“I understand what you mean. I will send Alex and Robert to speak with them. I am certain that they can convince them to give up their lives of toil and hard work to be closer to you and the children you will soon be having. In fact,” Lady Lina smiled. “I will tell the men to mention the children you will be having and say that you would feel better if your mother was close.”
“You truly would not mind?”
“I would not mind at all. I would like to get to know them. They raised a lovely, intelligent young lady, so they must be good people.” Lady Lina hugged Matilda. “I will do what I can to get them here before the wedding. If not, they will be here soon after. I am sure we can make that happen.”
“Thank you, milady. It means a great deal to me to see you looking after my parents.”
“Are you happy to be marrying Robert?” Lina asked softly.
Matilda nodded. “Yesterday, I was not so sure how I felt, but after our walk last night . . . aye, I am happy to be marrying Robert. I feel a little like I am being washed away by a great river, but I am happy to be marrying him.”
Lina laughed. “Feeling like you are being washed away by a giant river is exactly how you should feel if you are marrying a man you met yesterday in two days. You will be fine. If you find you need anything else from me, let me know, but I am going to start working on my husband and son to talk to your parents, and I will start talking to the kitchen about the feast.” She hurried out the door, only to stop at the top of the stairs to look back at Matilda. “Welcome to the family.”
Matilda teared up at the words. “Thank you.” She hurried into her room to start sewing with Mary, knowing the process would take a long time. She would not be wearing one of the simple dresses she would worn every day of her life. This would be an elaborate dress meant for the nobility.
Closing her door, she looked at Mary. “How can I help you?”
Mary looked at her. “We need to take measurements and figure out how much fabric to use. This is going to have to be done quickly. If you have a good hand with a needle, I will have you work on the undergarments.”
“Aye, of course.” Matilda stood in the middle of the room and let her friend measure the fabric against her, watching as she marked it in different places. “Now the real work begins.”
Matilda and Mary worked the rest of the morning, until Robert knocked on the door. “It is time for the noon meal, and I want my bride beside me!”
Matilda and Mary exchanged smiles as Matilda hurried for the door. “I am coming. I do not want you to see what we have done with the wedding gown, though. I want you to be surprised.”
Robert took her hand and led her toward the stairs. “I already know how beautiful you are. No dress could ever cover that.”
She walked with him toward the table. “I will be very busy with wedding preparations for the next day or two. I do not know how much we will see each other.”
“As long as I have you for meals and a short walk after supper, I will be pleased. I would like to carry you around with me at all times, but I know that is not acceptable. I will wait until after we are wed for that.”
She grinned, walking to the table with him. She was amazed at how much more comfortable she was with him than she had been the day before. It was as if their walk the previous night had removed her hesitations about him, and she was ready to move on with their lives.
Once they were seated at the table, she looked at his mother, who was making a list on a piece of paper as they sat there. “Are you going to spend the entire meal scribbling, wife?” Lord Alex asked.
Lady Lina nodded. “I have to make a list of the foods we will serve at the wedding feast. That way the kitchen can be ready.”
“Who exactly will come to this feast?” he asked. “We have not had time to send messages to anyone.”
“All of the serfs who live on our land will be invited. Every single one of them. And we will have enough food to feed them all.” Lina smiled at Matilda, who immediately understood. If all the serfs came, then her parents could come, too.
Matilda wanted to jump up and hug Robert’s mother, but instead she sat quietly at the table, eating her meal. “I must hurry,” she finally said. “Mary and I are going to be sewing nonstop until the wedding.”
“I wish I could spare more of the maids to help with the dress, but it is going to take everyone we have just to get the cooking done.” Lina shook her head. “Robert, can you give us a week? It would be so much easier if we could have more time.”
Robert shook his head adamantly. “No, Mother. The wedding will be in two days. Even a week is too long to wait.”
Lina sighed. “I was afraid you would say that. You are so much like your father!”
Robert reached over and squeezed Matilda’s hand. “Why would any man agree to wait when he had such a beautiful woman at the end of his journey?”
Matilda noted that Robert had never said anything about being in love with her. He only talked about how beautiful she was. Did he have feelings other than lust for her? Or were they starting their marriage for all the wrong reasons? She had no idea, but she could not let it bother her either way. This wedding would give her parents an easier life as well as herself.
And truthfully at this point, she could not imagine not being married to Robert. He was the man she was meant to be with. She knew because he had told her so often. And she was just realizing that he was absolutely right.
As she went back upstairs and worked on her undergarments, she could not help but think about what a marriage without love would be? Her mother had always told her that love was for peasants, who only ever married for love. While the nobility had easier lives, they were often wed to people who they were horribly unhappy with.
She hoped that her marriage would be much more like a marriage of peasants than one of the nobility. She wanted days of love and nights of passion. Her life was about to change forever in just two days. Hopefully the changes would be all for the good. She would be giving birth to seven sons in her marriage, and knowing that was just a little frightening. She wanted her mother there for her own sanity as much as she wanted her there so she would have a better life.
When Mary came back from her own noon meal, the two women worked together, and Matilda often stood to have the dress tried on. She just wished she could get her worries of what the future would bring out of her head.
Chapter Five
Early the following morning, Matilda woke in her new bedchamber, very disoriented for a moment. Her entire life she had slept in one room, and suddenly she was in two new rooms in two days. It was very confusing.
After a moment, she sat up and swung her feet to the floor, surprised by how well she had slept in such a comfortable place. Her place to sleep was usually the floor of the one-room home she had shared with her parents. This chamber was filled with such luxury, it was hard to believe it was hers for the moment.
Just as she was sitting up, Mary quietly slipped into the room with her. “Are you ready to start your day?” her friend asked.
Matilda nodded, rubbing her eyes. “We have to finish the dress today.”
“And your underthings. You cannot go into a marriage with the heir of the castle without having proper underthings.”
“I have a feeling he cares very little for my underthings and instead cares a great deal about what is under the underthings.”
Mary giggled slightly. “it is probably true.” She moved to help Matilda dress for her day in a dress that Matilda had never seen. “I have seen the way he looks at you, and the man is most definitely smitten.”
Matilda did not believe Robert was smitten even a little bit. “Where did you find it?”
“Lady Lina said it once belonged to her daughter, and she was hoping you would not mind her presumption in sending it to you.”
Matilda looked down at the beautiful dress, which would have been worth everything she had ever worn put together. “I love it.” She could not help but think abo
ut the fact that Lady Lina had a daughter, and she herself never would. Mayhap she and Robert could also find an orphaned child and raise her as their own.
“It looks like it was made for you.” Mary stepped back and studied Matilda for a moment. “Sit, and I will fix your hair.”
Matilda found that Mary had become a great deal bossier since she was assigned as her maid, but there was no point in saying anything about it. A good maid was more of a partner than an inferior . . . at least that is what Lady Lina had told her.
When she walked down the stairs to break the fast, Matilda found Robert waiting for her. “You look beautiful this morning.” He offered his arm and escorted her to the great hall. “Your chamber was comfortable?”
“Very. I am afraid I am not used to such luxury. Are you not worried I will come to expect to be treated like a lady?”
He laughed. “I expect others to treat you as a lady, and I hope you will come to love it. Of course, you will be kept busy having children for the next ten years or so.”
She shook her head. “What if I am not able to have children? Some women are barren!” She could not help but worry about her own mother’s trouble having children who lived.
“You will not be. I promise. There is something about my family that means seven sons born quickly. You will be fine.” He walked her to the table and held her chair out for her. “Good morning, Mother. Good morning, Father.”
“Good morning,” his mother responded, looking at Matilda instead of Robert. “How are you this morning? Was the chamber to your liking?”
Matilda smiled. “The chamber was the most luxurious I have ever even imagined. Thank you for letting me stay there.”
“You will have our chamber after the wedding tomorrow. My husband and I have already begun moving our things into the house across the property. We will still be close enough to visit and enjoy our grandchildren but far enough that you will feel you have privacy.”
“You do not have to leave on my account. I would happily let you stay here forever.”
Lady Lina smiled and nodded. “I know you would, child, and I do appreciate it. I feel like I need to follow the family tradition of moving to the other home, just as Alex’s parents did many years ago.”
Matilda knew there was no point in protesting more. This family was very set in their traditions. “How are the preparations for the feast?”
“They are coming along wonderfully! I have asked Alex to have several of his men ride around to talk to the serfs today. They will all know that tomorrow has been declared a day of merrymaking, and they are invited to a wedding here at the castle that will include a feast.”
“It is most generous of you to invite all the serfs, Lady Lina.”
“I know you want your parents here to see you wed. They will be, and the other serfs will be here to make them feel comfortable.”
Matilda still worried that her parents would not come to the wedding, but she did not voice her thoughts. She was doing her best to remain positive and not overwhelmed by the entire situation—and most especially by the man beside her. “I thank you for your efforts.”
Robert reached over and grasped her hand in his under the table, squeezing it tightly. “All will work out for the best.”
She smiled slightly, forcing her attention to the food in front of her.
Once their meal was over, Robert led her to the bottom of the stairs. “I am forced to run around doing whatever I am told like a common lackey as Mother gets everything just so for the wedding tomorrow.”
“At least we know it will not rain,” she said softly.
He frowned. “How do we know that? We live in England, the land of rain.”
She smiled at him with mischief in her eyes. “Your mother will not let it. She does control the weather after all.”
He laughed. “She does. All right. I will take your word for the fact that there will be no rain on the morrow.” He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. “I hope you have a good morning, and I will see you at lunch. Now to go be a lackey . . .”
As he wandered off, she giggled a little. It was nice to see him humbled enough to do the errands his mother bid him to do.
Her morning passed pleasantly, chatting with Mary while they both sewed as quickly as their fingers allowed. She was pleased with the decision to have Mary as her personal maid. She knew it would make things easier for her, while she helped Mary. Both were good things in her opinion.
Robert spent his entire morning riding all over his father’s land, inviting different people to his wedding. He made sure he personally went to Matilda’s parents, not wanting them to be afraid to attend the wedding. When he reached her father, the man’s face was hard. It was astonishing to him how much older her parents looked than his, but they had lived much harder lives.
He swung down from his horse’s back and walked over to her father. “It is good to see you again,” he said, hoping the polite conversation would get the man talking.
Her father stopped working and stood looking at Robert. “I would have thought we would said everything there was to say yesterday.”
Robert took a deep breath, realizing this discussion would be more difficult than he had realized. “I came to invite you to your daughter’s wedding. Every serf on my father’s land is invited and given a day away from work. It would mean a great deal to Matilda and myself if you came.”
The man sighed. “She will not be pleased if we come. We are just a reminder that she did not start out life as privileged as she will end it.”
“On the contrary, it means a great deal to her that you and your wife are both there. My mother has arranged a home where the both of you may live after the wedding as well. There will be no more work required of you. Her station will lift yours as well.” Robert hoped the man would take his words the way they were meant. He badly wanted Matilda’s wishes for her parents to come true.
Her father frowned. “I will discuss both with her mother.”
“I beg you to come because you attending the wedding and living close to us would make my bride very happy. I do hope you will agree.” Robert felt he must do all he could to get them to be a part of Matilda’s life. Begging a serf had not ever been something he thought he would do, yet he found himself doing it with ease.
“I will think on it.”
Robert knew there was nothing else he could say that would sway the man if his words had not already done so. “I will be off. The wedding is in the morn, just before the noon meal. There will be food for all.” He assumed there would also be games and dancing, but there was no way to know. His mother had not given him a great deal of details about the party that would follow the ceremony. He trusted her to make it something he would be proud of.
He rode onto the next field and talked to the peasant who worked there, explaining about his wedding and the festivities that would follow. The only person he had spoken to so far who had not given a resounding aye was his future father-in-law. He hoped that was not a glimpse of what was to come for him and his sweet Matilda.
Matilda was surprised about her disappointment at the noon meal. Robert was still out riding around inviting people to their nuptials, and he had taken a meal with him to eat along the way. He was not going to be there to eat with her, and she felt very out of place sitting down with only her future mother and father-in-law. She had a great deal of respect for both, but she felt as if she was out of her league without Robert there. She actually missed him, which was rather astonishing.
Taking the spot where Robert usually had her sit, she tried to keep her head down, so she would not be noticed. She did not know why she was so certain his parents would be upset with her for being there, but there was no doubt in her mind they would.
“How comes the dress, Matilda?” Lady Lina asked with a smile.
Matilda looked over at her and shrugged. “I think we will be finished when we need to be. Mary is sewing as quickly as she can, and she has said she will work through the
night if that is what it takes to finish.”
Lady Lina nodded at the news. “I have the servants starting to roast meat for the party tomorrow. it will be a day-long event with dancing, games, and much merriment. You and Robert are only required to stay until after the evening meal, and then others will feel they can leave as you do.”
“So no one can leave until Robert and I do?”
Lady Lina shook her head. “No, it is considered rude to leave before the bride and groom. No one would dare.”
Matilda felt a bit more pressure laid on her shoulders with those words. She not only needed to learn all the rules of aristocratic etiquette, but she needed to worry about those rules. She was not looking forward to being the center of attention the following day. “How will I know what I am supposed to do?” she asked softly.
Lina looked at her for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “You will be fine, child. I will be there, and if you are slow to do something, I will come and whisper to you. Do not worry about that. You have the Lain family behind you now, and you have our love.”
“Love?” Matilda asked, surprised by the word. Even Robert had not proclaimed love for her. She had no idea if that is what he felt or if it was just overwhelming lust, but either way, she was about to marry him.
“Aye, love. You will be one of our daughters.” Lina smiled at her as she took a sip of her water. “Hurry and eat so you can get back to sewing. We do not want you going to your own wedding tomorrow in a dress that was once our eldest’s.”
Matilda looked down at her dress, the most luxurious she had ever worn. “It would not be a hardship to wear this dress for anything, milady.”
“No, it would not be. I hope after tomorrow, you will feel comfortable calling me Mother. We will have our things out before nightfall tonight and will only spend one last night here, and we will be in our new home tomorrow eve.”
Robert: A Seventh Son Novel (McClains Book 2) Page 5
