Bond of Blood (33 page)

"Here, you, page," Radnor called. "Go down and order Lord and Lady Radnor's horses and men to make ready, and Lord Philip Gloucester's too."

"Radnor, you will ruin me!"

"I do not care."

"My lords, please! Cain, do not argue with him, you only make him worse. Can we support him between us in such a way as to hide his illness?"

"Not another move does he make. Look at his face. What is there to hide? I will carry him. Nay, Philip, it will not hurt me. You do not weigh what you once did. My step will be steady enough for this small distance."

Lord and Lady Radnor arrived back at the White Tower barely in time to sit down to dine. Having seen Philip into bed and somewhat recovered, Cain began to use his head again. In an attempt to remove any doubts that his intimacy with Philip might have raised, he answered the few questions on his absence with equal truth and indifference. Philip of Gloucester had been taken ill, he said calmly, and he had seen him safe home. His manner was sufficiently unconcerned so that those who heard him had little doubt that he too disapproved of Philip's new loyalties. Radnor was apparently prepared to do his duty punctiliously, but no longer cared for a closer association than that duty required. He was serious enough with those who approached him to discuss political matters but a trifle impatient, quite plainly preferring the antics of the jugglers and dancers.

He was quite impatient with his pretty little wife too, William of Gloucester noticed as he took his seat. William gave no sign of his irritation at Radnor's stupidity, but he touched Lady William who moved down at a glance from him, and he slid in beside Leah. It would be well to sweeten her somewhat until he could get her husband alone and point out the dangers of snubbing his wife as he had just done.

"You have had an exciting day, Lady Leah—I may call you so, may I not? We are in some sense related, since Lord Radnor is my foster brother."

Leah looked up quickly with a tentative smile. It seemed to her that Maud's eyes were fixed on their table across the smoky room.

"Oh yes, that is, if my lord does not object. I could not."

"But you do not like rudeness or familiarities, I know. You were very angry with me for saying that you bloomed like a rose."

Leah's pretty laugh trilled out. "Well, I was very angry, but not with you, Lord William. The queen showed such a kind interest in all my lord's doings that I was hard put to answer her."

Was that a warning? William did not know, but he was sure that the need to talk to Radnor about his wife was very pressing. He continued to flatter Leah, but when the roasts were being removed he leaned behind her to tap Radnor's shoulder.

"We have both had enough to drink, Cain. Come with me to ease yourself and make room for more." Near the garderobe he put out a hand to stop his companion. "I hope your wife knows not too much of your private affairs," he said softly, looking over his shoulder to make sure they were alone. When he looked back at Radnor, he was stunned to see that he was shaking with laughter. "Man, you are drunk. This is serious. That girl is not as stupid as you think. You snarl at her. Maud offers her sympathy. She will spill everything she sees and hears if you do not have a care. Why did you bring here a babe that does not know that her advantage lies with her husband even if she hates him? It is no laughing matter. You may think you tell her nothing, but if she be a sly one she can learn."

Radnor grimaced and spoke equally softly. "Nay, William, I am sober still. Some men say I was born of the devil. If so, my wife and I are well matched, for that chit is surely a spawn of the serpent. Pembroke's daughter! You should hear the pack of lies that sweet babe poured into the queen's ears, and all with those eyes as wide as they could stare and those sweet lips trembling a little with fear, I doubt not." Radnor's expression sobered. "I laugh now, thinking on it, but I was not so merry earlier. She told Maud that she overheard Hereford and myself condemning Shrewsbury for playing with Henry of Anjou."

"She did what?" William gasped, and then, clinging to a straw, "Did you?"

"Of course not. If he has had dealings with Henry—and it would in no way surprise me because Joan likes to keep one foot in each camp and he does her bidding in all—he has kept it very close. I know nothing of it and, though I do not love him, it is not my way to tell lies, even of my enemies. Come, since we are here, let us accomplish what we came for. It would look strange if we went out again later. She also filled Maud with some cock-and-bull story about Oxford trying to shake my homage oath."

The earth seemed to heave under William's feet. He had flattered himself that he knew all there was to know about women. It was inconceivable that such an innocent bit of fluff could have so tortuous a mind—unless Pembroke had schooled her well in advance.

"Did he?"

"Who? Oxford? He was too busy trying to kill me—or trying to escape the consequences of someone else's attempt to kill me."

"Are you sure that was what she told Maud? Or is this a tale for your ears?"

There was a short pause while both men rearranged their clothing. When Radnor turned back to William his face was set in troubled lines.

"I am no longer sure of anything. This morning I would have said that the girl was as pure as the rain that falls from heaven, but she is like all women. What I do not know is whether she be false to me or false to Pembroke. I think she told me the truth," he added slowly. "She has a fondness for me, at least, well, I think so."

"Then you had better smile on her a little more and growl at her a little less. An unhappy woman is fruit ripe for the picking by anyone—unless she be afraid, and one who lies so readily to queens is not easily frightenedor with child, or better, both."

Radnor began to laugh again at that. "You should know, but the growls were her idea, not mine. I will have you know that her ladyship has so ordered me that in the public eye I am to look upon her kindly but seldom. It seems she also told Maud that I was a severe husband, impatient with her youth and folly."

"She told … Are you?"

"I wish you would stop asking stupid questions. I told you she made whole cloth out of lies. No, I am not impatient. I find her more amusing than traveling players."

Nonetheless Lord Radnor did not look in the least amused. He could not quarrel with Leah, for what she had done was in his best interests. In spite of the assurance he had displayed to William, he was uneasy and rather resentful of the way in which she was assuming independence.

William was not much deceived by Cain's light tone, but he had done his best to warn him and would only irritate him by insistence. When they turned back towards the hall, therefore, he changed the subject, and by the time they were again seated at the table their conversation was innocent enough for anyone to hear. Radnor was maintaining that the finest falcon a man could fly was a white gerfalcon, and Lord William was insisting that the brown peregrine, although smaller, was fiercer and gave better sport.

Suddenly Radnor's voice drifted away, and Lord William became aware of Radnor’s fixed gaze on the dancer who had just come to their side of the room. Then the eyes of both were riveted on the writhing, sinuous form before them. Brown arms, brown legs, hairless and gleaming with oil, shone and retreated into shadow in the uncertain flare of the torches. Smooth and shining, the body dipped and swayed, its even glow broken by the glittering of jewels set in the oddest places.

"What is she?" William murmured on a note of awe.

At first Radnor did not answer. The girl was certainly aware of their attention for she had not moved on. Her body moved ceaselessly, hypnotically, and the strange music provided by the two boys who followed her beat against the watching men giving even more meaning to the girl's already obvious gestures. There was a wail to that music, a beat, a sensual hesitation that sent the blood up.

"From all I have heard and read," Cain said at last, "no Saracen ever dressed his women like that, but books may lie."

"All I can think of," William murmured avidly, "is Salome."·

"You cannot count—or else she has dropped a few veils along the way."

Radnor kept running his tongue across his lips, his eyes fixed in an unblinking stare. His words were light, but his face was rigid and his utterance choked with lust. William, equally responsive, had permitted his mouth to drop open. He was all for relaxing and enjoying the titillation of his senses, but Lord Radnor's reactions were more direct. Somewhat relieved that he could respond to any woman besides Leah and thinking that he would show her that she needed to tread warily with him, Cain got to his feet.

Leah stopped mid-sentence in her conversation with Lady William as she saw her husband sweep food and wine out of his way and slide across the table in his haste. The trestles nearly gave way under his weight, but he made it safely. With unbelieving eyes she watched him accost the dancer, exchange a few words with her, laugh, point to one of the gold chains which she herself had hung around his neck, and start towards the door, steering his prize with a hand on her shoulder.

Leah turned again to Lady William, and she must have continued to behave in a normal fashion for no one paid any exceptional attention to her. If her life depended on it, however, she could not have recounted another thing that happened that night except for two facts that stood out with the brilliance of suns against the pervading darkness. One was that Harry Beaufort came to take her home, and the other that her husband smelled of a strange, musky odor when he fell into bed hours later.

The next morning Radnor left to accompany the royal hunt before Leah got up. She had been conscious of his rising and leaving, but she pretended sleep and, to her great chagrin, he did not disturb her. Leah went to church and spent two hours on her knees praying for patience and circumspection, but it did her little good. Another insult arrived via Giles after she had held dinner back two hours waiting for her lord. This was a hurried note in Radnor's own hand to say, without excuse, that he was dining with the hunt and did not know when he would arrive at home. "Tell Lady Radnor not to worry," was scrawled across the bottom. Leah was so frozen with fury because he had not the courtesy to write to her direct that she had to try three times to speak before she was able to whisper, "Thank you, that is all," to the master-of-arms.

She was still awake and fully dressed when Radnor finally came in, even though the false dawn was already lighting the sky. His voice reached her first as he paused halfway up the stairs to answer a ribald jest about his late return made by one of the men he had awakened, and he was still laughing when he entered the room. He stopped when he saw Leah, and the laughter changed to a gentler smile.

"You had no need to wait up for me. I remembered this time to send you word I was safe." He came forward, reaching out for her. "But I am glad you did. I have missed you in this long day."

"Do not touch me!" Leah shrank back, pressing herself into her chair.

"What?"

"Do not touch me. Do not come near me."

Radnor stood still, one hand still extended towards his wife, his expression one of genuine puzzlement. In the dim light he could not see Leah's face, but it was apparent there was something seriously wrong. "What is the matter, Leah? I know I must stink to heaven after a day's hunt, but yesterday you were not so nice."

"It is the smell of lechery I cannot bear, not the odor of honest sweat."

Cain stood perfectly still, too stunned by what his wife had dared to say to him to be angry, and Leah jumped from her chair to seize and throw the box of Gaunt jewels on the bed. "Here, take them back," she cried, tugging at her betrothal ring, "and take this too, and go and buy what you want. Mayhap I am with child already and you need not trouble yourself with me any more."

So many conflicting emotions whirled about in Cain that he continued to stand like a statue for another minute. Then he laughed, picked Leah's ring from the bed, and held it out to her. Amusement, relief, and pride had come out as the uppermost emotions. He was relieved because her jealous rage was so sincere, proud that she cared enough for him to be jealous, and amused that her jealousy could so enrage her gentle nature.

"Put this ring back on, and do not act like a silly goose." She slapped his hand away. Still laughing, Cain attempted to take her into his arms, and she struck out at him, her hands beating harmlessly against his mailed strength. "Be careful," he said, laughing harder, "you will hurt yourself." He bent to kiss her and Leah scratched his face and bit him; exasperation began to temper his amusement. "Leah, do not be so foolish. It was nothing. I cared nothing for that woman."

"Nor for me either," she shrieked. "How do you think I felt? Not two weeks married and you rise from my side to go with a whore—before my very face—in the sight of my eyes!" Leah gasped for breath but continued before Cain could answer her. "You can have her or those like her, or me. I, for one, will not be coupled in harness. I will not lie with you to take the leavings of every slut in the street."

At that he hit her. It was barely a tap from his great strength, but it sent Leah crashing to the floor several feet away. Pain and humiliation broke her rage, and a storm of tears swept over her.

"I, no more than your father, will be said nay in my own household. You have taken one too many liberties with me. Now get up and come over here or I will break every bone in your body. Help me out of these clothes, and keep your tongue between your teeth while you do it."

Wrapped in his old homespun robe, Cain went to the sideboard and poured wine to drink. Leah stood with her head buried in her arms, leaning on the high-backed armchair, sobbing and shuddering. He looked at the pitiful figure she made, and remorse overwhelmed him. He had been wrong to go after that dancer right in front of her; she was only a child and did not understand such things.

"Leah—" She started and cowered at hearing his voice so close. "I pray you," Cain said softly, "weep no more. I am sorry I struck you." He put a hand on her shoulder and she shook convulsively. The hand dropped away, and Lord Radnor looked at his wife helplessly. The tears were a weapon against which he had no defences; he could not bear them.