The Traitor's Daughter (7 page)

This was not an unusual tale to Alais. Men were eager
for land, or money or advancement and there were sons who despaired of their
inheritance when their widowed fathers married younger wives. She herself was
younger than Hugh by some five or six years and it was unlikely that he would
inherit his father’s property. His own son would have to wait for her death.
Had he told her this tale as a warning, so that she would not go through with
her vows? If so, he must know that it was too late. Or was he warning her that
she would suffer the same fate as his sister and he would himself cast her out
on her husband’s death. Sir William was only in his early forties and there was
no reason why he should not live for another twenty years, baring accident or
war. By then she would be a mature woman and able to handle herself in the
event of opposition from her stepchildren. She might even have sons of her own
to protect her. No, she did not think her stepson was warning her; he was
simply sharing her grief.

On the other side of Lady Maud’s grave was a deep hole.

“I had intended to lie there myself,” Hugh sighed, “but
now I expect to die in France.”

Alais thought it strange that he had not made provision
to be buried with his wife, but it was equally strange that her husband had
allowed his first wife to be buried so far from his own property. There was
much she did not know about her husband’s family.

Once she had given her approval of the grave’s location,
she entered into the small church. It bore signs of recent work and she
realised that the tiny Lady Chapel was a new addition, presumably a project of
Hugh’s wife.

“My mother was especially devoted to the Virgin,”
explained Hugh, following her glance. “I had the chapel built for her use.”
Once more he had confounded her expectations and she wondered again about his
absent wife.

Edmund had followed them into the church and the three
of them stood with the priest and prayed for Lady Eleanor’s soul.

Father Roland’s voice was soothing and Alais soon lost
herself in the sonorous Latin phrases. Happier times with her mother were all
she could remember now. As they walked out to the churchyard once more, the
carter and some other servants entered to carry out the body. They followed
swiftly to the open grave and gently lowered the body into its final resting
place. Father Roland said a few more words and then it was over. Alais stepped
forward to drop the bracelet Hugh had given her into the grave.

When Hugh moved to take her back to the house, she asked
to be left alone and the three men walked away. Only the servants remained,
waiting to fill the hole.

Alais did not understand her need to be alone. It made
no sense that the mother she had loved was now lying in this hole and they had
already exchanged their last words. Given the choice, Alais knew that this was
what her mother would have preferred – she would have been content with her
sacrifice knowing that Alais lived. She had watched her mother sacrifice
herself for her children all her life and she intended to follow her example
with her own children.

It was only now, eight years after her father’s
execution, that she was beginning to be able to imagine what her mother must
have done to allow them to continue living at Leigh. Guy and then Raymond had
complained constantly about the loss of all their other estates, but Alais
thought about the humiliation their mother must have suffered just to retain
their smallest and meanest estate. She certainly knew what it had cost to run
the estate and make it prosper. Even as a child Alais had shared her mother’s
vision for the future of Leigh and now that future, too, was shattered, for
Lady Eleanor would not be there to see it and the estate would soon belong to
another. Lady Eleanor had expected to have a few more years to see her plans
come to fruition and Alais hoped that her husband would permit her to follow
the course that Lady Eleanor had set.

Alais kept in her mind the faces of the people she had
left behind at Leigh.  They were her people now, her responsibility. They had
no one else to care for them. She had to make Sir William understand how
important they were. But she knew she was powerless. Sir William could do what
he wished with Leigh and its people and with her.

Since he had originally intended to set out for Liss
that morning, Hugh found that he now had little time to finalise his
preparations. The situation in the town meant that things would be difficult
for the village this winter. His plans for the autumn and winter must change
accordingly. He needed to spend time with his steward, but Matthew was still
with Marion, so he had to content himself with writing his instructions down in
the hope that Matthew would soon be able to give them his attention and that he
would understand what Hugh intended. There was also scope for Matt to make his
own decisions. Hugh could only hope that he would be able to do so and would
not become so weighed down by his grief that he would be unable to perform his
duties. He had no idea when he would be able to return to Hill and it was not a
good time to appoint someone else as steward. He took comfort from knowing that
Matt had organised things so that Hill ran itself smoothly and everyone knew
what they needed to do. It was just the changing situation in the town and the
threat of invasion that worried him.

He then moved on to his final preparations for leaving
the next morning. He had brought little with him and Alais had nothing. That
reminded him that he had promised her one of Isabella’s dresses. He called a
servant and asked her to bring two complete sets of clothing for her. It was
unlikely that his father would think to get new clothes made for her before he
took her to court at Christmas. The clothes and her book would be all the baggage
she would have. Hugh was pleased. They would travel light and quickly. All that
remained was for him to choose the most suitable mount for her.

As he was going out to the stables, Alais entered the
house from the graveyard. He pretended not to notice that she had been crying
again. “I am going to choose a horse for you. Would you like to come?”

Alais nodded and followed him. He had a certain horse in
mind for her – big, but calm. She had shown she could ride and he hoped she
could manage the kind of riding he had in mind for the next few days, but he
would not discuss that with her yet.

“This is Full Moon.”

The horse had long been a favourite of his. He was dark
as night, with a tiny spot of white on his face. Hugh had named him himself.
When she saw him, Alais expressed her doubts about the size of the horse, but
allowed herself to be persuaded to get up on him and ride him around the
courtyard. Hugh approved of the way she sat on the horse. She looked more
comfortable than he had expected. As he had hoped, she also had the strength of
will to control the horse, even though he was bigger than the mares she had
ridden before. She had expressed surprise that he had no mare for her. She must
have seen the number of horses in his stable, but Hugh had not expanded on his
reasons for choosing this horse.  That task would come later. Hugh was
satisfied that the problem of the horse was solved. It was going to be an
interesting journey, if he could convince Alais to go with him.

“He is a good horse,” said Alais, as he helped her to
dismount.

“Do you think you can handle him on a long journey?”

Alais considered, “Yes, but it is as well that the days
are getting short.”

Hugh grinned. “I will make sure that we stop
frequently.”

Alais blushed.

“Lady Alais, you are a woman and I would not expect or
demand that you ride as far as a man in a day. I am sorry I cannot spare a cart
from here and you know they need the carts they have left in town.”

She reached up to put a hand on his arm. “Please do not
worry, my lord. I am used to riding. I did not come all the way here in the
cart. I shall manage.”

Before he could stop himself, Hugh had caught up her
hand and pressed it to his lips. “I am sorry I cannot provide for you as you
deserve.” He was moved beyond his understanding by her situation.

Alais did not answer and he thought for a moment that he
had offended her. He cursed himself for his lack of control. Then she lifted
her face to him and he saw the faint smile on her lips.

“It is of no matter, my lord. I know that you have done
all that you can.”

They stood for a moment more, with Hugh holding her
hand. Then he released her, bowed and walked away quickly.

The meal that night was subdued. Alais was still shaken
by the death of her mother and no one cared to intrude upon her grief. She sat
in near silence, occasionally thanking a servant quietly. Hugh’s exhaustion had
finally caught up with him and he sat staring out across the hall beside her
and Alais doubted he saw or heard anything around him. Sometimes he sat
motionless with his knife on its way to his mouth, then he would come to
himself and continue eating. Edmund glanced every now and again at Hugh. Once,
she caught him watching Hugh as he held his knife motionless. Seeing that she
had noticed, he looked away quickly. Alais was surprised that Edmund and the
priest had not been invited to join them at the top table. Instead they sat
where they had the night before, talking quietly together. She wondered if Hugh
had learned that strict demarcation at Liss or whether it was their own
practice at Leigh that had become lax. Her own preference was for the slightly
more informal arrangement at Leigh. Did he find it lonely, as she had, to sit alone
at the top table and watch others enjoying a quiet conversation? Then she
remembered his wife. Naturally, she would sit beside him, as Alais did now.
They would share the events of the day and their plans for tomorrow. Perhaps
their children sat with them. Well, she would meet them soon enough. They would
be waiting to greet her at Liss. She watched Hugh carefully throughout the
meal, in case his exhaustion should overtake him, but it did not. It would not
do for any of the servants to see his weakness.

When the meal was over, the servants cleared the tables and
put them away. Hugh, Alais, Edmund and the priest took up seats around the
fire. Alais noticed Edmund encouraging Hugh to sit slightly further back from
the fire. Edmund went up in her estimation. He was so discreet that she only
noticed because she was already watching Hugh herself, afraid his exhaustion
would soon claim him. Edmund took his place next to his master, ready to catch
him if he should start to fall towards the fire.

The servants put out most of the candles around the
room, until the only ones left were the ones by the fire. In the gloom, Alais
could almost imagine herself back at Leigh at her favourite time of the day.
This was the time when they told stories and sang songs and when her mother
read to them. Her uncle, Father Guillaume, would tell stories of his pilgrimage
to Rome and her mother’s brother told about the battles he had fought in.
Visitors brought their own stories and she held many of them in her head, ready
to share with Hugh as they sat like this on their way to her husband. Then she
would share them with the family at Liss. She was looking forward to this.

As a guest, Hugh invited Alais to tell the first story.
She noticed his hesitation and knew that he did not want to intrude on her
grief, but she wanted to remember some of the stories that her mother had
enjoyed and she recounted her uncle’s first impressions of Rome. Father Roland
was most appreciative and expressed pleasure both at her skill in telling the
tale and also at the wonders that her uncle had seen. Hugh explained that of
the three of them, Father Roland was by far the best story-teller. Alais did
not doubt that this was so. Neither Hugh nor Edmund was especially talkative,
so they were probably not good story-tellers.

Alais loved to hear new stories and the priest told them
a story about King Arthur and his knights that she had not heard before. Hugh
had not overstated the priest’s talents. He skilfully wove his tale, giving
each person a different voice and even changing the way he held himself as the
action moved on and Alais saw the people and places he described as if they
stood before her. She was surprised at how effectively it took her mind off her
mother and her fears for the journey ahead. She had not even noticed Hugh
drifting off to sleep and would not have known that he had slept had she not
been looking in his direction at the exact moment that Edmund gently prodded
him awake and suggested that they all go to bed in preparation for rising early
in the morning. Hugh accepted Edmund’s suggestion gladly and they all rose.
Edmund and the priest left the hall and Hugh escorted her to the screen. He
paused before taking his leave and she waited for him to speak.

“I trust you find your accommodation to your liking, my
lady.”

“It is very comfortable. Thank you for giving up your
bed.”

Hugh made to move away, then turned back to her. In the
gloom she could not discern his expression. She became alert, suddenly aware
that she would not be able to tell if he lied to her, then wondered why she
thought he would lie.

He took her hand and squeezed it. Despite the warmth of
the room she shivered. He did not seem to notice.

“My lord?”

“I am sorry that your time here has been so short and
unhappy.”

“I have been sad,” she corrected him, gently, “not
unhappy. You and Matthew and Edmund have been very good to me. I am grateful.
Perhaps I will visit you here again.” She was already looking forward to
another visit.

Hugh gave a short, bitter laugh. He bent and brushed his
lips over the back of her hand. Alais felt her heart beat faster and her
breathing grow shallow. She felt dizzy.

“I should like that, but I doubt it will be possible. My
father does not come to Hill.”

Alais felt his anger. Did he mean that his father did
not visit by choice, or that Hugh forbade him to come?

“I have given instructions for you to be woken just before
dawn. I hope you will sleep well.”

With that, he dropped her hand and walked away, leaving
her to come to terms with the emotions swirling around in her head and the even
stranger feelings sweeping through her body.

Sarah had appeared as soon as Hugh had left the hall.
She undressed Alais, who could not concentrate, wondering what was happening
between her and Hugh. She had never met anyone quite like him. He was quiet,
but a good companion. She was convinced that she was in a dangerous situation,
but she had never felt safer than when she was in his arms. She owed him her
life and she did not know how she could repay that debt.

As she lay curled up in the huge bed thoughts of the
past, present and future tumbled around in her head. Sleep would not come and
she gave up trying to chase it, choosing instead to look at each memory or
worry or dream, examine it closely and then put it away from her. Everything
had changed since she had left Leigh and her mind was full of happy times
there.

Alais knew that there was no going back to Leigh, there
was only going on to Liss. Leigh was no longer home. It was possible that she
would visit it with her husband in the future, but she would never again be at
home there. The thought no longer made her sad. When she had left Leigh, she
had thought that her mother would return there. And now she knew that it was
her mother’s presence that had made Leigh her home. It was not that she had
ceased to love the place or the people and her uncles and her cousins would
still be there, but without her mother it had no attraction for her and was no
longer home. In many ways, it was a relief to know that there was no going
back. She had always intended to put all her efforts into her new life, to be
the best wife she could, to manage her husband’s household efficiently and to
understand his estates. Now there was simply nowhere else for her to go. For
the past eight years since her father’s death her place had been at her
mother’s side. From now on her place would be with her husband. She had
promised her mother that she would be a good wife and she intended to keep that
promise. Although her father had been dead for many years, she could dimly
remember the good example Lady Eleanor had set in her relationship with him.
This had been reinforced many times in the years since his death. Her mother
had spent hours with her and her younger sister teaching them the
practicalities of being a good wife and discussing with them what they should
do when certain situations arose. Alais felt that she had been well-trained and
was ready to fulfil all her wifely duties, except one, of which she understood
she could know nothing until her husband taught her. Of this her mother had
spoken little, except to say that it could either be her greatest happiness or
her greatest sadness.

From now on, Liss would be her home, or whichever of his
other estates her husband chose to make their most permanent residence. It was
not impossible that she could become fond of another place. She could tell that
Hugh had become fond of Hill, even though Liss must have been his home for most
of his life. He obviously spent a good deal of time here. From the evidence of
the comfort of his bedchamber and the building work he had carried out on the
church she doubted whether this was just one of a number of fleeting visits. He
seemed settled here and his people seemed used to him. He knew them and their
business and did not seem as distant as he would if he spent most of his time
elsewhere. This must be where he and his wife spent most of their time.

Alais hoped that over the two or three days of their
journey he would tell her more about what she could expect when she arrived at
Liss. She knew that she would meet the widow of his older brother, his wife and
his other siblings. What was his wife like? Had they married for love? How many
children did they have? This line of thought did not give her much pleasure,
but it would be better to be prepared.

Eventually she decided that his wife would be slightly
younger than him and that they had only been married four or five years. She
could not decide whether it was better to imagine him heroically defying his
father to marry for love a woman who came with a small dowry, or to picture him
honouring an unwanted match made for them as children. In the end, she decided
that it suited her chivalric ideal more if he had defied his father and they
were desperately in love, or had been, for why would a man in love look at
another woman in the way Hugh looked at her? No, no, she could not think those
thoughts. Better to concentrate on his wife.

They would have two healthy children, a boy and a girl.
Perhaps Hugh had grown tired of his wife; perhaps she had grown tired of him.
Perhaps he loved her still and Alais was interpreting meaning from his glances
that was not intended. Alais sighed, knowing that it was, knowing exactly what
Hugh’s glances meant and what he wanted. This was dangerous ground and she
could not let her thoughts rest here, for she might find that she wanted the
same thing.

She dragged her mind back to Liss. No doubt things would
be done differently there. It was a much bigger estate than Leigh and she looked
forward to learning about it,  wanting to find out what crops grew well there,
what sort of cattle they had, how much wool the sheep yielded, how good the
women were at spinning, whether or not the steward was honest. All these things
interested her and Hugh could tell her much on the journey.

It would be foolish to say that she was not afraid.  She
had no idea what to expect when she arrived at Liss, although she suspected it
would be a cool reception, for her husband had not visited her in four years. 
Hugh’s pity for her was understandable. She was a young woman with a much older
husband and one of Hugh’s sisters had suffered much in the same situation. It
was a common situation, however and Alais had given it much thought. It was
still her duty to do her best for her husband and this was still her aim. She
tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable in the bed. The tiredness that had
wrapped itself around her all day had now deserted her and she felt little need
of sleep. She knew, however, that she must sleep or she would not be able to
keep up with her escort tomorrow. 

Despite all her fears, Alais had to admit to herself
that she was excited about the prospect of the journey to Liss. Although she
had been to Southampton a number of times, it was the furthest she had
travelled that she could remember. As a child she had travelled with her family
between her father’s estates, but she could not remember the journeys, or the
places she had seen. He had had estates in the south of England and in Shropshire.
They had travelled from place to place inspecting and improving and building.
Some of the estates had been turned into strong bolt-holes in case the civil
war that had threatened for so long became a reality. When the end had come,
all her father’s preparations turned out to be in vain. She could remember the
soldiers coming for him. They had all been taken, but her mother and all the
children had been deposited at Leigh to fend for themselves. They had never
seen her father again.

Now it was time to move on to a place where she knew no
one at all, in the company of a man who had been a stranger until two days ago.

From the other side of the screen she could hear the
male servants snoring and shifting around in the rushes. She wondered where
Hugh and Edmund were sleeping. Was there a guest room somewhere? She could not
imagine that Hugh was sleeping with the servants in his own home.

Fully awake now, she thought about the knight who had
saved her life.

On reflection, it was not the arriving that she
anticipated with such excitement, it was the journey itself. Despite the
danger, she wanted to be with Hugh. He was probably the most interesting man
she had ever met and he seemed to want to protect her. She knew that he had
other desires, as well, but neither of them would have the opportunity to
indulge them. The travelling party would be too large for them to be alone and
her own sense of what was due to her husband would surely keep her safe.
Although the thought of indulging those desires was not unpleasant, she had not
thought of a man in that way before. Some of the men who had visited them at
Leigh had certainly desired her and some had made their desire plain. They had
been easy to dismiss; she was not some village girl to be tricked into the barn
for a night in the hay. More than one had limped for a while after the
encounter. Hugh was different. He kept his desire under control, but if he
chose to act on it, he would be difficult to resist, but she must resist,
whatever the cost.