is any match for Sir Hugh, you are wrong."

"I myself have never had any reason to put my trust in men." Katherine was clearly resigned to a sad end.

Alice concluded she would have no luck attempting to change Katherine's bleak attitude, so she decided to change the topic instead. "Do you know who stole the green crystal from the convent a few weeks ago?"

Katherine twisted her hands together in her lap. "I did."

"You?"

Katherine sighed. "When Eduard learned that the crystal was the key to discovering the Stones of Scarcliffe, he sent word that I must take it from its vault. He… made certain threats."

"What sort of threats?"

"He promised to poison someone from the village or one of the other nuns if I did not obey him."

"Dear heaven," Alice whispered.

"I dared not take the risk. I did as he instructed. Late one night I took the stone and gave it to a man whom Eduard sent to the convent gate to collect it."

"Why did Eduard wait all these years before he tried to steal the stone?"

Katherine lifted one shoulder in a small, dismissive gesture. "He only learned of its true value a few months ago."

"When he discovered that Calvert of Oxwick had concluded that the Stones of Scarcliffe actually existed?"

"Aye."

Alice frowned. "That incident occurred at about the same time that Sir Hugh received the fief of Scarcliffe."

"Eduard was pleased to know that the loss of the green stone would cause Hugh much trouble, but that was not the reason he bid me steal it. The simple truth was that after learning that the Stones were more than a mere legend, he quickly become obsessed with discovering the treasure."