He shifted uncomfortably on the bench. ‘Well,’ he said, slowly, ‘you must have guessed by now that Sir Piers was permanently and deeply in debt. His extravagant style of living…’
‘Yes, I did discover that, though not until it was too late.’
‘And I suppose you knew of your brother’s extramarital—’
‘I know of it now. Sir Piers blackmailed my brother over it.’
‘Well, that was also Sir Piers’s style. Blackmail and bribery. Anything, legal or illegal, that would release him from his debts. Unfortunately, my lady, you and my wife were pawns in Sir Piers’s game.’
‘I had already begun to suspect as much. He offered me, I believe, to someone in return for his release from a debt. Did you know about that, Sir Phillip?’
He let out a groaning sigh. ‘Oh, my dear lady. I would rather you had not known about that, but I suppose you were bound to, sooner or later. May I ask where you heard it?’
‘In a very roundabout gossipy manner, sir. I made enquiries, but they were cut short by our return here in July. I don’t think Sir Owain wanted me to find out any more, for some reason best known to himself.’
‘Lady Eloise, I have Owain’s permission to tell you what he cannot bring himself to say, that he was the man to whom Sir Piers made the offer. Can you imagine what construction you might have put on Owain’s interest in you if you’d known of that? The wooing was difficult enough, so he tells me.’
The birdsong, a moment ago so joyful, stopped. The sun faded. The colours and fluttering shapes of the afternoon vanished as she studied the two pained blue eyes, striving to hold the words back for a second look. ‘Sir Owain…it was he?’
‘Yes, my lady. Sir Piers knew how much Owain wanted you, knew that he had made an offer, knew that he had been sent away and would return. Sir Piers used blackmail on your brother, forcing him to promote his offer for you knowing that, once you were his wife, he could use you as currency in exchange for his debts. Oh, yes, we had all lent Sir Piers money before we discovered what kind of a man he was. Sir Owain, too. We all lent and borrowed, using our word as knights as our bond. Too generously, I suppose. He offered Owain a night with you. Owain was disgusted and refused, calling him a filthy little worm, not because he didn’t want you, my lady, but because he loved you, as he does now. No decent man would use a woman for such a purpose and still claim that he loved her. Then Owain discovered that your husband…shall I go on, lady? You are clearly shocked by this.’
‘Yes. I’m all right. I have to know. Please continue.’
‘Owain found out that my new wife had been seduced by Sir Piers. Instead of telling me about it, Owain told Sir Piers that, unless he stopped the affaire immediately, he would tell me, with predictable consequences. I would have had every right to kill him. I know that Owain confronted him for your sake as well as for mine. The man had not a shred of decency, my lady, and by that time we all knew it, but Owain had more courage and clout than the rest of us. He told him to stop. Reminded him that he had a duty to you. But I knew nothing of that until afterwards when it came out at the enquiry.’
‘Afterwards?’
‘After the tournament at Windsor last summer.’
‘Ah, yes. The accident.’ There was a check in the narration as if to prepare each other mentally for the facts of death, at last.
Sir Phillip felt the constraint as keenly as Eloise. ‘Are you sure you wish to know? I’ve not come here on purpose to distress you. Shall I ask Sir Owain to join us?’
‘No, Sir Phillip, I thank you. Just tell me how it happened. Leave nothing out, if you please.’
‘Well, we were all three drawn to fight on the same side, the king’s. But Sir Piers bribed the herald to change him to the opposing team, to fight against Sir Owain.’
‘But that’s against the rules, isn’t it? As well as being ridiculous. He’d not beat Sir Owain. He must have known that.’
‘Against the rules, yes. But he was well known for bending them, when it suited him. He went even further on this occasion by substituting the coronel on one of the lances for the sharp tip used in war which, as you know, is against every peaceful jousting practice.’
Eloise was aghast. ‘He meant it to kill, then? To kill Owain? So how did you come to be fighting him, sir?’
‘Yes, his intention was to silence Owain once and for all. Unfortunately, or not, Owain had one of his massive nose-bleeds from a previous bump. Blood everywhere. He couldn’t possibly have gone into the lists. So I asked the second herald if I could take his place against Sir Piers and he saw no reason to object. It’s perfectly legal. Nor did he need to tell Sir Piers about the change-over so, naturally, by the time he saw who his opponent was, it was too late to change anything. I noticed the pointed lance as he took it from his squire on the second charge, so I was forced to defend myself, my lady, or I’d have had its point through my visor. There was no time to think about fair play, only about self-preservation. Even a swerve to one side would not have helped; he could easily have caught me with the point of his lance. So I did what I would have done in war, I went for his helm. I’m sorry.’ He breathed heavily, shaken by the retelling of it, linking and unlinking his hands nervously. ‘Truly, lady, I’m sorry. Forgive me. I killed him before he killed me.’
Eloise placed a hand over his and held them together. ‘I don’t believe you could have done anything else in the circumstances, Sir Phillip. Any other man would have done the same if he’d been quick enough to see the danger. They tell me the king accepted the explanation of what happened.’
‘He did, my lady. The herald confessed to bribery; he was dismissed and heavily fined. Sir Piers’s squire, who held his lances, was blamed by his master before he died, and he was sent back to his father in disgrace, though he was sworn to obey his master in all things and no one believed he was responsible. Owain later took the lad into his own service, so he tells me.’
‘Michael?’
Sir Phillip looked surprised. ‘Yes, of course. You’ll have seen him.’
‘I suppose I should have recognised him sooner but they change so quickly at that age, don’t they? He’s the most discreet and able young man.’
‘He has a lot to thank Owain for.’
‘But you went into exile, Sir Phillip. And your lady wife?’
He sighed and went silent, keeping one of her hands in his own. ‘I thought,’ he said, eventually, ‘I wondered…if she might be pregnant, you see.’
‘By Sir Piers?’
‘Yes. So I sent her away, in private, to allow some time to elapse for…’
‘Yes, I see. I looked for her while we were in London.’
He sat back against the warm wall. ‘Not in London, my lady. In Staffordshire. Farewell Priory, not far from your manor of Haughton. You know it?’
‘Indeed I do, sir. It’s where I was educated. Isn’t it time for her return now? To come home to you?’
‘More than time. We need to start anew.’
‘And was there…is there a child?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘but I still want her back.’
‘Then it’s time for us both to forgive, isn’t it, Sir Phillip? Here’s mine, for a start, though heaven knows you could have done no different.’
‘Thank you, dear lady. You mean it?’
‘With all my heart, I forgive you. Let’s both begin anew.’
When Father Janos padded down the path a little while later, he was met by the extraordinary sight of Lady Eloise being held in the gentle embrace of Sir Phillip Cotterell whose handkerchief she was using to mop her face. Needless to say, the priest-physician did not blink an eyelid at the phenomenon since that was partly what he had expected to see.
The feast at Whitecliffe that day was a memorable event at which all of the men wore white roses and made a concerted effort to decide Eloise’s wedding date for her since she seemed incapable of deciding it for herself. Father Janos was as insistent as the rest.
‘For a l
ady who prefers to make her own decisions,’ he said, smiling at her blushes, ‘and who can dismiss the most renowned physician in the country in one short sentence, this shows a remarkable breakdown of resolve. Come now, Sir Owain, you are mending nicely. Assert yourself, sir.’
‘I would gladly assert myself, Janos, if I did not fear that her ladyship would put me back on barley-porridge and blood puddings for another week. She’s found a way of keeping the upper hand, and now I believe I may never be master again in my own home.’
There was disbelieving laughter at this and a great deal of leg-pulling about two fair sisters who had discovered how to keep their men waiting for a wedding date.
‘September thirty-first,’ Jolita said. ‘What say you, Ellie? For both of us?’
‘Agreed. The last day of September.’
‘Disagreed!’ called out Nathan. ‘There are only thirty days in September.’
More noisy laughter was followed by cries of, ‘Cheat…women’s wiles…deceivers!’ But by bedtime, the last day of themonth had been settled on when they would share a wed-ding day at Handes Castle, giving Sir Phillip time to return from Farewell Priory with the young wife he had never ceased to love.
‘Is it going to be convenient for you, my sweet?’ Sir Owain later said to Eloise, catching her hand as she passed the bed on which he sat. ‘We rather pressed you into it, didn’t we? It won’t be your…er…courses’ time, will it?’
‘No, sir. It won’t.’
There was such finality in the way she spoke that made him hold on to her wrist and pull her gently to him. She waited, placing a hand on his shoulder, as naked as he, the summer air being still warm from the day-long sun. Her hair hung loose, almost black in the fading light, falling around him as she drew his head to her breast and bent to kiss the shorn patch that had now healed over.
‘You sound very sure of that, my beauty,’ he whispered, smoothing his hands over her. He kissed the full curving underside of her breast. ‘Do you have something to tell me, then?’
Above him, she smiled. ‘Is there something you’d particularly like to know, sir?’
‘Mm-m! Yes, there is.’ His hand covered her belly. ‘I’d like to know what’s been going on in there while I’ve been out of action. Eh? Something I ought to know about, perhaps?’ He pulled her down onto his knee and enclosed her. ‘Well, lady? I have you now, and there will be no more secrets between us.’
‘I was going to wait a while,’ she whispered into his hair, ‘before I told you. Too many shocks in your weakened state—’ The words ended in a yelp as she was tipped over backwards on to the bed and held there by his warm body. She could see his eyes laughing, shining in the last light of day, as bold as they had been at their first meeting, and as acute.
‘What weakened state?’ he growled. ‘You want to test it, then? No? Well, Janos suggested I assert myself, so I will. Now, woman, what’s this shock you have which you thought would wait? How many months is it? June? Or July?’
‘July,’ she laughed, soundlessly. ‘Two courses I’ve missed. It’s early to be certain, but this morning while you still slept, I was sick, and Saskia says that’s a sure sign.’
His hand smoothed her forehead as if she were a creature prized above any. ‘Sweetheart. My dearest most wonderful woman. You rode for days to reach me, to save me from death. You braved John of Gaddesdon and his minions and used all your skills on me, brought me home like a fierce lioness to nurse and tend me night and day, putting yourself at risk while you are breeding, to make me whole again. The very time when you should have been safely in my care. You must have suspected, yet you said nothing of it.’
‘I suspected, but it got pushed aside, somehow. You were far more important. I had to keep you, beloved. Nothing else mattered. I love you, you see, and life would have ended for me too, if I’d not fought so hard for you. They’d already given up on you there.’
‘You love me?’
‘I adore you. That’s the very first time you’ve heard—’
‘No, it’s not.’
‘Not?’
‘No. I heard you the first time when you thought I was sleeping. I thought I was dreaming, but I wasn’t.’
‘You heard all that? All my outpourings?’
‘All of it. The most wonderful moment of my life, the moment I’ve longed for, to hear you say such things. I couldn’t sleep for hours thinking it over, re-hearing it. I’ve loved you since I first saw you, Eloise. Do you remember that day when you stole my heart? I tried to tell you in the letter you never received. I thought I must have been too blunt, sweetheart.’
‘Blunt? Tell me how blunt you were.’ She touched his lips with one forefinger, now alive with a new curiosity. ‘Tell me what you said.’
‘Word for word?’
‘Yes. With interest.’
He smiled at the taunt, pleased that she remembered, waiting to see her eyes darken as he recited the brief message, word for word. ‘Lady, I fear my message must be brief, but I would have you know of a terrible fate that befell me at our first meeting. The heart that I have guarded so well these past years is now in your keeping through no effort on my part, and I believe that I may have a smaller daintier one in its place. If this is yours that I hold, be assured that I shall keep it safe until I come again, as I beg you will do for mine. Sweet lady, I am like a fool until I see your loveliness again. Guard thee well, for thou art mine against all comers. Doubt not that I will have thee and no other, for thou holdest my whole being. Yours, Owain of Whitecliffe.’
Instead of darkening, her eyes had slowly filled with tears. ‘Oh, no,’ she whispered. ‘That’s too cruel. Fate is too cruel, Owain. If only I’d known. Is that really what you felt? Even then?’
‘From the first moment.’
‘As I did, too. I’ve never recovered from it.’
‘When it happens like that, one doesn’t recover, one learns to live with it.’
‘What courage you had. To come back again.’
His smile brought a tearful one in return. ‘Is that what it was? Courage? I don’t know. When I saw you again, angry and confused, and determined not to let me near you, I ached to hold you like this, quiet in my arms with my babe inside you, belonging to me and no one else. Yet by that time there were things I could not bring myself to tell you, things that you needed to know but which would have taken more explaining than I could provide. It had to come from Phillip himself, from the third party, as it were, set in the context of his story. It was not secrecy for the sake of it, sweetheart, truly, but we didn’t want you to know the full extent of Sir Piers’s treachery or you’d have felt utterly disgraced and you’d never have been able to look me in the face again, would you? You certainly wouldn’t have accepted my version of the events without Phillip’s full story. It was best for you not to know. I had a hard enough time of it without the added complications.’
‘Did you, beloved? Did I make it difficult for you?’
His kiss was as deep and as potent as wine, for he had lost none of his skills at lovemaking. ‘Aye, lass. You’re a worthy opponent, but I meant to have you.’
She wrapped him with her arms and legs. ‘I wanted you just as much,’ she whispered. ‘I told you of my dreams, and I meant every word. And I’m not afraid of Fate anymore after all that’s happened. I think we’ve sent her packing. But I am afraid of you getting hurt again, my darling. I’ve seen your body after these contests and I don’t believe you should go on doing that to it. I know it’s all in the game, but you almost lost your life and I nearly lost the man I adore.’
‘I’ve given it all some thought, sweetheart. Heaven knows, I’ve had plenty of time to think in the last few weeks. Perhaps it’s time for me to retire and attend to my family and estate. Anyway, Monsieur de Grise has won my best horse and armour, damn him!’ He laughed. ‘At least now he’ll have a good horse of his own to use.’
‘Will it break your heart, dearest? You’ve been so successful.’
‘Lord n
o! The king has asked me to be a member of his council and that’s no half-time job. We could spend some months in London, buy a grand house on the Strand, move to the other manors throughout the year, and Haughton Manor will have to be put straight, sweetheart. Which reminds me, your brother is coming over the day after tomorrow, so he’ll be at Handes for our wedding.’
‘Oh, good heavens!’
‘Is that a problem?’
‘It could be. Mistress O’Farrell and Christopher and Master atte Welle are also due to arrive on that day from Haughton. Apparently they have something to tell us.’
He grinned. ‘And can we guess what that might be?’
‘Probably. But they’re bound to meet Rolph.’
‘So they will. Is Grissle coming too?’
‘No, she’s just had her baby. A boy.’
‘Then we are about to start catching them up, my beauty, are we not? Would you care to make love to a member of the king’s council now?’
‘Er…I’m not sure. Are they those enfeebled old men with long white beards and spindly legs?’ She laughed, caressing his head.
‘Yes, all except one. It’s been too long, my darling, and I need you. We’ll go carefully, shall we?’
They did at first, Eloise discovering yet again how varied his loving could be. She also experienced a new kind of piquancy that may have had something to do with his new office, or his injuries, or the hidden presence of their new family, or even the fact that they had waited for many a painful week during which they had grown together in spirit as much as in body. With all secrets dissolved, they were both whole again.
Their guess about the purpose of Marie O’Farrell’s visit proved to be correct, for she and Stephen atte Welle, Eloise’s loyal steward, had begun to love each other and now came to ask permission to marry. It could not have been better planned; Haughton Manor would benefit from having a married steward whose wife would help him to administer the estate between the visits of the owner. Her son would, at last, have a real father. Already, young Christopher had grown two inches and filled out like a russet apple. The anticipated problem of their meeting Sir Rolph, however, was left to its own devices: they were adults: they could sort it out between them.
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