The Velvet Promise

by Jude Deveraux

  Gavin carelessly tossed her aside. “Do you dare touch what is mine?” he growled at the knight. “I will take your life for this!”

  Alan was on his feet instantly, his hand going for his sword. They glared at each other, not speaking, their nostrils flared in anger.

  Judith placed herself between the two men, facing Gavin. “You want to fight for me after you have willingly turned me aside?”

  At first Gavin didn’t seem to hear her or even be aware of her presence. Slowly, he pulled his eyes away from Alan to look at his wife. “It wasn’t I who set you aside,” he said calmly. “It was you.”

  “It was you who gave me just cause!” she stormed. “It was you who throughout our marriage fought me when I tried to offer you love.”

  “You never offered me love,” he said quietly.

  Judith stared at him, the anger leaving her. “Gavin, I have done nothing else since we were married. I have tried to do and be what you wanted of me, but you wanted me to be…her! I could be no one but myself.” Judith bent her head to hide her tears.

  Gavin took a step toward her, then looked back at Alan with hatred.

  Judith felt the tension and glanced up. “If you touch one hair on his head, you will regret it,” she warned.

  Gavin frowned and started to speak, then gradually began to smile. “I had begun to think that my Judith was gone,” he whispered. “She was only hidden under a cloak of sweetness.”

  Alan coughed to cover the laughter that threatened to escape.

  Judith straightened her spine and held her shoulders back as she started to walk away from both men. It disgusted her that both of them were laughing at her.

  Gavin watched her for a moment, torn between his fight with Alan Fairfax and his desire for his wife. Judith easily won the tug-of-war. Gavin took three long strides, then pulled her into his arms, sweeping her from the ground. Alan quickly left the two of them alone.

  “If you’re not still, I will set you in a tree until you can no longer move.” The horrible threat quieted her. Gavin sat down on the ground with her and pinned her arms between their bodies. “That is better,” he said when she was calmer. “Now I will talk and you will listen. You have humiliated me publicly. No!” he interrupted himself. “Don’t speak until I’m finished. I can withstand your fun of me in my own castle, but I’ve had enough of this in front of the king. By now all of England laughs at me.”

  “At least I have some pleasure in that,” Judith said smugly.

  “Do you, Judith? Has any of this given you pleasure?”

  She blinked rapidly. “No, it hasn’t. But it wasn’t my fault.”

  “That’s true. You have been innocent of most of it, but I’ve told you I loved you and I have asked for your forgiveness.”

  “And I told you—”

  He put two fingers over her lips and smothered her words. “I’m tired of fighting you. You are my wife and my property, and I plan to treat you as such. There will be no divorce.” His eyes blackened. “Neither will there be more afternoons spent with young knights. Tomorrow we’ll leave this gossip-ridden place and return home. There, if need be, I will lock you in a tower room and only I will have a key. It will take a long time to still the laughter throughout England, but it can be done.” He paused but she didn’t speak. “I’m sorry about the trick Alice played, and I shed my own tears over our lost son. But a divorce now won’t change the past. I can only hope that soon I will get you with another child and that will heal your wound. But if you think it won’t, it will not matter, for I am to have my own way.”

  Gavin had said all of this in a deliberate manner. Judith didn’t answer, but lay quietly in his arms. “Don’t you have anything to say?” he asked.

  “And what would I say? I don’t believe I’m allowed an opinion.”

  He didn’t look at her but stared across the green countryside. “Is the idea so repulsive to you?”

  Judith could contain herself no longer. She started laughing and he stared at her in wonder. “You say you love me, that you will keep me apart from everyone but you, locking me in a tower room where we spend nights of passion. You admit the woman you swore you loved has played you false. You say all these things to me and ask if I am repulsed. You have given me what I have most wanted since I first saw you at the church.”

  He continued staring at her. “Judith…” he began, hesitating.

  “I love you, Gavin,” she smiled. “Is that so difficult to understand?”

  “But three days ago—the divorce—”

  This time she put her fingers to his lips. “You ask for forgiveness from me. Can’t you forgive me?”

  “Yes,” he whispered as he bent and kissed her. He drew away abruptly. “And what of that man who kissed you? I will kill him!”

  “No! It was but a token of friendship.”

  “It didn’t look—!”

  “Are you getting angry again?” she demanded, her eyes shooting sparks. “I have stood by for several days and watched woman after woman paw you.”

  He chuckled. “I should have enjoyed it, but I didn’t. You have ruined me for all time.”

  “I don’t understand you.”

  “The women talked of nothing but clothing and”—Gavin’s eyes twinkled—“face creams. I had more trouble with the ledgers, and not one woman could I find who could help me!”

  Judith was instantly concerned. “Do you again allow some baker to rob us?” She started to push away from him. “Come on, let’s go. I must see to this straightaway.”

  Gavin tightened his arms about her. “You will not leave me now! Damn the ledgers! Can’t you think of anything else to do with that sweet mouth of yours but talk?”

  She smiled at him innocently. “I had thought I was but your property and you the master.”

  He ignored her jibe. “Come then, slave, and let’s find a secret den in this dark wood.”

  “Aye, my master. Most willingly.” They walked hand in hand into the forest.

  But Judith and Gavin were not alone. Their words of love, their play, had been witnessed by Alice. She watched them with feverish blue eyes.

  “Come, love,” Ela said as she forcibly steered her mistress away. She looked with hate at the couple who walked through the trees, their arms and bodies intertwined. Those devils played with Alice! she thought. They teased and laughed at her until the sweet and lovely child nearly lost her mind. But they would pay, she vowed.

  “Good morning,” Judith whispered and snuggled closer to her husband. He kissed the top of her head but didn’t speak. “Are we really going today?”

  “If you wish.”

  “Oh yes, I do. I’ve had enough of gossip and sly looks and men asking me improper questions.”

  “What men?” Gavin frowned.

  “Do not bait me,” she answered, then suddenly sat up in the bed, the covers falling away. “I must speak to the king! Now! He cannot keep believing that I want the divorce when I don’t. Perhaps the messenger can be overtaken.”

  Gavin pulled her down in the bed beside him. He ran his teeth along the cord of her neck. He’d made love to her in the forest yesterday and most of last night, but he wasn’t anywhere near satiated. “There’s no need for such haste. No message will reach the pope.”

  “No message?” Judith asked as she moved away from Gavin. “What are you saying? It’s been days since I talked to the king about a divorce.”

  “No message was ever sent.”

  Judith pushed forcibly away from him. “Gavin! I demand an answer. You speak in riddles.”

  He sat up in the bed. “King Henry told me first of your request and asked if I wanted a divorce. I told him it was an absurdity you had dreamed of while you were so angry with me. I told him you would repent it in a short while.”

  Judith’s mouth opened to speak, her eyes wide. “How dare you!” she finally gasped. “I had every right—!”

  “Judith,” he interrupted. “A divorce cannot be granted to every wife who is angry
at her husband. Soon there would be no marriages left.”

  “But you had no right—”

  “I have every right! I’m your husband and I love you. Who else has rights if I don’t? Now come back here and let’s stop talking.”

  “Don’t touch me! How can I face the king after what you have said.”

  “You have been facing him for days, and you seem to have come to no harm.” Gavin leered at her bare breasts.

  She snatched the covers under her arms. “You have laughed at me!”

  “Judith!” Gavin said in a low, threatening voice. “I have taken a great deal from you over this. I have been laughed at, ridiculed, all in an attempt to appease you. But all that is at an end. If you don’t behave now, I will turn that pretty bottom of yours over my knee and spank you. Now come here!”

  Judith started to defy him, but then she smiled and snuggled against his chest. “What made you so sure I wouldn’t divorce you?”

  “I guess I knew I loved you enough to forbid it. I would truly have locked you in a tower before I let another man have you.”

  “Yet you bore the laughter about the divorce.”

  Gavin gave a derisive snort. “I had no intentions of doing that. I didn’t know your tantrum would leak into public knowledge. But then I had forgotten what gossip there was at court. No one does anything that everyone else doesn’t know of it.”

  “How did the news spread?”

  Gavin shrugged. “A maid, I guess. How did the knowledge of Alice’s trick spread?”

  Judith’s head came up. “Don’t speak that woman’s name to me!”

  He pulled Judith back to his chest. “Have you no forgiveness in your heart? The woman loves me, as I once believed I loved her. She has done everything for that love.”

  Judith gave a sigh of exasperation. “You still don’t believe any wrong of her, do you?”

  “You are still jealous?” he asked, smiling.

  She looked up at him, her eyes very serious. “In a way, I am. She will always be a perfect woman to you. What she did, you believe she did out of love for you. She is a pure, perfect woman to you and will always be. While I am…”

  “You are what?” he teased.

  “I am earthy. I am the woman you have and can have, while Alice represents an ethereal love to you.”

  He frowned. “You say I’m wrong, yet why else would she have done what she did?”

  Judith shook her head at him. “Greed. She believes you are hers and I have taken you. She loves you no more than she loves me—except that you have the wherewithal to give her body some pleasure…however brief.”

  He raised one eyebrow. “Do you insult me?”

  “No, but I listen to gossip. The men complain of her penchant for violence.”

  Gavin drew his breath in sharply. “Let’s not speak of this again,” he said coldly. “You are my wife and I love you, but even so I’ll not listen to you malign such an unhappy woman. You have won and she has lost. That should be enough for you.”

  Judith blinked back tears. “I love you, Gavin. I love you so much, but I fear that all your love will not be mine as long as the disease of Alice Chatworth eats at your heart.”

  Gavin frowned, tightening his hold on her. “You have no reason to be jealous of her.”

  Judith started to speak but of what use would her words be? She knew she would always share a tiny bit of her husband’s love with an icy blonde beauty. And no words would ever change those feelings.

  Saying good-bye to the people Judith liked at court was not easy. The queen especially had become her friend. As Judith curtsied before the king, she felt her face grow hot. She regretted the publicity of her seeking a divorce, but if she had not realized her mistake, she and Gavin would not be together now. As she lifted her head to the king, she smiled. Knowing that Gavin loved her and that she loved him was worth all the embarrassment and teasing.

  “We will miss your lovely face,” King Henry smiled. “I hope you come to see us again soon.”

  Gavin put an arm possessively about his wife’s shoulders. “Is it her face or the amusement she provides?”

  “Gavin!” Judith gasped in horror.

  The king threw back his head and roared with laughter. “It’s true, Gavin,” he said after a while. “I vow I’ve not been so entertained in years. I’m sure no other marriages will be half so fascinating.”

  Gavin returned his king’s smile. “Then you might watch Stephen. I’ve just heard that that Scots bride of his took a knife to him on his wedding night.”

  “Was he harmed?” Henry asked, concerned.

  “No,” Gavin grinned. “Though I imagine his temper wasn’t so well controlled. But then perhaps the woman had some reason for her anger—Stephen was three days late for his own wedding.”

  King Henry shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t envy the man.” He smiled again. “At least all is well with one of the Montgomery brothers.”

  “Yes,” Gavin said as he stroked Judith’s upper arm. “All is indeed well.”

  They finished their last good-byes and left the great hall. It had taken most of the day to complete the packing for the journey home. Truthfully, they should have waited until the next day, but everyone seemed as ready to leave as Judith and Gavin. What with the time at Demari’s and at court, they had been away a long while.

  As they mounted their horses and waved good-bye to the several people who gathered to see them off, only one watched with concern. Alan Fairfax hadn’t been able to find a moment alone with Judith as he had hoped. Early that morning Alice Chatworth had left the castle with her servants and household goods. All of the castlefolk seemed to believe that the woman accepted defeat when Judith and Gavin were reconciled. But not Alan. He felt he knew Alice better than that. Alice had been humiliated. He knew that she would seek revenge.

  When the bailey was cleared and the Montgomery group well outside the castle walls, Alan mounted his horse and followed at a discreet distance. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious—at least until the Lady Judith was safe inside her own castle walls. Alan smiled and flexed his sore jaw where Gavin had struck him the day before. He hadn’t openly voiced his fears of Alice; he knew Lord Gavin believed him to have an unchivalrous concern for his wife. Perhaps it was true, Alan thought. Perhaps at first; then he had come to know her and began to look on her as a little sister. He sighed and then nearly laughed aloud. At least he could tell himself that. With the way she looked at Lord Gavin, there was no hope for anything else.

  Chapter Thirty

  THE WARM WATER FELT HEAVENLY AGAINST JUDITH’S BARE skin. But better than the water was the freedom. There were no court gossips watching them, commenting on their improper behavior. For their behavior now was very improper for an earl and his countess, the rulers of vast estates. They’d traveled for three days when they saw the lovely blue lake, a corner of it hidden and secluded by overhanging willow trees. Now Gavin and Judith frolicked about like children.

  “Oh, Gavin,” Judith said in a voice that was half giggle and half whisper.

  Gavin’s laugh rumbled deep in his throat as he lifted her out of the lake then threw her back in again. They had been playing in the water for an hour, chasing each other, kissing and touching. Their clothes lay in a heap on the bank as they moved through the water unencumbered.

  “Judith,” Gavin whispered as he drew her close, “you make me forget my duties. My men aren’t used to such neglect.”

  “Nor am I used to so much attention,” she said, nipping at his shoulders.

  “No, don’t start again. I must return to camp.”

  She sighed but knew he was right. They walked ashore where Gavin quickly dressed, then stood and waited impatiently for his wife.

  “Gavin,” she smiled, “how can I dress when you glower so? Go back to camp and I will follow in a few moments.”

  He frowned. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “I am within sound of the camp. I won’t come to any harm.”
>
  He bent and gave her a fierce hug. “You must forgive me if I’m too protective. I came too close to losing you after the child.”

  “It wasn’t that that nearly caused you to lose me,” she retorted.

  He laughed and smacked her on her bare wet bottom. “Get dressed, you saucy wench, and return to camp quickly.”

  “Yes, my lord,” she smiled.

  When Judith was by herself, she dressed slowly, feeling that it was good to have some solitude for a moment of reflection. The last few days had been bliss. Gavin was at last hers. No more did they hide their love from each other. When she was dressed, she didn’t return to the camp, but sat quietly under a tree, enjoying the peaceful place.

  But Judith wasn’t alone. Not far away stood a man who had hardly left her side since they left court; yet she had not seen him and had no idea he stayed so nearby. Alan Fairfax remained a discreet distance away, where he could see the emerald-green of Judith’s gown, yet far enough away that he didn’t interfere in her privacy. After these days of following her, he’d begun to relax. Several times he’d wondered just what he was doing when she had her husband who had hardly left her side.

  Alan was cursing himself for his stupidity and didn’t hear the footsteps so close behind him. A sword came down on the side of his head with brutal force. He slumped forward, his head on his chest and then fell heavily into the leaves of the forest floor.

  Without warning, a hood was thrown over Judith’s head and her arms pinned behind her when she started to struggle. The suffocating fabric muffled her screams. She was thrown across a man’s shoulder, the air nearly forced from her lungs.

  The man walked past Alan’s inert body, and looked up in question to the woman on the horse.

  “Leave him. He will tell Gavin that she’s gone. Gavin will come to me then, and we’ll see which of us he chooses.”

  The man’s face gave no betrayal of his thoughts. He merely collected his money and performed the tasks. He slung his bundle across the saddle and followed Alice Chatworth through the forest.