Elizabeth Elliott (21 page)

“She did not leave the castle, my lord.”

Guy stopped in his tracks. “You know where she is?”

“Aye.” Evard swung his leg over the saddle and dismounted. He motioned a boy forward from the group of squires who stood near the stables, watching the baron’s anger
from a safe distance. The boy looked to his friends for encouragement, then started forward.

“Perhaps you would rather have this conversation in a place less public,” Evard suggested.

“I wish to know where my—” Guy clenched his jaw. “I want to know where she is, damn it.”

Evard handed the reins to his squire and gestured toward a set of gates. “I will take you to her, Baron.”

“Through the upper bailey?” Guy asked, even as he fell into step beside Evard. “What is she doing in the upper bailey?”

“She is not in the upper bailey. ’Tis simply the quickest route to where we can find her, and the most private.” He gave Guy a disapproving look. “You are making a great fuss over a lover’s quarrel, Baron. Your people will begin to think that your mistress has you under her spell.”

“I do not give a damn what they think,” Guy growled. “Perhaps it should occur to someone that she is a valuable prisoner, that keeping her within these walls greatly affects my future.”

“Aye, there is that,” Evard agreed. “Yet some are curious about why she would cry when the lord who holds her sends her away from him, when that lord later appears frantic to find her. ’Tis fine fuel for gossip.”

“ ’Tis you who are too curious for your own good.” Guy gave Evard a sideways glance. “She was crying?”

Evard nodded. “I found her behind the chapel. Several soldiers saw her flee there, but were afraid to follow. More to the point, they considered your reaction to the news that they had followed her, so they sent for me.”

Guy’s hands became fists. “Was Thomas with her?”

“Thomas?” Evard repeated. “Why should Thomas be with her?”

“I found them together in the gardens,” Guy bit out. “That miscreant son of a—He was trying to seduce her. Beneath my nose, he was wooing her with smooth flattery, courting her, by God, in my own gardens.”

Evard digested that for a moment. “All know Lady Claudia is your mistress, Baron. None would dare suppose to take your place. But I have heard talk already, and none of it from Thomas, that many intend to compete for her favors when she no longer shares your bed. I would wager that Thomas seeks nothing more than her friendship for the time being, so that she might turn to him when you tire of her.”

“I will not tire of her!” The words shocked Guy more than they seemed to shock Evard. They sounded suspiciously like the truth. He shook his head to clear it of such a strange thought.

Evard didn’t respond to the outburst. His expression remained calm.

Guy scowled and released his hold on the front of Evard’s tunic. “I will cut off the hand of any man who touches her.”

“None doubt that, Baron.” Evard rubbed his temple. “Yet even I have wondered what will become of her when you settle the dispute with her uncle.”

“Nothing will ‘become of her,’ ” Guy snapped. “Her uncle will not want her back. She will remain at Montague for as long as she wishes. When and
if
she leaves here, she will have wealth of her own, enough that she need not barter herself to any man.”

Evard’s voice was little more than a whisper. “As you would have her barter herself to you?”

“You tread dangerous waters, Evard.”

“Aye, and I am just fool enough to wade deeper.” He fanned his fingers across his forehead to rub both temples. “You would send her from Montague with nothing to protect her but your gold, and that will only make her a prize.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you have not thought through your plan, unless it is your intent to sacrifice her to the first man who takes a notion to force her before an altar. She has no family to protect the fortune you would give her. There are knights throughout England who would cut a dozen throats to get their hands on such a bride.”

“She will have soldiers in her hire to protect her.”

“Soldiers can be bought,” Evard pointed out. “ ’Tis even possible that one in her hire will take it into his head to marry her. A man has but to swear before a priest that he was intimate with her, and she will have no choice in the matter.”

Guy fell silent. Evard was right. A wealthy, unattached woman was a prize that impoverished knights dreamed about at night. The gold he would give Claudia would be a stone around her neck. Christ’s bones, she already possessed a fortune greater than the one he intended to bestow upon her, and she could wear that around her bloody neck as well. The emeralds alone would keep her in lavish comfort for the rest of her days. Or keep any man in comfort who forced himself upon her as husband.

His scowl darkened.

Evard seemed to read his thoughts. “Lady Claudia needs a husband before she leaves Montague, my lord. A man who will not rob her blind. I have never asked for any rewards in your service, but now I ask you to promise Lady Claudia’s hand in marriage. To me. I do not ask for a bride’s price,” he hurried to say. “She is a lady born and bred, and as a knight, I am sworn to uphold the honor of any lady.”

“And I am not?” Guy’s voice was low and deadly.

“Nay, my lord. ’Tis plain to all that your rank and title prevent you from doing what is right by Lady Claudia. None would expect you to wed a woman forced upon you. I would take her freely, without an eye to her fortune or her past.”

“You would, would you?” Guy folded his arms across his chest. Stalwart Evard, smitten by a woman. Who would have guessed? Had it been any woman but Claudia, he would have laughed. “Are you in love with her?”

Evard’s brows drew together. “I have not spent enough time in her company to say with any certainty.”

“You would know,” Guy said. “I had but to lay eyes upon her and I knew—”

What had he known? His mouth snapped shut and he looked at Evard without seeing him. He lusted for Claudia,
nothing more. Yet, if he wanted nothing more than her body, why didn’t he simply bed her and end both their torment? He could feel her desire for him in every touch, every look. She wanted him, but she didn’t want the terms he would impose upon her, the label of mistress rather than the title of wife. Or, was there more to it than that?

He turned and continued to walk toward the keep, lost in his own thoughts. Thoughts of eyes as rare and mysterious as her emeralds. How had her mother come by such jewels? He had believed that he knew all he wanted to know of her family. There was much more to know. Her past might shed light on the present, on why she asked for kisses, yet refused to allow their natural conclusion. Surely she realized that she meant more to him than some passing fancy.

For how long?

Her words came back to haunt him. She didn’t know, any more than he had known until this moment, that he wanted more from her than physical pleasure, more than an intimate interlude that would end in a few months. For the first time, he allowed himself to think of the day when they might part, of what would become of her. He could not imagine a day without hearing the soft, sultry sound of her voice, of smelling roses and finding himself completely distracted by her scent, by the gentle sway of her hips, the soft brush of her hair against his skin. Her smiles alone were worth a king’s ransom.

He would send her into a world where a hundred men would be eager to snatch up what he had tossed away so carelessly. They would not care if she ever smiled. Aye, he knew what would become of her. But what would become of him?

“My lord?” Evard placed a hand on his shoulder. “You are going in the wrong direction.”

“What?” Guy came to a halt and looked around him in confusion. He was standing on the path that led to the doors of the keep. Where else would she be?

Evard pointed to another path that led around the east
wall of the keep. “Lady Claudia is in the kitchens. This way is quicker.”

“Oh.” His brows drew together in a frown. “What is she doing in the kitchens? Does she now intend to make herself into a serf?”

“Nay, my lord. She said she promised to join Lenore there to help her mix a poison.” A hesitant smile appeared on Evard’s face. “Not for you, I hope?”

Guy gave him a look of disgust. “ ’Tis for the rats. It slipped my mind that she was about that task. I should have started my search by looking for the servant.”

“She did seem intent on helping Lenore,” Evard said agreeably. “I hope her poison proves effective. The rats run rampant in this place. ’Tis rumored that you even had a few visit your chamber last eve.”

“Is there anything you do not hear?”

“Very little goes unremarked within these walls, especially when you are involved, Baron, as well you know.”

“Then remark this, Evard. You will pass along the well-founded rumor that any man who looks upon Lady Claudia with a glimmer of anything more than the loyalty and fondness of a vassal for his lady will meet the full force of my displeasure. In short, I will make his life a living hell. Any man who touches her in lust will greet hell in person. She is mine by rights of betrothal, and mine alone. Do I make myself clear?”

“Aye, my lord.” Evard smiled. “I knew you would see reason.”

“I have not seen reason since I met that woman.”

“But you still intend to marry her?”

Guy’s eyes narrowed. “Was it your intent all along to goad me into admitting as much?”

“Aye,” Evard admitted cheerfully, oblivious to Guy’s scowl.

“You argued against the match at Lonsdale, and you just pointed out that I should not let myself be forced into marriage.”

“Paltry arguments, were they not?”

“My brother’s arguments may carry more weight when he learns the whole of her family.” Guy had informed Evard of Claudia’s relation to Roberto on the ride to Montague, and the reminder wiped the grin from Evard’s face. “Claudia is nothing like the vermin she is forced to call kin, and I would not have my family shun her because of them. Kenric and his soldiers will arrive within the fortnight to help me lay siege to Halford. I would have him meet Claudia before he learns that Roberto was her brother.”

Evard looked uncertain. “He may recognize her, as you did. Very little escapes Lord Kenric’s notice.”

“I want to be the one who tells him. Is that clear?”

“Aye, my lord.”

“Good.” Guy turned on his heel and began to walk back toward the gate to the middle bailey.

Evard hurried after him. “You are going the wrong way again, Lord Guy.”

“Nay, ’tis the right direction for the moment. If I saw Claudia now—” He shook his head to free it of thoughts of what he wanted to do to Claudia and with her at that moment. “I need to consider my course with care before I speak with her, for she has a way of twisting my words. I must endeavor to chose the right ones.”

“Baron!”
A mounted knight waved to them from the bailey gates and spurred his horse forward. The charger slid to a halt before the two men, its great hooves slicing long, brown gashes into the cropped grass. The rider’s expression made both men reach for their swords. “Alfred just returned from afternoon patrol with a bolt from a crossbow in his back. He could tell us nothing before he fell unconscious, and the surgeon holds little hope. Sir Thomas and the rest of his men are still missing.”

10

H
e was leaving her.

Claudia watched Guy’s squire dress him for war, remembering another time when she watched her brothers don their armor to ride away from her.

They had never returned.

She gripped her hands together until the knuckles turned white, her back held so straight against the wooden chair that it ached. Guy would return. Montague was his home. It was foolish to think he would ride away and never come back. Nothing could prevent him from returning to his fortress. Nothing except an arrow such as the one that killed his soldier, or a sword, or mace, or lance.

Her hands began to tremble. Why did he submit her to this torture, to the misery of watching him leave? In the kitchens she wouldn’t know of his departure until he was gone, wouldn’t be forced to imprint these images of him in her mind, dreading the thought that they might be the last. After the way they parted in the gardens, why had he sent for her?

A fat tear splashed onto her hand. She gasped and brushed it away, determined that he would not see her cry. He had probably noticed anyway. His gaze rarely left her as Stephen worked to encase his body in padded leather and chain mail. Would he gain some pleasure knowing that she cried for him? She glanced up at him through spiked lashes. He was scowling.

“Stop crying, Claudia. I will find Thomas and bring him home. Like as not, he is in pursuit of whoever attacked them.”

She blinked once very slowly. He thought she cried for Thomas? She felt a twinge of guilt that she had forgotten all about Thomas, that he and the rest of the missing patrol were the reasons Guy meant to leave her. She looked toward the window. “ ’Tis nearly dusk. Should you not wait until morn when you can make a fresh start?”

“Nay, I know the route he intended to travel, and the moon will be nearly full tonight. If my men are wounded, I would not leave them in the wilds of the forests all night.”