A Midsummer Knight's Kiss

by Elisabeth Hobbes

  ‘A son would have been preferable,’ Lady Danby remarked with a thin-lipped smile. ‘What a pity Roger will return home to another girl.’

  Robbie bit down his retort. There were seven years between him and his twin sisters, and another six between them and the new baby. His mother felt her failure to produce a son, however much his father assured her he was more than content.

  ‘Still, boy, that does not explain your appearance,’ Lady Danby continued.

  Robbie glanced over his clothes. He did indeed have goose crap on his lower legs, as well as grass stains on his knees and fingers that were sticky from pear juice.

  ‘S-s-someone let the geese into the pear orchard and they w-w-were attacking Rowenna.’

  Lady Danby looked down her nose at him. Whatever the reason for his appearance, he suspected she would disapprove. The sight of the twins peeking around the corner of the dais at the end of the hall made him suspect who the culprits were.

  ‘That explains, at least, why my cook has been waiting half the afternoon for the pears. Where is that idle girl now?’

  Robbie was saved from answering by Rowenna and Joanna’s arrival. As soon as Joanna returned to sit with Lucy, leaving instructions for Robbie to remain, Rowenna was summoned to stand before Lady Danby. She recounted her tale in a trembling voice and displayed her fruit, which was found wanting and sent to the kitchen to be boiled down into sweetmeats.

  ‘You’re a disgrace, Rowenna Danby.’ Lady Stick reached for her cane. ‘I had hoped you would begin to display some decorum, but I see you have not.’

  ‘Decorum wouldn’t have picked the pears,’ Rowenna retorted, ‘or seen off the geese!’

  Robbie winced. Rowenna never knew when to hold her tongue. It was infuriating.

  ‘Rude chit! Hold out your hand. You’ll get two strokes now.’

  Lady Danby’s voice was iced outrage. Rowenna whimpered softly. She held her hand out. It was already scraped and red. Small drops of blood welled in places. The whipping would hurt much more than usual.

  ‘It wasn’t her fault! My s-s-sisters let the geese out.’ Robbie rushed across the room and stood between Rowenna and his grandmother. ‘If you’re going to punish Ro, you should punish them, too.’

  Lady Danby’s eyes flickered to the twins playing happily in front of the fire and beckoned them over.

  ‘Does your brother speak the truth?’

  Anne nodded shyly. Lisbet, looking amused, scuffed the floor with her foot. They were identical, save for Anne’s slightly straighter hair and a small mark on Lisbet’s left knuckle, and looked more like their father than their mother. Lady Danby’s face softened at the sight.

  ‘That was naughty of you, girls. If you do that again, I will have to punish you. Now, go back to your game and be quiet.’

  The girls scampered away, giggling with relief.

  ‘Hold out your hand, Rowenna,’ Lady Danby repeated.

  Robbie watched with mounting, impotent fury as Rowenna thrust her hand forward and closed her eyes. The stick swished through the air and snapped down. Rowenna gave a wordless wail and bunched her fist tightly. Tears began to stream down her round red cheeks. She opened her hand again and the second stroke caused her to yelp as blood welled in her palm.

  ‘I hope this will teach you to behave more like the lady your parents are trying to make you into,’ Lady Danby said. ‘It will be hard enough with the stain on your family to find you a place in society without you doing everything you can to thwart it.’

  Rowenna flushed even redder, but to Robbie’s relief she had the sense not to rise to this taunt.

  ‘Now, Robbie. Your hand, for being so insolent.’

  Boldly, Robbie met Lady Danby’s eyes. He clenched his jaw and held his breath and was proud that when the stick met his palm he allowed no sound to escape him. He kept his hand outstretched until Lady Danby had lowered her cane before slowly closing his fist. He bowed deeply and asked to be dismissed, and it was only when he had left the room that he allowed hot tears to fall as he clutched his palm beneath his armpit to stop the pain.

  * * *

  Despite the unpleasant interlude, the evening meal was a merry affair. Robbie’s father, Sir Roger, returned at sunset. He called on Lucy, then visited Wharram Manor, greeting his daughters by swinging them high into the air until they squealed. He enveloped Robbie in a strong embrace.

  ‘Lucy is going to be vexed with me, I fear,’ he told Robbie with a broad grin. ‘My business was successful.’

  Excitement coursed through Robbie. He had told no one of the business Sir Roger had left on, though he had found it hard to keep the secret from Rowenna.

  His father named a place and person, but looked solemn. ‘We’ll talk more this evening when we’re in our own home.’

  As soon as he was able, Robbie sought Rowenna out and pulled her into Lady Danby’s garden, determined that she should be the first to hear his news. He had been allowed more ale than usual and felt as though his head was padded inside with raw wool.

  They sat side by side on the stone bench and listened to the bleating of the sheep on the moors. Rowenna ran her fingers over Robbie’s palm. ‘I’m sorry you got a whipping,’ she said, fingertips tracing the lines on his palm. ‘It was my fault.’

  It was intended to be soothing, but made Robbie’s chest tighten. He was becoming uncomfortably aware how even the glimpse of one of the village girls’ legs could make his body do all manner of alarming things. Before today Rowenna had never had such an effect on him and he was unsure he was comfortable with it.

  He concentrated on examining her hand, unwrapping the wide blue ribbon she was using as a makeshift bandage. The skin on her palm had broken in three places and was dotted with raised weals across the mounds below her fingers where she had previously scuffed them. They would scab over in time, but were now weeping a little. The fury that had boiled inside him began to rise once more.

  ‘I’m not sorry,’ he said. ‘But why did you have to be rude to her and earn yourself a second strike?’

  ‘Why should I keep quiet when she is being unjust?’ She gazed at him, eyes full of rebellion and outrage.

  ‘Is s-speaking out worth the pain of a whipping?’ he asked gently.

  ‘Sometimes it is. Lady Stick didn’t have to punish either of us. She just doesn’t like us.’

  Rowenna wrapped the ribbon round her hand once more and bunched her fist. Her expression grew fierce. ‘She never tells Anne and Lisbet off the way she does us or John. She dotes on them! Mother says its because my father isn’t her true son so I’m not really her kin. I don’t know why she dislikes you, though. She loves your father and one day you’ll be Lord Danby.’

  Robbie’s heart filled with pity. Uncle Hal was a bastard: the illegitimate son of Robbie’s grandfather. He would never hold rank or title and nor would any of his children.

  ‘She thinks I’m stupid because I s-speak poorly,’ he muttered.

  ‘But you aren’t at all!’ Rowenna exclaimed. She twisted round to face him. ‘You’re clever and kind and brave. That’s twice today you have defended me. Thank you, Sir Robert.’

  Robbie couldn’t contain his excitement any longer.

  ‘I will be Sir Robert,’ he said, facing Rowenna. ‘Father has secured me a place as a squire. I shall have to serve two years as a page so I’ll be fifteen rather than fourteen before I become squire.’

  ‘Are you going to go?’ Rowenna asked quietly.

  ‘Of course,’ Robbie exclaimed. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

  Rowenna pouted. ‘You’ll become Lord Danby anyway one day. You could just stay here.’

  ‘I can’t just wait here until I inherit my title. I need to earn it. I want to serve in another household.’

  ‘Then I’m very pleased for you. It’s what you’ve wanted for as long as I can remember!’ Rowenna was beaming, but
her smile didn’t reach her eyes. ‘Where will you be going?’

  ‘Wentbrig. To Sir John Wallingdon, who owes fealty to De Lacy of Pontefract.’

  ‘That’s so far,’ Rowenna breathed with excitement. ‘The same distance again as from here to York.’

  Robbie looked towards the beck, even though it was too dark to see the moor or stream. His whole life had been spent in Wharram Danby or Ravenscrag. The furthest he had been was to York, when Uncle Hal stayed in his town house and invited Roger’s family to visit. When he had to leave, a part of his heart would be torn from his chest, remaining in the home he loved.

  Rowenna’s eyes shone with dreams. ‘I wish I could go with you. You’ll get to see the whole country while I have to stay here.’

  He took her hand and was surprised by the strength in hers when she gave his a squeeze in response. He cared a lot for her, for all the trouble she caused.

  ‘I’ll miss you most of all,’ Robbie said. ‘I’ll write to Father and get him to tell you everything I say.’

  ‘Perhaps I’ll work harder at learning my letters so I can read them myself,’ she replied. ‘Father wants me to read and write as much as Mother nags me to learn to sew and sing. I’ll have to if I’m to ever become a lady and satisfy Lady Stick. “A bastard’s daughter who can’t behave might as well be a dairymaid”,’ she said, mimicking Lady Danby’s cold tones. ‘I’ll have to catch a husband somehow.’

  Robbie couldn’t imagine his best friend as a grown woman. She would for ever remain a wild, unruly girl who joined in with the village children kicking a blown-up bladder through the beck, or dirtying her skirts playing Blind Beggar Catch. For that matter he could barely see himself as the knight he hoped to become. He pulled Rowenna to her feet to stand opposite him. She smiled and her hand tightened on his, causing the hairs on his arms to rise. She was quite pretty, really.

  ‘I would marry you,’ he declared nobly.

  She burst into peals of laughter. ‘Yes, we should get married! Can you imagine what fun we’d have?’

  Robbie blinked. He didn’t think marriage was supposed to be fun. It should be passionate to the point of mortifying onlookers like his parents’, or serious and prickly like his grandparents’. He couldn’t marry Rowenna. Once more it struck him how unfair it was that she was a bastard’s child. She couldn’t help who her father was.

  ‘Perhaps I’ll meet a lord who will marry you and you will be Lady Rowenna after all. Lady Dumpling.’

  Robbie ducked his head to avoid the playful swipe of her hand and they stared at the sky in silence. The stars pricked the blackness like gems on a velvet cloak. He plucked a rosebud and held it out to her.

  ‘We’ll always be friends, even if I become a noble knight and you’re still hurling yourself out of trees,’ he said.

  She unwound the ribbon from her hand and held it out to him. ‘Here. You asked for a favour earlier. Take this. I hope it brings you more luck than the pear did.’

  Robbie coiled it around two fingers, then slipped it inside the pouch at his belt.

  ‘I’ll be returning to Ravenscrag tomorrow morning with Mother,’ Rowenna said. ‘Will you come visit us before you leave?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Father had said he could leave as soon as he liked, but he might delay for a few weeks. He lifted Rowenna’s hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles lightly in the manner he had been taught, bowing low with a flourish. Her face grew uncharacteristically serious.

  ‘Promise you won’t forget me.’

  Robbie put his sore hand to hers, palm to palm. They linked fingers and another rush of fondness for Rowenna filled him.

  ‘I promise. We’ll always be friends.’

  She smiled widely, then unexpectedly leaned close and kissed his cheek. The sensation lingered long after she had darted back inside the house.

  * * *

  Roger was sitting in the kitchen when Robbie returned home. He looked up when Robbie entered.

  ‘We need to talk.’

  He gestured to a chair. Robbie sat, unnerved by the serious tone. Roger had poured two cups of wine and was turning one between his fingers. His hands were mismatched: one pink, smooth and hairless. Robbie had never asked why.

  ‘Is something wrong with Mother?’

  ‘Lucy is well. She’s sleeping. This concerns you. What I am about to say must never be spoken of to another,’ Roger continued. He stood and paced around the room. Robbie’s heart began to pound a slow drumbeat.

  ‘I have considered how to tell you and there is no easy way of doing it.’

  ‘Tell me what?’ Robbie urged.

  Roger poured himself another cup of wine and drained it in one gulp.

  ‘Robbie, I am not your father.’

  The world folded in. Robbie lifted his cup to his lips, but it was as if someone else was drinking the wine because he tasted nothing. He thought about protesting that his father was jesting, or there was a mistake, but the look in Roger’s eyes told him it was futile.

  ‘We always wondered if you would remember the time before I met your mother, but you never did.’ Roger twisted his cup between his hands and bowed his head.

  ‘And now you have told me, you are s-s-sending me away?’

  ‘You are not an exile,’ Roger said. ‘You want to go.’

  Robbie stared around. He could remember nothing before this stone house full of laughter and affection, but now the walls trapped him.

  Robbie’s throat seized with an unspeakable pain. It was not in his nature to shout or rant, and experience told him that he stuttered worse when he did.

  ‘Why are you telling m-me now?’ he asked in a low voice.

  ‘You have a right to know.’

  ‘It’s something I should have always known!’

  Roger reached out a hand, which Robbie ignored, his heart tearing. The father who had soothed Robbie when he fell, played with him and taught him did nothing to ease the grief and confusion beyond offer a hand.

  ‘You were too young to understand before and we couldn’t risk you revealing it. There were reputations to consider. But you are almost a man and should know the truth about yourself.’

  Robbie balled his hands. Roger’s reputation was the least of his considerations when his world had been shattered. He flung himself from the stool, sending it crashing to the floor. He winced at the noise. The wine made his head spin, adding to the fug of emotions that surged inside him.

  ‘Sit down and be sensible,’ Roger said.

  Robbie glared, bristling at the command in Roger’s voice, and stood his ground.

  ‘Is Sir John my father?’

  Roger shook his head.

  ‘Who is?’

  ‘That doesn’t matter.’

  ‘It matters to me!’

  ‘It is not my place to tell you.’ Roger looked away. ‘This changes nothing. I have no son of my own.’

  Robbie glanced at the closed door to his mother’s room. Acid filled his throat. If the new baby had been a son, Robbie would have been an outcast by now.

  ‘You’re my only heir. Titles can pass to adopted sons if there is no legitimate heir.’

  Roger smiled, as if this negated years of deceit. Robbie had often marvelled at the way his father—no, his stepfather—swept through life with a carefree manner as if nothing had consequence. Did Roger not understand how completely he had destroyed everything Robbie had believed to be true?

  ‘But you haven’t adopted me. You’ve kept it secret.’ Robbie began to shake.

  ‘William of Pickering believes only true bloodlines matter. His son, Horace, might see differently when he becomes the Earl, but it is too much of a risk to reveal the truth. Secrecy is better. For now, at least,’ Roger said.

  ‘Lies are better, you mean?’ Robbie exclaimed. ‘What if I reject your plan and refuse to be yo
ur heir?’

  ‘Then Wharram could pass to a stranger when I die. Everything my family has created will be lost.’ Roger eyed him sharply. ‘Would you do that?’

  The portion of land owned by the Danbys, including Rowenna’s village of Ravenscrag, was held in fief from the tenant-in-chief, William of Pickering. Whether or not Robbie cared if the manor passed to another of William’s vassals—and at this point he was not sure he did—there were tenants who relied on the Danbys. Another nobleman who was unfamiliar with the area might be less generous and fair with the serfs and peasants. Robbie couldn’t be responsible for jeopardising so many lives. He shook his head.

  ‘Does anyone else know?’ he asked.

  ‘Hal and Joanna, and my parents.’

  Which was why Lady Stick had no liking for Robbie. He was not her blood any more than Rowenna was.

  ‘Your reputation is safe,’ he said stiffly. ‘I shall tell no one and I shall be your heir. I’ll leave for Wentbrig at first light.’

  ‘There’s no need for that.’

  Roger looked distraught. He raked his fingers through his hair, a gesture that Robbie had unconsciously adopted. Robbie stared at the man, who he resembled so closely in manner and looks. No wonder the deception had been so easy.

  ‘There’s every need. You’ve done your duty and found me a position. I shall take it.’

  He had promised to see Rowenna. Though he would break his word, how could he face her knowing what he did now, but unable to share his burden? He did not know what the future held, but it was not in Wharram.

  He bowed curtly. ‘Please tell my mother I am sorry not to see her. Farewell, Sir Roger.’

  He left the room before he cried.

  Chapter Two

  June 1381

  Her name was Mary Scarbrick and he loved her more than life itself. Robbie Danby knew with absolute certainty she was the woman he wanted to marry. She had hair so blond it was almost white and eyes the colour of his mother’s sapphire rings. True, he had only known her a month, but it had been a month filled with the greatest passions and despair he had ever experienced.