Her Battle-Scarred Knight

by Meriel Fuller

  The glass in the windows of the great hall reflected the last rays of the winter sun, beckoning them. Flanked by three soldiers, a man stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the main door, a nobleman dressed in a sweeping green cloak, black braies, coppery-red hair.

  ‘My God! Giseux, it’s Hugh!’ Brianna gasped, her head jolting up to Giseux. The diaphanous silk of her veil floated out behind her, revealing the glossy beauty of her hair, the unfathomable blue of her eyes.

  ‘So I see,’ Giseux replied grimly, observing her stricken expression. ‘Brianna, he can do nothing now we are married. He has no power over you now.’ His hold tightened; she leaned into him as they walked, drawing on his muscular strength.

  ‘Stay close,’ he murmured gently as they approached Hugh. Her heart flared at the possessive tone in his voice.

  ‘Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is!’ Hugh spluttered, a peculiar light darting through his blue eyes. Tiny flecks of spittle landed on his chin, winking in the evening half-light. He moved forwards, unexpectedly, grabbing Brianna’s shoulder, then released her just as quickly when Giseux placed one big palm in the middle of his chest, pushed him roughly back.

  ‘Brianna is now my wife.’

  ‘How dare you? How dare you marry my sister without my consent? I’ll have you for this…I’ll have you!’ Hugh jabbed the air with one stumpy finger, a purplish colour suffusing his cheeks.

  Giseux shook his head, eyeing Brianna’s brother with pity. ‘I should lay you flat for what you’ve done to your sister, but somehow you’re not worth the effort.

  * * *

  I suggest you take your paid thugs—’ he indicated with a nod the three soldiers standing alongside Hugh ‘—and leave.’

  Hugh’s eyes narrowed with fury. ‘I should have killed you when I had the chance. A knock on the head was too good for you.’

  ‘You need to accept that you have lost, Hugh,’ Giseux replied evenly. ‘Matilda—’

  ‘Has disappeared, no thanks to you.’ Hugh fixed his sister with a baleful stare. ‘And Walter is fed up with the whole affair; he practically threw me out of the castle this morning when I couldn’t find you. I have nothing left.’ His gaze switched to Brianna, his tone more wheedling. ‘Why have you done this to me, sister, why have you betrayed me so?’

  Brianna’s tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth; she could barely swallow, let alone answer. Sadness rippled through her: the brother she had once held dear had become a stranger to her.

  ‘You’ve forced her into this; Brianna would never have agreed to marry again so readily,’ Hugh continued, sweeping back a greasy lock that had fallen over his forehead. Straightening his spine, collecting himself, he drew himself up to his full height. ‘I shall seek an immediate annulment.’

  ‘Too late,’ murmured Giseux. Brianna’s cheeks flushed; she averted her eyes to the ground, suddenly taking an intense interest in the velvety pillows of moss growing in the crease between the steps.

  Her brother’s eyes, prominent and bloodshot, bulged with rage; the skin around his mouth turned white.

  * * *

  ‘Come here!’ he roared, lunging at Brianna, drawing his sword at the same time in order to fend off Giseux. But Brianna was too quick for him, too light on her feet, and she danced away from his haphazard, uncoordinated assault. The burgeoning emotion that had built steadily during the wedding ceremony threatened to consume her, pushed on by the memory of that golden bodice, cool and treacherous within her fingers. It was as if she tiptoed along the edge of a yawning whirlpool, feet continually slipping on the loose rubble edge. She was about to fall.

  ‘Nay, she belongs to me!’ Giseux roared at Hugh, hefting the hilt of his sword.

  ‘If you stay with this man, Brianna, you’ll never see me again, do you hear?’ Hugh harangued her over Giseux’s broad shoulder. ‘I shall go abroad; I cannot bear to stay here and watch you make a mess of things again!’

  ‘Go!’ ordered Giseux. ‘I shall see that you are personally escorted to the coast.’

  ‘Stop it!’ Brianna yelled at them. ‘Stop it, both of you!’ The tears, threatening to bubble up for most of the day, spilled chaotically down her cheeks. ‘I belong to no one. No one. This marriage…this marriage…’ Her eye caught the worried observation of Lady Mary, who stood at the forefront of a circle of concerned onlookers, and the words died on her lips. Through the haze of tears, her gaze switched to Giseux.

  ‘I need to talk to you,’ she stuttered out between the gulping sobs, ‘I need to talk to you…now.’

  Giseux sheathed his sword immediately; one glance towards his father told him that Jocelin would deal with Hugh. Taking Brianna’s arm, he bounded up the steps with her, away, away from the crowds of well-wishers, down the long, shadowy corridor to a small ground-floor chamber, lit by the last few rays of the setting sun.

  ‘Now,’ Giseux murmured gently, smoothing a wayward strand of auburn hair away from her cheek, ‘what’s all this about?’

  Brianna folded her arms about herself, trying to stop the incessant shaking that threatened to engulf her body. She stepped back from his devastating nearness. ‘I cannot do this,’ she gasped out, sobbing, shaking her head. ‘I cannot be married to you. It would be too painful.’

  He frowned. ‘But I told you, Brianna, I will leave you alone. You will have the freedom you so desperately crave. A freedom within the safety of marriage.’ His pupils darkened, velvet stone threaded with seams of silver.

  Her fingers reached out, grazed his sleeve. ‘Oh, Giseux, I thought I could do this, I thought I was strong enough.’ Her voice trembled, the breath of silken veil drifting forwards over one shoulder. ‘But I cannot. I am so sorry. I love you too much.’

  ‘What did you say?’ His jaw dropped, revealing his white, even teeth, staring at her, openly stunned.

  Caught in her own churning thoughts, she failed to hear the question. ‘I found Nadia’s bodice,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m so sorry. Queen Eleanor brought your trunk up to my chamber by mistake…I looked in and I found it.’ Her hand slid down his sleeve, fell away.

  ‘Nadia’s bodice?’ He frowned, trying to remember.

  Brianna lifted her limpid, tear-washed eyes to his, her sobs easing as she spoke. ‘Your heart will always be with her. I couldn’t bear it.’

  ‘Nay, you have it wrong, Brianna,’ he said softly, remembering. ‘The bodice was…is intended for my mother. The amazing needlework from the East—she would love it. It never belonged to Nadia. Why would you think that?’

  ‘Because you still love her? Because you think about her every day?’ Brianna whispered, her heart splitting, anguished. ‘I thought I could live with the knowledge, even had the notion that I would persuade you to love me—how ridiculous is that?’ She spluttered to a halt, colour rising in her cheeks.

  ‘It’s not ridiculous at all.’ He smiled, brushing her cheek with tapered fingers. ‘Brianna, I did love Nadia, but she is part of my past. With you I have found a new future.’

  ‘You have?’ She threw him a shaky smile, touched her veil, her circlet, with an awkward, self-conscious gesture.

  ‘And I think you have too.’ His arms wrapped around her waist, heavy, possessive.

  ‘Giseux…what are you saying?’ Newborn joy fluttered around her heart.

  ‘Brianna, when I came back from the Crusades, I was angry, devastated…I was a broken man. But I was so fortunate…I met you.’

  Brianna’s eyes shone with happiness. The rigid knot of sorrow binding her heart unravelled, furiously, the shackles of anxiety releasing their grip. The fiery rays of the evening sun glowed through the uneven glass of the window, illuminating the lustrous oval of her face, the generous rosebud curve of her mouth.

  ‘I love you, Brianna. I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you.’

  She swayed beneath the solemn import of his words, pure delight flooding through her limbs, driving out the doubt, the sadness that there would be nothing for them beyond this momen
t. ‘What, knocked unconscious by Count John’s thugs?’ She laughed, lightness frothing in her chest.

  He smiled. ‘Even then. I loved you from that day, but you, and only you, were the one to show me how.’ Sable strands, touched with gold, fell forwards across his forehead. ‘Your kindness, your care…your love—’ his pupils dilated, black pools against silver grey ‘—your love has driven the darkness from my soul and healed my spirit.’

  ‘Oh, Giseux!’ Brianna flung her arms about his neck, pulling his head down to hers, her whole body suffused with joy. ‘I never thought it could be…I wished it, I yearned for it, but I never thought it could be!’ Giseux laughed, a low rumble of pleasure, before tilting his head and slanting his mouth over hers in a kiss to seal her to him, for ever.

  ISBN-13: 9781460349380

  HER BATTLE-SCARRED KNIGHT

  © Meriel Fuller 2011

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