With a frown on his face, Gavin took the belt to the window and studied it in the sunlight. “It looks very old. Is it?”
“I guess. Alyx says it’s been handed down from mother to daughter in her family for as long as anyone can remember.”
“Lions,” Gavin muttered. “There’s something familiar about this belt. Come downstairs with me to the winter parlor.”
When Raine was dressed, he followed his brother to the paneled room. On one wall hung an old and faded tapestry. It had been there for ages and was so familiar to Raine it was nearly invisible.
“Did Father ever tell you about this tapestry?” Gavin asked. When Raine shook his head, Gavin continued. “It was woven in the time of Edward the First, and the subject was a celebration of the greatest knight of the century, a man called the Black Lion. See, here he is atop the horse and this lovely lady was his wife. Look at her waist.”
Raine looked, somewhat bored by Gavin’s recitation of the family history, but saw nothing special. He was always a man concerned with today and now, not centuries ago.
Gavin gave his brother a look of exasperation. “I saw a drawing of this belt—” he pointed to the tapestry—“long ago. The Black Lion’s wife’s name was something to do with a lion, and for a wedding gift the Lion gave his wife a belt of a lion and his lioness.”
“You don’t think Alyx’s belt could be that one. It would have to be a couple of hundred years old.”
“Look at the way this thing is worn down,” Gavin said, holding Alyx’s belt aloft. “The links have been wired together with iron and the design is almost gone, but from what I can see of the clasp it could be lions.”
“How would Alyx have gotten the belt?”
Gavin didn’t need to be reminded of his new sister-in-law’s origins. “The Black Lion was a fabulously wealthy man, but he had one son and eight daughters. He gave all his daughters enormous dowries, and to his eldest daughter went the lion belt to pass on to her eldest daughter.”
“You don’t think Alyx—” Raine began.
“The Black Lion’s eldest son was named Montgomery, and it’s through him that all our family has descended. Don’t you remember Father saying you were like the Black Lion? The four of us were tall, slim and fair while you were always shorter, sturdier.”
Raine remembered all the teasing he’d taken as a child and sometimes wondered if he was a full brother to his sister and three brothers. But he’d been twelve when his father had died, and there were many things he didn’t remember.
“Father said you were like him.” He pointed to the massive black-haired man atop the rearing stallion in the tapestry.
“And you think this belt Alyx has could have belonged to the man’s wife?” Raine took the belt from his brother. “She cherishes it, never lets it out of her sight. I knew it would be taken from her at the trial. She hasn’t mentioned it to me, but last night she must have been dreaming and she cried out about this bit of gold.”
“Did you know the Black Lion married a woman well beneath him? Not quite Alyx’s status, but compared to him, the Montgomerys are as poor as gamekeepers.”
Raine rubbed the worn belt between his fingers. “It’s too farfetched to believe. But sometimes I feel as if I’ve known Alyx longer than just a few months. I’ve been with women more beautiful than her, and certainly women who treated me with more respect, but when I first looked at her—” He stopped and laughed. “When I first saw her I thought she was a boy and I thought that if I had a son he would look like Alyx. There was something about her . . . I don’t know how to explain it. Was it the same with you and Judith?”
“No,” Gavin said flatly, looking away. He hated any reminder of how he’d treated Judith when they were first married.
“Speaking of your wife,” Raine said. “She gave me a tongue-lashing when I arrived.”
Gavin laughed at that. “And what had you done? If I remember correctly, she usually fawns over you to no end.”
“She said I was mistreating my wife by bringing her here.”
“Because of the King?” Gavin asked. “We discussed it and she agreed that you would be safe for a few days. It will take that long for someone to recognize you and get word to the King.”
“No, it wasn’t that.” Raine was truly puzzled. “It was something about not buying her enough dresses. Perhaps she thinks I carry dresses on my saddle.”
“I’m certainly glad I arrived in time to defend myself,” Judith said from the doorway, smiling. Immediately, she went to her husband and kissed him. “You are safe? Well?”
“As well as can be,” he said, holding her close to him. “And what is this I hear about your berating my brother? I hope you did not hurt him. He’s not as strong as I am.”
“Delicate,” Judith said sweetly. “All of your brothers are as delicate as spring flowers.” She smiled up at Raine, both men overpowering her slight form. “I merely said that Raine should not have dragged his wife across the country when she is carrying his child and she is ill from the fire’s smoke and all the while dressed worse than the lowest menial.”
Judith started to say more but turned as in the doorway stood Alyx, but an Alyx no one had seen before. She wore a gown of deep, dark purple velvet, the low, square neckline hung with a heavy silver chain, a large purple amethyst in the center. The back of her head was covered with a simple hood of silver cloth embroidered with purple flowers. Her violet eyes sparkled brilliantly.
Raine moved toward her, lifted her hand and kissed it. “I am overwhelmed with such beauty,” he said sincerely.
“You are different,” she whispered.
“And you can talk. Can you sing yet?”
“Don’t rush her, Raine,” Judith said. “I’ve given her honey and herbs, but I think she’ll heal much faster if she doesn’t use her voice. Dinner is ready. Is anyone hungry?”
Alyx was glad she couldn’t speak because she didn’t believe she could have anyway. Raine had always seemed so much more than the people around him even when he dressed in his forestry clothes, but now, in his black and silver, he was awesome. He fit so well into this magnificent house, and he saw nothing unusual about so many people bowing toward him.
As Raine led her to the tables set in the Great Hall, she had to work to keep her mouth from dropping open. The meal she’d seen at the inn had seemed like a feast, but on these tables was food enough for a village.
“Who are these men?” she whispered to Raine beside her. There were over a hundred people eating with them.
Raine glanced up, noticing the people as if from her eyes. “They’re Gavin’s men, a few of mine, some of Stephen’s. Those men are Montgomerys, cousins, I think. You’ll have to ask Gavin for the exact relationship.” He pointed toward the end of the table where they sat. “Some of them are castle retainers. You can ask Judith. I’m sure she knows who everyone is.”
“Yours so big?” she rasped.
“No,” he grinned. “My estates are small compared to this. Judith is the rich one. She brought great wealth when she married into our family, and she has to support many people. She’s always buying and selling and counting grain in the storerooms.”
“Me?” Alyx asked, scared.
Raine took a while to understand her. “You mean will you have to run my estates? I don’t see why not. You can read and write. That’s more than I can do.” He looked away as one of his cousins spoke to him.
Alyx had difficulty eating more of the meal and after a while sat quietly as course after course was brought into the room. Most of the food she’d never seen before, and new names and flavors were beginning to run together.
After a long while, Raine stood and introduced her and the people shouted a welcome to her.
Judith asked Alyx if she’d like to rest, and together they went back to Alyx’s room.
“Is it all a bit bewildering?” Judith asked.
Alyx nodded her head.
“Tomorrow there’s a fair in the village, and I’ll see if Raine will take
you to it. You’ll have some fun and not have so many new people to deal with. But now, why don’t you rest? Gavin and Raine are preparing a message to send to Miles, and you’ll have hours to rest because I’m sure they’ll argue for that long.”
When Alyx had removed her dress and slipped beneath the covers, Judith took her hand. “You have nothing to fear from us. We are your family from now on and whatever you do will meet our approval. I know that all this”—she motioned to the elegant room—“is new to you, but you’ll soon learn and we’re here to help you.”
“Thank you,” Alyx whispered and was asleep before Judith was out of the door.
* * *
Nothing could have prepared Alyx for the fair set up in Montgomery pastureland. She’d slept soundly and long and when she woke, her voice was at least half restored. The sound was there and she was glad, even if the tones were gone.
“Do you think I’ll be able to sing again?”
Raine laughed at the fear in her voice and helped her button the purple dress Judith had altered to fit Alyx. “I’m sure that in another few days the birds will fly into the room just to hear you.”
Laughing, she whirled about the room, the bell-shaped skirt swirling around her. “Isn’t it lovely? It is the most beautiful dress on the earth.”
“No,” Raine laughed, grabbing her. “It is you who makes it lovely. Now stop turning about before you make my child dizzy. Are you ready for the fair?”
The fair was like a city, a city composed of people from all over the world. There were stalls for animals, stalls of lead and tin from England, booths of Spanish wines, German commodities, Italian cloths, toy shops, wrestling matches, games of skill, butchers, fishmongers.
“Where do we begin?” Alyx asked, clinging to Raine’s arm. They were surrounded by six of Gavin’s knights.
“Perhaps my lady is hungry?” asked one knight.
“Or thirsty?”
“Would my lady like to see the jugglers or the acrobats?”
“I hear there’s a fair singer just this way.”
“The singer,” Alyx said firmly, making Raine laugh.
“To see what you have to compete with?” he teased.
She smiled at him, too happy to let his teasing bother her. After a brief visit to the singer, who was no good at all in Alyx’s opinion, they stopped at a gingerbread stall and Raine bought her a spicy fresh-baked lady.
Eating her treat, looking this way and that, she was hardly aware when Raine stopped before an Italian’s booth.
“What do you think of this?” Raine asked, holding up a length of violet silk.
“Lovely,” she said absently. “Oh, Raine, there is a bear doing tricks.”
“Your bear of a husband is going to do tricks if you don’t listen to him.” When she looked up, he continued. “I have had enough of Judith’s berating me. Choose the colors you want and I’ll have them sent to the castle.”
“Choose?” she asked dumbly, looking at the wealth before her.
“Give us everything you have in purple,” Raine said quickly. “And those greens. You’ll look good in those, Alyx.” He turned back to the merchant. “Cut off enough of each one for a dress and send it to the castle. A steward will pay you.” With that he took Alyx’s arm and pulled her away.
Like a child, Alyx looked backward, her gingerbread in her mouth. There must have been three shades of purple, four of green in each type of fabric, and the types included silks, satins, velvets, brocades and others Alyx didn’t recognize. Raine stopped before the performing bear, but when he saw Alyx wasn’t watching, he pulled her to another booth—a furrier’s.
This time he didn’t wait for her to choose but ordered a cloak lined with lambskin and another with leopard from Asia. He told the furrier to see the cloth merchant and send some bits and pieces for trim for the dresses he’d ordered.
By now Alyx was recovering herself. She was being dressed without even so much as a consultation as to what she wanted. If she had any idea of what she did want, she’d protest Raine’s highhandedness.
“Do you choose your own clothes like this?” she ventured. “Do you leave the choices up to the merchants?”
He shrugged. “I usually wear black, saves time that way. Miles is the one who knows clothes.”
“And what about Stephen? What does he know?”
“He keeps Gavin and me apart and all he wears are the Scots’ clothes, leaving most of him bare.”
“Sounds interesting,” Alyx murmured, making Raine give her a sharp look.
“Behave yourself. Look at this. Have you seen this before?”
What Alyx saw was a woman working with hundreds of wooden spools on a fat little pillow. “What is it?” The finished product looked to be white silk cobwebs.
“It’s lace, my lady,” the woman said and held up a collar for Alyx’s inspection.
Gently, Alyx touched it, almost afraid it would fall apart.
“Here,” Raine said, pulling a bag of gold from under his doublet. “Let me have three of those. Take your pick, Alyx, and we’ll give one to Judith and send the other to Bronwyn.”
“Oh, yes,” she breathed, pleased at the idea of a gift to Judith.
The lace collars were carefully laid in a thin wooden box and given to one of the knights to carry.
The next few hours were the happiest Alyx had ever known. Seeing Raine in his natural environment, seeing him get the respect he deserved, was a joy to her. Yet this man who was so honored could sit down with the lowest beggar and listen to the man.
“You’re looking at me oddly,” Raine said.
“I am counting my blessings.” She looked away from him. “What are all those people looking at?”
“Come on and we’ll see.”
The crowd in front of them parted to let the seven big men and the small woman through. Inside the circle were four half-dressed women, their flat bellies bare, their legs visible through transparent silks, undulating to some strange music. After her initial shock, Alyx glanced up at her husband, saw he was completely captivated by the women, as were the guards around them. And to think that moments before she’d been thinking Raine was close to the Lord’s angels!
With an exclamation of disgust, which Raine didn’t even hear, Alyx began backing out of the crowd, leaving the men to their obsession.
“My lady,” said someone beside her. “Let me lead you out of this crush. You’re so small that I fear for your safety.”
She looked up into the dark eyes of a very handsome man. He had blond hair streaked by the sun, an aquiline nose over a firm mouth. There was a curved scar by his left eye and shadows under his eyes. “I’m not sure—” she began. “My husband . . .”
“Let me introduce myself. I am the Earl of Bayham and your husband’s family and mine are well acquainted. I’ve traveled a long way to speak to Gavin, but when I saw the fair I hoped to find one of the family here.”
A heavy-set man who’d had more than a little to drink lunged toward them, and the earl put out a hand, protecting Alyx.
“I feel it’s my duty to protect you from this mob. Let me lead you out of here.”
She took the arm he offered. There was something about him that seemed both sad and kind at the same time, and she instinctively trusted him.
“How did you hear of my marriage?” she asked. “It was so recent and I haven’t come from the same people as my husband.”
“I have a special interest in what the Montgomery family does.”
He led her away from the noise of the fair, to a bench just inside a small grove of trees. “You must be very tired since you’ve not sat down all morning. And surely the child must be a heavy burden.”
Gratefully, she sat down, rested her hands on her stomach, and looked up at him. “You have indeed been watching us. Now, what do you want to talk to me about that you needed me away from my husband?”
At that the earl smiled slightly. “The Montgomerys choose their women well, for brains as well as b
eauty. Perhaps I should reintroduce myself. I am Roger Chatworth.”
Chapter Seventeen
ALYX FEELING SO smug because she thought she’d guessed that this man wanted her to use her influence on her husband, suddenly felt very frightened. Clumsily, her fear showing on her face, she started to stand.
“Please,” he said softly. “I don’t mean to harm you. I only want to talk to you for a moment.” He sat down on the end of the bench, feet away from her, his head down, hands clasped. “Leave. I won’t stop you.”
Alyx was already past him when she turned back. “If my husband sees you, he will kill you.”
Roger didn’t answer and Alyx, frowning, telling herself she was a fool, went back to the bench. “Why have you risked coming here?” she asked.
“I would risk anything to find my sister.”
“Elizabeth?”
Perhaps it was the way she said the name, but Roger’s head came up sharply. “You know her? What do you know?” His hands made fists.
“Pagnell, the earl of Waldenham’s son—”
“I know the piece of slime.”
Quickly, Alyx told the story of how Elizabeth had helped her and how Pagnell had punished Elizabeth.
“Miles!” Roger said, standing. He was richly dressed in dark blue velvet, a satin brocade doublet, his long, muscular legs tightly encased in dark hose. This was not the man Alyx would have imagined as anyone’s enemy.
“And what has Miles done with my innocent sister?” Roger demanded, his eyes flashing.
“Not what you did with the Lady Mary,” Alyx shot back.
“The woman’s death is on my soul, and I have paid for it with the loss of my brother. I do not plan to lose my sister as well.”
Alyx had no idea what he was talking about. What did Roger’s brother have to do with Mary’s death? “I don’t know where Miles and Elizabeth are. I have not been well. Perhaps while I was resting Raine found out about Miles, but I know nothing.”
“What of the Lady Judith? I don’t think much is done that she doesn’t know about. Did she tell you something?”
“No, nothing. Why are you free when my husband has to hide, yet it was you who killed Mary?”