Love Everlasting (14 page)

“I will do my best for you, Kenric, but you
must be patient and not press me to move too quickly. Royce thinks
I am an unimportant creature, not worthy of his notice, and that is
a great advantage for me. I want to remain unimportant to him; I’d
like to become almost invisible to him, if I can. That way, he
won’t notice what I am doing. But always remember, if you push me
so that I grow careless through the need for haste and I’m caught,
you will lose an important source of information.”

“Don’t think you can trick me,” Kenric
warned.

“I know exactly the weight of the sword you
hold above my head.”

“And don’t bother to dream that Royce will
ever grow to care for you. I confess, I hadn’t thought of it
before, but what you’ve discovered in your marriage bed is quite
true. Royce loved Lady Avisa so dearly that there can never be room
in his heart for a second love. He will no doubt bed you when he
feels the urge for a woman; you are convenient, after all. But
never think it’s anything more than lust.”

“I won’t.” She looked Kenric straight in the
eye in the same way she used to look at Deane, keeping her face
blank and her gaze as open as she could without revealing how much
she hated him or how deeply she resented being embroiled in
masculine plots that were not her doing.

“I will begin by providing the information
that Royce and I are traveling to Norwich in advance of the royal
party,” she said, certain that Kenric already knew it. If they were
to sail at noon, then Royce must have informed his servants on the
previous night, so they could prepare to leave. Such preparations
would not have passed unnoticed. “He only told me of his plans an
hour ago. Which, I suppose, is an example of just how unimportant I
am to him. You are right about that, Kenric.”

“Indeed,” Kenric said with an infuriatingly
superior smirk. “Very well, then. During your journey I want you to
learn whatever you can that may be of use to me, and especially
anything about Dunstan de Granville. Meanwhile, since I travel with
the royal party, I will be gathering information from the king and
his barons.”

“I should go now. I told Royce I would stop
in Lady Janet’s room to ask if I can help with her children,”
Julianna said. “She and Lord Cadwallon are sailing with us aboard
the
Daisy
.”

“That old fishing scow?” Kenric uttered a
disparaging laugh. “You’ll all be seasick from the stench. Take
care that you don’t fall overboard while you’re heaving out your
stomach. Royce wouldn’t miss you, but it’s possible that you may
prove to be of some minor help to me.

“Never forget that, if you cross me, I can
always tell Royce about you later.” Having uttered his final threat
of the morning, Kenric turned on his heel and stalked away down the
corridor.

“I wouldn’t call the
Daisy
a scow,”
Julianna murmured an hour later, looking around at the scrubbed
deck and the clean, though well-worn clothing of the sailors. Only
the faintest smell of fish lingered on the cold air.

“Who did?” Janet asked.

“Kenric.”

“Well, he’d think so, wouldn’t he?” Janet
said, absently patting the back of two-year-old Sybilla. The child,
named for the queen of the Scots, dozed on her mother’s shoulder.
“Kenric loves luxury. He will enjoy traveling aboard the royal
ship, surrounded by silks and furs, with wines and fancy foods to
tempt him. As for myself, I prefer the clean sea air.”

Julianna was just about to respond that she
felt the same way when Royce and Cadwallon approached, bringing
with them a middle-aged man with brown hair and eyes and a tanned,
weather-beaten face. Though the
Daisy
was still tied up at
the dock, the man walked with the rolling gait peculiar to
sailors.

“My ladies,” Royce said, “allow me to present
Captain Piers, an old and valued friend.”

“Not so old, me lad,” Captain Piers said. The
trace of an accent became more pronounced as he continued. “I’m
still as lively as ever, whether here aboard me foine ship, or
ashore. ‘Tis a great honor to meet ye, ladies. I trust ye’ll enjoy
the voyage.”

“I am sure we will.” Julianna returned the
captain’s smile. “Is there any area you’d rather we didn’t invade?
We are a rather large party.”

“I’ve carried larger,” Captain Piers informed
her. “But thank ye fer askin’. If ye’ll stay away from my men while
they’re workin’, and if ye’ll keep the bairns a safe distance from
the railin’, we should have no trouble.”

“I am not a baby!” exclaimed Janet’s
four-year-old son, Alexander. He broke away from the restraining
hold of the maidservant delegated to watch over him and with his
little hands fisted at his sides he took a step forward to face
Captain Piers. “Don’t call me a bairn! I know what it means.”

“I’ve no doubt of that.” Captain Piers
squatted down to look directly at the boy. “Ye’ve yer mother’s
Scottish fierceness and yer father’s Welsh stubbornness, and ye’ve
a great name to live up to, young Alexander, for I’m guessin’ ye
were named fer the present king of the Scots. Now, ye must
understand clearly that every man and woman on board a ship obeys
the captain without question. King Alexander himself obeys the
captain of his ship. So does King Henry.

“Now, here’s me order to ye fer the duration
of this voyage. I’m puttin’ ye in charge of keepin’ yer little
sister safe. Don’t let her wander about alone. Stay near to her and
make sure she’s always with her nurse. I’m dependin’ on ye, lad.
Watch yer sister so I don’t have to worry about her.”

“Yes, sir.” Alexander stood very straight,
and when Captain Piers put out his hand, Alexander accepted it. The
two shook hands on their agreement with an air of seriousness
worthy of a pair of noblemen.

Captain Piers stood, made an astonishingly
elegant bow to the ladies, and excused himself to take command of
the
Daisy
as she warped away from the dock and set sail.
Catching the early afternoon breeze and the ebbing tide, the ship
moved down the River Orne to the Narrow Sea that lay between
Normandy and England.

Cadwallon and Janet took their children and
went below to investigate their cabins. Julianna remained on
deck.

“What an extraordinary man Captain Piers is,”
she said to Royce. “How cleverly he handled Alexander, giving the
boy a responsibility that’s sure to keep him on his best behavior
and out of mischief. I must say, I do like his clothes: bright blue
tunic, brilliant green hose, and red boots - and that sword! Is he
one of your people?”

“How can you doubt it?” Royce asked with a
chuckle of genuine amusement. “Surely you’ve noticed how we spies
all dress to be inconspicuous, so we blend in with the ordinary
folk.”

Clad in his own bright green tunic and hose,
with the matching cloak wrapped around his shoulders, Royce leaned
on the railing with casual grace, watching the landscape slide by
as the higher ground around Caen gave way to low salt marshes, to
sand dunes and dry brownish dune grasses that rustled in the brisk
December wind. Just ahead lay the dark blue sea, frosted with
whitecaps.

“I do like sea travel,” Julianna said,
breathing deeply, tasting the salty air. “I always feel free on the
water, as if I could take wing and fly away, as the gulls do.”

Royce’s gaze rested on her face for so long
that Julianna began to feel uncomfortable. Then his lips tilted in
a slight smile and he nodded, as if he understood her thoughts and
her fears. Which, of course, he could never do, being a man, and an
exceptionally powerful one, at that. Royce could have no
comprehension of a woman’s feelings.

“Did you speak with Kenric?” he asked.

“You have just reminded me how very unfree I
really am,” she said with a tinge of bitterness. “Even after his
death, a husband’s misdeeds continue to hold a woman as tightly as
any chains.”

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and answer
my question.” His voice was sharp and in his eyes lay the cool
calculation that his agents must all see, sooner or later.

“I told Kenric that you have offended me so
deeply that I am willing to continue to work for him in order to
spite you,” she said.

“How have I offended you? In bed? With words?
With some careless act? I need to know exactly what you said to
him,” Royce insisted when she did not respond at once. “You must
understand that the smallest detail can be important.”

“I told him you had made it clear that you
could never care for me as you cared for your first wife,” she
said, looking at the riverbank, rather than at him. “I claimed that
your rejection was a serious blow to my womanly pride.”

“Not a mortal blow, I trust.” He sounded
amused.

“You aren’t angry that I used Lady Avisa’s
name?”

“I think you are very clever. You used the
truth as an excuse.”

“The truth,” Julianna repeated softly,
fighting for self-control. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to
weep, or pound the railing with her fists, or scream at him. She
couldn’t understand the pain at her heart, or the sudden tightness
in her throat, for she had never before experienced such an
unpleasant emotion. “I’m glad you think I’m clever. Thank you for
the compliment, my lord.”

“Did you give Kenric any information?” he
asked in so routine a tone that she believed he hadn’t noticed her
distress. But then, why should he? She and her feelings mattered
not at all to him.

“The only information I offered was what I
was sure he already knew, that we were to travel aboard the
Daisy
, rather than on one of the royal ships,” she said.
“You will have to manufacture something for me to tell him once he
reaches Norwich.”

“I expect you to think of something,” Royce
said.

“I? Why me? You are the spymaster.”

“And you are the one who wanted to play this
game with Kenric.”

“Are you finished with me, my lord?” Her
square chin was high in stubborn anger. “If so, I will go below and
see how Janet is faring.”

“Certainly. Cadwallon and I will be sharing a
cabin with Michael. Our squires and the men-at-arms are relegated
to the storerooms, or to any unused berths in the sailors’
quarters. The children and Janet’s servants will take two of the
cabins, along with Marie. You and Janet will have the remaining
cabin. It’s small, but you will enjoy a bit of privacy.”

“Whatever you wish, my lord.”

Royce watched her walk to the hatchway with
her back rigid and her nose in the air. When she turned to go down
the ladder and began to descend, she did not look at him. He shook
his head in wonder at her. And at himself. He was a mature man with
years of practice at keeping his emotions under control, yet
Julianna set his blood boiling with a heady mixture of frustration
and desire, and with a wild longing to comprehend the mystery that
lay at her heart.

If only he dared trust her. He was not
foolish enough to imagine that two nights with him had altered her
basic loyalties. Exactly what those loyalties were he could not
tell. He was sure she had never liked her earlier husbands, much
less loved either of them, and she feared Kenric too much to care
about him in a tender way. Royce knew himself for a good judge of
character, but he could not understand Julianna. He had the oddest
feeling that she was playing a game of her own. What the stakes
were he could not guess, but he found himself wishing, with an
urgency he hadn’t thought himself capable of, that they were
sharing a cabin, alone, just the two of them.

The voyage from Caen to the port of Yarmouth
on the coast of East Anglia lasted two and a half days. The first
afternoon was calm and pleasant, though Captain Piers warned of an
approaching storm.

“How can you tell?” Julianna asked. Having
found the cabins small, stuffy, overcrowded, and very noisy, with
servants and children all chattering at once, she had quickly
returned to the open deck. Royce was nowhere to be seen. Julianna
assumed he was busy with Cadwallon and Michael.

“D’ye see that dark line to westward, along
the horizon?” Captain Piers asked, pointing. “‘Tis the leadin’ edge
of foul weather. I hope yer a good sailor.”

“I’ve crossed the Narrow Sea at least a dozen
times, and sometimes in a storm,” Julianna said. “I’ve never been
seasick yet.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Captain Piers told her
with a mischievous grin. “When the seas grow rough, ye can help to
empty the slop buckets over the side.”

The wind and rain struck just before dawn on
the morning of their second day at sea. By noontime everyone was
seasick except Captain Piers and his sailors, Royce, Julianna, and
the children. Despite the captain’s playful threat, Julianna wasn’t
allowed to empty buckets. She was willing enough, but Royce
proclaimed the sea too rough for her to climb up on deck. She
didn’t argue with him, though she quickly began to dislike the
ordorous cabins and to yearn for a breath of fresh, clean air.

In late afternoon, to silence Janet’s
continual questions about the state of her husband’s health, Royce
picked her up and carried her to the cabin he was sharing with
Cadwallon and Michael. Julianna followed in time to see Royce drop
Janet onto his own bunk, which was just across a narrow aisle from
where Cadwallon lay in uneasy slumber. Michael, who insisted he was
only moderately ill, volunteered to look after both of them.

“Lady Janet,” Michael said, “you cannot think
it improper for me to attend you while your husband is present. I
am an honest knight, my lady, if a somewhat unfit one at the
moment.”

“I don’t care if you are an archer with the
Philistine army,” Janet said, groaning and reaching for the bucket
that Michael held. “Just give me something to make my stomach stop
heaving, so I can look after my children.”