“Revedoune wants only the eldest son for his daughter,” Raine grinned. “Otherwise I would be more than willing.”
“Why this haggling?” Miles said angrily. “You are twenty-seven years old, and you need a wife. This Judith Revedoune is rich—she brings an earldom with her. Perhaps through her the Montgomeries can begin to regain what we once had.”
Alice was lost to him and the sooner he faced that the sooner he could begin to heal, Gavin decided. “All right. I agree to the marriage.”
Immediately, Raine and Miles let out the breath they had not realized they’d been holding.
Miles set his wine down. “I asked the messenger to stay. I’d hoped to tell him your answer.”
As Miles left the room, Raine’s sense of humor took over. “I have heard she is only this tall,” he held his hand near his waist, “and she has teeth the size of a horse’s. Besides that…”
The old tower was drafty; the wind whistled through the cracks. The oiled paper over the windows did little to keep out the cold.
Alice slept comfortably, nude beneath a linen coverlet, filled with goose down.
“My lady,” Ela whispered to her mistress. “He is here.”
Drowsy, Alice rolled over. “How dare you wake me!” she said in a fierce whisper. “Who is here?”
“The man from the Revedoune household. He—”
“Revedoune!” Alice said as she sat up, fully awake now. “Bring me my robe and fetch the man to me.”
“Here?” Ela was aghast. “No, my lady, you cannot. Someone could hear you.”
“Yes,” Alice said absently. “It is too great a risk. Let me dress. I’ll meet him under that elm tree by the kitchen garden.”
“At night? But—”
“Go now! Tell him I will be there soon.” Alice quickly threw her arms into her bedrobe, a gown of thick crimson velvet lined with gray squirrel fur. She wrapped a wide belt about her waist and slipped her feet into soft leather slippers dyed gold.
It had been nearly a month since she’d seen Gavin, and in all that time she’d had no word from him. But only days after their night in the forest, she had heard that he was to marry the Revedoune heiress. And now a tourney to celebrate the match was being cried from one end of England to the other. Every man of importance was being invited; every knight with any skill was asked to participate. At every word she heard, Alice grew more jealous. How she’d like to sit beside a husband such as Gavin and watch a tourney fought to celebrate her marriage. No such plans were being made for her wedding.
Yet, for all she heard of the plans, nowhere could she hear a word about Judith Revedoune herself. The girl was a name with no face or figure to it. Two weeks ago, Alice had come upon the idea of purchasing a spy to find out about this elusive Judith, to find what she looked like, what Alice must compete with. She gave Ela orders that she was to be told when the man arrived, no matter what time.
Alice’s heart was beating quickly as she ran through the path of the weed-choked garden. This Judith was an absolute toad, Alice told herself. She had to be.
“Ah, my lady,” the spy said when Alice was near. “Your beauty outshines the moon in radiance.” He grabbed her hand and kissed it.
He disgusted her, yet he was the only man she could find who had access to the Revedoune family. The price she’d had to pay him was outrageous! He was a slimy, oily man, but at least his lovemaking had not been so. Was any man’s, she wondered. “What news?” Alice asked impatiently as she hurriedly pulled her hand away. “Did you see her?”
“Not…closely—”
“Closely? Did you see her or not?” Alice demanded, looking straight into his eyes.
“Yes, I saw her,” he answered firmly. “But she is heavily guarded.” He wanted to please this blonde beauty, so he knew he must conceal the truth. He had seen Judith Revedoune, but only from a distance, as she was riding away from the manor with her women. He wasn’t even sure which bundled figure was the heiress.
“Why is she kept guarded? Is her mind not sound that she cannot be trusted to be free?”
Suddenly he was afraid of this woman who questioned him so sharply. There was power in those cold blue eyes. “There are rumors, of course. She is seen by no one except her women and her mother. She has lived her life among them, and always she has prepared for the church.”
“The church?” Alice began to feel some of the tension leave her. It was common knowledge that whenever a deformed or retarded daughter was born, if the family were rich enough, the creature would be pensioned and given to the nuns to care for. “Then you think she could have a weak mind or be malformed in some way?”
“Why else, my lady, would she be kept hidden all her life? Robert Revedoune is a hard man. His wife limps from a time when he threw her down the stairs. He wouldn’t want the world to see that he has a monster for a daughter.”
“But you aren’t sure this is the reason she is hidden?”
He smiled, feeling safer. “What other reason could there be? If she were sane and whole, wouldn’t he bring her out for the world to see? Wouldn’t he have offered her in marriage before his sons’ deaths forced him to do so? What man would allow his only daughter to enter the church? Only when a man has many daughters does he allow that.”
Alice was staring quietly ahead into the night. Her silence made the man grow bolder. He leaned closer to her, put his hand over hers and whispered into her ear. “You have no reason to fear, my lady. There will be no beautiful bride to turn the Lord Gavin’s head from you.”
Only Alice’s sharply drawn breath gave any indication she had heard. Did even the most common of men know about her and Gavin? With the skill of a great actress, she turned and smiled at the man. “You have done well and you shall be…suitably rewarded.” She left no doubt as to the meaning of her words.
He bent and kissed her neck.
Alice moved away, hiding her revulsion. “No, not tonight,” she whispered intimately. “Tomorrow. Arrangements must be made so we can spend more time together.” She ran her hand under the loose tabard, along his upper thigh, and smiled seductively when his breath caught. “I must go,” she said with seeming reluctance.
There was no hint of a smile on her face when her back was to him. She had one more stop to make before she returned to bed. The stableboy would be glad to help her. She would not allow any man to speak freely of Gavin and her…and this one would pay for his words.
“Good morning, Father,” Alice said cheerfully as she bent to brush her lips against the cheek of the gnarled and filthy old man. They were on the second floor of the tower, a floor left open as one enormous room. This was the great hall: a room used for eating, sleeping for the castle retainers, and all the daily activities.
She looked into her father’s empty cup. “Here, you!” she said sharply to a passing servant. “Bring my father more ale.”
Nicolas Valence took his daughter’s hand in both of his and looked up at her in gratitude. “You are the only one who cares, my lovely Alice. All the others—your mother and sisters—try to keep me from my drink. But you understand how it comforts me.”
She pulled away from him, hiding her feelings at his touch. “But of course, dear Father. That is because I alone love you.” She smiled sweetly at him.
After all these years Nicolas still marveled that he and his ugly little wife could have created such a lovely girl. Alice’s pale beauty was a sharp contrast to his own darkness. And when the others raged at him and hid his liquor, Alice sneaked bottles to him. It was true—she did love him. And he loved her, too. What little coin there was, didn’t he give it to her for her clothes? His lovely Alice wore silk while her sisters wore homespun. He’d do anything for her. Hadn’t he told that Gavin Montgomery that she couldn’t marry him, just as Alice had told him to? Of course Nicolas didn’t understand why a young girl wouldn’t want to marry such a strong and rich man like Gavin. But Alice had been right. He picked up his refilled cup and drained it. She’d been right—now she was to marry
an earl. Of course Edmund Chatworth was nothing like one of those handsome Montgomeries, but Alice aways knew what was best.
“Father,” Alice said smiling, “I would like a favor from you.”
He drank yet a third cup of ale. Sometimes Alice’s favors were not easy to grant. He changed the subject. “Did you know that a man fell off the wall last night? A stranger. No one seems to know where he came from.”
Alice’s expression changed. Now the spy would tell no one of Gavin or that she asked about the Revedoune heiress. Quickly, she dismissed the thought. The man’s death meant nothing to her. “I want to go to the wedding of the Revedoune woman to Gavin.”
“You want an invitation to the wedding of an earl’s daughter?” Nicolas was incredulous.
“Yes.”
“But I cannot. How could I?”
This time, Alice waved the servant away and refilled her father’s cup herself. “I have a plan,” she said quickly and smiled her sweetest smile.
Chapter Three
THE FIRE RAGED UP THE SIDE OF THE STONE AND HUNGRILY devoured the wooden second story of the merchant’s shop. The air was thick with smoke and the men and women who formed a line to pass the buckets of water were blackened. Only their eyes and teeth remained white.
Gavin, his body bare from the waist up, used the long-handled ax viciously as he chopped away the building next to the blazing shop. The vigor with which he worked did not betray the fact that he had been working like this for a full two days.
The town where the building burned, where three others stood in ashes, was his. Twelve-foot walls enclosed the town, running down the hill from the great Montgomery castle. This town’s taxes supported the Montgomery brothers; in return, the knights protected and defended the inhabitants.
“Gavin!” Raine bellowed over the roar of the flames. He too was filthy from smoke and sweat. “Come away from there! The fire is too close to you!”
Gavin ignored his brother’s warning. He did not look up at the burning wall that threatened to fall on him. His chopping became more vigorous as he fought to knock the seasoned timbers inside the lower stone walls, where the man on the ground could soak them with water.
Raine knew it was no use to yell at Gavin anymore. He tiredly signaled the exhausted men behind him to continue pulling the timbers off the wall. Raine was past exhaustion, yet he had had four hours of sleep—four more than Gavin. Raine knew from experience that if one square inch of what Gavin considered his was endangered, the man would neither sleep nor rest until it was safe.
Raine stood on the ground, his breath held as Gavin worked beside and under the burning wall. It would collapse at any moment and Raine could only hope that Gavin would soon finish hacking away the timbers and climb down the ladder to the safety of the ground. Raine murmured every oath he knew as Gavin flirted with death. The merchants and serfs gasped as the wall of fire teetered back and forth. Raine thought he would like to forcibly bring Gavin down the ladder, but Raine knew his strength was no greater than his older brother’s.
Suddenly the timbers fell inside the stone walls, and Gavin was immediately on the ladder. He had no more than touched the ground when Raine made a flying leap and knocked his brother out of the path of the sheet of fire.
“Damn you, Raine!” Gavin bellowed in his brother’s ear as Raine’s heavy body lay on top of him. “You’re crushing me. Get off!”
Raine was too used to Gavin to take offense. He stood up slowly, his muscles aching from the work of the last few days. “That’s the thanks I get for saving your life! Why the hell did you stay up there so long? Another few seconds, and you would have been roasted.”
Gavin stood up quickly, his soot-blackened face turned toward the building he had just left. The fire was contained inside the stone walls now and would not be leaping to the next building. When he was satisfied that the buildings were safe, he turned to his brother. “How could I have let the building burn?” he asked as he flexed his shoulder. It was scraped and bleeding where Raine had skidded him across the gravel and debris. “If the fire had not been stopped, I might not have had a town left.”
Raine’s eyes blazed. “I would rather have lost a hundred buildings than you.”
Gavin grinned. His even white teeth shone against the blackness of his dirty face. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “But I think I’d rather lose a little flesh than another building.” He turned away and went to direct the men in the dousing of the structure that was next to the one he had hacked to pieces.
Raine shrugged and walked away. Gavin had been master of the Montgomery estate since he was sixteen years old, and he took his responsibility very seriously. What was his was his, and he would fight to the death to keep it. Yet the lowest serf, the worst thief, if they were residents of the Montgomery holdings, would get the fairest treatment from Gavin.
Late at night, Gavin returned to the manor house. He went to the winter parlor, a room off the great hall that served as a family dining room. The floors were covered with thick carpets from Antioch. The room was a recent addition and was paneled with the new linenfold paneling, the walnut carved to look like the draping of fabric. One end of the room was dominated by an enormous fireplace. The stone mantel above was sculpted with the Montgomery leopards.
Raine was already there, clean and dressed in black wool, an enormous silver tray in front of him heaped high with roast pork, chunks of warm bread, dried apples and peaches. He fully planned to eat every pound of the food. He grunted and pointed toward a large wooden tub filled with steaming hot water set before a roaring fire.
Gavin’s fatigue was catching up with him. He slipped off his braies—a tight garment of hose and underpants—and his boots, then slipped into the water. It stung his recently blistered and cut body. A young servant girl appeared out of the shadows and began to wash Gavin’s back.
“Where is Miles?” Raine said between mouthfuls.
“I sent him to Revedoune’s. He reminded me that the engagement was to take place today. He went as my proxy.” Gavin leaned forward, letting the girl wash him. He did not look at his brother.
Raine nearly choked on a piece of pork. “You what!”
Gavin looked up in surprise. “I said I sent Miles as my proxy for the engagement to the Revedoune heiress.”
“Good God, haven’t you any sense at all? You can’t send someone else as if you were purchasing a prize mare. She’s a woman!”
Gavin stared at his brother. The firelight showed the deep hollow in Gavin’s cheek as his jaw muscles began to flex. “I am well aware that she is a woman. If she weren’t, I wouldn’t be forced to marry her.”
“Forced!” Raine leaned back against the chair, incredulous. It was true that while Gavin’s three younger brothers were traveling freely about the country, visiting castles and manors in France and even the Holy Land, Gavin had been chained to a ledger. He was twenty-seven and in eleven years, except for the recent uprising in Scotland, he had hardly left his own home. Gavin did not know that his brothers often made allowances for what they considered his ignorance of women other than the daughters of the lower classes.
“Gavin,” Raine began patiently, “Judith Revedoune is a lady—an earl’s daughter. She has been taught to expect certain things from you, such as courtesy and respect. You should have gone in person to tell her that you wish to marry her.”
Gavin held out his arm as the servant girl ran a soapy cloth over it. The front of her coarse woolen dress was wet, and it clung to her full breasts. He looked into her eyes and smiled at her, beginning to feel the first risings of desire. He glanced back at Raine. “But I don’t want to marry her. Certainly she cannot be so ignorant to think I’m marrying her for any reason besides her lands.”
“You cannot tell her that! You must court her and—”
Gavin rose out of the tub and stood while the girl climbed on a stool and poured warm water over him to rinse him. “She will be mine,” he said flatly. “She will do as I tell her to. I have
seen enough highborn ladies to know what they are like. They sit in their upstairs solars and sew and gossip while they eat honeyed fruit and grow fat. They are lazy and stupid; they have had everything they ever wanted. I know how to treat those women. I sent to London a week ago and ordered some new tapestries from Flanders—something silly like a nymphet cavorting about a woods so she won’t be frightened by scenes of war. I’ll hang them in the solar and give her access to all the silk threads and silver needles she can use, and she will be content.”
Raine sat quietly and thought of the women he had met in his journeys about the country. Most of them were like Gavin’s description, but then there were women of intelligence and fire who were more like companions to their husbands. “What if she wishes to have a hand in the estate affairs?”
Gavin stepped out of the tub and took the soft cotton towel the girl handed him. “She will not interfere in what is mine. She will tend to what I tell her, or she will repent it.”
Chapter Four
SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH THE OPEN WINDOWS, slanting across the rush-covered floor, playing with little dust motes that glittered like specks of gold. It was a perfect spring day, the first of May, the sun shining, the air filled with the sweetness that only spring can bring.
It was a large, open room, half of the entire fourth floor of the half-timbered house. The windows facing south admitted enough light to warm the room. It was a plain room, for Robert Revedoune would not part with money for what he considered frivolous, such as carpets and tapestries.
This morning, though, the room did not look so sparse. Every chair was covered with a splash of color. There were garments everywhere; beautiful, lush, brilliant garments, all new, all part of the dowry of Judith Revedoune. There were silks from Italy, velvets from the Orient, cashmeres from Venice, cottons from Tripoli. Jewels winked everywhere: on shoes, belts, circlets. There were emeralds, pearls, rubies, enamels. And all of it was laid upon a background of fur: sable, ermine, beaver, squirrel, curly black lamb, lynx.