Her Knight Protector

by Anne Herries

  She gazed at him in wonder, but then saw that his eyes were alight with mockery. Indeed, he was merely teasing her as he often did, his merry smile lifting the corners of his mouth as he bowed elegantly to her and then to his mother.

  ‘I bid you adieu, sweet ladies. Know that you will be ever in my dreams ere I return.’

  Katherine could not answer him. Was he merely teasing her as the knights did their ladies at the court? This fashion of paying extravagant compliments, of teasing a lady, of dalliance, had begun, ‘twas said, at the Courts of Love in Aquitaine when Queen Eleanor ruled there. Katherine believed that it was common behaviour amongst the ladies and gentlemen of the court in France—perhaps England also? Since she had never been anywhere of the kind she had no way of knowing if it was commonplace. Celestine had known how to play the game, but Katherine had no such graces.

  ‘My son is a rogue to tease you so,’ Alayne remarked as he went out and they heard his steps running down the stone steps. ‘You should give him his own back, Katherine. He does not deserve to win you lightly. I was angry with him for deserting you when you were ill—and even now it ill behoves him to speak in that fashion.’

  ‘I am sure Sir Alain meant no harm.’

  ‘You defend him? But of course you would—you love him. No, no, do not blush so, sweet Katherine. Your secret is not writ upon your forehead. I do not think Alain knows for certain, and that is why he teases you. I have a kind of sixth sense about many things. Sometimes it is helpful to see what others cannot—but at other times I fear it.’

  Katherine was struck by her words. ‘Have you the sight, my lady? I know that you have the gift of healing…’

  ‘I am not sure that I have the gift of sight as it is called—but there are times when I sense something bad may happen, and too often it does. Yet it is always for others. I do not have it when it affects myself. I had thought Alain almost too sensitive. As a child he seemed to feel things too much, but he seems different since he returned from his travels. I suppose that he is no longer a child.’ Alayne sighed. ‘I must confess to you that I wish he would marry and settle on his estate. I fear that he will grow bored with the life here and set out for some war in a far-flung land—and that we may never see him again.’

  ‘Have you seen something?’ Katherine asked and her voice shook as she experienced a start of fear. How could she bear it if something happened to Alain?

  ‘No, do not fear it.’ His mother laughed and the resemblance to Alain was very strong in that moment. ‘I am merely voicing a mother’s natural fears—something you will understand one day.’

  ‘I am not sure that I shall ever marry.’

  ‘Oh, but I am very sure you will,’ Alayne said and laughed softly. ‘I have seen you holding your son in your arms. The vision came to me one night when you lay sick. I was close to despair, thinking you beyond my help—and then I saw you with a babe in your arms and I knew that you would recover. I gave you another, stronger dose of my medicine and the fever began to wane that very night.’

  ‘Did you truly see me with a child in my arms?’

  ‘I never lie to those I care for. You will marry and you will bear at least one child, Katherine—that is all I can tell you, for the vision was clear but brief.’

  ‘You have been so good to me,’ Katherine said. ‘I can never thank you enough for all you have done for me.’

  ‘If you examine my motives, I am not to be thanked,’ Alayne told her with a smile as wicked as her son’s. ‘For if you gain your heart’s desire, then so shall I…’

  Chapter Seven

  ‘I always enjoy visiting at Banewulf,’ the Lady Elona told Katherine as they sat together at their stitching. The sun was shining in through the small window, bringing a hint of spring to the room and making it warmer. They were embroidering a new altar cloth for the chapel at Banewulf and found pleasure in each other’s company. ‘We visit the court only rarely, for my husband does not like Prince John. Indeed, I think it would be dangerous to go more often, for the feeling is mutual. Stefan says that the Prince thinks himself king and will not lightly yield his place to Richard.’

  ‘Sir Alain feels the same,’ Katherine said and frowned. Almost a month had passed and they had not heard from him. Despite his promise to write faithfully, he had sent only one letter to his mother, and a few lines of verse to Katherine. His poem had made her blush and she had hidden it deep in her coffer for fear that someone should chance to see it, for it was wickedly amusing and seemed to hint at things it was surely not seemly for a maiden to know. She would have thought it a love poem had she not been certain that Alain saw her as a child. ‘He said he would be only a short time before he returned to us.’

  ‘Stefan said the same when he left me here,’ Elona told her and smiled oddly. ‘Have you not guessed it, Katherine? It is quite simple—they have both slipped off to help Richard take his crown back from the usurper.’

  ‘Alain and Stefan have gone to join Richard…’ Katherine stared at her, an icy trickle of fear sliding down her back and making her shiver. ‘But how can this be? I did not know that the King had returned to England.’

  ‘I think only a few know of his return,’ Elona told her. ‘Stefan thought he had kept it from me for fear that I should worry, but I know him too well not to realise when something is going on. I was aware that he had received a letter from his brother and I heard him talking to other men of like minds.

  ‘There are many in England who have suffered beneath John’s rule, even become outlaws. I believe because they stood up for the rights of the common man that John would suppress. His tax collectors bleed the people dry, taking everything they have so that they would starve if men of right thinking did not help them.

  ‘Stefan believes that John has tried to usurp his brother’s throne and would cheat him of it if he could—so he has gone to meet with others who will fight to see that Richard is acclaimed as king again. I know he believes that the people will rise to support their rightful king.’

  ‘Yes, perhaps that is so.’ Katherine looked at her keenly. ‘You have not told Lady Alayne where they are gone?’

  ‘I would not dream of it,’ Elona said and smiled at a distant memory. ‘Before Alain went off to fight in the Holy Land, he fought in single combat for his brother’s sake. King Henry had accused Stefan of treason, for my husband was always Richard’s man, but he had been badly gored by a wild boar in the forest. He was determined to prove his innocence by trial of combat, but he was weak and might not have won.

  ‘Three men offered to fight in his stead—his father, Sir Orlando, who was his friend and became Marguerite’s husband, and Alain. Stefan chose Alain, for he feared to offend his brother, who had not proved himself at that time—and Alain won. Indeed, Stefan said that he had seldom seen a man fight so well, and he has proved himself many times since, for we have heard of his bravery at Acre and other battles.’

  ‘I know that he fights bravely, and he is a true knight, generous and steadfast in his friendship—but I wish that he had told me the truth.’

  ‘Would you not have worried for his sake?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Katherine said and laughed at herself. ‘I am a foolish woman. He would not tell us because he knew we should be anxious. Yet I have noticed that Lady Alayne has been quiet of late. Do you think she knows more than we do?’

  ‘She will have felt it without understanding if they have been in danger,’ Elona said. ‘She always feels these things—sometimes she has visions that distress her.’

  Katherine nodded and was silent. These past two days her kind hostess had been very withdrawn. For a while Katherine had wondered if she had done something to anger her, but then she realised that Alayne had something on her mind. She had not guessed that both Alain and Stefan were with the King, but now that she did she was anxious for them. Supposing one of them had been hurt or killed?

  ‘Now you are allowing your imagination to distress you,’ Elona said as she saw her expression.
‘Perhaps I should not have told you the truth.’

  ‘No, I am glad that you did,’ Katherine said and gave her a rueful smile. ‘At least I understand now why Alain has not written again. I dare say he could not.’

  Elona touched her hand in understanding. ‘He will have been too busy. I have had but one letter from Stefan, and I believe that was written before he left, though it was delivered a few days later. I refuse to let myself worry. He came close to death when he was wounded by the wild boar. Since then I have lived every day as it comes and shall do while we both live. Happiness is too precious to let our fears cloud it, Katherine.’

  ‘’Tis true that life and death go hand in hand. Marguerite has lost her husband, and she is younger than you, I believe?’

  ‘Orlando was quite a bit older than her,’ Elona said. ‘She loved him truly, but I do not think it was a great passion on her part. She was very young and innocent, and had seen nothing of the world when she married. I have hope that she will marry again one day—this time to a man she loves as I love Stefan. And as you love Alain.’ Elona gave her a look full of mischief. ‘I am not wrong, am I? You seemed so anxious for his sake that I thought it must be for love of him?’

  ‘I would not have him know it,’ Katherine confessed, smiling at her companion. ‘But I fell in love with him when he first opened his eyes and looked at me.’

  ‘You mean when your dragon felled him with her moneybag?’

  Katherine laughed ruefully. ‘I know that is what he calls my poor Maria—but she thought he meant to kill me.’

  Elona laughed huskily; she was clearly amused by the confession. ‘He told Stefan about it when they met briefly in London. You knew he came there on the King’s business?’ Katherine nodded. ‘I think that was when he warned Stefan to expect a message from him—when they arranged that they would both fight for King Richard if need be.’

  ‘I pray that it will not be necessary,’ Katherine said in a voice that throbbed with passion. ‘If He hath mercy, He will send them both back to us unharmed. I know that it is foolish of me to hope that Alain loves me as I love him, but I would see him safely home.’

  ‘You wrong yourself, Katherine. Alain will be fortunate if he secures you for his bride.’

  Katherine flushed and bent over her needlework. How could Alain love her when there were so many lovely women from whom he might take his pick? Elona saw her with affectionate eyes, but Katherine knew she could never lay claim to beauty.

  ‘As to that, we must wait and see. For the moment I care only for the safety of those we love.’

  ‘Amen to that,’ Elona said and laid down her needlework. ‘But I know that Stefan will come back. You see, although we have two sons, I do not yet have my daughter—and it was foretold that we should have two sons and a daughter.’

  ‘And you believe in the prophecy?’

  Katherine looked at her in surprise. She knew that it was some years since Elona had given birth to her twin sons—could she really believe that she would bear a daughter one day?

  ‘I have always believed it,’ Elona said and she smiled contentedly. ‘And you must not worry too much for Alain. I am sure that he will come back to you when Richard is rightfully acknowledged as king once more.’

  ‘I pray that you are right,’ Katherine said. ‘And now if you will excuse me, there is something I must do.’

  Leaving her embroidery frame, she got up and walked from the room, making her way to her own bedchamber. There, she closed the door and locked it, before taking out the scrap of parchment bearing the verse that Alain had sent to her. Her first reaction had been to hide it, but now she realised that it might be all she ever had of him and she pressed it to her lips.

  ‘May God keep you safe,’ she said passionately and tucked the letter inside her bodice close to her heart. ‘Come back to us, my love—come back to me, for I do not know how I shall bear it if you do not.’

  ‘This arm pains me like the devil,’ Alain muttered. ‘It was but the merest scratch, but I think it must have taken harm.’

  ‘You should not have ignored it,’ Stefan told him with a frown. ‘Infection may fell the strongest man. Sit still while I look at it, my brother—if there is poison we must cleanse it.’

  ‘With a hot iron?’ Alain pulled a face. In the Holy Land he had received a wound to his shoulder, which the Hospitallers had cauterised, and the cure had hurt far worse than his arm hurt now. ‘Nay, it will heal soon enough.’

  ‘Cowardly talk,’ Stefan said and laughed, for he was no stranger to pain and had been to hell and back himself after the wild boar had gored him some years earlier. ‘Let me look at your arm, for I have made it my interest to know something of these things…’ Ignoring his brother’s frowns, he opened up the bandages and looked at the wound, probing the open flesh ruthlessly. ‘It is deeper than you told me, but I see no sign of infection. You have been lucky, and this salve Elona made for me should help the pain.’

  Alain pulled a face, but the salve was cooling and he could not but admire the way his brother administered it and rebound the wound with clean dressings.

  ‘You seem to have a gift for healing, Stefan.’

  ‘Nay, I merely follow what I have been taught by your mother, Alain. She has the true gift and we have all been glad of it, I think.’

  ‘You speak more truly than you know. Had it not been so, I believe Katherine would have died at that inn, for despite Maria’s devotion she did not know how to help her mistress.’

  ‘And Katherine means a great deal to you, does she not?’

  ‘Enough that I would have felt her loss had she died,’ Alain replied, looking serious. He was still uncertain in his mind concerning both his feelings and Katherine’s. ‘I promised to write to her and she will think me faithless, for I have sent her but one poor poem. It has been too difficult to write since we encountered those brigands on the road.’

  ‘We were unfortunate to be attacked by such rogues,’ Stefan replied with a frown. ‘Richard has regained his throne with no more than a few skirmishes—and for you to be injured in such a way when we were returning home is ill luck. They might have set upon any common traveller and to shoot at you from the safety of the forest was a scurvy trick. That arrow might have killed you had it struck its target, which was your back. If you had not turned the moment you did…’

  ‘It was your timely warning that saved me.’

  Stefan’s brow creased, his expression angry. ‘I should have been more watchful, but I believed all danger past. My one thought was to return home as quickly as possible so that we might bring the ladies to London for Richard’s coronation. It makes me angry to know that you were injured by common thieves. I had no reason to suspect such an attack.’

  ‘If they were brigands,’ Alain replied, looking thoughtful. ‘I believe it more likely that they had lain in wait for us, Stefan—and for no other. I was their intended victim and the arrow was meant for my back, not my arm.’

  ‘You think the attempt on your life was simply that—they wanted you dead? Then they were not common outlaws, but assassins sent by your enemy.’

  ‘Yes, I believe it is so,’ Alain replied. ‘If I were dead, Katherine would be more vulnerable. If Ravenshurst is behind this, as I suspect, he hoped to take us by surprise and be rid of the main obstacle in his path.’

  ‘I know a little of the man,’ Stefan said and his mouth curled in a sneer of dislike. ‘The family is near to ruin, for the father was a foolish man who squabbled with his neighbours. Shortly before his death some years back, he fell foul of Prince John’s men and was fined a huge sum. I think it near beggared him to pay it and Ravenshurst will have little or no inheritance on his return.’

  ‘That may explain why he is so desperate to get his hands on Katherine’s treasure.’ Alain shook his head as Stefan’s brows rose. ‘It is a precious relic, I can say no more—except that men might pay a king’s ransom for it.’

  A wry grimace touched Stefan’s mouth. ‘King Ric
hard hath pledged a vast sum for his freedom, and more besides. There are some who believe that he has tossed away his birthright, though he denies his oath was binding for it was taken under duress. ’Tis certain he will fight rather than surrender his kingdom.’

  ‘It was a sorry business,’ Alain agreed, for Richard had been forced to do homage to the Emperor for Burgundy and some whispered that his promise also gave Henry of Germany suzerainty over England. ‘We must thank God that he is safely returned home and pray that we shall have peace at last in England.’

  ‘With Richard on the throne?’ Stefan smiled wryly. ‘He is not called lionhearted for nothing, Alain. Much as I honour him, I know his temper too well. I dare swear that we shall be at war again within a year, perhaps less.’

  ‘You will not answer the call?’

  ‘Not I—nor will I fight on foreign soil again,’ Stefan said. ‘I was obliged to rally to Richard’s aid this time, for his cause was right—but I have no love of war. I want to live peacefully with my wife and sons.’

  ‘You are wise,’ Alain said and looked thoughtful. ‘Had I a wife, I think I might feel as you do—but I am not sure even then that I shall settle for a peaceful life.’

  ‘Does ambition burn as brightly in you as ever?’

  ‘Ambition—nay, I would not name it so. It is merely the desire to prove my worth, brother.’

  ‘As a young, untried youth there was something to prove,’ Stefan agreed. ‘But you have fought in many battles. What can you have to prove now, Alain?’

  Alain smiled, but shook his head. It would be impossible to explain his feeling that it was his sword that had won the battles—the sword his brother had given him, and that he truly believed had magical powers. He was afraid that without his sword he might be found lacking, a mere man, and not the mighty warrior the bards had named him in their tales. As a young man he had longed to do great deeds and win glory in battle, but he had discovered that war meant only death and suffering and brought no ease or satisfaction to his soul.