“If you say you are happy in your marriage then I must be glad of it,” Eden continued with forced cheerfulness. “I must admit, I did not realize Sir Garman ranked among your admirers but—”
“Nay,” Lenora corrected her swiftly. “For he did not. Indeed, he has confessed himself wholly unadmiring of my former beauty.”
Eden visibly checked her words. “He did?” she said, frowning. “Then—?”
“Our alliance is of recent creation. Since my illness.”
Eden pursed her lips as if to speak and then seemed to change her mind. When she did speak, she seemed to be measuring every word. “You will have a good deal of disappointed suitors. No doubt, Sir Lionel’s reaction, though very shocking, is an indication of how your former admirers will take the news of your marriage.”
Lenora glanced sideways to see if Cuthbert still loitered, but the lad had made himself scarce. “I doubt that very much,” she said briskly. “Only consider, the vast majority of them admired my face and nothing more. To give Sir Lionel his due, his regard seemed undimmed by my loss of looks. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised by that fact.”
Trumpeting horns alerted them to the fact the combatants were now entering the field and they both turned to watch as about twenty knights in red armbands lined up, followed by another twenty in navy armbands. Roland Vawdrey wearing a red armband, raised a hand in greeting which his wife returned with a cheery wave of her scarf. Then Eden leaned forward, lips parted as he took up his place in the formation.
Lenora felt the box lurch and reached out to steady herself. “This structure does not seem terribly sturdy,” she commented in alarm, but Eden was not listening. Her eyes were on the field before them, as she rested her elbows on the edge of the box. It was amusing to think that only a year ago, Eden had felt nothing but scornful indifference for the lists. Lenora had just settled herself comfortably after the first charge, when Eden uttered a sharp exclamation and half-started out of her chair, nearly upsetting a platter of grapes between them.
“That villain!” she said hotly and turned to demand of Lenora. “Did you see that? That ill-judged blow?” Lenora looked at Eden’s flushed face with interest. “De Crecy thinks himself wholly beyond reproach, but he shall find out differently at this evening’s meal, when I tell him just what I think of him!” her cousin vowed, clenching her fists.
It was not the easiest thing to watch the tournament through her double veiling. In the privacy of their enclosure, surely she could afford to dispense with them. Lenora set about sweeping them to one side and securing them there with a pin. In truth, it seemed a little rude to expect her cousin to talk to her swathed in veils. Eden was discreet as the grave. She had evinced no shock or horror at Lenora’s appearance and did not seem to sneak any side glances that Lenora could tell. “Will Sir Roland not mind you tackling Sir Jeffrey like that in public?” she asked with curiosity.
“Mind? Why should he?” replied Eden with surprise. Then she gave a slightly self-conscious laugh. “He likes it when I get riled up on his behalf.”
“Indeed?” Lenora found herself enjoying this glimpse into her cousin’s wedded life.
Eden nodded. “Oh yes, he loves it when I take up cudgels for him.”
“It’s fortunate you’ve discovered an interest in the tourney now,” Lenora reflected. “As you did not use to care for them at all.”
“Oh well,” Eden answered conscientiously. “I really only care about the events Roland takes part in. I would not choose to watch any event on its own merit. I do not truly appreciate the sport as you do.” Lenora nodded absently. “Will your husband not mind that you choose to watch the melee with me, when he competes in the challenge to arms?”
Lenora hastily rearranged her face so Eden did not guess this was news to her. “I’m sure he won’t care two pins,” Lenora answered lightly. “Why should he? We are not a love match like yourself and Sir Roland.” Something about her tone must not have sounded as casual as she had intended, for she found Eden keenly regarding her. To her annoyance, Lenora found herself coloring up. Shedding her veils had the unfortunate effect of exposing her blushes. “You must not judge our pairing in the same light as your own,” she added firmly.
“Must I not?” Eden answered with a curious expression, but then let the subject drop. “Have you heard from Uncle Leofric since your marriage?”
“Not yet,” Lenora admitted. “Word will likely not have reached Father yet.” She waved a hand about vaguely. “This is our first public appearance as a married couple after all.”
“True,” her cousin replied. “But word will soon filter back. There are several knights who attend court here, for all it is a backwater tournament.”
Lenora murmured in agreement. “I know.” She winced. “Garman says it is not usually so well attended.” She fiddled with the arrangement of her veils, wondering if she should bring one forward again.
“Do you cover your face constantly now?” Eden asked suddenly. Her cousin’s tone was carefully neutral, and she was considerate enough to keep her gaze at the field and not on Lenora’s face when she asked. Still, Lenora felt an implied criticism of her cowardice.
She was silent a moment before replying. “I thought I would initially, but no. You see no-one knows me at Cofton Warren, so it’s much easier there. To them I am just a plain woman with a poor complexion.” Eden shot a startled look at her at this and made a noise of disagreement, but Lenora ignored it. “It is when confronted with people who knew me before, that I wish my features to be obscured.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Eden said after a moment or two. “But indeed, you exaggerate, Lenora. Indeed,” she insisted at the quick shake of Lenora’s head. “You do, cousin. You must strive for some sense of perspective. It is only because you were so very lovely that you feel the contrast so cruelly now.” She paused, waiting for her words to sink in. “You are an attractive woman still.”
“Eden—”
“I do not just say that as someone who loves you,” Eden interrupted her swiftly. “I speak as someone who has eyes in her head and a tongue that speaks true.”
Her cousin’s words were so emphatically spoken that Lenora paused. “My parents did not think so,” she found herself confessing. Again, she had not meant to speak of it to Eden, but she felt the relief of unburdening to her cousin almost instantly. She would not repeat the words for they would only wound Eden almost as much as they had hurt her. She would only live the best life she could, and do her best to prove them wrong.
An angry flush crept up her cousin’s neck. “They surely did not say so in your presence?” Eden asked in a voice that quivered with emotion.
“They thought me asleep. They did not mean for me to overhear their conversation.”
Eden rallied. “That must have been in the early days of your recovery,” she said uncertainly. “Your face was likely still swollen at that point and—”
“No,” Lenora cut her off. “For they did not visit me in the early days, Eden.” There was a heavy pause after her simply spoken words and then Eden’s hand sought out Lenora’s. “I wish I had been there,” her cousin said, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I cannot think what my uncle and aunt were about!”
“It was better you were not,” Lenora said, returning the pressure of her fingers. “You would not have stayed away while I was infectious.”
“Who looked after you?” Eden demanded. “Hannah?”
Lenora shook her head. “Let us not speak of it. It does not bear dwelling on.” Something about her expression, made the usually relentless Eden give way on this point. “I still have the servant who attended me, and I shall keep her till the end of her days or mine. Her name is Berta.”
“Very well,” Eden said. “I must meet this Berta someday, for undoubtedly I owe her a great debt.” She paused. “If you do not wish to discuss your illness, then I shall respect that. But should you ever change your mind—”
“I won’t,” Lenora said. �
��But thank you.”
“Then let us speak of other things,” Eden said bracingly. The knights were now regrouping on the field with over half of them unhorsed. Vawdrey still retained his seat, so Eden’s equanimity was unruffled. “How are you finding married life?” While Lenora scrambled to accommodate this abrupt change of direction, Eden continued. “I felt sorely in need of a confidante in the early days of my own marriage. Alas, I was far from anyone I knew or considered a friend. You have ended up in similar circumstances, I think.”
“Yes,” Lenora agreed cautiously. “Though you are my only friend and also the only family I am close to.”
“Soon, there will be another,” Eden said, touching a hand to the slight swell of her stomach. “A niece or a nephew for you to love.”
Lenora smiled. “I look forward to it.”
“You are finding your way?” Eden asked discreetly. “Sir Garman is considerate?”
Considerate? Lenora’s eyebrows rose. Not a word she would ever use about her husband, but she hesitated to say as such, seeing the sudden rush of pink to Eden’s cheeks. Was her prim cousin attempting to raise matters pertaining to the marriage bed? “Oh,” she said airily. “We are both groping our way about. We shall get there in the end I have no doubt.”
Eden frowned. “I know what you mean,” she said slowly. “I felt rather at sea myself in those early days,” she confessed. “It’s hard to remember now that everything has fallen into place, but—” She broke off, biting her lip. “All I can advise is that you try and be as trusting and open with your husband as possible and try not to let other considerations encroach.”
“Other considerations?” Lenora asked, feeling mystified.
Eden made a quick gesture with her hands. “Modesty, dignity—that sort of thing. They all go out the window when it comes to—that.” Eden’s face was scarlet now. “I’m sure you have the measure of it by now.” She darted a look at Lenora’s face.
“Um.” Lenora tried to school her face into an attitude of wifely wisdom. She really didn’t.
Lenora watched her cousin’s gaze turn doubtful. “Or haven’t you?” Eden looked faintly anxious.
“Not really,” Lenora confessed. “Do you think it’s very important?”
“Important?” Eden’s eyes widened. “Oh, dear me, yes! It most certainly is very important.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I think it is one of the ways that you bond as husband and wife. Initially, perhaps more importance attaches itself to the act for your husband, but then given time, your bodies become attuned…” Eden cleared her throat. “Am I making any sense?” she faltered.
Lenora thought about it. “I do not think Garman and I have reached that point yet,” she admitted. “You see, ours is more of an arrangement,” she stressed. When Eden looked alarmed, she added quickly. “As most marriages are for our rank. I am sure that given time we will get there.”
Eden sat back in her chair looking troubled. “What do you think is impeding your trust?” she asked practically. “Is there some barrier to be surmounted?”
Lenora suppressed a sigh. Eden was always so practical. Always looking for a solution. “Well,” she said, casting about for something that would satisfy her cousin. “There are so many mysteries unexpectedly surrounding him.”
“Mysteries?” Eden repeated, looking surprised. “I would have thought Sir Garman singularly lacking in such things!”
For some reason, Lenora found herself bristling at this. “What do you mean?” she asked, and even she heard the unexpected edge to her words. She felt the strangest impulse to point out that some people might think Roland Vawdrey singularly lacking in subtlety or even brains!
Eden bit her lip. “Sorry, I did not mean to be judgemental,” she said contritely. “I apologize.”
Immediately, Lenora’s fingers unclenched. “No, of course you did not,” she murmured, wondering at her own swift annoyance. It wasn’t like her at all! Usually she was even-tempered, even her sternest critics could not fault her on that score.
“Pray continue,” Eden said encouragingly.
“There is something about his family circumstances that I do not quite understand,” Lenora admitted, for the first time even to herself. “He owns a farm that his father built, but I do not think his father was from an agricultural background. Indeed, if he was, Garman could scarcely have been knighted after all.”
“You have not met any of his father’s family?”
“No indeed.” Lenora shook her head. “For both his parents died when Garman was very young. I have met only his grandfather on his mother’s side—one Gerard Sutton. He runs the farm on Garman’s behalf. His manner is a little odd around me. There is some constraint that I do not altogether understand. It is not just with me, but with his own grandson also. He was very unhappy about our unsanctioned elopement.”
Eden gave a start and Lenora realized that Sir Roland had been unhorsed and was now under attack from two knights who were rounding on him. They both sat silent until he had beat them off and fallen back among what was left of the red-armbands. Eden relaxed again and turned back to her cousin.
“What is his grandfather like?” she asked with interest.
“Scrupulously polite, very proper and extremely reserved. Nothing,” Lenora added frankly. “Like my husband.” Before Eden could make any reply, she continued. “Then, there are the Hainfroys. They are like family to Garman, yet there is no actual blood between them. Garman was a squire to the late Sir Bernhard and considers his sons to be like brothers to him. It seems they fought side-by-side in the war.”
“I see. Sometimes, when family ties are not strong, people form substitute bonds,” Eden reflected.
“There is something else,” admitted Lenora hesitantly. “For some reason the Hainfroys disowned their sister, and that reason is something to do with Garman.”
Eden frowned. “Did you think of asking your husband about this?”
“Of course, I did,” Lenora responded with some exasperation. “I’m not some shrinking maiden, Eden!”
Her cousin looked abashed. “No, of course not,” she hurried to assure her. “‘Tis only that sometimes the most direct line is the best one to take with men, and yet some women seem to shrink from it entirely.”
“Not me,” Lenora said firmly. “I asked him outright and he declined to talk about the subject.”
Eden looked up sharply. “He refused to tell you what lay between them?”
“He did,” Lenora agreed without rancor. “He said he didn’t have to explain anything, and then he distracted me by telling me what a virile male he was.”
Eden nearly choked on her grape. “Lenora!” she protested with watering eyes.
“What?” Lenora realized that some of the hot red color on Eden’s face was not due to her choking fit. “Oh, I didn’t mean that,” she said hastily. “He wasn’t trying to seduce me or anything. He meant it quite as a matter of fact. He got quite annoyed when I laughed about it.”
Eden’s expression turned curious. She looked like she wanted to ask something but couldn’t quite bring herself to. “I hate to be indelicate,” she said at last. “But is there no-one else you could ask about his past association with this Hainfroy woman?”
“I thought of that,” Lenora admitted. “But have not yet hit on the right opportunity. I did ask him outright if she had broken his heart and he flatly denied it.”
A grape slipped through Eden’s fingers. It fell down the gaps between the benches. “You asked him that outright?” she echoed, giving up on her snack.
“Oh yes.” Lenora nodded. “With a man like Garman, it is pointless trying to be delicate about things. He does not trouble to soften anything he says, and would not appreciate it from others.”
Eden blinked. “Lenora,” she said with a spurt of laughter. “It seems to me you are being extremely open and frank with Sir Garman!”
“Perhaps,” Lenora agreed. “But he is not returning the favor! Not in every respect.
”
Eden frowned. “He ought to take some effort to promote understanding between you. After all, you are his wife. Roland did everything he could to make me feel secure about him in the early days of our marriage.”
“Ah, but Roland Vawdrey was already in love with you when he married you,” Lenora pointed out. Eden flushed slightly and Lenora marveled at it, when her cousin was expecting her husband’s child. “You know he was,” she added quietly.
“Yes,” Eden murmured, glancing back down at where Roland was trouncing his good friend Sir James Attley. “But are you so sure that Sir Garman does not harbor such feelings for you, cousin?”
“Quite sure!” Lenora spluttered. “Our situation is not at all similar.”
Eden looked unsure. “Perhaps,” she demurred. “Perhaps not.”
“It is absolutely nothing alike!”
“I’m not so sure. There was something about his attitude last night at the banquet. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he seemed…”
“Belligerent?” scoffed Lenora. “Bad-tempered? Put out? He is frequently all three of those things. Ever since I have known him in fact.”
“Possessive,” said Eden decisively. She nodded. “Yes, decidedly possessive. And extremely jealous over that incident with Sir Lionel, who I must say acted with the greatest impropriety. I am shocked to hear he so far forgot himself.” Eden frowned. “I had thought him a superior sort of man. He is a patron of the arts you know and sponsored at least two of the poets I espouse.”
Lenora grimaced. “Some men act very differently with different groups of people,” she said darkly.
“I should think they all do,” her cousin said forthrightly, surprising her. “But still, that was an infamous thing for him to have done. I was very disappointed. I must say, your husband had every right to be angry about it, Lenora.”
The Unlovely Bride (Brides of Karadok Book 2) Page 18