Knight: Once a Knight Part 28

Guy laid his hand on David's forehead. "Are you ill?"

Laughing, David knocked him away and entered the dim stable, hushed except for the restlessness of the old horses and the uneasy snuffling of the new. "Did I ever tell you about my granny?"

Trailing after him, Guy said cautiously, "Your granny?"

"She used to talk about how some couples share a great love."

"You and Lady Alisoun share a great love?"

Guy could have sounded less incredulous, but David ignored that. "Well, she doesn't know yet."

"You share a great love, but she doesn't know yet?"

David stopped to pet one of the horses from George's Cross. "She didn't want to marry me."

"So why did she?" Guy asked suspiciously.

"For the same reason she hired me. For protection." David frowned. "In fact, we need to spread the word that if anyone sees a stranger lurking about, I should be informed at once."

"What does she need protection from?"

"I don't know." David could see little in the fading light, but he did catch sight of Guy's blatant stupefaction and said, "That is, I have a good idea, but I don't know everything yet. She'll tell me soon."

"Probably when she realizes you share a great love."

"Probably." Entering one of the stalls, David checked the gelding's hooves and hocks. "This one stepped into a hole on that wretched road and has limped ever since. I'll get the stablemaster to heat a poultice and put it on him."

Guy watched with intense interest. "May I ask a question?"

"As you wish."

"Why did Lady Alisoun marry you for protection when she had hired you for protection?"

David didn't want to think about that. He didn't want to talk about that. But Guy wanted an answer, and they'd been friends too long for David to evade or lie. "I rather forced her to wed me."

Guy straightened so quickly David wondered if he'd gotten a sliver. "Forced her? You mean at swordpoint, or by kidnapping? One of the king's heiresses? Are you mad?"

Irked that Guy would think such a thing, David snapped, "I didn't force her with any violent means. I simply came into some knowledge that she would prefer remain hidden. And there is the babe, of course."

Guy staggered backward and sat down on a stack of hay. "She's with child?"

David grinned proudly. "Aye."

"With your child?"

His grin disappeared. "Aye!"

Guy seemed overwhelmed, unable to speak another word.

David waited, and when Guy did nothing but shake his head, David stepped out of the stall, closed the gate behind him, and hefted Guy to his feet. "So you see we have to blend these families and these estates."

"It's going to be a difficult task," Guy warned.

"With your help, my friend, we'll do it. My granny always used to say that with a great love, it casts a glow of warmth all around it and makes everyone content." David moved toward Louis's stall. "You'll see."

Ahead of them, something flew over the door of one of the stalls and landed in the aisle. Something else followed and landed on top of it, and in an awesome silence the two things tumbled and rolled. Unable to make out details in the dim light, David hurried toward the creatures.

Lads, fighting just outside Louis's stall. The great horse watched stoically, but David grabbed one and Guy grabbed the other, and they dragged them along the aisle and out the door.

"Eudo!" David shook the boy in his grip, then looked at the one Guy held and recognized his own Radcliffe page. "And Marlow! What are you two doing?"

Eudo extended a shaking finger. "He started it!"

"He tried to tend Louis." Marlow kicked dust at Eudo. "It's my task to tend Louis. Tell him, Sir David."

"Aye, tell him, Sir David." Eudo pointed his thumb at his chest. "It's me you want to tend Louis."

Dumbfounded, David stared at the two boys until Guy said sarcastically, "Oh, aye. A great love. Warmth of glow. Everyone content." David met Guy's gaze, and Guy wagged his great head. "Better sooner than later."

That night at the meal, no one spoke much. Worn out by the fight which she had lost, the child Bertrade had fallen asleep on her bench and been carried away. David's servants maintained a watchful vigil, and Edlyn and the maids showed obvious signs of fatigue.

Alisoun was grateful. She hated to acknowledge her own lack of courtesy, but she would have been hard pressed to carry on a civil conversation.

The trip had been tiring, settling into a new castle proved difficult, the child Bertrade expressed a defiant spirit, and Alisoun had finally been forced to face facts. The one thing she'd always feared had happened.

She'd been married for her wealth.

"Could I cut you a slice of bread?" David scooted as close to her as he could get. The bench they shared allowed him to press against her, knee, hip and arm, and his knife hovered over the loaf placed before them on the long table.

Alisoun nodded graciously. "I would be beholden."

The blade began sawing back and forth, back and forth, and Alisoun realized how hard the bread would be. But Edlyn had taken one look into the baker's ovens and demanded he clean them before he bake another thing, so they'd dine on stale bread and be grateful this night.

She had been stupid to hope that David had married her for any other reason than her money. She could dream he did it out of affection for his unborn babe, or because of the pleasure she'd offered him in bed. She could pray that he valued her for herself.

But the truth was always and forever that he wanted her twelve sacks of wool, and all the a.s.sets that went with them.

Oh, she couldn't even blame him. He had a child he adored. She'd helped give Bertrade that bath, and the child, while healthy, was far from plump. She could comprehend his decision to wed and provide for his daughter.

"The bread is stale, so I had your maid warm it." Pus.h.i.+ng the heated slice into her hand, David said, "I've had an egg yolk whipped in white wine for you to dip it in. 'Twill be good for our child, also."

"My thanks again." She touched her still flat belly. "You are ever thoughtful."

If she were a less honest woman, she could claim she'd married David to give her child a name. Instead, she'd wed an inappropriate man for no better reasons than companions.h.i.+p and desire. She was no less a fool than another woman she knew who had wed her dream of love and found nothing but a belt to blister her skin and a rod to break her bones.

"My cook took dried strawberries from this very spring and steamed them to plumpness and made a compote." David waved the fragrant bowl slowly before her nose. "For you, my lady. Won't you eat?"

If it weren't for the danger which threatened, she'd go back to George's Cross and take her chances, but that open grave proved that her enemy knew the truth, and she feared he would do anything now to take his revenge.

So she had a choice. She could fret and complain and be like David's first wife, a weight to drag him down. Or she could do as she had always done. She could do her duty.

Armed with a new resolve, she looked at David. He, too, seemed tired, and lines of concern marked his dark tanned skin. She smiled at him graciously and picked up her spoon. "This all smells quite delicious. I look forward to the end of our first day at Radcliffe."

David sat back with a sigh that sounded like relief. From his hungry expression, she expected that he would gobble his food in the manner of a barbarian. But he ate politely and drank his fill, always attentive to her needs and chatting like a host making his new guest at home. When at last he pressed the goblet to her lips and let her drink, then turned it to the same spot and drank while gazing at her, she realized the reason for his desirous aspect-and all her pretense of serenity almost went for naught. She rose so quickly he knocked their bench over trying to get to his feet, and she moved toward the solar with a firm stride. She heard him scrambling to catch up, but she refused to look back or in any way acknowledge his presence. But when he trod on her skirt, it jerked her to a halt, and when he took her arm, it brought her around to face him at the very door of the solar.

"I wish to sleep now," she said.

"So we will," he answered.

"Alone."

"We're married."

"I am aware."

"So I'll be in the marriage bed with you."

He looked so firm, so calm, so determined. She wanted to retort, but she couldn't breathe. She felt as if bands were tightening around her throat. Only now did she realize what a facade she'd erected around her emotions. She wasn't tranquil. She wasn't serene. She was absolutely livid.

She meant only to lay her hand on his chest. She really did.

But she hit him so hard she knocked him backward. She didn't yell, but only because she couldn't. In a low tone, she said, "I will be the mother to your child. I will be the mistress of your people. I will be the money chest which provides prosperity, and I will give it gladly." She slapped her hand on his chest again and this time she heard his grunt of pain. "But I will not be an expedient body in your bed. Go and find yourself a mistress."

David's people couldn't hear, but they watched the scene avidly and the humiliation struck at his pride, just as she knew it would. Exploding in a display of exasperation, he said, "Fine! I know where ten mistresses are, and willing ones too."

With a tight smile, she shut the door in his face.

Ruefully, he looked at his hands, especially noting the one missing a finger. "Well, nine mistresses anyway."

19.

"G.o.d's teeth, man, you've got to do something about Lady Alisoun." Guy shoved his way through the crowd that surrounded David in the castle bailey. "If you don't, she's going to drive me mad."

David raised his weary head and stared at his steward through bloodshot eyes. "Why should you be any different?"

Glancing around, Guy observed the angry expression on the face of every servant who worked in the castle, but he clearly had no sympathy. "She's supposed to be supervising them."

The servants murmured angrily.

Guy ignored them. "But the guard is none of her affair. 'Tis mine, and I resent her sending her two trained apes in to teach me what I already know."

With a sigh, David agreed. "She should not. I will speak to her." He looked around at the household staff. "I will speak to her about all of you, too."

"Do it, m'lord," one of the women said. "We did well enough without her before."

David frowned and pointed a finger right under the woman's nose. "Well enough isn't good enough, and with Lady Alisoun I find that she's always right. If she says there's more to be done, then you'll work until you do it. I'll do nothing more than suggest she weed out the troublemakers and promote the more ambitious among you."

The woman drew back, clearly frightened.

"That way, you'll be working for one of your own, and not for a stranger from George's Cross. But you'll still be working for the food which Lady Alisoun has provided, I promise you. You'll still be working."

As David stepped away from his servants, he heard no sound at all. He'd given them ideas to ponder, and thought it best if they pondered them on their own. Guy apparently thought so, too, for David heard footsteps as Guy hurried to join him.

"You told the lazy knaves well enough that time," Guy said. "They've been slacking on purpose."

"I know." David rolled his shoulders, trying to get the kinks out that came from sleeping on the floor of the great hall. "I've been waiting for the chance to warn them what would happen. But I'm warning you, too. If my lady comes to you with suggestion to improve your defenses, listen with an open mind."

"You've got eels for brains! What would a woman know about defense?"

"She knew enough to hire me." Guy laughed and David jostled him. "You know the best defenses, and if you listen to her, you'll hear her respect for that. But she's so organized there's no operation she can't make better."

"If you say so, but she certainly has a way of getting my back up."

This time David laughed. "Aye, she's good at that, and here she has had so many new people unused to her effectiveness she's alienated them all at once."

"The servants. Me. My men. If it weren't for Philippa calming me after Lady Alisoun had left the guardhouse, I would be angrier yet." Guy half-smiled. "She's a lovely lady."

"Alisoun?"

"Philippa."

"She's not-" David gave up. If Guy wanted to call Philippa a lady, David didn't care. "Unfortunately Philippa isn't following Alisoun everywhere, for half the village has been complaining."

Guy waited, and when David didn't continue, Guy said, "And Bert?"

"Bert hides from her. She only comes out for her lessons as a warrior, and that, I suspect, only so she can learn to use a real sword-on Alisoun."

"You're training her with your squire, aren't you?"

"Eudo? Aye, I'm training them together."

Guy stopped at the base of the keep stairs. "What does he think?"

"I haven't asked him."

"You should. He's a bright lad, and sees much."

David smothered a grin.

"And what's so funny?"