Part 39 (2/2)
”How could that be? I held a sword on him.”
”Badly.” He dismissed her pretensions with one brisk word. ”And you have done the one thing that was guaranteed to find favor in Henry's eyes.” His sober mouth twitched into a smile. ”You married me.”
”I could have married anyone and gotten the same results,” she snapped, unnerved by his scrutiny. Most people said they didn't understand her. David, on the other hand, seemed to understand her too well, and right now she wasn't sure she wanted him to fathom how she felt. She wasn't even sure how she felt, or why she insulted him.
He didn't take offense. ”But no one else ever wanted to marry you, did they?”
”Too many wanted to marry me.”
”Not you,” he corrected. ”But your estates.”
She wanted to say that she and her estates were one and the same, but they weren't. Lady Alisoun was from George's Cross, but she was not George's Cross. She had separated the two ent.i.ties forever when she'd decided to put her lands at risk to rescue Philippa.
And David...well, he wanted George's Cross, but he wanted her, too. She was not the bad medicine he had to take to gain claim to her lands, but an added jewel for his s.h.i.+eld.
The saints knew he'd told her so in many ways; now she believed him.
She blinked. Had she been daydreaming? By Saint Michael's arm, she had. David had disappeared. She rushed after him toward the stairwell, but already she heard his voice in the great hall, begging the king to allow Philippa to leave at once.
She also had a duty to do, she reminded herself. She had to arrange transportation for Philippa, not chase after her husband for the purpose of useless chatter.
In fact, when she thought about being alone with David and speaking about their difficulties, she could only remember his half-tender, half-exasperated expression and wonder what it meant.
Still, she didn't want to return to the chamber which housed Philippa, and when she entered she knew why. Too much suns.h.i.+ne seemed to have penetrated the dim recesses of the room, and she had to call that glow happiness. She couldn't discern its origin-the glow permeated the stone walls, the beamed ceiling, the tapestries, and the wooden floor. On the other hand, she didn't look directly at Guy or Philippa or their rapture would blind her.
Calling the maids, Alisoun directed them on errands to prepare for Philippa's journey, and by the time the serving women had departed, David returned. ”We're leaving at once,” he announced.
”We?” Startled, Alisoun rounded on him. ”Who's we?”
”Guy, Lady Philippa, you, me.” David took her arm. ”And Louis.”
”You and I can't leave.”
He hustled her out the door.
She tried to dig her heels in. ”We must wait on the king!”
He kept a firm grip on her as they descended the staircase and bypa.s.sed the great hall. ”He told us to go.”
”On your instigation!”
David shrugged and held the outside door for Guy and Philippa. ”Of course. I told him that Lady Philippa needed a heavy escort to George's Cross, because I had set the precedent for minor n.o.bility to wed rich widows.” Guy chuckled as he descended the stairs, and David grinned, quite proud of himself. ”King Henry almost fainted at the thought of losing dominion over another one of his heiresses.”
”You are a wicked man,” Philippa said, her voice rich with admiration.
”How can you approve of him?” Alisoun asked her. The cart stood prepared, all their horses had been saddled, and Ivo and Gunnewate stood stoically awaiting their departure. Obviously David had given commands in addition to hers. ”It is always best to pay court to the king when it is convenient to secure yourself in his good graces.”
”The king's good graces gave me Osbern for a husband. I no longer seek the king's good graces.”
Philippa's outburst left Alisoun stunned and speechless, and David used the time to put her on her palfrey. To Guy, he said, ”We'll ride north together to George's Cross, then Lady Alisoun and I will ride on to Radcliffe.”
”We will?” Alisoun said. ”But I wanted to stay at George's Cross and tend to Philippa.”
”Did you?”
She didn't really. Her well-trained maids would overwhelm Philippa on her triumphant return. But Alisoun feared to be alone with David.
”It will be as my lady rules,” he said, but his long face belied his proffered agreement. ”Like Philippa, I long to see that my child is robust and thriving.”
”Is Bert unwell?” Alisoun demanded.
”Nay, but I said farewell to her and warned her it could very well be the last time I saw her, for I probably rode to my death.” He smiled wistfully. ”I would rea.s.sure her now.”
”Oh.” He had almost ridden to his death. When Alisoun thought how close Osbern's dagger had come, the belated terror made her ill. When she thought about Bertrade, her heart ached.
She could remain at George's Cross without David. Of course she could. But she didn't mention the possibility, because Guy and Philippa deserved to be alone.
Then she wondered where her former self had disappeared-the one who would have disapproved of a romance between a dowager d.u.c.h.ess and a mere knight.
She guessed that Osbern had killed the former Lady Alisoun, for of all the men she'd ever met, only Osbern met all her requisites as a perfect husband. He had wealth, breeding, and a sense of duty, yet his evil deeds had scarred Philippa and Hazel and finally brought about his own downfall.
At David's hands. She looked at her husband. She had now put her life in danger for another, and she understood his former reluctance. She'd pointed a sword at the king's throat-and his chest, gut, and nether regions-and threatened him, and all the while her knees shook and her teeth chattered. She had known that with one cry he could have had her cut down, and she had discovered she couldn't have stricken him a blow even if it had saved Philippa's life.
She couldn't kill anyone. She was an errant coward.
But David had killed Osbern, thinking all the while he would die, if not at Osbern's hands, then as a victim of the king's vengeance.
She wanted to tell David how much she respected him for his courageous stand for justice, but she couldn't.
Not while Guy and Philippa could hear.
So she waited.
The travelers reached the village of George's Cross and said their good-byes. Guy and Philippa rode up to the castle. David and Alisoun rode north.
The silence grew heavier with every step.
He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to explain why he had allowed Osbern to take Philippa in the first place, and why he had gone to free her. He wanted to tell her that he had done what was conventional and he now comprehended the line she walked between compa.s.sion and propriety.
But Ivo and Gunnewate rode on their heels and he hesitated to speak in their presence. Even at night they weren't alone.
So the days had pa.s.sed and too soon they topped the rise above Radcliffe. David stared at his beloved home without joy or hope. All the long journey together, he and Alisoun had said nothing but polite words. As far as he could see, they could continue like that forever. They could live their whole married life just as they'd pa.s.sed the journey, both longing to speak, both weighted with the memory of their last quarrel and frightened to expose themselves once more.
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