Boadicea's Legacy (5 page)

“Humph.” Lord Robert stood, then paced back and forth before the fire. Os would wager the man was still fuming over his daughter's choice of husband. His curiosity was piqued over why she had the right to choose. It was quite uncommon.

Lady Deirdre tapped the letter with her finger. “I see. So you are not here to accuse me and my family of witchcraft—yet you are curious about my ties to the legend of Boadicea?”

“Yea. Exactly, my lady. Well, not me—but the
earl
. Specifically? He is looking for Boadicea's spear.” Osbert smiled, relieved that she was being reasonable. Sir Percy had often said that women were emotional creatures who could not be trusted to behave in a logical manner.

“Boadicea's spear? I've never heard of such a thing.” She trilled laughter—then stopped and leaned closer, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him.

His smile faltered under her perusal.

“Oh my.” Lady Deirdre set the letter aside. “You are quite handsome beneath all of that dirt.”

Embarrassed, Os briefly dropped his gaze as his skin burned.
Handsome beneath the dirt?
A knight had no need of looks. So long as a man's sword arm was strong, he'd not lack female companionship.
Unless that knight made an idiotic vow of chastity until marriage and gaining his own land
.

He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the next. “My apologies—I was in a hurry—and I—” He realized that he was stumbling over his words and took a deep breath, choosing to keep to himself the fact that he'd followed a witch into their woods. “I fell into a boar trap, and spent the night there.” He remembered the wrinkled weasel face of the old woman who'd helped him. “A kind old lady tossed me a rope this morn, and I was able to climb free.”

“Oh?” Lady Deirdre suddenly found a loose thread on her tunic and plucked at it rather than meet his eyes.

“Woman? What woman? You fell into one of my boar traps and lived to tell the tale?” Lord Robert tugged at the neck of his tunic. “I'm reluctantly impressed. You could have broken your foolish neck.”

“You must stay with us. If you've traveled all this way to hear the history of Boadicea, you may as well rest and share a meal or two.” Lady Deirdre glanced at Lord Robert and
snickered. “My husband has to take our daughter's love out hunting—remember, Robert, to shoot only the partridge—and I have”—she fluttered a pale hand—”things to do. Let us talk quietly together after this evening's meal.”

She clapped and the bailiff opened the door. “Jemison, Osbert Ed—” She looked to him as she tripped over his last name.

“Just Osbert will do.” He was being dismissed, but kindly.

“Please see that Osbert is settled in Galiana's old room. Send up a bath and have one of the maids help with some clean clothes. Something of Lord Robert's should fit.”

“Don't take my favorite tunic—you always give away my most comfortable clothes.” Lord Robert shook his head fondly at his wife. Then his brow furrowed, and he shouted, “Ela? Are you going to keep Thomas to yourself all day? The birds will be gone if we dawdle any longer. How is a man supposed go hunting if the women won't stop chattering?” He stomped from the room, calling for his horse.

Ela
, Osbert thought as he followed the bailiff. It was a fine name.

“Osbert Edyvean? What kind of name is that?” Ela pierced through the brocade too far and jabbed her finger with the needle. “Ah.” She popped the digit into her mouth and put the mending aside. The knight had been broad of shoulder and chest, and his damp hair an indeterminate color. She hadn't dared to look too closely at him, for fear of giving herself away.

Unable to come up with another reason for the visceral reaction toward Osbert, whom she'd never met before, she'd assigned the feelings to the magic of Beltane.

She knew he'd felt it too.

Was it fate or coincidence that he was searching for Boadicea?

Ela and her mother were alone in the solar, so she could speak freely—if she chose. The fire had burned to embers, and the windows were all open to let in the fresh spring air. Ela blamed the rising goose bumps at her nape on the chill retained in the stone walls rather than the large, imposing man who had seen her naked. “I don't like it.” Truth be told, he unsettled her.

She still couldn't detect his aura, and it made her distrust him. She could see her mother's and her father's. Even Thomas's foul colors were clear. Mayhap it was just this man? Or mayhap Andraste's acceptance of Ela's sacrifice meant that she couldn't see anyone she'd not met before. She wished her grandmother were here.

“It's a Welsh name, I imagine. Good stock. Handsome.”

“He was filthy.”
And it was her fault
.

“He was fortunate he didn't die. He tried to follow Jonny and got lost in our woods. He ended up in a boar trap, poor man. Meg must have helped him free. I don't suppose you know anything about that?”

Ela swallowed. “Me? I was fast asleep. All night.”

“Well, he mentioned that it was an old woman who came and threw him a rope.” Her mother's gaze lingered on her before she went back to staring at the letter from the earl,
as if she hadn't already memorized it word for word.

Guilt stormed her belly. No matter what, Osbert
couldn't
recognize her as the woman he'd followed into the trees. “How odd. I'll ask Meg about it.”

“Aye, please do. You have nothing to explain?”

“Explain? I've never seen that man before.”

“I'm your mother, Ela, and I know when you are trying to hide something! I also know I'll get nowhere until you choose to tell me.” Biting her lower lip, Lady Deirdre folded the rolled paper flat and took a different tack. “The Earl of Norfolk is a powerful man. He's requesting we answer any and all of Osbert's questions. What could the earl want with Boadicea's spear? I don't even know what he's referring to.”

Grateful for the shift in subject, Ela answered quickly. “I asked Thomas about the Earl of Norfolk whilst we were on the balcony. He thinks that the earl can help further his cause for a title.” A title. Mayhap if she was a countess, her father's role against John, when he was but a prince trying to steal his brother's throne, would be forgotten. She could advance her brothers' stations and possibly send her nieces and nephews to court. “Father
must
watch his tongue around Thomas—he could be a dangerous enemy.”

With a secret agenda
. In his slick, serpentine way he'd let her know that he was watching them, and they were not quite good enough.

“So why are you set on marriage to him if you can see what kind of man he is? Besides, it's been two months now, and he hasn't even hinted to your father about a betrothal.
He is manipulating you, and I don't like it. I don't understand why you are allowing such behavior. Be patient, Ela, and love will come.”

Love would come?
She was aging by the day. “Most likely Thomas will ask for my hand during the hunt this morn—when he and Father are alone.”
Else I've given up my gifts to Andraste for nothing
. She and Thomas had held veiled conversations on what each might bring to a marriage—without ever talking directly about it. He would bring himself and the small parcel of land he'd just purchased that was next to theirs.

She would bring a portion of the Montehue estate and a substantial dowry—her slightly wild reputation balanced his questionable illegitimacy. If it were true that his sire was who he hinted it was, then her family would be safe from the king's retribution, although forever bound to King John's court.

“You are playing some sort of game, dearest heart. I wish my mother were here. She always could guide you better than I.”

Ela heard the wistful tone in her mother's voice and pulled her into a hug. “I miss Gram too. But there could never be a mother as wonderful as you.” The youngest in the Montehue family, Ela had never doubted that she was loved, and she loved in return. Family was more important than anything else—including her gifts for healing.

“Pah. You've a great heart, my daughter. And you are so smart. You've more natural talent in your little finger
than my mother and Aunt Nan and both of your sisters tossed together. ‘Tis scaring me to think you'd throw your gifts away on a man you don't love.” Deirdre tugged Ela close so that they were nose to nose. “Especially one that you could
never
grow to love.”

Ela squirmed as if she were a young girl of ten instead of a grown maiden. Her mother's green eyes, almost identical to her own, were intensely searching for the truth. Ela blinked and moved away before she saw it.

Her mother's intuition worked but rarely. Now would not be the time for it to start.

“Thomas is not so bad …,” Ela said, with her fingers crossed in the folds of her gown.

“Oh? He is thin as a cadaver and just as pale. His manners are boorish, and I grow very weary of his alluding to his ‘family'—we all know that he is the by-blow of a high-born in the royal house. I used to be curious as to his parentage, now I just wish he'd go visit them instead of dining with us so often.”

“Mother!” Ela smothered a laugh with her hand. “I'll not deny that his looks are
unusual
in appeal. Looks are not everything. However, he has connections in court that my
opinionated
father might need one day. If King John decides to make the lords pay who were so vocal for Richard, then what? It is best to have an ally in our corner.” Even a slippery one. Better to keep your enemies close … would her bed be close enough? She shivered.

Deirdre stood so fast she knocked over the small stool
by her feet. “Aha! You think that by marrying Thomas de Havel, you'll save your father from King John's scrutiny? I
knew
there was a reason. Don't be foolish. Your father is a grown man. He can handle Thomas and care for us all.”

Caught out, Ela's heart pounded with apprehension. “Father has built this land from practically nothing, and it's
prosperous
. King Richard rewarded him, but King John has no love for us—and a great love of money. For certes, he remembers Galiana thwarting him from her days at court, before she married Rourke. Thomas has alluded to the fact that the king never forgets a slight and can hold a grudge like no other. When Papa sided with King Richard and the other barons, against John? Nay, he won't forget his grudge against our family.” Ela rubbed at the chills dotting her arms.

Deirdre strode toward the window, her veil flowing out behind her like a tail. “We are in no danger from the king. We pay our taxes and cause no problems with our neighbors.”

Ela pointed her chin in the air. “One of those new neighbors is a knight loyal to King John—that doesn't concern you? It should. That property has been run down and vacant for fifty years. What if Thomas,” she lowered her voice, “what if he was sent to, well, gather information on us?”

Deirdre laughed. “You could be a minstrel, with your ‘what if' imagination. We don't need saving, sweet Ela. It isn't too late to withdraw your feigned attentions before you end up being hurt.”

Thomas's subtle taunts echoed in her memory, but she didn't dare argue with her mother. What if Thomas
was
a
spy for King John and he'd been sent here to see how her father would vote now? Whisperings from France gossiped of a faction trying to get Arthur on the English throne—everybody's loyalty would soon be circumspect.

Back when John was but a prince, her father had clearly drawn his line in the sand regarding which side he'd fight on if it came to a war.

And it hadn't been John's.

E
la heard the sound of her father and Thomas returning from the hunt. It was difficult
not
to hear them, as they were arguing back and forth over the merits of serfs in comparison to freed men.

Thomas de Havel vocally stated he wished slavery could be reinstated.

The angry clunk of her father's footsteps as he bypassed the solar completely—to go directly to his private chamber—left Ela at a loss for speech. She and her mother exchanged a look, and Deirdre went upstairs after Robert, while Ela raced downstairs to Thomas.

Thomas was leeched of all color with the exception of two bright red dots on the high cut of his cheekbones. He saw Ela running toward him and held up one gloved hand.

She skidded to an unladylike halt.

“I have never been so grossly insulted.” He stared at her, as if expecting her to start making apologies on behalf of her father.

She tried … but couldn't. “What happened? Are you
all right? I've never heard my father so furious.” Her heart beat a fast staccato beneath her breast.

“He insists that men should
earn
their freedom and their own parcels of land. He would take the revenue from the king's hand and give it to the people. The
people.”
Thomas sneered. “The peasants are poor, uneducated, dirty, superstitious, and completely incapable of governing themselves. There is a reason, by Christ, that we have a king's stewardship.”