Three Dog Knight

by Tori Phillips

  “My lord will have them skinned, tanned and made into a lap robe for you. The winter nights are cold here on the moor. Say something about the quality of the pelts, my lady. He drove us through every bog and nettle patch in the shire for them—and they are a good lot.”

  Her anger melted away like snow on a sunny hillside. Thomas’s gift was certainly unconventional, but not without merit. In his own unique way, he had proved his affection for her.

  She took his hand in hers. “I am very pleased, Thomas. Truly I am. I do not want for anything more at Michaelmas. Thank you for your gift.”

  He kissed her hand, then stood, and gave her a brilliant smile that sent her pulse racing. Her blood sang, as her senses leapt to life. He had never before looked so handsome as he did at that moment. Nor had he ever smiled at her with such genuine warmth. Alicia’s breath caught in her throat, so that she could not speak, but only smile in return. He took her hand, and slipped it under his arm. Then he guided her around the red-and-white mound of fur and drying blood. Alicia gloried in feeling his strength under her fingers. Without exchanging words, but with many loving glances and more radiant smiles, he escorted her to the supper table.

  The company fell to eating and drinking with gusto. Thomas heaped the choicest portions of food on their shared trencher. She nodded her thanks, but when she lifted a roasted chicken leg to her mouth, she found that her appetite had deserted her. Now that her husband had returned to his home, and evening had drawn its purple cloak around the castle, she realized that the time for bedding was near. She gripped her eating knife to keep her hand from trembling.

  Just follow your husband’s lead, her foster mother had advised her. He will know what to do.

  Alicia sipped her wine. She wished that she could skip over this night, and tomorrow when she awoke, all that was necessary would have been accomplished. Not that Thomas didn’t excite her. She tingled with pleasure when she recalled this morning’s wedding breakfast, especially the sugar wolf.

  After the supper, the hunters regaled their wives, and each other, with tales of the day’s hunt. Alicia nodded, and clapped her hands at the appropriate times when Lord Palmerson told how Thomas nearly chased one fox up a tree. She laughed at the right moment when Sir Roger Ormond related how Andrew was unhorsed while leaping over a stile. The squire blushed to the roots of his brown hair, but he took the ribbing with rueful good nature. Lord Bolton set the hall in a roar when he recounted how half the party had gotten tripped up by the hounds, and found themselves surrounded by a hedgerow of thorns and briars.

  Throughout the tale-telling, Thomas sat by the fire, his cup in his hand and a large ewer of wine at his elbow. Alicia noticed that he drank deeply and often. She shifted on her chair, and tried to display good humor and wondered when her husband would give her the signal to retire. Meanwhile their guests grew more uproarious as the expensive French wines flowed freely down their throats. Alicia gripped the folds of her crushed wedding gown, and prayed that Thomas would not insist upon the bawdy ritual of a ceremonial bedding.

  The hours wore on. Thomas finished one pitcher of wine, and drank midway through his second. He rested his head against the back of the chair while the company around him joked and sang. Alicia saw that his eyelids fluttered. Just when she decided that she would steal up the stairs, Andrew whispered something in his master’s ear.

  Her husband blinked, then wet his lips, and nodded. He turned toward Alicia with a crooked grin. “Go up to my chamber, sweet wife. I will…ahem…attend on you presently,” he said, slurring some of his words.

  Scattered chuckles, nudging and sly winks applauded Thomas’s command. Alicia felt her skin grow hot. Relieved that he had finally resolved the matter, she bade the guests good-night Lifting her skirts, she ran up the broad stairway. Audrey trailed after her. Once inside the master bedchamber, the maid quickly helped Alicia out of her gown.

  “You are shivering, my lady,” she noted, as she untied her petticoats. “I will build up the fire.”

  Alicia licked her dry lips. “My thanks, Audrey.” She would never reveal that she shook from nerves, and not a chill.

  She allowed her finery to pool in fluffy billows at her feet. The maid drew Alicia’s nightgown out of her chest that had been brought into the master chamber earlier that day.

  She held up the delicate garment to the light. “Oh, my lady! ‘Tis as light as a cobweb.”

  Alicia could see the firelight dance through the sheer lawn fabric. She swallowed with difficulty, then found her voice. “Aye, my mother made it for me. ‘Twas her last gift” Stars in heaven! The gown would reveal more than it concealed.

  Audrey dropped it over her mistress’s head. The wispy material fluttered around Alicia’s body. With shaking fingers, she tied the blue satin ribbons around the neck. Trying not to think of Thomas’s reaction when he beheld her in such an indecent scrap of clothing, she busied herself by unbraiding her hair.

  Audrey took the brush from her cold hand. “Pray, sit down, my lady. ‘Tis my duty to attend you.”

  Alicia sank onto the stool before the fire. “‘Tis an odd feeling for someone else to do what I have always done for myself,” she remarked as Audrey drew the brush through her long, thick tresses.

  The young woman grinned. “Nay, my lady. You are a countess now, and the mistress of Wolf Hall. ‘Tis proper for you to give the orders, and for us to obey them. By my troth, I shall miss you in the kitchen. You made a merry place of that gloomy cave.”

  Alicia blinked. The reality of her new status struck her as if someone had slapped her face. With a pang of regret, she realized how much her life had changed since she had awakened this morning. She had given very little thought to her life after the wedding guests had gone.

  “I shall still visit Master Konrad to make sure that he has not drifted back to his old ways. Never fear, Audrey.”

  The maid giggled. “I am glad to hear of that, my lady.”

  Would the inhabitants of Wolf Hall think less of her if Alicia did spend time in her own kitchen? And what of the folk in the village—would they respect their new countess, even if she was not a noblewoman? Alicia drew in a little sigh. I am born of noble blood, but no one will ever know—except Thomas.

  Stepping back, Audrey regarded her handiwork. “You have a goodly head of hair. It covers you like a cape.”

  Alicia tried to return the maid’s smile with one of her own, but her lips felt stiff. “Do you think I look pleasing?” she asked in a tiny voice. She had never before worried about such a thing.

  Audrey’s eyes sparkled in the firelight. “When my lord sees you like this, he will be speechless with desire.” She pulled back the blanket, and smoothed the sheets.

  Alicia slipped gratefully into the huge bed. She wiggled deep under the protective covering of the bedclothes. “God give you a good night, Audrey.”

  The maid lit a large taper on the table beside the bed. “And may the good Lord grant you a merry one, my lady.” With another giggle, she let herself out of the door, closing it softly behind her.

  Alicia arranged herself amid the pillows, then folded her hands over her breast, and waited. She heard raucous male voices drifting up from the hall below. Their laughter grew louder, and the snatches of songs became more lascivious. She wiggled her toes, and wondered if Audrey had already told Thomas that his wife was ready for him. She prayed that the maid had been discreet. She had no desire to entertain the entire tipsy mob in her chamber.

  Hot wax rolled down the fat taper, and plopped onto the tabletop. Alicia waited. The night watchman called the midnight hour. Alicia knit her brows together in a frown. Thomas had drunk a great deal of wine after supper. She wondered if he had consumed too much. How pickled would he be when he finally came to her bed? She had never known him to drink to the point of intoxication. Then again, she reminded herself, I really do not know him very well.

  Katherine had warned her about the effects of too much wine on a man’s amorous abilities. The spir
it became more than willing, but the flesh hung limp and embarrassed. Always be tactful, her foster mother had counseled. Never chide your husband while he is still under the sway of wine or ale. Wait until he has recovered from his splitting headache in the morning.

  Another hour dragged by. The candle sank lower in its holder. A pool of cool wax covered the top of the table. Alicia twiddled her thumbs. The sounds of the revelry downstairs subsided into a low hum. Where was he? Perhaps he would be too tired to breach her tonight That thought gave her cold comfort.

  The watchman called the first hour of the new day. Not a sound came from the great hall—not even Tavie’s little yips. The candle burned a mere inch from the base of its holder. Alicia chewed her lower lip.

  Thomas does not want to come to me. He finds the idea of bedding me too distasteful, despite all his assurances that he honors me. Ha! ‘Tis the late King Edward whom he honors—not his bastard daughter.

  She could not hold back a lone tear that trickled its way down her cheek. She did not bother to brush it away. He has a mistress. No doubt he has gone to her, instead of me. By midmorning everyone in the castle will know of my shame. Thomas, how could you disgrace me this way?

  The candle sputtered in the last of its wax, then it winked out. Alicia lay in the cold darkness of the huge chamber, and grieved her plight. In spite of all this, I cannot help loving him. I am fortune’s biggest fool.

  Some time near dawn, she fell asleep.

  * * *

  A bell rang. Thomas awoke with a start. In his lap, Tavie snorted, then yawned. Thomas discovered himself slouched in his large chair in the hall. The fire had long since died in the grate. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he gently shook his head from side to side. It felt like it had swelled three sizes, and would burst at any moment. Moving gingerly, he sat upright. The village church bell rang again, summoning early risers to the day’s first mass.

  He attempted to moisten his cracked lips, but for some reason his tongue had sprouted rabbit fur. A war drum pounded against his temples. His stomach rolled like a coracle in the stormy North Sea. He tried to remember what day of the week it was.

  Tavie licked his master’s face in a friendly greeting. His tiny paws danced on top of Thomas’s queasy stomach. At his feet, Vixen stood, then stretched her long body. Georgie did not bother to open his eyes. Instead, he merely thumped his tail against the flagstones.

  The hall was nearly empty. Most of his guests had slipped away to their beds during the night. Thomas wondered why he had not gone to his own bed. The answer hit him like a bolt of lightning. Alicia!

  “God’s teeth, Tavie. I should have been with my…my wife, doing my manly duty, or whatever. I am a double-dyed villain!”

  He struggled to his feet. The room lurched alarmingly. His supper threatened to make a nasty return appearance. Whispering to the dogs to keep quiet, he wove his unsteady way out to the pump by the kitchen stoop. Before he could douse his face with ice-cold water, he had to empty his stomach into the compost heap. He felt mildly better after that.

  He pumped the handle. When the clear water gushed out, he stuck his head under the stream. The cold stung his burning skin. He grunted. He needed pain to fight the fumes of his wine-induced cowardice. He deserved severe punishment for the wrong he had done to his innocent wife. He tossed his soaking hair out of his eyes, then collapsed onto the stone steps.

  “My poor, dearest lady,” Thomas murmured to Taverstock, who had accompanied him to the gardens. “She must have lain in my bed all night, waiting for me—knave that I am.” He shook his head, then winced as a bolt of pain bounced between his ears. “I do not deserve her forgiveness.”

  He must go to her immediately and apologize. He heard the first stirrings of the cooking staff inside the kitchens. Thomas swallowed hard. He could not let anyone in the castle know that he did not sleep with his wife on their wedding night He did not care what anyone thought of his own unpredictable behavior. He was used to being the laughingstock of the shire, but he would never allow his stupidity to heap shame on sweet Alicia.

  Looking up to heaven for guidance, he spied a thickblossomed rose vine growing on a lattice overhead. With a grin, Thomas unsheathed his dagger, and cut down four of the biggest pale pink blooms. He shook the dew off their petals, then stole up the back stairs before anyone had noticed him. Tavie followed behind him. The dog’s toenails scraped against the stone stairs. It sounded extraordinarily loud to Thomas.

  Georgie and Vixen waited outside his chamber. They wagged their tails when Thomas and the little terrier appeared at the end of the gallery. He faced his own door with more trepidation than when he had faced a wounded boar last autumn. Alicia couldn’t possibly be as angry as a tusked hog, could she? He wondered if she had inherited the infamous Plantagenet temper as well as the family’s red-gold hair. Plantagenet! He cringed when he remembered who she really was. He had made his princess wait upon him! He was an ass of the first order.

  Thomas gripped the roses. Their thorns dug painfully into his skin. He took a deep, lung-filling breath. Then he lifted the latch, and pushed open the door.

  Before he realized what had happened, the dogs bounded inside his chamber as they had always done. Like salmon leaping up waterfalls, the three sailed through the air, and landed in the middle of the bed. The mattress shook with their added weight To his mounting horror, Thomas saw Tavie stand on top of the fair sleeper.

  “Taverstock, get down from there!” he whispered, snapping his fingers.

  Alicia opened her beautiful eyes, and stared straight into Tavie’s face, inches from her own. He cocked his head, and regarded her as if he had stumbled upon some unusual animal in his master’s bed. He touched her nose with his wet black one. Meanwhile, Vixen pawed the top coverlet into a disordered mound. She circled several times, then settled herself against Alicia’s pillow. Georgie flopped down on top of Alicia’s feet. The surprised woman looked over Tavie’s head at Thomas. Her clear blue eyes widened.

  He wished that the floor would open up, and swallow him into the deepest pit of hell. All the words of apology that he had composed on the stairway fled his memory. Dumbstruck with acute embarrassment, he thrust out the roses at arm’s length toward her. He tried to grin, but he felt his lips wobble.

  Alicia lifted an eyebrow. “Another bride’s gift, Thomas?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thomas looked the picture of utter misery. Any words of upbraiding disappeared from Alicia’s tongue. She could see that he was gripped by a most acute suffering. The odor of stale wine surrounded him.

  She gently extracted her feet from under Georgie’s heavy body, then she held out her hand to her husband. “The roses are beautiful, Thomas, but methinks they will be in desperate need of some water soon.”

  He nodded his head, and winced when he did so. “Aye—water.”

  He glanced around the chamber, saw the pitcher by the basin, and plopped the roses into it. Then he offered the pitcher to Alicia.

  Biting back her urge to laugh, she accepted his gift. She couldn’t help but wonder if these first twenty-four hours of her marriage were an indication of what life with Thomas was going to be like from now on. At least, things would never be boring.

  Taverstock burrowed under the covers, and curled up next to Alicia’s hip, pinning her against Vixen.

  Thomas shifted his feet from side to side. “My fault,” he mumbled.

  A beginning, but I think I deserve a little more apology than two words and four roses. Aloud, she said, “I fear I am a little hard of hearing this morning, Thomas. What did you say?”

  He pulled on the neck of his wrinkled surcoat, then cleared his throat. “Last night, you know.”

  Alicia buried her face among the roses to hide her smile. “Aye, ‘twas a long one. The moon rose and set in a most becoming manner. Did you see it perchance?”

  He reddened. “Blasts and fogs, sweet lady! I saw nothing, but the bottom of the wine jug, and the insides of my eyelids. The w
ine was a friend last night, but has turned into a mighty foe this morning. I confess my shame to you. In truth, I was as drunk as a drowned rat, and thereby hangs the tale.”

  She could not suppress her laughter any longer. “Oh, I see, yours is the tale of a drowned rat.” She lay back against the pillows, and continued to laugh.

  Thomas frowned, then he flashed another one of his heart-stopping smiles. “Methinks I hung on to the tail of that poor rodent, and so dragged myself here to you in this most disgraceful shape.” He went down on his knees. “Pray, throw me a lifeline, sweet angel. Am I forgiven?”

  Her traitorous heart swelling with love, Alicia nodded. She pulled back the covers, and patted a place beside her. “Aye, you are, Thomas. Will you come to bed now? The day has hardly begun.”

  He gasped when he saw her in her nearly transparent shift. Then he looked at the floor. He clasped and unclasped his hands. “We…we must not tarry, my lady. The cock has crowed.” He covered the rising swelling between his legs with his huge hands. “We must be abroad.”

  His stammered words turned her newfound joy into ice. Stung by his refusal, she pulled the covers up to her chin. “I did not know that we had to go anywhere, my lord. I fear you did not inform me.”

  He staggered to his feet, and massaged his head as he spoke. “We must ride around the estate today.” He cast her a beseeching glance out of his red-rimmed eyes. “The people expect me to introduce their new countess, and they would be disappointed not to see you.” He approached her as if he anticipated an attack with a broadsword. “I will be proud to ride by your side, my lady, and to call you my wife.” He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed.

  Ha! Wife in name only! Giving him a sidelong glance, Alicia saw that he hung his head between his knees. Sheer agony etched his expression. She recalled Katherine’s words about a splitting headache in the morning.