“This is my daughter Isabelle. She has nearly three years.”
His face blanched and his eyes glistened with tears, but he remained silent. He exchanged a glance with his wife and then looked back at his daughter. Some moments later, the shouting of the crowd near the raised dais drew their attention to the couple there.
“Catherine is well and happy in this marriage,” Emalie said, trying to reassure him. “They permitted me the joy of hosting their wedding feast before they travel back to his lands in Aquitaine in two days’ time. They are, she is, happy at last.”
“So it would appear, my lady. A strange twist, is it not? Catherine married to your lord’s brother?”
“’Twould seem that there have been many strange twists since we met,” Emalie said. “Some I still understand not. But this marriage is one made in love, Royce.” Emalie could not fathom why she needed him to know that, but something within her wanted him at peace. She surely was now that she knew he had not died that day. In spite of his actions, she knew he had been a victim in the prince’s machinations as much as she had and had regretted his death. “May I tell her that you were here?”
“Nay, my lady. For then all of your husband’s efforts to save both her and me would be for naught. If you would but remind her at some appropriate time that her brother loved her and tried to protect her in his own way, it would be a great service for me.”
Emalie could only nod, tears now burned in her throat and eyes as she realized that this was more than a request for a service, this was his apology for all that had happened between them.
He looked once more at the child in her arms. “Is she accepted?”
Emalie smiled now, considering Christian’s actions not only in dealing with William but also in accepting William’s child as his own. Tucking some loosened strands of hair behind her daughter’s ear, she met his gaze.
“He loves her, Royce. She is as his own.”
“Then I have many things for which to thank your husband, Emalie.”
Momentarily distracted by his use of her name, she blinked to remove the tears from her eyes. Then she turned in the direction of someone calling out her name. Sir Luc approached, waving to get her attention.
“My lady? My lady?” he called, walking toward her. “My lord said you are needed to send off the bride.”
Emalie glanced back to warn Royce of the approach of her husband’s retainer, but he and the woman were gone. She stood taller and searched through the crowd for them, to no avail.
“Here, my lady, let me take Bella. I will see her to her nurse.”
Emalie passed the child to the knight and watched as her daughter made herself quite comfortable in the arms of the tall warrior. They walked off, deep in conversation about a game he had taught her and Emalie felt a deep sense of contentment fill her soul. Love had triumphed over duty, honor, and even over evil, not only in her life, but also in those around her.
She was blessed with a man of honor as her husband and at times like this, when she learned of his good deeds, she felt she did not deserve him. She also knew that she loved him more with each passing day. Emalie walked toward the wedding feast intent on making certain he knew of her love before another moment passed them by.
Author Note
Although I have no proof that a plot was hatched by Prince John and his associates against his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, Arthur was taken prisoner by John four years after the setting of my story and never seen alive again.
Richard Lion-Heart was injured during a battle for Chalus castle in the spring of 1199 and died on April 6. His brother John, the last legitimate son of Henry II with his queen, was crowned King of England on May 27, 1199, and ruled until his death in 1216.
Until her death in 1204 at the extraordinary age of eighty-three, Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful women in history, remained a staunch supporter of her son John in holding together the empire wrought by her marriage to Henry II.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7847-3
THE COUNTESS BRIDE
Copyright © 2004 by Theresa S. Brisbin
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