‘I’m s-sure you could, but my tongue is not as quick as yours,’ he replied.
‘Not for speaking, but I’m sure it works adequately for other purposes.’ She gave him a wicked look from beneath her eyelashes, curving her mouth into a pouting bud that begged to be kissed.
‘Ro! You scandalise me!’
She giggled, a rippling sound that infected Robbie like a fever.
‘I don’t mean to. Or possibly I do.’ She put her hands on his arm in mock entreaty. ‘Forgive your poor cousin her wanton behaviour.’
A laugh erupted from deep inside Robbie. He lifted her chin with a fingertip and gave her a stern look. ‘I’ll pardon you if you help me. I won’t say anything to scandalise you.’
‘I doubt you could!’
‘Is that a challenge, Ro?’
She looked up and caught his eye. He held her gaze, slipping his hands from her wrist along her arms to rest on her shoulders. She sighed and looked away.
‘Very well, I’ll do it, only to see if you do manage to shock me. Tell me where your Mary will be while you are declaring your love to her.’
Robbie shrugged. He hadn’t given that much thought. ‘She’ll be sewing or playing her lute.’
Rowenna arched an eyebrow. ‘The life of a court lady is so diverting. I wonder sometimes how I have lived so long without it.’
Robbie scowled. ‘You seem eager enough to marry a knight so you can do it yourself.’
Rowenna jutted her bottom lip out, scowling back. ‘I’m not planning to marry so I can sit idle and look like an effigy waiting for a tomb to grace. I want to marry a man who will take me to see the country when he travels. I certainly won’t marry a man who leaves me alone and expects me to sit quietly all the hours of the day. Think of my parents or yours. Can you imagine either of our mothers sitting placidly, sewing in solitude?’
Robbie conceded the point. His mother and aunt both played full roles in their husbands’ lives and work. He could not imagine Rowenna doing anything different.
‘But I’m being unkind,’ Rowenna said. ‘I shall be your elegant lady.’
She walked between the neat rows of lavender and betony, hips swaying distractingly, and positioned herself on the edge of a stone bench with an elegant movement. She did an exaggerated mime of strumming a lute. Robbie sniggered.
‘Good morrow, Master Danby,’ she said. She spread her skirts out, cocking her head to one side with an expression of coquettish challenge that he was certain would never appear on Mary’s placid face.
Robbie took a deep breath, doing his best not to be distracted by the delicious frisson that shot through him. He dropped to her side, going on to one knee. ‘M-Mary, I adore you.’
‘That’s very forward.’ Rowenna laughed. ‘Perhaps converse a little first. What do you usually talk to her about?’
‘I don’t. That is, we’ve only spoken once or twice.’
And those times had been completely unsuccessful, he thought ruefully.
Rowenna raised her eyebrow and laughed gently. ‘Robbie, I do love you, but you’re a fool. Very well, continue.’
He wrinkled his brow. ‘How would you begin to tell a man you like him? This man you would coo at?’
‘I wouldn’t! That is, it would be frowned upon for a woman to be forward enough to begin such a conversation. All I can do is make my eyes large and hope I am noticed.’
She made them as wide as possible and gazed at him from beneath her lashes in illustration.
‘You can’t possibly go unnoticed,’ Robbie exclaimed. His eyes roved over her, from the dark curls and flashing eyes to her full, soft breasts and slender waist. He slid on to the bench beside her, twisting round so they were close. ‘You must turn heads whenever you enter a room.’
‘Oh, yes. All the rooms in Ravenscrag,’ she said drily. ‘If only they were occupied with more than kitchen cats or my mother, I might find a husband in no time at all. As you will surely win your woman. Now, start again.’
Their eyes met and they exchanged a smile. Robbie’s chest grew warm at the confidence she showed.
‘You fill my heart with hope whenever I look at you,’ he said.
‘Does she? I mean, do I?’ Rowenna said, gazing away modestly and fluttering her hand over her heart.
‘Yes,’ Robbie said. ‘I love you.’
Rowenna gave him a sweet smile and put her hand to his cheek.
‘Why do you love me?’ she purred.
Robbie opened his mouth to speak just as Rowenna began to stroke her fingertips down towards his jaw, brushing lightly against the corner of his open lips. Robbie’s stomach rolled over, his cock jerked awake and his mind emptied. He gave a strangled gasp that was no word at all. Rowenna drew her hand away as if his skin were molten iron. Robbie rubbed his eyes and looked at her bleakly.
‘I’m useless.’
Rowenna sat back with her arms folded and gave him a critical look. ‘Well, you didn’t sound convincing. Or convinced. If you can’t tell Mary why you love her, are you so sure you do?’
Robbie didn’t answer. Beyond describing her beauty or grace, he couldn’t. It shocked him. He pushed himself to his feet and paced around the garden, frustration making him restless. He leaned against the fountain and peered into the bowl, head bent, the sore muscles in his back and shoulders tensing.
‘I didn’t mean to offend or distress you.’
Rowenna’s whisper made him start. He hadn’t realised she had followed him across the garden. He dropped one arm and faced her.
‘You did neither. It’s myself I’m annoyed with for suggesting something so foolish.’
‘Why was it foolish?’ Rowenna leaned against the fountain beside him and gave him another wide-eyed look that was so provocative it caused his head to swim.
‘I can’t pretend you are Mary. Everything about you is different. It must seem ridiculous to you that I even have to do this.’
‘No, it isn’t. Nothing you do is ridiculous. You’re the most serious person I know.’
It was intended as a compliment, but her words punched his guts. He reached for her hand and pressed it, drawing strength from the pressure she returned.
‘You’re the most vivid woman I know.’
Her face was grave, her eyes large and solemn. He wanted to make them dance again. Robbie released her hand and ran his fingertips up her arm to her shoulder. She blinked, black lashes beating rapidly like trapped moths in a lantern.
‘You’re witty and quick-tongued and clever,’ he said. ‘You make me laugh and perplex me—oh, you perplex me at times more than is good for my presence of mind.’
She slid her eyes to his and gave him a smile that managed to be simultaneously innocent and provocative. It sent chills racing up and down Robbie’s spine, tightening the muscles in his chest. Mary had never looked at him with an expression of such wanton interest and he almost forgot to breathe. The words spilled from him with an ease he could not have imagined.
‘A woman like you will never find a man lost for words unless he is in awe of your beauty.’
He let his hands travel from her shoulder to her collarbone, his fingertips tingling when they shifted from the fabric of her dress to her bare skin. He slid them to the silken hollow of her neck and up further to rest against her cheek. Still, she said nothing, did nothing, remained perfectly still and silent. She could have been a statue. Only the hint of pink that was starting to blossom on each cheek suggested his words were having the desired effect. He stepped a little closer, not breaking the gaze between them.
‘I could spend my life examining the colours in your eyes and never grow tired of them,’ he breathed.
Rowenna bit her bottom lip, trapping it between small, even teeth and causing it to redden. She tilted her head on one side, her eyes never leaving his. She licked her lips, tongue skimming slowly ov
er the full pinkness that Robbie ached to taste. He reached a hand to gently cup her chin, tilting her head up and bringing his lips close to hers. He leaned in towards her and brushed his lips briefly over her cheek, close enough to the corner of her mouth that he could feel the slight indentation that appeared whenever she smiled.
She gave a faint, breathy sigh. The sound caused blood to stampede through Robbie’s veins, simultaneously awakening the part of his body that he had succeeded so far in ignoring. The words that he had held back burst forth.
‘I love you.’
‘What?’
Rowenna stiffened. She pulled out of his arms. She raked her fingers through her hair, lifting it and letting it fall. When she turned back to him, the pink that had coloured her cheeks had deepened to scarlet. She exhaled and tugged her neckline into place, giving him a flustered smile. He felt equally addled.
‘Well, Robbie! That was much better. Very convincing. If you speak like that to... Any woman would... If you tell Mary, she’s bound to—’
Mary?
Robbie slumped on to the bench Rowenna had vacated. He picked at a few stray stalks of hyssop, unsettled by how easily the words had come to venerate Rowenna and the effect they had on him. He couldn’t place exactly when he had stopped thinking of Mary, and guilt riddled him.
‘I have to go back,’ Rowenna said. ‘I’m sure you’re busy, too.’
Robbie reached for her hand, but she skipped lightly out of reach. ‘Your mother is upstairs scouring the house for anything she might have missed and your father is off searching for a bootmaker before he leaves. I must take my records to Father. I will see you at the Common Hall on Midsummer’s Night.’
She swept out of the square, leaving Robbie wondering what had just happened.
Chapter Eight
Rowenna stayed at the forge until she was sure Robbie would have left the house, though the streets were starting to fill with rowdy townspeople again. She wished Robbie was at her side to keep her safe, but she was glad not to be in his presence. Her cheeks flamed whenever she remembered the way he had spoken to her. Seductive and captivating with no trace of his usual shyness. If he spoke like that to Mary, she would surely fall in love in an instant.
She divided the afternoon between playing card games with Lisbet and Ralf, reading to Anne and Joan, and peering from the window to try discovering what was happening outside. To her annoyance, Joanna, anxious about the noise from the streets, would not permit her to work downstairs alone again. If Robbie returned to discuss Sir John’s commission, he would not find her there.
* * *
Hal returned at sunset, looking more satisfied than when he had left Rowenna at noon. Rowenna served her father with hot bread softened in honey and milk and listened to his tale of what had occurred.
‘Simon de Quixlay and the bailiffs have imposed a fine of forty pounds on any man who attempts to overrule the jurisdiction of the city,’ Hal said. ‘Thank goodness we have a sensible man in power now, not that corrupt cur Gisbourne.’
‘The riot is over?’ Joanna asked.
‘I think there will be some trouble still from those too thickheaded to realise there is no purpose to it...’ Hal grunted ‘...but, yes, I believe the walls of York will stand.’
‘So I can go to the feast on Midsummer’s Eve!’ Rowenna blurted out.
Hal dropped his napkin on to the table and gave her a stern look.
‘You’ll be going nowhere! After the revolt in the city last year I didn’t want you to come to York at all, Rowenna. The Common Hall was well guarded, but the rebels still managed to breach it.’
Rowenna gave a moan of disappointment and looked to her mother and aunt in appeal. ‘I’ve barely left the house all the time I’ve been in York. I might as well have stayed in Ravenscrag. Everyone of importance in York will be there. All the knights and squires taking part in the tournament will be there. You do want me to meet someone before I’m too old, don’t you?’
‘We want you to marry well, but not every knight is honourable,’ Joanna said. ‘If you—if you put yourself in harm’s way while trying to do so, that will accomplish nothing.’
‘Mother! I’m not planning to have my back against the wall while someone fills my belly!’ Rowenna exclaimed with a shocked laugh.
Aunt Lucy coughed. Her face was dark and Rowenna found it hard to believe she had not heard language like that running the inn at Wharram. Joanna exchanged a glance with her and Lucy gave a tight smile.
‘Intent does not always come into it.’
Rowenna sat beside her father and wrapped her arms about him. She gave him a wide-eyed look of appeal. It usually worked, but he had been hard to persuade to let her leave Ravenscrag on this occasion.
‘There are still two days before the feast and you’ll be there to see I come to no harm.’
Hal shook his head. ‘Your mother and I are now engaged to dine with the burgomasters. Lucy and Roger are returning to Wharram Danby tomorrow and don’t have time to take you. You cannot go alone, Rowenna.’
Rowenna could have wept with disappointment, but she kept her voice steady. ‘If you’re worried I’ll come to harm, don’t be. I’ll stay in the Hall or grounds, I promise. Robbie will be there. He won’t let anything happen to me. He always looks after me.’
Her mother and Aunt Lucy exchanged a smile that Rowenna pretended not to see. She had always suspected they hoped a deeper bond than friendship would develop between their children. Her stomach twisted at the thought that before long they would discover Robbie had other ideas.
‘Let Rowenna have her fun. She’s a sensible girl. Robbie will watch over her and her cousin Geoffrey will be there to act as her guardian,’ Lucy said, bustling around and refilling Hal’s cup with ale.
‘Geoff is not my guardian!’ Rowenna exclaimed. Nor would be if she had the choice.
‘The guilds are paying for the feast,’ Joanna said. ‘It will be expected that someone from our family attends.’
‘Ha! They’ll take a bastard’s money when it suits, but I’ll never become the Master of the Guild.’ Hal shook his head ruefully. ‘I’m sorry, Rowenna, my birth dooms you to the lower tiers of society.’
The old, familiar self-reproach. Hal looked so downcast that a lump filled Rowenna’s throat. If she had her way, she would scorn everyone in turn who ignored her.
‘Let me go and try to make my own luck,’ she coaxed. ‘If I have so few opportunities, it would be foolish to turn down the ones I have. I’ve seen so little of the city since I’ve been here.’
‘You won’t deny her the fun of a dance, surely?’ Joanna asked, leaning over her husband’s shoulders from behind and taking hold of his hands. ‘Remember the dance we met at.’
Hal snorted. ‘Perhaps you had better not remind me of that night, my dear, or I will decide not to let our daughter go to any gathering at all!’
Joanna swatted him playfully and Rowenna knew she had won. She raced upstairs to lay her gowns out, whispering silent thanks to her mother and aunt for their intervention. She would have the opportunity to dance with Robbie.
She bit her lip. Robbie had shocked her when he had said the word love. The more time she spent in his company, the deeper she was caring for him and that would only lead to heartbreak. She didn’t think he was truly in love with Mary, but wasn’t certain his feelings for her were beyond cousinly affection. The most sensible thing to do at the feast would be to try to find someone who was unattached, try to fall in love with him instead and forget all about Robbie.
* * *
The Common Hall looked lovelier that Rowenna could ever remember it being when her father escorted her there the following evening. A troupe of musicians were playing a lively tune that could be heard from outside. Rowenna’s feet began to tap as she walked and she hummed along.
Hal pulled her close, smiling. ‘You look so excited.
I’m sorry I nearly didn’t let you come to York. Can you forgive a father’s caution?’
‘Of course I can.’ She kissed his cheek, thinking he might not say that if he knew what trouble Robbie had saved her from. A tremor of anticipation ran from the nape of her neck down the length of her back as she remembered her cousin’s strong arms around her body. She had to bite her lip as it formed a smile of its own doing. Why must her mind continue to torment her with desires that were neither appropriate nor likely to be satisfied? Her expression must have betrayed the longing she felt because Hal’s face became serious.
‘Don’t let your head get turned by any charming, feckless men,’ Hal said sternly.
‘Father! I’m here to dance, that’s all. I’ll do nothing you or Mother could possibly upbraid me for. I shall behave exactly as she would herself.’
Hal did not look reassured. ‘I should have stayed to chaperone you. Your mother or aunt should be here with you. Stay inside the hall. If you need to take the air, stay within the porch of the garden. Your mother’s cousin Geoffrey will escort you home. I doubt Sir John will be attending, but if you need aid, ask him or his wife.’
‘My cousin Robbie will also be here,’ Rowenna pointed out. ‘I will be perfectly safe in his company.’
‘Of course you will. But Robbie will no doubt have duties to carry out and people he must see. You can’t rely on him. Geoffrey knows to watch out for you. He’s a good man, Rowenna.’
Rowenna bit her lip, her mood dropping. Of course Robbie had people to see. Or one person, at least. She kissed her father on the cheek and ushered him out firmly before he had her betrothed to Geoff before the dance had even begun.
She paused in the doorway to the great chamber, giving a sigh of pleasure. The guildsmen had worked hard to ensure no man or woman attending the events during the tournament would leave York with a less-than-favourable impression of the city. There was no indication that York had been subjected to terrible scenes only the day before. Servants in rich livery attended to tables laid with meats and pastries, savoury and sweet puddings. She looked for Robbie, but could not see him among the couples or groups already dancing.
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