Part 11 (1/2)
”Heaven,” Bella said.
”Truly?” he asked. ”Show me.” He put the bun next to her lips. Bella's eyes narrowed, wondering if he thought she'd stoop to a Borgia trick and try to poison him. Thinking back to what all she'd learned in the confessional, maybe he did. She took a bite of the sweet bun and felt guilty because she'd already eaten three.
”Oh,” Bella sighed, licking the sweet cream from the corner of her mouth.
Sir John put the other half in his mouth and then the most wonderful thing happened. His eyes smiled.
”By the Rood, woman, that is definitely a mortal sin,”
he said gravely. ”We shall both be doing penance for a week for tasting such earthy delight.”
That, Bella decided, was high praise indeed for her culinary skill. She couldn't help smiling back.
”Father?” A voice asked from above. ”What is that you and Maman are eating?”
”Don't look.” Chandos caught Bella's arm, keeping her from turning around. ”'Tis a sweet that your
mother has brought to us poor watchers on the wall.”
”A sweet, Papa?” Geoffrey shouted. ”What kind? Custard?”
”Better. Would you like one?”
”Oh, aye, 'tis hungry man's work watching for a king.”
”Then come and get one. There's plenty left for you.”
”You could toss me one and I could catch it,” Geoffrey suggested amiably.
”Nay, I think not,” his father answered. ”'Twould be a sinful waste were it to fall onto the dirt. Who would enjoy the treat then?”
Bella heard Geoffrey's deep sigh. ”All right. I'll come down, but I had better not miss the king.”
”Is he all right?” Bella asked, afraid to look.
”Oh, aye.” John Chandos never took his eyes from the boy s.h.i.+nnying down the stones. ”I'm going to
blister his skinny a.r.s.e till it s.h.i.+nes when he gets down here.”
”Is that your solution for everything? Can't you talk to him?” The words blurted out before Bella could stop them. ”Papa!” Geoffrey screamed.
UNDER HOUSE ARREST.
-10.
The great lord of the manor bolted past Bella, leaping over the allure onto the rim of the gatehouse. Bella spun and gripped the upthrusting merlon. ”The king! The king! I see the standard! It is the king!”
Bella leaned as far out over the crenel as she could to see where Sir John was. He circled the drum tower ridge, balanced with his arms out like a high wire aerialist. Geoffrey spun from a knotted rope out of the murder-hole, one arm pointing dizzily at the horizon.
Sir John dropped onto his knees and extended his arm trying to catch the knotted tail of the spinning rope. He made three tries before he had the rope in hand. Bella's heart lurched with every try and miss.
”Do you see the king, Papa?” Geoffrey wanted to know.
”Oh, aye,” Sir John hadn't once looked away from the boy dangling so dangerously above his head. ”Come down, son. You've done your job. Come to me.”
Nimble as a squirrel up a pecan tree, Geoffrey slithered down the knotted rope until his father's hands set him back on the wall.
Heart in her throat, Bella watched as they both turned and waved at the h.o.a.rd of riders emerging from the distant forest. A trumpeter in one of the towers sounded the alarm. Across the barren glacis, a signal from the king's trumpeter answered in return.
The allure was alive with men. Men that Bella had not realized were there. They extended a long wide plank across the top of the drum tower, so that neither their lord or his son had to transverse the dangerous rim again.
Geoffrey walked across that plank as easily as any agile child of Bella's experience crossed the top of the monkey bars on the playground against their mother's cautions. She did not withdraw from the crenel until Sir John had dropped out of her sight to safety.
Her heart was still pounding like mad as the boy ran across the allure to her, grinning like a loon. ”May I have my treat now, Maman?”
Bella dropped to her knees, putting her arms around Geoffrey, touching his so familiar-to-her face, scolding, ”Do you know what a fright you gave me, Geoffrey Chandos?”
”Fright? You weren't frightened, Maman. How could you be? I was safe as could be. I didn't fall or even slip.”
”You had no business going up that high. Don't you ever do that again! You scared your father and me half to death.”
”Papa is never scared. He's a warrior, Maman. May I have my sweet now?”
”What do you mean he is never scared? What does being a stupid warrior have to do with killing yourself? You could have fallen and broken your neck, Geoffrey Chandos!” Bella opened the napkin that was now full of sticky, mushed goo.
”You frightened me so badly I ruined the buns. Merde!” Bella swore as she stood up. ”Oh, I could spank you myself for being so foolish.”
That scold apparently got through Geoffrey's thick head. He looked sheepishly down at his feet as his father's shadow came over the both Bella and him.
”Geoffrey.” Sir John knelt beside the boy, getting on eye level with him. ”Your mother is correct. You frightened all of us. Even the men on the watch came to tell me where you were. We have been waiting for the last hour to see what would happen to you.”
Geoffrey's huge brown eyes filled with tears. ”I only wanted to be the first to see the king.”
”Aye, and what joy would we have had welcoming the king, if we'd had our own son dead in our arms? What think you of that?”
”I am sorry, Papa.”