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Authors: Flora Speer

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“I am not old,” Royce declared.

“Does that mean you agree?” Henry asked,
laughing.

“As my liege lord, are you commanding this
marriage?”

“Yes, I suppose I am.”

“Then I am compelled to withdraw my
objections,” Royce said, bowing to the inevitable.

“Will no one ask me for my opinion?” Braedon
demanded.

Before Catherine could say a word, Braedon
raised her to her feet and held her upright with his hands on her
shoulders. His eyes flashed dark fire at her. She almost swooned
from the tautly leashed passion she saw in him.

“I will not have you wed me because you think
it is your duty after what we have done together, or because the
king orders it,” he said. “Catherine, I love you more than life
itself, more even than my honor, but I will not have you unless you
come to me of your own free will and because you love me, too. If
you do not truly wish to marry me, I promise you, I will defy the
king, though it means my exile along with Phelan and Eustace. If
you reject me, I will travel to the Holy Land with them.”

“Ah, no, I could not wish that dire fate on
anyone.” Caught between laughter and tears, Catherine wrapped her
arms around Braedon's shoulders and held him tight. “I love you
with my whole heart. Don't you know that by now? I will gladly be
your wife. But, oh, my dear baron, you are going to be so dismayed
when you first see Sutton! That castle is in a terrible state.”

“You and I together will turn it into a
heaven,” Braedon whispered, just before he kissed her.

Chapter 21

Braedon's first act as baron of Sutton was to
provide for Robert the arms and horses he needed in order to become
a knight. Then Braedon asked another favor of his father, to which
King Henry readily agreed. The next morning, after a night spent in
holy vigil in Gloucester Abbey church, Robert knelt before the king
while Henry personally bestowed the knightly accolade on Braedon's
faithful squire. Braedon's next act was to make Robert steward of
Sutton Castle.

Robert's first act as a knight was to propose
to Aldis, who accepted her love as joyfully as Catherine had
accepted Braedon.

“I suppose I am expected to provide not one
dowry, but two?” Royce grumbled. “I am left with yet another
problem, for if Aldis marries and moves to Sutton with Catherine,
who will act as my chatelaine?”

“You ought to think about marrying again,”
Gwendolyn told him with her usual impertinence. “You won't have me
to help you, either. Lady Catherine has asked me to become her
personal maidservant, so I will be going to Sutton, too.”

“At last,” Royce muttered to Gwendolyn's
departing back, “I have a reason to be glad at the way this mission
has ended.”

By King Henry's order the marriage bans were
dispensed with so that Catherine and Braedon could be married early
on the following day, with Robert and Aldis celebrating their
marriage immediately thereafter. When Queen Adelicia was told of
the plans for two weddings she immediately arranged a great feast
for the occasion. After listening to her gentle suggestion, the
abbot of Gloucester agreed to offer a Mass in the abbey church to
bless both marriages.

Royce assumed with surprising grace the part
of father and uncle to two ecstatically happy brides. The dowry he
granted to Aldis, and the gifts he added to Catherine's dowry were
just short of unseemly extravagance. The toasts he offered at the
wedding feast, wishing both couples lifelong happiness and many
healthy children, were greatly praised by the queen and much
appreciated by Catherine, who longed to part from her father with
love rather than acrimony.

After all the excitement and the long hours
of sitting at the banquet table, the quiet room in the abbey
guesthouse to which Braedon led Catherine at nightfall seemed to
her like a small part of heaven. It was also their first chance to
be alone together since the interview with King Henry.

“Well, my determined bride,” Braedon said,
unbuckling his sword belt, “do you plan to ravish me on our wedding
night?”

“You are so serious.” Suddenly, Catherine
discovered that she was shy with him. “Have I been too bold? Are
you angry because I asked the king for what I wanted more than
anything else in the world?”

“How could I be angry with you when it's what
I wanted, too, but never dared to hope for? You are an amazing
woman, my lady of Sutton.” His fingers were in her hair, pulling
off the golden circlet and sheer veil of a married woman, then
unfastening the pinned-up coils of her long, red-gold hair.

“I have no maidenhood to give you tonight,”
she whispered, “and glad I am of it, or I'd be even more nervous
than I am. My solemn oath I can give you. For me, there will never
be any man but you.”

“Nor any woman for me but you,” he responded.
“Catherine, I must ask, for the question has worried me for weeks.
Are you with child?”

“No, I am not,” she said. “Do you want to
hear all the womanly details of my certainty?”

“Skip them. I believe you, and I'm glad of
what you say. Always in the past I have taken care that I made no
bastard children to suffer the lifelong shame I've known. But since
I met you, I have been completely incapable of controlling my
desire.”

“I have felt the same way. It's why I've been
so unmaidenly and forward with you.”

“So now, tonight, we begin anew.” He began to
unfasten the laces at both sides of her gown. “A baron must have an
heir. A legitimate heir.”

“I know it,” she said, and added, teasing
him, “I am prepared to do my wifely duty.”

Braedon chuckled and pulled the loosened
garment up over her head, with Catherine helping him. Then she
helped him to remove his own clothing until they stood naked at
last in the light of the one candle that burned beside the bed.

“How beautiful you are,” Braedon murmured.
“How I love you.”

“I know you do,” Catherine said, smiling into
his eyes. “I first knew it for certain when you refused to fight my
father.”

“There are gentler ways than that to prove it
to you,” he whispered, lifting her into his arms and carrying her
to the bed. “Let me show you some of them.”

And he did. Through the short midsummer night
and into the morning that followed he loved her with a passion and
tenderness that sent her spirit soaring and made the two of them
one, bound together in heaven and on earth, until Catherine knew in
her heart and her soul, and in every part of her body that she had
found, and claimed, her own true love.

Finale

Two days after the weddings, Royce and King
Henry stood together in the abbey forecourt to see the newlyweds
depart for Sutton Castle.

Catherine embraced her father warmly, though
it seemed to Royce his daughter was already far removed from
him.

“I regret all the secrets I kept from you,”
he said to her, “and the way I used you. Catherine, I love you
dearly. Never doubt that.”

“I never have,” she said, “not even when I
was most angry with you.”

Then it was Royce's duty to bid a polite
farewell to Braedon when he would have preferred to lay his new
son-in-law low with his bare fists. A decade of learning to hide
his true emotions while he perfected the craft of spying came to
Royce's aid. Gritting his teeth, he stuck out his hand and Braedon
clasped it in both of his.

“I will take care of Catherine,” Braedon
promised. “She will never want for love or respect. I know little
about managing a castle or farmlands, but she has promised to help
me. Perhaps you will visit us soon, and offer your good
advice?”

“Perhaps I will.” It was a large concession
on Royce's part and Braedon seemed to understand that.

“You will be most welcome,” Braedon said.

“Well, now,” King Henry said, clapping a hand
on Royce's shoulder as Catherine and Braedon, Aldis and Robert,
Gwendolyn, and the men-at-arms whom Royce had offered to escort
them safely to Sutton, all rode out of the abbey gate, “there's an
auspicious resolution to wicked plots. For the present, at least,
all's right with the world.”

“So it is.” Royce took a deep breath and told
himself his daughter was happy, whatever he thought of her choice
of husband. Catherine's happiness had always been important to him.
For her dear sake, he would learn to tolerate Braedon. “All's well
until the next group of overly ambitious nobles begins to
scheme.”

“When that happens,” said the king, “and it
will, never fear, I know an honest baron who is expert at devising
snares to trap the wicked, and a pair of honorable knights who will
gladly assist him.”

With King Henry's hand still on Royce's
shoulder in a familiar gesture of lifelong friendship, the two men
started across the forecourt to the abbey guesthouse. After a
moment, Cadwallon and Desmond fell into step behind them.

Author's Note

Readers may be surprised by the informality
of the tournament held at Wortham Castle. Tournaments were
introduced into England by Norman knights and for the first
half-century or so they were chiefly “rough and disorderly, and not
infrequently degenerated into real battles or free fights, in which
many of the combatants were seriously injured or killed,” according
to R. Coltman Clephan in
The Medieval Tournament.
Melees
were very popular, as were duels on foot or on horseback. In
England, the participants did not need to be of noble birth, though
nobility was a requirement in other countries. Thus, Braedon was
acceptable to fight in Royce's tournament, and le Chevalier Inconnu
was not questioned about his social status.

Tournaments were looked upon with disfavor by
rulers and by the Church. Since Royce was acting under King Henry's
orders, I have assumed that he received special permission to hold
an entertainment that was bound to attract even the most suspicious
nobles.

About the Author

Flora Speer is the traditionally published
author of twenty full-length novels and two novellas. She writes
historical, futuristic, and time-travel romances. Born in southern
New Jersey, she now lives in Connecticut. Among her favorite
activities are doing research for the next book, which is always
fun because history suggests so many possibilities for plots,
gardening (especially herbs and flowers used in medieval gardens)
and amateur astronomy. She firmly believes in space travel and
wishes the U.S. would restart its manned space program, which
provided some great ideas for futuristic romances.

Flora is currently writing a series of
medieval romances, to be published on Smashwords, in which a group
of young men who have no prospects in life at all, still manage to
achieve remarkable results by valor and intelligence. Since these
are romances, never doubt that they will also find true love with
ladies who are every bit as dauntless and determined as their
heroes.

Connect with this author:

Web site:
www.floraspeer.com

E-mail:
[email protected]

Other books by Flora Speer, all now available
at Smashwords:

HISTORICAL ROMANCES;

By Honor Bound

Much Ado About Love

The Viking Passion

For Love And Honor

Rose Red

Castle of Dreams

Castle of the Heart