Slade sat atop his horse as he waited. He had been outside the castle gates for quite a while now. The guards in front of the gates wouldn't let him approach. He couldn't even get to the drawbridge, and they clearly had no intention of lowering it.
A few guards had approached him and asked that he hand them the message, but Slade had refused. According to Lady Delphine, someone in the castle wanted Rose out of it, and the letter couldn't fall into the wrong hands. Rose mentioned she could trust Henry, and Lady Delphine felt the same way, so the steward was the only one he could give the message to.
Slade was irritated—he didn't have to wait out here. The time Lady Delphine came to the castle, he accompanied her, so he wasn't exactly a stranger here. Yet they were treating him like some criminal. Any time he ventured closer, they would thrust their swords at him.
