Lord Liar Part 21

"Why, you impertinent little puppy. I'll break you like a twig,"

Turold growled, and Aldyth heard scuffling sounds as the feet belonging to G-odric and Tumid mingled. Goclric was holding Turold back.

"Warin, you will apologize to Turold," snapped G.o.dtic. "Apologize, or I'll give you a hiding" -- "I believe my page is mine to beat," drawled Ranulf, and she saw him interpose his silly shoes with the curling toes between Oodric and Warin.

"I have told you I am not concealing Aldyth here, so you may both be gone."

"Oh, I believe we will linger about Winchester for a time, my lord.

We have journeyed far in our quest, and we are weary," G.o.dtic said.

"Since I have his lords.h.i.+p's permission to help Turold find my sister, I need be in no haste to leave." His voice diminished as he and Turold moved toward the door.

"Perhaps it is merely that she has not arrived yet."

"Aye, she will show herself eventually," Turold said. Then, his voice heavy with menace, he added,

"And when she does, I'll be waiting."

The door was shut, and she heard them store ping down the stairs. She went to the window, peering cautiously over the edge, and a minute later saw them stalking across the bailey, deep in conversation. Then Tumid looked back and up, in the direction of her wind w, and she ducked down just in time.

She straightened and went into the other room, where Warin and Lady Vivienne and Ranulf were all staring at one another ruefully.

"See, my lord," she said triumphantly.

"You have no choice--now you must take me with you."

Chnpter Eleven It was the only solution. He was caught, and he knew it, but Ranulf mis liked having this slip of a girl tell him he must do what he knew he must do--unless he was to deny her the help he had promised. But he struggled against the tightening noose anyway.

"The devil you say!" he retorted, slouching in his chair. "What makes you think the presence of those two will make me do what I do not wish? I'll merely think of a better place about the castle to hide you."

He saw her eyes glitter with unshed tears, but she raised her chin defiantly.

"Very well," if you do not care what happens to me--if you want that brute to find me--he'll kill me, you know, and then I'll haunt you, I swear it! "

"Oh, be reasonable, my lord," snapped Lady Vivienne in exasperation.

"This is but a small castle, and they would see her eventually or hear someone gossip about Lord Ranulf's newly arrived page."

"Such a pother about nothing," he drawled.

"There's always my keep at Beauworth. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

"And if you've thought of it, G.o.dfie will, too," Lady Vivienne pointed out.

"You'd take a chance of that Turold finding her? She does not exaggerate--I've seen his type before," Lady Vivienne said.

"He will kill her, the moment she crosses him. He had the cold eyes of a stoat."

"Very well, I'll take her to Kingsclere before I go," he said irritably.

"She'll be safe enough 'behind my father's moated walls, I dare swear."

"I've told you why that will not answer, my lord!" Aldyth said.

"And anyway, did not the king say you were to leave by day after the morrow?

You have no time to be shepherding me back to the earl and the countess if you are to leave for Normandy in two days' time."

She was right, and he knew she knew it.

"Surely there's no harm in takin' the girl," boomed Urse. "I'll watch out for her, my lord."

Both Aldyth and Lady Vivienne shot him a grateful look. He had but one arrow left in his quiver.

"What say you, Warin? But before you answer, know that I cannot take you both. If your sister comes as Edward, my page, I will not be able to take you. We must travel far and fast, you know. I'll have to find something to keep you occupied about the court."

There was a long silence during which Warin looked crestfallen as he stared at Ranulf, then at his sister, and back to Ranulf again. A sudden thought seemed to strike him, and he grinned in a cheeky fas.h.i.+on.

"I won't mind if you take Aldyth, my lord, if you will give me leave to visit my father at Sherborne for Christmas while you are gone."

Aldyth's face wore an expression of total incredulity. "Oh, it is the perfect solution, my lord!" she said, clapping her hands together.

"Thank you, Warin, thank you! I am so proud of you!"

Ranulf held his hands out in defeat, conscious of a current of joy running perversely through him even as he conceded defeat. Aldyth would be accompanying him to Normandy.

"You are too well championed for me to refuse you, Aldyth, it seems. But hear me well--you will dress during the entire journey as Edward and you will obey me instantly in all things. Is that perfectly understood? It may well mean your life. Nay, don't weep now--you will unman me."

"Aye, my lord," she said, smiling through tears that threatened to spill over onto her cheeks.

"I will carry out your every command. Turold will be on this side of the Channel and I will be on the other, not having to fear him.

I am so relieved! I'll make certain you are not sorry, my lord, that you rescued me. "

So that was it. While he was imagining the intimacy of traveling with her, she was merely grateful to be escaping a brutish husband. She had gotten over her love for him. Ranuff called himself every kind of a conceited fool.

She not only was no longer in love with him but probably feared and detested all men, after what Turold had shown her of his s.e.x, G.o.d rot him!

He must show her she need fear no l.u.s.tful attentions from him.

"Eh bien, part of your obedience will entail giving my leman and me occasions of privacy, eh, Lady Vivienne?" he said, leering at Vivienne.

Vivienne was paying him no attention, so lost was she in gazing adoringly at his squire, who was grinning back at her.

He turned back to Aldyth.

Her face was a mask.

"I understand fully, my lord."