When Elizabeth reached the hut, she went around what was left of the outer wall. Holding a slumbering Erick, the peddler sat in a corner. He had his terrified eyes on Sir Fane Montross, who held a drawn sword.
“Sir Fane!” she cried in apparent surprise as she handed her basket to Hildagard, who had no trouble holding it. “What are you doing?”
Montross quickly sheathed his sword. “My lady, you came upon me so suddenly. I was showing this peddler my sword. He asked to see it.”
She could almost admire the facility with which Montross lied. “It looked as if you were threatening him,” she remarked as Hildagard hurried to join her husband and son.
“God’s wounds, no!” he protested.
“It is an interesting coincidence that we meet here in the woods,” she said as Hildagard took Erick in her arms. “As you no doubt already know, Sir Fane, my husband does not approve of traveling tinkers or peddlers or entertainers. Fortunately, he is away in Chesney at present, so when Hildagard came to me for aid, I was glad to help her. But really,” she continued, addressing them, “you must take these things and leave at once. If my husband discovers you have returned to his estate…” She let her words trail off significantly.
“Forgive us, my lady,” the peddler said as he bobbed a bow. “We’ll go. At once.”
“And I think it would be wise if you never returned.”
“No, my lady, not never,” he eagerly agreed.
She watched as they hurried to the wagon. After putting the baskets in the cart, the man took Erick, who awoke and started to wail. He held him while his wife climbed up on the rough wooden seat. Then he handed her the baby, got beside her and urged his horse into a brisk trot down the narrow way.
“I fear my husband was very brusque with them before,” she remarked to Montross. “I must confess I’m surprised they had the audacity to come to me for aid.”
Montross regarded her with an approving smile. “It is obvious that you are a kind and gentle lady. No doubt that is why.”
“Tell me, Sir Fane, why are you on my husband’s land?”
“I was fowling and one of my birds came this way. I was looking for him.”
“All by yourself?”
“I saw no need to bring my entire party after one hawk.”
“I see.”
“Just as you obviously saw no need to bring a troop of men on your errand, my lovely lady.”
While Elizabeth now knew there was some truth to his compliment, it was all she could do to keep a smirk from her face. “You flatter me, sir.”
“My lady,” he said, looking at her with what she supposed he meant for grave intensity, though it was a pale imitation of her husband’s, “I must express my gratitude for your kind and welcoming behavior toward me at your husband’s castle. You know why I could not stay, but I appreciate your treatment of me nonetheless.”
“You were a guest in my home. Naturally I had to make you welcome.”
“Oh, but there was more to your kindness than mere duty,” he said quietly, moving a little closer.
“No, there was not,” she said bluntly. “And I would advise you, Sir Fane, to keep your distance.” She frowned. “Tell me, do I look stupid as well as pretty? I must, if you think me so foolish as to come here without protection and not to realize that something was very amiss when Hildagard arrived as she did.”
The man scowled. “I had no idea those paupers were here, and obviously I had no plan to try to harm you, or I would not have sheathed my sword.”
“You were certainly planning on unsheathing something, unless I miss my guess. You were going to try to seduce me, weren’t you? Perhaps not today—even you might doubt that you have sufficient prowess for such a swift conquest. But you were hoping to begin. What were you going to say? That I am too good for my husband? That I am beautiful, and such beauty is wasted on him?
“Or were you going to play the valiant protector, filling my ears with tales of my husband’s evil, suggesting that he must be wicked to have driven your sister to try to kill him, and that she had been cruelly used while she was his wife?”
“I intended to do nothing of the sort,” Montross replied between clenched teeth. “I was merely riding through this wood looking for my peregrine. I came upon the peddler by chance.”
“If that is so, clearly I was seriously mistaken,” she replied evenly.
“It is the truth.”
She cocked her head to regard him as she might an interesting bug. “Then you have my apologies for thinking you found me attractive.”
“I do find you attractive, my lady. Very. And I also believe it is as you say. You are wasted on Kirkheathe.”
“I would be so much happier with you?”
“I would do all in my power to make you happy.”
She smiled.
He smiled.
“Ah, Sir Fane, I will give you this, you are persistent.”
“Perhaps because I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”
“You did?”
“I did. You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
“And you are the most outrageous liar I have ever met, and you must also believe me to be a vain and stupid woman to be won over by such lies,” Elizabeth retorted, all vestige of feigned pleasure gone in the blink of an eye. “The moment I saw you, I knew you loathed and envied my husband. You and he are enemies, and I was never more sure that my husband’s enmity had just cause than I am now. Only a base coward goes at a man through his wife. Now if I were you, I would get on my horse and ride back to my estate as fast as I could, before I take fright and call upon my husband’s archers to protect me. Twenty of his finest are in the trees surrounding us. They came on ahead while I delayed a little. I have but to raise my hand and you will have an arrow in your chest.”
Montross’s jaw dropped, revealing that while he might be fair of face, his teeth were rotting. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Would you care to put my resolution to the test?”
He glared at her. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should. My husband had no need to take his archers to Chesney, had he? Therefore, he did not.”
Montross glared at her an instant longer, then turned tail and ran to his horse.
“No, my fine vain enemy,” she murmured as she watched him flee. “I am not a fool.”
She smiled with satisfaction and then called for the men to get down from the trees.
Because it was market day, Raymond had no choice but to walk his horse through the crowded streets of the village. Impatient, he had ridden on ahead of his men. Tempted though he was to continue at a gallop, if he tried to do so in the crowded streets, he might injure or even kill someone.
Besides, he told himself, if there were anything seriously amiss at Donhallow, Barden would have sent word. He had encountered no such bearer of tidings from home.
Now, as he encountered the surprised glances of his people, he wondered if he had been foolish to return as he had. He had risked the earl’s displeasure leaving Chesney without a word and apparently for nothing.
Nevertheless, he would not rest easy until he saw Elizabeth alive and well.
Finally, he was at the gates and through, and back in his own courtyard.
There was a troop of archers there, milling about as if they had just returned from a practice. However, he could see no carts bearing straw and targets, and the arrows in their sheaths…the arrows in the sheaths were the best they had, not the blunter ones kept for practice.
A cold finger of fear slid along Raymond’s spine as he strode toward the serjeant-at-arms, who quickly came to meet him.
“My lord,” Hale said, bowing. He didn’t look particularly tense, but then why did the men have the expensive arrows? “We did not expect you back so soon. Where is your escort?”
“They follow.”
“If we’d known, she would have waited for you, no doubt.”
Raymond did not need to ask who.
“To do what?”
“To go with that peddler’s wife.”
Relief gave way to anger that, after all he had said, she would disobey his wishes and put herself at risk, as well as waste food they could ill afford to spare.
Hale blanched. “Forgive me if I have done wrong to do as she bid me, my lord, but she’s your wife. I was bound to obey her.”
“Did Barden not protest?”
“He tried, my lord, but—”
He didn’t get to complete his answer, for Raymond was already striding toward the hall.
Chapter Thirteen
Raymond didn’t need to hear more. Elizabeth had to be made to understand that she was simply not as free as she might like to believe. He had his reasons for what he commanded, and if any harm had come to her—!
Before he reached the hall, Elizabeth came running out, happiness lighting her pretty face. “My lord, you are back so soon! What a delightful—” She halted in confusion. “What is it? What’s the matter? What happened in Chesney?”
He would not voice his anger in public. “To the solar,” he snapped, marching past her.
He heard her swift footfalls hurrying after him and was grimly glad. Once in the solar, he whirled around and faced her.
“My lord, whatever is the matter?” she repeated as she came inside and closed the door. “Please tell me. You’re frightening me.”
“Now you know something of my feeling when Hale told me what you did today.”
“You were frightened?”
He nodded, realized that beneath his anger, that was what had truly filled him as he listened to Hale. “Montross is a dangerous man, Elizabeth.”
“I know and you told me I must not go out of Donhallow unprotected. That is why I took the archers with me, so I would be safe when he met me.”
Dumbfounded, Raymond stared at her. Hale had not mentioned this.
“Yes, my lord, Montross was there, as I thought he would be,” she replied calmly. “As I suspected, it was a trap. He sent Hildagard, the peddler’s wife, to beg my help and waited for me to come back with her.”
Raymond could scarcely draw breath.
“Fortunately, I guessed aright about how he thought to have his revenge on you, and he had none of his men with him.”
“How?”
“It was his intention to try to seduce me.”
Raymond had to sit down.
“Hildagard was terrified when she came here,” Elizabeth explained. “Far more terrified than she should have been, even though you had been harsh. After all, I had been most sympathetic, and since she didn’t venture past the gate, she should have been at least a little relieved to see me and to hear I was going to help her. Instead, she was more upset than ever.
“So I thought it must be a ruse to get me outside the castle. Who would do that, and why? The only person I could think of was your enemy, my lord.
“As for the why, I thought he might try to kill me, or seduce me. Given what I had seen of him, I suspected the latter. He is vain enough to believe that he could seduce any woman, and coward enough to try to strike at you through your wife.”
God’s wounds, she guessed all that? She was by far the shrewdest woman he had ever met.
“It is not so surprising that I surmised so much, my lord,” she said with a gentle smile. “There were always girls who tried to hurt those they disliked by turning their friends against them. He is no different.”
“Whatever the reason,” Raymond growled, impressed and also dismayed by this glimpse into the cloistered life, “you should not have gone.”
“I had to, my lord, or he would most certainly have harmed the peddler’s family. You know that as well as I, if not better.”
His wife would put her life at risk because of some peddler and his family? “Elizabeth,” he chided.
“You think me reckless, but I sent your best archers, so I was sure I would be quite safe. My greatest fear was that Hildagard would wonder why the guards apparently didn’t recognize their lord’s wife, in spite of my attempt at a disguise.”
Raymond rose and went to her, taking her hands in his and gazing into her bright, fearless eyes. “He could have killed you nonetheless.”
“He would have had to draw his sword to do that, my lord. I kept my distance, so he would have to come to me, leaving plenty of time for one of your fine archers to hit him. That is why I took the archers and not foot soldiers.”
Raymond gazed at her in wonderment.
“The worst was not knowing where he had Hildagard’s husband and child. If he meant to kill me, they could have been in his castle. Fortunately, I hadn’t underestimated his vanity, and he had them with him, to maintain the deception that our meeting was by chance. He claimed he was on your land searching for an errant hawk.
“All turned out well, Raymond. The peddler’s family got away, and Montross understands he has no hope of coming between you and me. I think that is worth whatever risk I took.”
He pulled her into his arms and embraced her tightly. “I do not. If he had killed you…” He could not finish, for he could not begin to find the words to say how that would hurt him.
“But he didn’t,” Elizabeth murmured, snuggling against him. “Oh, my lord, I am glad you have come home!” she sighed. “I missed you so.”
“Raymond.”
She drew back a little. “My lord?”
“I would have you call me by my name.”
Her smile was glorious. “Very well, my…Raymond.”
“My Raymond sounds even better.”
She laughed, and so did he.
“My Raymond, there is something more to tell you.”
He raised a brow, wondering what else she had done in his absence. Perhaps he had relaxed too soon.
“I believe I am with child.”
Dread disappeared as a happiness such as he had never known swept over him. Their child. She was carrying their child.
He swept her off her feet and turned in a wild, dizzying circle.
“Put me down, or I fear I shall be ill.”
He did at once.
She looked at him, and smiled. “No need to look so stricken. I am not sick. I have not had a day’s illness yet.”
“Not at all?”
“I was concerned about that, too, but Hildagard’s mother was a midwife and she said not every woman feels ill when she is with child. I am late more than a se’ennight, and I have never been late in my life. Also, there are other symptoms.”
“Such as?”
With a wry smile, she raised his hand and put it on her breast. “A light touch there, if you please, my lord, and no more.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, and since you are now so serious, I will ask you why you have come home so soon from Chesney. I thought you would be some days yet. Or dare I hope it was because you missed me?”
The heat of embarrassment traveled up his face, something he had not experienced in a long time. “That, too.”
She frowned. “Too? That is not the main reason you returned?”
“There is that pout again,” he noted, tugging her to him and kissing her in a way that should show he had missed her very much indeed.
She relaxed into his embrace and he marveled that every kiss seemed even more exciting than the last.
Then, too soon, she pulled away and smiled, the warmth in her eyes touching him. “I missed that, too.” She frowned again. “What was the real reason you came back so soon?”
Taking her hand, he led her to the chair, sat and gently pulled her onto his lap. “Fane Montross was not in Chesney,” he said, wrapping his arms loosely about her.
“And he should have been?”
Raymond nodded. “He is closer to the earl than I.”
“So you came home because you feared what he might do?”
“With good cause.”
“Was the earl surprised by your sudden departure? If he and Montross are friendly…”
“I did not speak
to the earl.”
“Not at all?”
Raymond shook his head.
“Yet you were so pleased to be asked to his council.”
“I was more worried about you.”
“Really?”
“Really. And I was right.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said with feigned innocence.
“Yes, you do.”
She smiled a moment, then genuine concern darkened her face. “I hope the earl does not take offense. He invited you to his castle, and then you leave without speaking to him.”
When Raymond believed Montross was up to something, he had dismissed that worry. Now that all was well—although it might have turned out otherwise—he had to acknowledge that the earl might very well take great offense. Nevertheless, he would not burden his wife with that, so he shrugged.
Her face brightened. “I know what we can do to mend any breach there may be with the earl.
“We shall invite him to visit us here. We can tell him you were concerned about my health, which is no lie. Of course, he may think you meant my being with child when he arrives. Still, we have no need to go into details. Then, when he comes, we will ensure he understands that you were very honored by the invitation and regret that you left in such unseemly haste.”
He kissed her cheek. “You are a clever woman,” he said. “But he goes to London in a fortnight.”
“Then afterward. We could invite him to come when he returns.”
Raymond decided he had no choice but to tell her why they could not do as she suggested. “We cannot afford it.”
Her brow wrinkled. “Is he so very expensive a guest? How many men will he bring? Surely not more than fifty.”
“Five or fifty makes no difference,” Raymond replied. “We cannot afford to entertain in any style.”
“But you are rich!”
He shook his head.
“My uncle said—”
“He was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“Wrong. I am nearly penniless.”
“Yet this castle—”
“Is expensive to man and maintain, and the income from my tenants is barely sufficient to cover food and the taxes.” He reached up to touch her face. “Donhallow is ancient, and needs many repairs. If not, it will crumble around us.”
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