Dreams of Stardust

by Lynn Kurland

  "How pleased?"

  "So pleased that he's invited us to come to London as soon as we're able to travel so I can do his likeness justice."

  "Jake," she breathed. "In truth?"

  "Are you interested?"

  "I haven't been to London in years," she admitted. "I would enjoy it very much."

  "I wouldn't mind seeing it either," he said. "Besides, I don't think we're supposed to refuse. I don't know. What do you think?"

  "I think you'd best discuss proper comportment before royalty with my father," she said dryly, "lest we find ourselves painting the inside of a cell in the Tower."

  "Never fear, no medieval lock can hold me," he boasted. "Though I daresay it might have been a bit dodgy there for a moment or two when Ledenham arrived, frothing at the mouth."

  She gasped. "Ledenham? And he said…"

  "More of the same," Jake said with a shrug. "I had given my defense quite a bit of thought, but de Burgh made it unnecessary. When Ledenham began to spew out his accusations, de Burgh looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, wondered aloud if the bump left on Ledenham's forehead from Robin's sword hilt had damaged his wits permanently, then threw him out on his, ahem, backside."

  Amanda shook her head. "Jake, it won't be the last of him. He'll never give up now."

  "It will be his word against mine," Jake said. "And your father's, of course." He shrugged. "An air of mystery will cling to me and, I apologize in advance, to you."

  "Which will only increase when you take up residence in Raventhorpe," she pointed out with a smile. "Congratulations again, my lord, on it all just the same. A fine coup."

  He ran his hand over her sopping hair. "You were my inspiration."

  "And your prize."

  "Is tomorrow too soon to claim you?"

  She laughed. "We are, if you can fathom this, already prepared."

  "You had faith in me," he said, sounding pleased.

  "I did."

  He smiled at her. "Let's go home, then."

  "As you wish, my lord."

  She sat in her father's solar later that day, on the eve of her wedding day, and looked around at the family surrounding her. And she enjoyed, for once, not being the center of attention. It would seem that Rhys and Robin had seen several quite fetching maids at Seakirk Abbey who were surely not of the ilk to be taking their vows any time soon. Nicholas was sitting in his chair, rolling his eyes at their suggestions and vowing that he would not wed until he found someone who loved him for him and not just for his ability to liberate her from a nunnery.

  Amanda smiled as she held Jake's hand, feeling quite content, for a change, in that chamber. She looked down at her ring, sparkling in the firelight, and marveled that Jake should have made such a thing. Perhaps the king would be well served to have Jake create a bauble or two for him. He certainly would if he could see the other pieces of work Jake had brought with him.

  Anne was wearing one of his brooches. Gwen periodically admired the bracelet surrounding her wrist, done in the same blue stone that Amanda found sprinkled throughout her own ring. Isabelle was not so subtle. She clutched her necklace in her hand and divided her time between gaping at it and gaping at Jake.

  Talk turned to the state of affairs in the north. Amanda was enormously glad to no longer be a pawn in those affairs. Now 'twas Jake who had an interest in how things might come about.

  She held his hand and looked at him as he talked as an equal with her father and brothers, and she marveled at him. How he had changed, yet in truth, he had not changed at all. Even from the first, he had carried himself as a man of means and learning. 'Twas her bias that had made him seem less to her than he was. Indeed, she had learned a great deal in the past few months about a man's worth and his place in life.

  She supposed she might never be the same.

  So she looked at her man of worth and found it difficult to believe how much he had given up for her. The Future and all its wonders. She sincerely hoped she was worth the price.

  She sighed and leaned back against her chair, then realized she was being watched. She met Robin's gaze and expected him to smirk at her or laugh at her mooning.

  Instead, he was watching her with one of those expressions of genuine affection he reserved for Anne and Phillip.

  "Happy?" he mouthed.

  She nodded, her heart suddenly too full for speech or jest. So she let a tear or two slip down her cheeks and nodded again. Aye, she was happy. She was again in the bosom of her family, but now her heart was not only whole but full of love for the man sitting next to her who would in time hold court with their family in his own solar.

  Jake raised her hand to his lips suddenly, kissed it, then held it in both his own, rubbing his thumb gently over the ring on her finger and looking down at it now and again, as if he assured himself it was still there.

  She looked at Robin, who regarded them both with a satisfied smile. She nodded.

  She couldn't have agreed more.

  * * *

  Chapter 37

  Jake stood at the front of a medieval chapel on the morning of his wedding day and paused in the midst of waiting for his bride in order to review the events of the past few months, to see where he'd gone right.

  First on the list was getting mugged in Artane Enterprises, Inc.'s car park. That had sent him careening down a path through ghost-filled hallways, time gates, and past a medieval monarch, to land at the front of a relatively new chapel, where he was waiting for his bride to come give herself to him.

  From mugging to marrying.

  He had no complaints.

  He looked around him at the souls gathered to watch the ceremony. Gwen, Anne, and Isabelle stood on the far side of the aisle. They all wore expressions of happiness, so he supposed he could safely assume they weren't dissatisfied with the prospect of him taking Amanda for his wife.

  Montgomery and John stood on the near side of the aisle with Miles, looking pleased as well. Nicholas and Robin stood with Jake at the altar. Jake thought he was showing a great amount of trust by having Nicholas de Piaget standing at his back with a dagger in his belt. Stranger things had happened than a stabbing in a chapel in England. Maybe Robin would keep him safe.

  Then the door opened and Amanda walked in with Rhys. Jake found that the sight of her after any sort of absence, as always, was like a fist to his gut. He was almost certain he swayed.

  "Steady," Robin murmured from behind him. "Though 'tis not too late to flee."

  "Shut up," Jake muttered.

  "A leap or two over the benches and voilà, you're off."

  Jake turned his head to glare at his future brother-in-law, only to find Robin grinning at him.

  "I'd label you appropriately," Jake whispered, "but we're in church."

  "There are always the lists later."

  "I'll be busy."

  "Dawn, then?"

  "By the saints," Nicholas hissed, "will you two cease? We've a wedding to see accomplished."

  "I'm distracting him," Robin said cheerfully. "If he catches a full view of that wench, he's liable to swoon."

  "Be a man," Nicholas advised under his breath. "Bear up under the strain."

  "Gladly," Jake said, smiling as Rhys deposited Amanda at the altar. Jake nodded to Rhys, then took Amanda's hand and faced the priest.

  Her fingers were like ice. He looked at her in surprise, but she gave no sign of distress. In fact, she looked up at him and smiled, so brilliantly that he had to blink. He supposed he swayed; that was probably why Robin elbowed him in the ribs. Jake took both Amanda's hands in his and let yet another moment of unreality wash over him—not unlike that moment in Rhys's solar when he and Rhys had spoken of the future.

  He stood in a medieval chapel, holding the hands of a medieval noblewoman, wearing a medieval title on his shoulders, and he was getting married on top of it all.

  It was not, as he had decided earlier, what he had expected that morning when his dad had forced him out of bed before dawn to send him fate
fully to Artane Enterprises.

  "Holdings?" the priest asked.

  Before Jake could wonder what he was supposed to do, Rhys stepped forward. "I will name my daughter's dowry. Scribe, are you ready?"

  "Best find a chair," Robin whispered loudly.

  Jake caught the glare Rhys threw his oldest son, but Robin only smiled pleasantly. Jake stood there holding onto Amanda's hand and found out for the first time just how very wealthy his bride was. He realized he was listening with an open mouth only because he eventually had to swallow and had to close his mouth to do it. He looked at Amanda.

  "Wow."

  She smiled. "Didn't you know?"

  "Didn't know, didn't care."

  "You'd best care now," Rhys said.

  Jake smiled at Amanda's father. "Of course, my lord. You know I will do everything necessary to see to it properly."

  Rhys nodded, apparently satisfied, though Jake knew that there had never been any question about it. He supposed it did a father good to know that the man he was giving his daughter to would take his responsibilities seriously when the time came.

  "My lord Raventhorpe?" the priest inquired.

  "I'll name his," Robin said. "Groomsman's duty and all that." He cleared his throat and flexed his fingers purposefully. "In holdings he brings Raventhorpe, of course. In gold and gems, he brings the equivalent of several hundred knight's fees."

  "Is that all?" the priest asked.

  Was that all? Jake smiled. His wealth was not Amanda's, but it was something at least.

  "Nay, that is not all," Robin said archly. "I have things yet to name. Scribe, are you ready?"

  "Aye, my lord."

  "My lord Raventhorpe also brings to the table a fine blacksmith, furnishings for his bedchamber, great hall, and private solar." Robin smiled. "Courtesy of me."

  "Thank you," Jake said, surprised and touched.

  "And horseflesh for his stables and a hound or two for his kennels," Nicholas said with only the slightest bit of dourness. "From me."

  "Thank you very much," Jake said, even more surprised and touched.

  "Squires!" Montgomery and John chimed in.

  "That would be us," Montgomery added.

  "A gift of us, from us," John said with a grin.

  Jake looked at Amanda's younger brothers and smiled. "I'll take you."

  "And a steward," Rhys added, "from her mother and me. But a cook you can find on your own."

  "Find a cook quickly," Miles advised. "She burns everything she touches."

  Jake laughed and looked at Amanda, who had tears running down her cheeks. But she was smiling as well.

  "What a family," he said.

  She nodded, then turned to the priest. "I daresay, good father, that those things are enough. Let us be about the rest, if you will."

  Jake concentrated on what was being said, on responding in all the right places with all the right words, but the back of his mind was spinning with all the revelations already that morning.

  All right, so he was used to having money. His father might have been a reprehensible cad, but he had spared no expense to see Jake educated or treated properly while he'd been at Eton, and later at Cambridge. Jake himself, once his years of scrimping and saving to start his business were behind him, had certainly not lacked for the finer things of life. He'd traveled in luxury, bought whatever pleased him, surrounded himself with things of beauty.

  But somehow, such abundance in medieval terms was positively overwhelming.

  "Jake?"

  He blinked and looked at Amanda. "What?"

  "You may kiss me now."

  He blinked again. "Is it over?"

  Nicholas made a noise of despair and Robin laughed. Jake looked at Amanda.

  "I suppose that's a 'yes'?"

  She leaned up on her toes and kissed him. "Aye."

  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, not as thoroughly as he would have liked. He was, after all, standing right in front of her father. But he would later, when they didn't have an audience.

  "Are you certain you don't want a brief foray into the lists?" Robin asked politely.

  "Shut up," Jake said, just as politely.

  "Then food for the man," Robin said, slapping Jake heartily on the back. "Strength for his labors."

  Jake looked at Amanda, who merely laughed. There was no stopping Robin of Artane when he was on a roll, and apparently he was on one now. Jake took Amanda's hand and turned around to leave the chapel. But he couldn't leave without shaking hands with Rhys, or bowing low over Gwen's hand and thanking her again for the gift of her daughter. And on the way from the chapel, he found himself being congratulated by Miles and the twins, and shyly taken by his free arm by Isabelle who, as usual, looked up at him worshipfully.

  Robin and Anne followed, with Anne making hushing noises as Robin continued his wedding monologue.

  They were soon seated comfortably at the high table in the great hall. Jake supposed he was fed, but he didn't remember much of it. For the most part, he simply stared at Amanda.

  He smiled to himself. No wonder the ghosts had made whacko motions when he'd asked them about Amanda. He should have taken that as a positive sign.

  Robin clapped his hands together suddenly, then rubbed them. "I daresay 'tis time for the standing up, wouldn't you say?"

  "Standing up?" Jake asked.

  "Robin," Anne chided, "leave him be. And leave Amanda be."

  Jake looked at Amanda. "Standing up?"

  "Don't answer him, sister," Robin said, grinning. "We'll just show him."

  "You will not," Amanda said. "My lord is not finished with his wine, and when he is, he will retire without help from you. Or any of the rest of you," she said, sweeping the males at the table with a warning glance. "I for one will not be stripped naked to stand before my sire and brothers," she huffed. "I daresay after all Jake has gone through to have me, he's not about to repudiate me."

  "You can say that again," Jake said, with feeling. He looked at Miles, who sat on his other side. "You really don't do that kind of thing, do you?"

  "Of course," Miles said with a smile. "How else would you have one last chance to refuse your knock-kneed, sunken chested, spindly elbowed bride?"

  "I can assure you I am none of those," Amanda said sharply. "Now, leave Jake alone and let him finish his meal. For all we know, he may wish to have a small walk along the beach on the afternoon of his wedding day."

  Robin spewed his wine all over the table. "Surely you jest," he gasped. "A walk along the beach? On his wedding day?"

  Jake looked at Amanda. "Is it possible to have any privacy today?"

  "Privacy?" she said with a snort. "Aye, at Raventhorpe."

  "Too far. We'll have to settle for somewhere closer."

  She pushed her chair back and stood. She leaned over and kissed her father's cheek. "My lord is weary. Of his new brothers-in-law," she said with a glare thrown Robin's way. "If you will excuse us, Father? Mother?"

  "Are you asking permission of me as well?" Robin asked with a grin.

  Jake rose with her and gave Robin the cuff to the back of the head he deserved as he passed.

  "You'll pay for that, Kilchurn," Robin blustered. "Later, when I don't still have wine in my cup."

  "Sure," Jake said. He walked to the end of the table with Amanda, then paused and excused himself. He walked around to the front of the table and stopped in front of Rhys and Gwen. He made them a very low bow.

  "Thank you, my lord, my lady, for the gift of your daughter," he said simply.

  Rhys nodded seriously. Gwen smiled through her tears. Jake looked at the rest of Amanda's family, made them a bow as well, then walked around the table to collect his bride. He paused at the bottom of the steps and smiled at her.

  "My lady?"

  "My lord?"

  He laughed and took her hand to lead her up the stairs.

  He woke sometime during the middle of the night. He rolled from the bed, found a candle, then wrapped
a blanket around himself and went out into the hallway for a light. He carried the candle back into the room and set it down on the bedside table.

  He retrieved a sketch pad and a pencil, then found a stool and sat down. It took him perhaps an hour to capture her on the page as he wished, then he set aside his pencil and merely stared at her. He supposed there weren't enough hours in every day from now until he died to look at her, to drink in her spirit, to marvel that this magical, spectacular, outspoken woman was actually his to love. After all the time he'd spent combing the world for the perfect gem, here was the one of the most value.

  A true one-of-a-kind.

  She opened her eyes slowly, looked at him, then smiled.

  "Hey," she said.

  He smiled reflexively. He was going to have to be careful how he talked to her or he was going to have a medieval Valley Girl on his hands. He'd already corrupted her with chocolate earlier in the evening. Who knew what other anachronisms he would inflict upon her, given enough time?

  "Hey, yourself," he said.

  "What are you about, here in the middle of the night?"

  He held up his sketch pad. "Drawing my favorite subject."

  She caught her breath. "Ah, Jake, 'tis beautiful. Far more beautiful than I deserve."

  "It is not," he said. "I'll have you know that I am a very fine artist, rendering my subjects with complete accuracy and a jaundiced eye."

  "If you say so." She leaned up on one elbow. "Will you draw something else?" she asked hesitantly. "More things from the Future? Not right now, but later?"

  "If you like," he said with a smile. "But what I would really like to do is paint a portrait of you. Once I can find paints and such."

  "In truth?" she asked, sounding pleased.

  "Yes. In that blue dress you wore today. You were very beautiful in it."

  "You must paint me with long hair."

  He laughed. "Why is that?"

  "I do not want my posterity to see what a fool I was whilst waiting for their progenitor to return to me."

  "Done," he said. "Hair to your waist, if you wish."

  She smiled lazily. "I wish it. Now, put away your pencils, my lord, and come you here. I've other work for you."