Once a Knight

  From behind the screen, he heard a splashing, then a bawl of what sounded like agony. “You got me wet!” Bert cried.

  “It works so much better that way.” Alisoun sounded as calm as ever, and that seemed to infuriate Bert once more.

  “You’re ugly!” she yelled. “You’re stupid!”

  “Damn.” Once more, David started to his feet and moved toward the screens.

  Guy followed and grabbed his arm. “Alisoun said not to interfere.”

  David wavered.

  Then Bertrade’s voice rose to a high-pitched scream. “My daddy only married you for your money.”

  Tearing himself away from Guy, David bounded forward. “I never said that.” He didn’t know to whom he spoke, but he clearly heard Alisoun’s answer.

  “I know that. I married him for protection. You needn’t worry that I’ll entice your daddy away from you. I don’t even care to try.”

  David skidded on a wet place on the floor and went down heavily. Bruised in body and spirit, he scarcely noticed when Guy helped him up from the floor.

  “Did you bring some new horses?” Guy asked. When David nodded morosely, Guy said, “You can show them to me.”

  Guy led him outside into the small bailey, now bustling with activity. David’s servants greeted him with varying levels of enthusiasm, and as they neared the stable, Guy broke the silence. “The reaction to Lady Alisoun amazes me.”

  Instantly hostile, David asked, “What do you mean?”

  “Yesterday everyone of these villeins moaned about the hunger in their bellies and how they would do anything to ease it. Now Lady Edlyn and Lady Philippa have distributed meals from Lady Alisoun’s stores—”

  “She’s not a lady,” David said.

  “Lady Edlyn?” Guy stared in wonder.

  “Philippa.”

  “Isn’t she? I would have said she was, and a very attractive lady, too.” David shook his head, but Guy seemed unconvinced. “Lady Alisoun has made it clear the duties everyone will perform if they expect to continue to eat so well. Reasonable expectations, I might add, yet your servants seem to be struggling between relief and resentment.”

  “They’ll do as she says, or I’ll tack their ears to a stock.”

  Guy eyed the open stable door, then looked at the indignant David. “Let’s walk around one time before we go in to see the horses.”

  David nodded, knowing his restless vigor wouldn’t sit well with the animals, who even now were adjusting to their new stalls.

  As they started around the saggy wooden building, Guy returned to the subject. “Tacking their ears won’t work. She has to win them over herself, and I don’t know whether this lazy bunch of knaves and sluts will respond to the woman when they know you married her for her wealth.”

  Grabbing Guy by the throat, David snapped, “I didn’t!”

  Guy jabbed David’s unprotected stomach with his fist, and when David released him and reeled backward, he asked, “Why did you tell the child that, then?”

  “I didn’t. She just assumed…and where did she even get the idea, I’d like to know?” David glared insinuatingly at the man who’d raised his daughter these months.

  “She was lost when you left, and she ran from one person to another, trying to garner suggestions of how you could come home soon. A couple of the men told her you’d be wise to marry an heiress. A couple of the women suggested you’d be better off to have a squire at your side. She couldn’t do anything about the heiress, so she decided to become a lad and be your squire.” Guy rubbed his head as if it ached. “She’s a very smart little lass.”

  David found himself fighting a headache. “How am I going to explain?”

  “Bert’s not going to believe you wed Lady Alisoun for any reason other than greed.”

  “I meant to explain to Alisoun.” Narrowing his eyes, David asked, “Why won’t Bert believe?”

  They had reached the stable door once more, and Guy looked at it, then at David. “Let’s go around again.”

  It never occurred to David to disagree.

  As they began the wide circle again, Guy said, “Because she’s had you all to herself these years, and she won’t easily give you up to another woman. She adores you, you know that.”

  “I adore her, and I’ll not adore her any less because I’m wed.”

  “Bert and Alisoun will fight—are already fighting—and you’ll have to make your choices. Who will you side with? The woman you’ve wed who, by all appearances, is stiff-necked and conventional, or your wild child, who needs to be taught proper behavior without breaking her spirit?”

  “Alisoun, of course.”

  “Of course.” Guy mocked him. “You’ve raised Bert, but not like any other child I’ve seen. Most especially, not like any girl I’ve seen. You’ve given her her head more often than not.”

  “Why not?” David asked indignantly. “She’s learned by trying and failing, or trying and succeeding. I’ve made sure she didn’t hurt herself, and it’s worked well.”

  “Aye, it’s worked. She’s tried anything she chose, and you and I, we’re old warriors. We just watched and made sure she didn’t get hurt. What do you think Lady Alisoun will think of such a way of raising a child?”

  David remembered his early impressions of Alisoun. He’d thought her humorless, unemotional, frigid. That was how Guy now saw her, but it wasn’t the truth, and David clapped his friend on the shoulder. “You’ll see. She’ll defer to my greater knowledge.”

  “Will she?” It never occurred to either one of them to enter the open stable door this time. They just passed it and kept walking. “So when Bert tells Lady Alisoun she wants to train as a squire, she’s going to encourage Bert?”

  David didn’t answer.

  “Because you know Bert. Once she decides to learn something, nothing will stop her until she’s mastered it. She’s going to be after you every day to teach her swordplay and jousting and every other manly pursuit. It’s your contention that Lady Alisoun will allow such behavior without saying a word?”

  “Damn!” David smacked his hand into the stable wall, then wished he hadn’t. The horses needed serenity to settle, and even the stablemaster would be moving as quietly as possible. He listened, but heard nothing but a few startled neighs. Softly, he spoke again. “Alisoun has a strong sense of duty, and she’ll consider training Bert to be a lady her duty, and nothing will keep her from it.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “But what’s the harm in Bert learning a squire’s duty if she wishes?”

  Guy pounced. “So you are going to support Bert against Lady Alisoun?”

  “Nay, I…” David took a breath. “Why does it have to be so complicated? When I met Lady Alisoun, I thought she was mean-spirited and bloodless. Then I saw her demesne and thought, ‘Ooh, all this beautiful wealth waiting for me.’ So I courted her and talked to her, and she’s…she’s…” Turning to Guy, he grasped his shoulders. “You know how it is when you look in one of those clear, polished crystals and it just looks like a hard, cold stone? Then as you stare, you notice the rainbows that dance on the surface, and when you hold it up to your eye and look through it, it makes all the colors brighter and all the hard, horrible things look like they’re touched by an angel’s wing?”

  Bewildered, Guy stared at his old friend. “Nay.”

  David swept on. “That’s what she’s like. You think she’s hard and cold and easily seen through, and then she transforms your whole world.”

  Guy laid his hand on David’s forehead. “Are you ill?”

  Laughing, David knocked him away and entered the dim stable, hushed except for the restlessness of the old horses and the uneasy snuffling of the new. “Did I ever tell you about my granny?”

  Trailing after him, Guy said cautiously, “Your granny?”

  “She used to talk about how some couples share a great love.”

  “You and Lady Alisoun share a great love?”

  Guy could have s
ounded less incredulous, but David ignored that. “Well, she doesn’t know yet.”

  “You share a great love, but she doesn’t know yet?”

  David stopped to pet one of the horses from George’s Cross. “She didn’t want to marry me.”

  “So why did she?” Guy asked suspiciously.

  “For the same reason she hired me. For protection.” David frowned. “In fact, we need to spread the word that if anyone sees a stranger lurking about, I should be informed at once.”

  “What does she need protection from?”

  “I don’t know.” David could see little in the fading light, but he did catch sight of Guy’s blatant stupefaction and said, “That is, I have a good idea, but I don’t know everything yet. She’ll tell me soon.”

  “Probably when she realizes you share a great love.”

  “Probably.” Entering one of the stalls, David checked the gelding’s hooves and hocks. “This one stepped into a hole on that wretched road and has limped ever since. I’ll get the stablemaster to heat a poultice and put it on him.”

  Guy watched with intense interest. “May I ask a question?”

  “As you wish.”

  “Why did Lady Alisoun marry you for protection when she had hired you for protection?”

  David didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to talk about that. But Guy wanted an answer, and they’d been friends too long for David to evade or lie. “I rather forced her to wed me.”

  Guy straightened so quickly David wondered if he’d gotten a sliver. “Forced her? You mean at swordpoint, or by kidnapping? One of the king’s heiresses? Are you mad?”

  Irked that Guy would think such a thing, David snapped, “I didn’t force her with any violent means. I simply came into some knowledge that she would prefer remain hidden. And there is the babe, of course.”

  Guy staggered backward and sat down on a stack of hay. “She’s with child?”

  David grinned proudly. “Aye.”

  “With your child?”

  His grin disappeared. “Aye!”

  Guy seemed overwhelmed, unable to speak another word.

  David waited, and when Guy did nothing but shake his head, David stepped out of the stall, closed the gate behind him, and hefted Guy to his feet. “So you see we have to blend these families and these estates.”

  “It’s going to be a difficult task,” Guy warned.

  “With your help, my friend, we’ll do it. My granny always used to say that with a great love, it casts a glow of warmth all around it and makes everyone content.” David moved toward Louis’s stall. “You’ll see.”

  Ahead of them, something flew over the door of one of the stalls and landed in the aisle. Something else followed and landed on top of it, and in an awesome silence the two things tumbled and rolled. Unable to make out details in the dim light, David hurried toward the creatures.

  Lads, fighting just outside Louis’s stall. The great horse watched stoically, but David grabbed one and Guy grabbed the other, and they dragged them along the aisle and out the door.

  “Eudo!” David shook the boy in his grip, then looked at the one Guy held and recognized his own Radcliffe page. “And Marlow! What are you two doing?”

  Eudo extended a shaking finger. “He started it!”

  “He tried to tend Louis.” Marlow kicked dust at Eudo. “It’s my task to tend Louis. Tell him, Sir David.”

  “Aye, tell him, Sir David.” Eudo pointed his thumb at his chest. “It’s me you want to tend Louis.”

  Dumbfounded, David stared at the two boys until Guy said sarcastically, “Oh, aye. A great love. Warmth of glow. Everyone content.” David met Guy’s gaze, and Guy wagged his great head. “Better sooner than later.”

  That night at the meal, no one spoke much. Worn out by the fight which she had lost, the child Bertrade had fallen asleep on her bench and been carried away. David’s servants maintained a watchful vigil, and Edlyn and the maids showed obvious signs of fatigue.

  Alisoun was grateful. She hated to acknowledge her own lack of courtesy, but she would have been hard pressed to carry on a civil conversation.

  The trip had been tiring, settling into a new castle proved difficult, the child Bertrade expressed a defiant spirit, and Alisoun had finally been forced to face facts. The one thing she’d always feared had happened.

  She’d been married for her wealth.

  “Could I cut you a slice of bread?” David scooted as close to her as he could get. The bench they shared allowed him to press against her, knee, hip and arm, and his knife hovered over the loaf placed before them on the long table.

  Alisoun nodded graciously. “I would be beholden.”

  The blade began sawing back and forth, back and forth, and Alisoun realized how hard the bread would be. But Edlyn had taken one look into the baker’s ovens and demanded he clean them before he bake another thing, so they’d dine on stale bread and be grateful this night.

  She had been stupid to hope that David had married her for any other reason than her money. She could dream he did it out of affection for his unborn babe, or because of the pleasure she’d offered him in bed. She could pray that he valued her for herself.

  But the truth was always and forever that he wanted her twelve sacks of wool, and all the assets that went with them.

  Oh, she couldn’t even blame him. He had a child he adored. She’d helped give Bertrade that bath, and the child, while healthy, was far from plump. She could comprehend his decision to wed and provide for his daughter.

  “The bread is stale, so I had your maid warm it.” Pushing the heated slice into her hand, David said, “I’ve had an egg yolk whipped in white wine for you to dip it in. ’Twill be good for our child, also.”

  “My thanks again.” She touched her still flat belly. “You are ever thoughtful.”

  If she were a less honest woman, she could claim she’d married David to give her child a name. Instead, she’d wed an inappropriate man for no better reasons than companionship and desire. She was no less a fool than another woman she knew who had wed her dream of love and found nothing but a belt to blister her skin and a rod to break her bones.

  “My cook took dried strawberries from this very spring and steamed them to plumpness and made a compote.” David waved the fragrant bowl slowly before her nose. “For you, my lady. Won’t you eat?”

  If it weren’t for the danger which threatened, she’d go back to George’s Cross and take her chances, but that open grave proved that her enemy knew the truth, and she feared he would do anything now to take his revenge.

  So she had a choice. She could fret and complain and be like David’s first wife, a weight to drag him down. Or she could do as she had always done. She could do her duty.

  Armed with a new resolve, she looked at David. He, too, seemed tired, and lines of concern marked his dark tanned skin. She smiled at him graciously and picked up her spoon. “This all smells quite delicious. I look forward to the end of our first day at Radcliffe.”

  David sat back with a sigh that sounded like relief. From his hungry expression, she expected that he would gobble his food in the manner of a barbarian. But he ate politely and drank his fill, always attentive to her needs and chatting like a host making his new guest at home. When at last he pressed the goblet to her lips and let her drink, then turned it to the same spot and drank while gazing at her, she realized the reason for his desirous aspect—and all her pretense of serenity almost went for naught. She rose so quickly he knocked their bench over trying to get to his feet, and she moved toward the solar with a firm stride. She heard him scrambling to catch up, but she refused to look back or in any way acknowledge his presence. But when he trod on her skirt, it jerked her to a halt, and when he took her arm, it brought her around to face him at the very door of the solar.

  “I wish to sleep now,” she said.

  “So we will,” he answered.

  “Alone.”

  “We’re married.”

  “I am
aware.”

  “So I’ll be in the marriage bed with you.”

  He looked so firm, so calm, so determined. She wanted to retort, but she couldn’t breathe. She felt as if bands were tightening around her throat. Only now did she realize what a facade she’d erected around her emotions. She wasn’t tranquil. She wasn’t serene. She was absolutely livid.

  She meant only to lay her hand on his chest. She really did.

  But she hit him so hard she knocked him backward. She didn’t yell, but only because she couldn’t. In a low tone, she said, “I will be the mother to your child. I will be the mistress of your people. I will be the money chest which provides prosperity, and I will give it gladly.” She slapped her hand on his chest again and this time she heard his grunt of pain. “But I will not be an expedient body in your bed. Go and find yourself a mistress.”

  David’s people couldn’t hear, but they watched the scene avidly and the humiliation struck at his pride, just as she knew it would. Exploding in a display of exasperation, he said, “Fine! I know where ten mistresses are, and willing ones too.”

  With a tight smile, she shut the door in his face.

  Ruefully, he looked at his hands, especially noting the one missing a finger. “Well, nine mistresses anyway.”

  19

  “God’s teeth, man, you’ve got to do something about Lady Alisoun.” Guy shoved his way through the crowd that surrounded David in the castle bailey. “If you don’t, she’s going to drive me mad.”

  David raised his weary head and stared at his steward through bloodshot eyes. “Why should you be any different?”

  Glancing around, Guy observed the angry expression on the face of every servant who worked in the castle, but he clearly had no sympathy. “She’s supposed to be supervising them.”

  The servants murmured angrily.