Part 28 (1/2)
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?”