His father. As much as Claude loved him, he still had a hard time accepting the fact at one time long ago his father left his mother and she had to raise Claude by herself. He barely knew his father since he hadn’t met him until he was five and ten years of age. A father should be there for their children from the day they are born. He needed a father growing up and never had one until eight years ago.
“I am grateful Father saved my life. But remember, I haven’t known him any longer than I’ve known Rose,” he replied and headed out the door.
“My lady, I don’t understand why you called me to your chamber,” said Evelina. “I should be taking care of the children and getting them ready for mass.”
“Evelina, you won’t have to worry about the children anymore,” said Rose, struggling to get out of bed. Her late stages of pregnancy made it hard for her to move. Evelina hurried to her side to help her.
“What do you mean? And why don’t you have a handmaid?” she asked.
“I sent my handmaiden home to tend to her ill mother a fortnight ago. Isobel has been helping me, but I think it is time for that to stop. You will be my handmaiden now.”
“Me?” Evelina didn’t want to do it. She was hoping to be able to make distance between her and Rose after yesterday. She didn’t want to be around Rose or Claude because, for some reason, it bothered her to see them together. “I don’t know anything about being a handmaid.”
“There is nothing to know. I just need you here to help me dress. I can no longer reach behind my back, and it has been a long time since I have been able to touch my toes. I hope this baby comes soon because I’ve been getting fatigued. This will only be a temporary position until my handmaid returns in a week or two.”
“That long?” asked Evelina, not even knowing if she was going to be in England for another two weeks. Any day now, her father could send a ship full of soldiers to look for her and then she would have no choice but to return to France.
There was a knock at the door, and Claude called out from the other side. “My lady, I am here to take you to mass.”
“Hurry, Evelina,” said Rose. “Please, help me dress. I don’t want Claude to have to wait.”
“Of course,” she said, hurrying to help her while Claude continued to pound on the door.
“Please, tell him we are going as fast as we can,” said Rose.
“Aye, my lady.” She pulled the gown over Rose’s head and crossed the room to open the door.
Evelina didn’t like being treated like a servant. She was a lady and should have servants waiting on her instead. Sadly, it was because of her own deception that she was in this position, and she tired of it quickly. She ripped open the door to find Claude with one fist raised, ready to knock again. His other hand was behind his back.
“We are going as fast as we can, now please stop the obnoxious pounding on the door,” she grumbled.
“Evelina?” Claude raised a brow. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with the children?”
“Not anymore. Lady Rose has made me her handmaid.”
“Oh,” he said, bringing his other hand from behind his back. He held up a bouquet of fresh wildflowers.
“What is that?” she asked. Her eyes focused on the beautiful flowers. The heavenly sweet scent filled the air.
“Flowers,” he said, holding them out to her. “Here, take them.”
Her hand shook as she collected the flowers from him, feeling her heart swell. No man had ever given her flowers before. She could barely believe it. Perhaps he was attracted to her after all.
“Put them in water for Lady Rose,” he commanded. Stepping around her, Claude headed into the solar leaving her feeling, once more, like a fool.
By the time the morning meal ended, Evelina was so tired of watching Claude treat Rose like a goddess that all she wanted was to get far away from both of them.
He had brought Rose flowers this morning, stayed by her side during mass, and even cut her meat for her while sitting up on the dais with the rest of the nobles. She highly expected him to start kissing Rose’s feet next.
The musicians in the gallery started playing dancing music. She looked up to see Augustin across the hall trying to get her attention.
After a quick glance around her to make sure no one was watching, she hurried across the hall to join him. Taking Augustin by the elbow, Evelina led him away from the crowd. She stopped in the foyer area leading to the outside.
“What is it, Augustin?” she asked. “I told you never to bother me in the great hall.”
“I wanted to tell you I am boarding a ship back to France in the next hour. I found a merchant ship that is going that way, and I’ve secured passage for both of us.”
“What? Nay,” she said. “We can’t leave now.” Her thoughts went to Claude. She didn’t want to leave yet. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, and she had even been dreaming about kissing him. Even though she had been feeling as if she wanted to distance herself from him, France was a little too far away. If she left now, her life would be over. As soon as she returned to France, her father would make her marry Lord Onfroi, and she would never have a chance to find love. She would also never know how it felt to kiss Sir Claude Montague.
“We must hurry because the ship won’t wait,” he told her.
“Augustin, I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?” asked Claude, showing up behind her. He must have seen her leave the room and followed her. “Mayhap I can help you decide.”
Claude was the last person she wanted to see right now. To make matters worse, he overheard her conversation with Augustin. She was going to have to say something quickly to try to explain without giving away her secrets.
“This is Augustin.” Evelina introduced the man to Claude.
“Yes, I know,” answered Claude with a nod of his head. “Lady Rose said he is your brother. Funny, but he doesn’t look anything like you. He is also much older than you.”
“I could say the same about you and your little sister, Charlotte,” said Evelina. “After all, you are fifteen years apart in age if I’m not mistaken.”
“Hmph,” Claude scoffed.
“My brother has secured passage on a merchant ship back to France, but I don’t think we should leave because I have a commitment to tend to Lady Rose until her handmaid returns.”
“I’m sure Lady Rose can find another handmaid,” said Claude.
“Yes, I agree.” Augustin reached out and grabbed her by the arm and started pulling her out the door. “Let’s go.”
“Then again,” said Claude, causing the man to stop. “Lady Rose is quite fond of Evelina, and it wouldn’t be good to upset her since the birth of her baby is so close.”
“Aye, I think you are right,” Evelina agreed.
“I can’t leave her here unescorted,” snapped the guard.
“Unescorted?” asked Claude, sounding suspicious. “That is an odd choice of a word for a commoner to use.”
“He just means that he’s afraid for my safety,” said Evelina.
“Oh, I see,” said Claude. “There is no need to worry. I will watch over Evelina during her stay in England.”
“Nay, that’s not necessary,” stammered Evelina, not wanting him watching her every move.
“She’s not staying here.” Augustin dragged her toward the door.
Claude took two long strides and gripped the man’s wrist. “Get your hands off of her,” he warned him. “I said I would protect her and it starts right now.”
“I’m her older brother,” growled Augustin. “She will do what I say.”
“If you think I am daft enough to believe that story for one minute, you have another guess coming.”
“We have papers to prove it,” snarled the guard.
“Papers that are no doubt forged. I recognize you as a mercenary,” Claude told him. “I believe I hired you a few years ago, and you told me you didn’t have any family. Have you forgotten so soon, Augustin?�
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The man’s hand slipped off of Evelina’s arm, but he stayed quiet.
“Evelina, you can stay if you want to, but I’m leaving.” Augustin turned on his heel and headed out to the courtyard.
Claude was glad to see the mercenary go. He’d been wracking his brain trying to figure out why the man seemed familiar. Then, when he saw Augustin pull Evelina out into the hall, it all came back to him. He was a mercenary and not a good one at that. Claude used him once, but when he found the mercenary stealing from his coffers, he let the man go. He really should have cut off his hand or hanged him, but that is not the kind of lord Claude wanted to be.
Claude had money. If the man had just asked, he would have helped him out. There were a lot of poor people that he’d helped over the years, even bringing the peasants into his castle walls for meals several times a week.
“Thank you,” said Evelina once Augustin had left.
“Who are you?” he asked her.
“I told you. I am Evelina . . . Evelina du . . . de . . . I’m just called Evelina,” she answered, almost sounding as if she couldn’t remember who she was.
“You told me your surname was Du Bisset.”
She looked startled when he corrected her.
“Yes, that’s my name.”
“Why are you lying to me, Evelina?”
“Lying?” Her face became red.
“I knew from the moment I met you that you weren’t who you claimed to be. I have figured out who you are and why you came here from France, even though you won’t tell me.”
“Y-you have?” she asked.
“You are a merchant’s daughter. Perhaps a spinster.”
“Why would you think that?” She faked a laugh.
“I’ve seen the way you eat and the way you conduct yourself. You are certainly not a servant. I have also seen the way you stitch. It is as if you were born with a needle in your hand. That mercenary kidnapped you and brought you to England, trying to get ransom from your family, didn’t he?”
“What? Nay. That’s not true.”
“Then there is only one other option.”
“And what is that?”
“He was your lover.”
“That is preposterous! He most certainly was not my lover.”
“Then perhaps my squire was right. I saw you exchanging money with the mercenary. Mayhap you are a whore, and he wasn’t satisfied and demanded his money returned.”
That earned him a hard slap across the face. Evelina glared at him and stood with her hands on her hips looking as if she wanted to tear off his head.
“Don’t ever speak to me that way again.”
As she stormed off, Claude chuckled to himself. He knew the mercenary wasn’t her lover and she was no whore. He only said it to get her flustered so she would hopefully tell him her true identity but it didn’t work. Well, he’d find out who she was because now he was not only Rose’s protector but Evelina’s as well. The closer he got to her, the easier it would hopefully be to figure out why he was having these odd feelings for a mere commoner.
Chapter 8
Evelina threw open the shutter and took a deep breath of fresh morning air. “My lady, it is time to awake so you are not late for mass,” she told Rose.
Rose let out a soft moan and turned over in bed. “I am not feeling all that well today. I think I will stay in my chamber and not go anywhere.”
“Lady Rose, is it the baby?” She rushed over to the bedside.
“I think I’m just tired, that’s all.” Rose pushed up to a sitting position in bed. The sheet slipped off of her, and the bulge of her stomach under her shift moved.
“I – I think I just saw the baby move,” gasped Evelina.
Rose chuckled. “Yes, it is amazing. Here, give me your hand. You can feel the baby kick.” Rose reached out, and Evelina stretched out her arm. Rose placed Evelina’s hand on her large belly. “Right there. It should be any minute now.”
A kick knocked against Evelina’s hand, and her eyes opened wide. “I felt it. I felt the baby kick!”
Rose giggled. “You act as if this is the first time you’ve felt the kick of an unborn baby. Haven’t you been close to anyone giving birth before?”
“Nay,” she admitted.
“I thought since you are a nursemaid, you must have been present for many births when you were back in France.”
“I . . . I wasn’t always a nursemaid,” she said. “The only time I’ve been around a pregnant woman was when my brother’s wife and her baby died in childbirth.”
“I see.” Rose looked down at her belly and rubbed her hand over it in a loving manner. Suddenly, she seemed very sad.
“Oh, my lady, I am sorry.” Evelina felt awful that she had just mentioned her sister-by-marriage dying in childbirth. “I am sure you will be just fine and so will your baby. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Nay, it is all right, Evelina. I was just thinking of the two babies I lost and was wondering what Toft would have done if I had died as well.”
“Don’t talk that way. Please,” said Evelina, cradling Rose’s hand in hers.
“Toft and I want a child desperately. My mother died in childbirth, and I lost five siblings as well, so I am very worried.”
“I’m sorry, my lady. That is awful, and I am sure very hard to accept.”
“Do you want children someday?”
No one had ever asked Evelina this before. She liked someone asking what she wanted in her life instead of telling her how it had to be. “Aye, I do,” she said. “But I need a husband first.”
“I’m surprised you are not married already.”
“I want to marry someone I love. Just like you and Toft. I don’t want to be married to someone just because my father wants me to be.”
“Ah, now I understand why you left France. Your father wants you to marry someone, and you don’t agree.”
She looked down and wrung her hands in her lap. “I would rather not be married at all than to marry a horrible, mean man.”
“I’m sure he’s not as bad as you make it sound. Perhaps you should go back to your father and have a talk with him about this.”
“Nay. I won’t do that.” She sprang up and paced the floor.
“What does your mother say about all this?”
“My mother is dead.”
“I understand how hard it is for you. I lost my mother at a young age. I was so happy when Isobel came into my father’s life because now I have another woman to confide in.”
“So, you couldn’t talk to your father about things either?”
“I blamed my father for my mother’s death. But once I realized it was not his fault and how foolish I’d been, we became close. I can talk to my father about anything now.”
“My father will never understand.” Evelina shook her head in sorrow. “I need to find the man I’m to marry on my own.”
“Claude is very nice. He is not married.”
“Claude?” She spun around so fast that she almost fell.
“Mayhap, you should get to know him.”
“He has been nothing but cruel to me,” she told Rose.
“Claude? Cruel?” That made Rose laugh. “I honestly don’t think the man has a mean bone in his body. You must have just started off on the wrong foot with him.”
“Claude is a nobleman,” Evelina reminded her. “I’m sure he would only consider marrying a noblewoman.”
“I’ve seen the way Claude looks at you, Evelina. He has eyes for you even if you don’t think so.”
“Nay, that can’t be. He is still in love with you.”
“Me?” Rose stopped laughing and held her hand to her chest. “I’m married.”
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you as well, my lady. I don’t think Claude will ever marry anyone if he can’t have you.”
Rose’s face became somber, and she nodded slightly. “I know what you mean, Evelina. I have noticed it, too, since he returned from France. But I have a feeling
that is all going to change soon. We are only good friends. I am sure Claude knows it.”
There was a quick knock at the door, and it opened a crack. Rose’s stepmother, Isobel, peeked into the room. “Are ye awake, Rose? If we are goin’ to buy shoes in town, we will need to get an early start. I have a lot of shoppin’ to do.”
“Come on in, Isobel.” Rose swung her feet over the edge of the bed.
“I thought you said you were feeling ill and tired and wanted to sleep some more.” Evelina got the distinct feeling Rose had just been pretending.
“I am always tired, lately,” said Rose. “However, I suddenly feel better.” She looked over to Isobel with a wide grin on her face. “I’m never too tired for shopping for shoes.”
Isobel and Rose giggled. Leaving the door open, Isobel quickly crossed the floor and sat down on the bed with Rose. “We are goin’ to have to find a new place to hide the shoes or Conlin will have my head when he returns.”
“Don’t worry, Isobel. I will add them to the rest of the stash. Evelina, open that trunk in the corner.”
“This one?” Evelina walked over to a trunk and lifted the lid. There was a baby blanket folded neatly at the top of the trunk. “Oh, what a beautiful blanket.”
“I made that in the ladies solar. All the ladies helped to quilt it,” said Rose. “But that isn’t what I wanted to show you.” Rose got up and walked over to the trunk along with Isobel. “Pick it up,” she told Evelina.
Evelina picked up the blanket. To her surprise, the trunk was packed full of shoes.
“Shoes!” she said. “Lots of them.”
“These are some of my favorites,” said Isobel, picking up a pair of side-laced, soft, suede slippers with embroidered colorful stitching of flowers on them. “These look about yer size,” said Isobel, perusing Evelina’s feet. “I would like ye to have them.”
“Me?” Evelina held her hand to her heart. “But . . . these are the shoes of a noblewoman. I am only a handmaid.”
Rose and Isobel looked at each other, grinned, and then looked back to Evelina.
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