Part 27 (2/2)
From behind the screen, he heard a splas.h.i.+ng, then a bawl of what sounded like agony. ”You got me wet!” Bert cried.
”It works so much better that way.” Alisoun sounded as calm as ever, and that seemed to infuriate Bert once more.
”You're ugly!” she yelled. ”You're stupid!”
”d.a.m.n.” Once more, David started to his feet and moved toward the screens.
Guy followed and grabbed his arm. ”Alisoun said not to interfere.”
David wavered.
Then Bertrade's voice rose to a high-pitched scream. ”My daddy only married you for your money.”
Tearing himself away from Guy, David bounded forward. ”I never said that.” He didn't know to whom he spoke, but he clearly heard Alisoun's answer.
”I know that. I married him for protection. You needn't worry that I'll entice your daddy away from you. I don't even care to try.”
David skidded on a wet place on the floor and went down heavily. Bruised in body and spirit, he scarcely noticed when Guy helped him up from the floor.
”Did you bring some new horses?” Guy asked. When David nodded morosely, Guy said, ”You can show them to me.”
Guy led him outside into the small bailey, now bustling with activity. David's servants greeted him with varying levels of enthusiasm, and as they neared the stable, Guy broke the silence. ”The reaction to Lady Alisoun amazes me.”
Instantly hostile, David asked, ”What do you mean?”
”Yesterday everyone of these villeins moaned about the hunger in their bellies and how they would do anything to ease it. Now Lady Edlyn and Lady Philippa have distributed meals from Lady Alisoun's stores-”
”She's not a lady,” David said.
”Lady Edlyn?” Guy stared in wonder.
”Philippa.”
”Isn't she? I would have said she was, and a very attractive lady, too.” David shook his head, but Guy seemed unconvinced. ”Lady Alisoun has made it clear the duties everyone will perform if they expect to continue to eat so well. Reasonable expectations, I might add, yet your servants seem to be struggling between relief and resentment.”
”They'll do as she says, or I'll tack their ears to a stock.”
Guy eyed the open stable door, then looked at the indignant David. ”Let's walk around one time before we go in to see the horses.”
David nodded, knowing his restless vigor wouldn't sit well with the animals, who even now were adjusting to their new stalls.
As they started around the saggy wooden building, Guy returned to the subject. ”Tacking their ears won't work. She has to win them over herself, and I don't know whether this lazy bunch of knaves and s.l.u.ts will respond to the woman when they know you married her for her wealth.”
Grabbing Guy by the throat, David snapped, ”I didn't!”
Guy jabbed David's unprotected stomach with his fist, and when David released him and reeled backward, he asked, ”Why did you tell the child that, then?”
”I didn't. She just a.s.sumed...and where did she even get the idea, I'd like to know?” David glared insinuatingly at the man who'd raised his daughter these months.
”She was lost when you left, and she ran from one person to another, trying to garner suggestions of how you could come home soon. A couple of the men told her you'd be wise to marry an heiress. A couple of the women suggested you'd be better off to have a squire at your side. She couldn't do anything about the heiress, so she decided to become a lad and be your squire.” Guy rubbed his head as if it ached. ”She's a very smart little la.s.s.”
David found himself fighting a headache. ”How am I going to explain?”
”Bert's not going to believe you wed Lady Alisoun for any reason other than greed.”
”I meant to explain to Alisoun.” Narrowing his eyes, David asked, ”Why won't Bert believe?”
They had reached the stable door once more, and Guy looked at it, then at David. ”Let's go around again.”
It never occurred to David to disagree.
As they began the wide circle again, Guy said, ”Because she's had you all to herself these years, and she won't easily give you up to another woman. She adores you, you know that.”
”I adore her, and I'll not adore her any less because I'm wed.”
”Bert and Alisoun will fight-are already fighting-and you'll have to make your choices. Who will you side with? The woman you've wed who, by all appearances, is stiff-necked and conventional, or your wild child, who needs to be taught proper behavior without breaking her spirit?”
”Alisoun, of course.”
”Of course.” Guy mocked him. ”You've raised Bert, but not like any other child I've seen. Most especially, not like any girl I've seen. You've given her her head more often than not.”
”Why not?” David asked indignantly. ”She's learned by trying and failing, or trying and succeeding. I've made sure she didn't hurt herself, and it's worked well.”
”Aye, it's worked. She's tried anything she chose, and you and I, we're old warriors. We just watched and made sure she didn't get hurt. What do you think Lady Alisoun will think of such a way of raising a child?”
David remembered his early impressions of Alisoun. He'd thought her humorless, unemotional, frigid. That was how Guy now saw her, but it wasn't the truth, and David clapped his friend on the shoulder. ”You'll see. She'll defer to my greater knowledge.”
”Will she?” It never occurred to either one of them to enter the open stable door this time. They just pa.s.sed it and kept walking. ”So when Bert tells Lady Alisoun she wants to train as a squire, she's going to encourage Bert?”
David didn't answer.
”Because you know Bert. Once she decides to learn something, nothing will stop her until she's mastered it. She's going to be after you every day to teach her swordplay and jousting and every other manly pursuit. It's your contention that Lady Alisoun will allow such behavior without saying a word?”
”d.a.m.n!” David smacked his hand into the stable wall, then wished he hadn't. The horses needed serenity to settle, and even the stablemaster would be moving as quietly as possible. He listened, but heard nothing but a few startled neighs. Softly, he spoke again. ”Alisoun has a strong sense of duty, and she'll consider training Bert to be a lady her duty, and nothing will keep her from it.”
”There's nothing wrong with that.”
”But what's the harm in Bert learning a squire's duty if she wishes?”
Guy pounced. ”So you are going to support Bert against Lady Alisoun?”
”Nay, I...” David took a breath. ”Why does it have to be so complicated? When I met Lady Alisoun, I thought she was mean-spirited and bloodless. Then I saw her demesne and thought, 'Ooh, all this beautiful wealth waiting for me.' So I courted her and talked to her, and she's...she's...” Turning to Guy, he grasped his shoulders. ”You know how it is when you look in one of those clear, polished crystals and it just looks like a hard, cold stone? Then as you stare, you notice the rainbows that dance on the surface, and when you hold it up to your eye and look through it, it makes all the colors brighter and all the hard, horrible things look like they're touched by an angel's wing?”
Bewildered, Guy stared at his old friend. ”Nay.”
David swept on. ”That's what she's like. You think she's hard and cold and easily seen through, and then she transforms your whole world.”
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