Finders Keepers (Norman Brides)

by Wood, Lynn

  Melissa hated to disillusion her sister’s romantic heart. “Luke married me because he felt responsible for what his brother did…tried to do. He didn’t rape me, Rhiann.”

  “Thank God,” Relief flooded her sister’s face. “I didn’t want to ask.”

  “Do you understand now why I insisted on the divorce? Luke is too honorable to divorce me even if he wanted to. Everything happened so quickly, I am certain he will regret his rash commitment to me once he has time to consider the kind of wife he could now reach for having become his father’s heir.”

  “He could not possibly find a more wonderful wife than the one he already has.” Rhiann declared loyally.

  Melissa smiled at her sister’s staunch defense. “Perhaps, but I would prefer he come to that conclusion on his own.”

  “I understand, and I am quite certain he will.”

  “Yes, well, there is another complication.”

  “Of course there is,” Rhiann said with an attempt at levity. “You never do anything half way.”

  Melissa laughed and met her sister’s earnest, expectant glance. “I’m pregnant.”

  Melissa watched with dark amusement as Rhiann tried valiantly to disguise her shock at her announcement. Her vivid green eyes blinked rapidly before she swiftly shook her head, an expression of hopeful relief in her eyes. “Melissa, you cannot possibly be certain of that. It’s too soon…” Her voice trailed off at the look in Melissa’s eyes.

  “That’s the other reason Luke insisted on marrying me. He would not dishonor his good friend’s wife’s sister, particularly after his brother attacked me.” Melissa waited while Rhiann absorbed the implications of her admission, and then added, “If he finds out about the babe, he will insist the divorce papers he signed are now invalid. He will demand I return to Normandy with him.”

  “Would that be so terrible?” Rhiann asked hesitantly.

  “Not if he loved me and wanted me for his wife, but to accompany him to his home knowing I am nothing more to him than his brother’s last victim, and a stupid mistake he succumbed to in a damp cave in the wilderness…” Her voice trailed off at Rhiann’s shocked expression. “He thought I was dying.”

  When Rhiann’s astonished gasp and wide-eyed expression gave evidence of her outrage at what she concluded must be Luke’s shameful deed, Melissa was quick to explain. “No Rhiann, Luke did not take advantage of my weakened condition. I took advantage of him. I didn’t want to die alone. I begged him…”

  “Oh, Melissa,” Rhiann gripped her hands.

  “You understand why I can’t force him to remain married to me? We both thought I would never wake up the following morning. Now, because of a kindness he granted a dying woman, he will be stuck with a wife he doesn’t want at the very time in his life when so many doors will be opened to him as his father’s heir.”

  Rhiann nodded her understanding. “What a tangle.”

  Melissa grinned at Rhiann’s summary. “To say the least. You understand don’t you, Rhiann? You apprehend why I cannot just sit here and wait for Luke to show up with or without Michel. I don’t doubt he will honor his promise to search for our brother, but let us be honest with each other. It is unlikely he will find Michel. So what if he arrives at Heaven’s Crest to deliver the news he was unable to fulfill the terms of our agreement and in his heart he is relieved at the prospect he will soon be free of me. He is a man of honor so he would be willing to make the marriage permanent even if he cannot discover any news of Michel, but if I insisted he honor the divorce papers he signed I think he would return to his life in Normandy and pick up the new life awaiting him there. But what if when he arrives to deliver his news about Michel he discovers I am too far along to disguise my pregnancy? I would never know…he would never know…if he truly wanted me for his wife.”

  Silence fell between them. It was Rhiann who broke it. “You’re leaving.”

  “Yes,” Melissa admitted.

  “Will you at least wait until a guard can be summoned?”

  “They did not come. I tried to summon them before.”

  Rhiann gripped her hands. “They will come. Promise me you will wait for their escort, if not for your own sake, consider the child you carry.”

  “Will you tell Nathan?”

  “No.”

  “Rhiann, you must consider. It would be better if you could honestly deny any knowledge of my plans. Your husband is not going to understand. He will regard your assistance to me as a betrayal of your vows to him.”

  Rhiann nodded and Melissa’s heart clenched at the sadness she read in her sister’s glance. “I know you speak the truth, but you are my sister. I comprehend better than you realize how it is to not know if your husband would have chosen you for a wife if he was not constrained by his knightly honor to do so. It is too late for me to ever learn the truth, but I will not deny you the opportunity to do so.”

  Stunned, Melissa protested, “Rhiann, surely you do not doubt Nathan’s regard for you. He is most considerate and attentive towards you, and is always so careful of your welfare.”

  “Yes, my husband is an honorable man and he has professed his love for me. Nathan is a most agreeable and indulgent husband. He has always been very patient with me, but I cannot pretend I was his choice for a wife. Did you know he was betrothed to another when the king decreed he must marry me if he wanted our father’s estates?”

  Melissa realized there was lot Rhiann failed to confide in her. “No, I didn’t know.”

  Rhiann dropped her glance from her probing one. “I will summon the guard. Promise me you’ll wait for their escort.”

  “I promise.” Melissa agreed and for a moment considered suggesting Rhiann accompany her, but they both knew it was too late for that. Nathan would never let Rhiann go, especially since she was now carrying his son or daughter.

  “And I promise I will tell no one about the babe.”

  Melissa hugged her sister. “Thank you.”

  The two clung to each other for long moments, each lost in their own thoughts.

  The next morning, Rhiann attended morning mass in the chapel where she was baptized. After mass she walked the short distance from the stone church to the family grave site. She brushed the leaves from her parents’ and brothers’ graves and then laid fresh wildflowers, a gift of the approaching spring, on her mother’s grave as she knelt and prayed for her family’s eternal souls. When she was finished with her prayers, she took a small handful of flowers and carried it over to the marker of one of her father’s ancestors. She knelt in front of the worn stone and brushed it clean as she had done the more recent graves of her immediate family. Offering a prayer for the great grandfather she never knew, she laid the offering on the stone marker and secured the stems with a heavy rock so they would not blow away, even in a brisk wind.

  Three days later as she walked with Melissa into the village, escorted by two of her husband’s soldiers, she saw a hawk take flight in the distance and motioned to Melissa. They paused to watch as the hawk circled twice around the keep as if in search of fresh prey, before seemingly abandoning his quest and soaring off into the morning sky. Melissa watched the hawk’s majestic flight and then squeezed Rhiann’s hand where it rested in hers as they continued their errand into the village. The sign had been given. Before a new dawn rose over Heaven’s Crest, she would make good her escape.

  Amele was waiting for her as she exited the tunnels outside the walls and at the opening of the old forest. She sighed relieved at the sight of his familiar face. He motioned for silence as he reached down to help her up the last of the stone steps and to take her small burden of clothes and food and water from her. The others waited with the horses deeper in the woods. Enveloped in darkness, they were all but invisible in their dark cloaks, astride their dark horses. Even their mounts seemed to understand the need for silence. The others nodded as she joined them and Melissa nodded back, ashamed she had put them at risk by her ignominious flight.

  The new lord of Heaven
’s Crest would have no choice but to follow her. Luke was his good friend. The king himself placed her under his guardianship. For a moment she thought about turning around and returning to her room at the keep the same way she came before anyone realized she was gone, but it wasn’t only her pride that rebelled against such a plan, it was her heart. For the first time in her life she was confused about the direction of her life. More than ever she missed the comfort of Michel’s counsel, his willingness to be amused by even her most outrageous complaint, but now she was uncertain if even her twin could help her out of the tangled web she was trapped in.

  Arden lifted his head at her approach. His dark eyes stared into hers in silent communion with her troubled spirit, and offered his unconditional support. She reached out a gentle hand and stroked his silky neck. Amele helped her to mount and then under the cover of a moonless sky their small company silently wove their way through the familiar paths that would lead them deeper into the woods and away from her family home. Melissa put aside her own misery long enough to offer up a silent prayer for Rhiann’s fate when Nathan learned she was no longer at the keep. Melissa had no doubt Nathan would blame Rhiann for her escape, and when confronted, her sister did not have it in her to lie to her husband. Another heavy burden for her to carry in her heart. How many lives was she willing to ruin? Maybe she should have just waited for Luke to return to Heaven’s Crest and demand with or without word of Michel’s fate, he honor his promise to her. Or maybe, he might actually want her for his wife and refuse to release her from her commitment to him. Would that be so bad? Would that be worse than what her sister faced when she was wed to an enemy knight and expected to warm his bed? Luke was no stranger to her. The king seemed convinced of his sincerity in wanting her for a wife.

  Her troubled thoughts kept her occupied until they paused at dawn to water the horses. In the new light Amele met her cautious glance and broke the long silence between them.

  “Well, little warrior, what now?”

  Melissa blinked back defeated tears at his familiar endearment, then admitted dejectedly. “I wish I knew.”

  Surprise had his brows arching over his chocolate eyes. Melissa would swear she saw amusement dancing along with the surprise but she couldn’t bring herself to take offense at the evidence of it. God knew she’d led this man on a merry chase a time or two, and he was always there to bring her safely home. Unfortunately, she didn’t think this was going to be one of those times. She suspected he knew it too.

  So it was in a gentle voice, he admitted in all honesty, “I don’t believe there has ever been a time in your young life when you didn’t know exactly what you were about.”

  “I’ve made a mess of things, Amele,” Melissa admitted, unknowingly echoing Luke’s words to Nathan the morning after their wedding. “I honestly don’t know what is right for me to do any more.”

  “Your brother will know what is to be done.”

  “Have you heard from Michel?” Melissa heart leapt at the possibility.

  “No, but I do not interpret his silence the same way you do.”

  “You believe my brother is still alive?”

  “Yes.”

  Melissa took comfort from the older man’s assurance. There was very little Amele was ever mistaken about. “My grandmother is well?”

  “She will be glad to have the company of her granddaughter. She grieves.”

  Melissa nodded. “I hope I may be a comfort to her, but I worry she may not be so happy to see me when she hears the full truth.”

  Amele laughed. “I don’t doubt your grandmother is up to any challenge. Besides, the distraction of unravelling your knotted life will provide a welcome diversion from the heavy cloud of grief she’s wrapped herself in these past few months.”

  “I have been selfish, thinking only of myself,” Melissa confessed.

  “And why not? When have you ever been encouraged to do anything else? Your father spoiled you shamelessly.”

  Melissa laughed at his bracing truth. “It is true, he did. I could not be the daughter he wished me to be, but I loved him, Amele. I miss him. I miss them so much.”

  Amele reached over and gripped her hand as her voice trailed off in her struggle against her tears. “It is no sin to cry for your loss, little one. Your brother is not here to see you.”

  “You’re here.” Melissa impatiently swiped away the unwanted tears lingering on her lashes.

  “And what of it? Do you think I have not mopped up a woman’s tears a time or two over the years? Even your grandmother’s?”

  Melissa wondered what could bring her invincible grandmother to tears, and guessed it probably wasn’t something as pitiful as her own problems. “I wish I was more like her.”

  Amele let out a brisk laugh. The sound echoed throughout the hushed silence of the forest. Apparently he was no longer worried about being heard. “You are more like her than either your mother or your gentle sister. By the way, how is Lady Rhiann doing with her new Norman husband?”

  Melissa admitted in a pitiful voice. “She was doing fine with him until I came along.”

  Amele grinned. “You certainly are in a mood today, aren’t you?”

  At his gentle teasing, Melissa felt as if a heavy weight was lifted off her shoulders. What was done was done. There was no way for her to go back and undo anything, and crying about it wasn’t going to solve anything. “Sorry. I suppose self-pity will not get me anywhere.”

  “At least not anywhere you wish to be.”

  Melissa shoulders shook. Amele was never one to pull a punch when one was warranted. “Rhiann will be all right. Her new Norman husband adores her and she’s carrying his heir, or his daughter. It is my own Norman husband I’m more concerned about at the moment.”

  Amele laughed, both stunned and delighted by her sorry confession. Their glances met and he went off again. Apparently her old friend and mentor found hysterical the thought of her with a Norman husband after all she’d done to avoid her Saxon suitors. She reached over to push him off his horse for his amusement at her expense. He merely pushed her back and then swiftly reached out to steady her when she lost her balance before finally managing to get his laughter under control. “You may repay me for your many years of ill-thought-out escapades with the details of this Norman husband of yours. I am particularly interested to know why, if you are newly wed, you were at Heaven’s Crest under the protection of your sister’s husband.”

  Melissa wrinkled her nose and admitted, “I didn’t want to go to Normandy.”

  Amele grinned widely but controlled his fresh amusement with an effort. “You might have considered that before you married your Norman husband.”

  “It wasn’t as though I had a lot of choice in the matter.”

  Amele’s dark eyes lit with laughter. “I imagine your sister had very little choice in the matter of her husband either, yet I would bet she remains behind at Heaven’s Crest and is a dutiful wife to her new lord.”

  “I hate that word dutiful. My father threw it in my face at every opportunity.”

  “There are worse fates, child. Are we not all tied to our duties in one way or another?”

  “Now you are being reasonable. I am not yet ready to be reasonable.”

  “Well then by all means, regale me with your tale of this beast of a Norman husband you’ve acquired, and how the new king forced this marriage upon your unsuspecting, defenseless shoulders.”

  Melissa giggled at his dramatic turn of phrase. “I am never defenseless.”

  “That is good to know. For a moment I thought all of my long years of instruction were a wasted effort.”

  Melissa met his smiling gaze and sighed heavily. “It really wasn’t my fault this time.”

  Amele’s lips twitched. “It never is.”

  Melissa shared enough of the story with her old friend to appease his curiosity, but left out the more violent and intimate details from her account. Amele listened with both concern and entertainment and then summed up her pi
tiful situation with a few succinct sentences. “So let me see if I comprehend matters correctly. You’ve sent your new husband on a fool’s errand scouring the Saxon countryside to find Michel, who I very much doubt is lost and in need of finding. You put your sister in an awkward position, to say the least, with her new husband, who will likely not be quite so adoring when he realizes she helped you to leave the keep unescorted, particularly when he is responsible for seeing to your safety. And finally, regardless of whether or not your new husband locates your twin, you have no intention of honoring your sacred vows to him.”

  “It sounds a lot worse when you say it,” Melissa admitted miffed.

  “May I inquire what your plan is for getting rid of your new husband, who seems from what you’ve told me quite adamant about claiming his wife upon his return to Heaven’s Crest?”

  “I don’t really have a plan. I’m hoping he realizes he made a mistake and does not let his pride interfere with releasing us both from this foolish marriage.”

  When her admission was met only with silence, Melissa turned her head to meet Amele’s glance. She couldn’t tell if it was astonishment or confusion she read there, but he appeared to be at a loss for words. “I think, child, you might begin working on another strategy. A man does not offer to forego a large financial reward for his family’s services to his king in exchange for a wife he doesn’t want, and does not intend to keep.”

  “He signed the divorce papers,” Melissa was quick to remind him.

  “You gave him little choice in the matter.”

  “He feels responsible for his brother’s actions.”

  “Trust me, child, no man feels that responsible.”

  In the face of Amele’s conviction, Melissa was forced to consider she might have misread the situation. Maybe Luke really did want her for a wife, after all. Then she remembered her husband’s most glaring sin. “He told me he was a busy man and I needed to learn my place as his wife.”

  Amele swallowed fresh laughter. “I imagine that did not sit well with you.”