Part 22 (2/2)
This was proving every bit as difficult as he had feared. ”Because you haven't had your monthly flux in the time we've been together.”
She just stared at him as if he were speaking some foreign language.
”I just thought that since you're laughing and crying easily, and I've noticed when I touch you here-” he caressed one breast slowly, trying to calm her, ”-you're sensitive, and you haven't had-”
”Are you trying to suggest I am with child?”
She understood! He almost wiped his brow in relief. ”That had occurred to me. Do you think that you might be?”
”How should I know? I've never been concerned with such trivial matters.” She must have realized how odd that sounded, for she explained, ”As lady, my task has never been to deal with the early signs of conception. My task has been to a.s.sist in delivering the babes into the world while the man responsible drinks himself into oblivion.”
”I wondered if that might not be the case,” he answered mildly.
Ignoring him, she swept on. ”And how do you know so much about a woman's body, anyway?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. ”Oh, I suppose you have a hundred b.a.s.t.a.r.ds loitering around your estate. Well, if you know so much about it, why didn't you just say, 'My lady, you're with child,' and be done with it?”
She resented admitting her ignorance. He understood that. She was more than a little frightened, and he understood that, too. That explained why she lashed out at him, and he maintained his composure. ”I don't know for sure that you carry a babe, and to the best of my knowledge, I have no b.a.s.t.a.r.ds on my estate. But with our nightly activities and the symptoms you're displaying, it seems likely you'll bear me a child before the first planting.”
”Some women don't bear children for years after they begin mating.”
He grinned, he couldn't help it. ”A l.u.s.ty planting in a fallow field, my lady.”
”It's not funny!”
”I smile for joy, not because I'm amused. Making a child is a moment to celebrate.”
”For you. Your job is done. Mine's just begun.”
He began to lose patience, although he'd had dealings with pregnant women before and well knew their uneasy temperaments. ”It's true that in these next few months you will indeed bear the burden, but a father's duties do not end with conception.”
”Yours do.”
Her cruelty struck at him like a well-aimed blow. He took a quick breath and let it out slowly. ”I know you had originally thought to raise my babe alone, but surely you've seen the error of your plan.”
”What error? There is no error.”
”Do you deny the pleasure we find in each other's company? Not just in the bed, but in the evening when we speak together?”
”Do you think I should take a husband based on the pleasure of his conversation? I've lived alone for a long time, and no one treats me like an equal except you. No one dares argue with me because I'm the lady and have a sharp tongue. Now a crude mercenary sits at my table and tells me what he thinks of me, my management, and of our world without constantly bowing to my superior status.”
Her tongue lashed him, and he fought his resentment. ”I didn't realize I offended you.”
”You don't offend me.” She rose to her feet slowly, walking her hands up the tree trunk behind her. ”I enjoy it. It's a powerful enchantment, this companions.h.i.+p, and you've used it to destroy the efficient functioning of my mind.”
She'd as good as labeled him a wizard. Incredulously, he said, ”It's called honesty, my lady, and if you've been so seldom exposed to it you call it enchantment, I pity you.”
”Pity me? You envy me. You want to marry me. You want to use this child to control my...my twelve sacks of wool. To control my life!”
”Your money? Your life?” She confused him. She infuriated him. Didn't she know what was important? ”This is a babe we're talking about. I do want to marry you, and I know you said-”
”I said I wouldn't, and I never change my mind.”
Her eyes were gray as flint, and just as hard and cold, and he lost control of his temper. After all, he'd failed in the greatest gamble of his life. ”You said you wouldn't, but when I covered you at night, I thought I'd found a woman, the true woman that you were. I was mistaken. You used me just as I use Louis to cover a mare, and now my duties are accomplished.”
”You don't have to wait for accounting day.” She scrambled for her keys and shook the one which opened her strongbox at him. ”I'll give you the gold at once.”
”Double the gold.” He could hurt her, too. ”Gold for being your mercenary, and gold for being your stud.”
”I'll send Eudo with it and you can be gone.”
”Send Eudo with half of it. Keep the other half for my son, and tell him it is his patrimony, to be used anytime he wishes, to travel to Radcliffe and be with me, his father.” Tapping his finger on his chest, he said, ”You might be able to keep my child from me, but you can't take that. I am his father and always will be.”
”Be gone with you, then.”
”I wouldn't stay if you begged me.”
They stood facing each other, panting, as if they'd run a race and exhausted all their energy. Alisoun's wimple sat c.o.c.ked on her head, her cheeks flamed, and she smelled of brimstone. He didn't look much better, he supposed, and he knew one brief moment of chagrin, one moment of wanting her last glimpse of him to be Sir David of Radcliffe, the legendary mercenary.
Instead, anger and hurt had stripped him of all pretense. She tossed her head and strode away, putting as much distance between them as quickly as she could. He whirled and stormed in the opposite direction.
He'd gone only a short distance before conscience brought him to a halt.
He couldn't leave her to navigate the woods alone. His month of stewards.h.i.+p hadn't ended yet. Quietly, so she wouldn't notice and draw false conclusions, he followed her through the woods, where he halted in the shadow of the trees. From there he watched her walk across the clearing and into the stream of people moving from the village to the castle.
She never looked back.
And he didn't care. With a curse, he punched both fists into a tree trunk, then grabbed his sc.r.a.ped and aching knuckles and swore ever louder. d.a.m.n the woman! She had him doing stupid things for stupid reasons. He stomped back into the woods, sucking his bleeding wounds. He hadn't meant to lose his temper, but by Saint Michael's arms, he'd not return and beg her pardon when she'd been the one who insisted on following her asinine plans. He circled through the trees. Aye, she'd warned him, but he'd thought she'd see the good sense of marrying him. He'd thought she was an intelligent woman. He should have realized those two terms were mutually exclusive. When a man- ”G.o.d...”
David stopped and c.o.c.ked his head. That sounded like an animal in pain.
”Saint...John help...”
An animal who groaned. An animal with a vocabulary. His senses suddenly went on the alert. He scanned the area, noting broken branches on the underbrush and a dribble of some dark substance marking the leaves. He leaned closer.
Blood. His earlier itch returned, the sense of being watched, and he glanced around at the green enclave. He could see no one, but that broken voice called again.
”Help...please.”
Determined, wary, he followed the dark speckled trail. The sound of labored breathing grew louder. Then he saw him. Sir Walter. A b.l.o.o.d.y wound where his mouth should be. Eyes swollen shut. Leg bones c.o.c.ked at an ungainly angle.
”By G.o.ddes corpus!” David leaped over the barrier of bushes and knelt at the battered man's side. ”What happened?”
Sir Walter lisped, ”David?”
”Aye, it's me.” David grimly ran his hands over Sir Walter, seeking more injuries and finding them. ”I need to get help.”
”Nay!” Sir Walter clawed at David's arm. ”Help.”
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