Adalind continued to stare at him. Now that the wave of hysteria had rolled over her, she was strangely calm. Pensive, even. But she still leaned back against the wall for support; she didn’t trust herself to stand under her own power just yet.
“Maddoc?”
“Aye?”
“Go away and come back later. Say the same thing to me at that time and, perhaps, I will believe you.”
With a twinkle in the bright blue eyes, his gaze lingered on her a moment before he turned away without another word. Before he reached the door, however, he spoke.
“De Burgh is in the bailey, my lord,” he said to David. “If I am in competition with him for Lady Adalind’s hand, then you will understand I will do what I must in order to rid myself of my competition.”
David still wasn’t over the scene he had just witnessed but he forced himself to focus on what Maddoc was saying.
“You may not challenge him, Maddoc,” he said quietly. “De Burgh must be treated with care. I would not bring the whole family down around us.”
“I will not challenge him.” Maddoc turned to look at him. “But I will not welcome him, either. I ask that you send another to deal with de Burgh, for I cannot do it. Forgive me.”
David gazed at the man with some astonishment. He had always known Maddoc to be the most responsible, stable, and wise knight he’d ever known. Maddoc had been mature beyond his years at a very young age and his wisdom and common sense in all things were second to none. To hear those words come forth from the man was quite extraordinary. He believed him implicitly. He took a few steps in Maddoc’s direction.
“Maddoc,” he began, grasping for words. “I must ask. Are you… are you truly serious about Adalind?”
“I am, my lord.”
“In all the years I have known you and in all of the years she annoyed you to tears, you have never once expressed any interest in her. Why the change of heart?”
Maddoc’s gaze was intense. “The woman who came back to Canterbury is not the Adalind either one of us remembers,” he said quietly. “She is cultured, poised, wise, humorous, and undeniably beautiful. She is also vulnerable and sad. I… I cannot explain why my heart has changed only that it has. You will have to take me at my word.”
David’s gaze was equally intense. “Then if you are serious about courting her, I will have to treat you like any other suitor.”
“What do you mean?”
David expression flickered, no longer the liege of a knight but the grandfather of the woman the knight intended to pursue. He wasn’t sure how else to behave but he wanted to make his thoughts clear to Maddoc.
“As my captain, you have unrestricted access to the entire family, including Adalind,” he lowered his voice. “If you truly intend to court her, then your access will be limited. You will be watched when you are with her. You will no longer be permitted to be alone with her and any and all requests for her time will have to come through me. Am I making myself clear?”
Maddoc nodded. “You are, my lord.”
“Do you still intend to pursue her, then?”
“I do.”
David couldn’t help it; he still wasn’t over his astonishment and slipped. “Do you really?”
“Absolutely.”
David took him for his word. He was no longer astonished because Maddoc seemed very sincere If he thought on it, he was rather delighted, not only for Adalind’s sake but for his own. He had always adored Maddoc and to have the man as a son was something of a dream for him as well. A hint of a smile came to his lips.
“I will say this only once but if you ask me to repeat it, I will deny ever speaking the words,” he admonished. “I could ask for no better husband for Adalind. I have raised her, you know, since her father died those years ago. She is not only my granddaughter but my child as well. She deserves every happiness in the world and I know you would be good to her. But I swear upon all that is holy if you hurt her or mislead her in any way, I will kill you myself. Do you understand?”
Maddoc knew the threat was sincere. He was unafraid in his reply. “I do, my lord. Implicitly.”
David’s gaze lingered on him as if to emphasize his point. He wanted to make sure Maddoc knew he would slit the man’s throat and take great pleasure in it if Maddoc hurt Adalind in any fashion. But Maddoc’s gaze held firm, eye to eye, and they understood each other. It was an oddly tense moment but a necessary one. After a moment, David nodded shortly.
“Very well,” he rumbled. “Go about your duties but stay away from Adalind. I will greet de Burgh.”
They vacated the room without another word, leaving Adalind still standing against the wall, wondering what they had been whispering about. More than that, she was still coming to grips with what had just happened. She still couldn’t believe it. Surely she had imagined it.
Pushing herself off the wall, she collected her fallen loom, off balance herself as she tried to right it. It ended up falling again and she left it, too unsteady to pick it up again. Her mind was elsewhere as she staggered out of the receiving room and up the spiral stairs to the third floor where her small chamber was.
Thankfully, Willow wasn’t anywhere to be found so Adalind had it to herself as she flopped down on her bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what on earth had just happened. Maddoc has offered to marry me. Dear God, surely it was still a dream!
She fell into a deep and exhausted sleep for five straight hours.
*
Adalind woke up to the soft voice of her mother.
“Addie?” Christina was stroking her head gently. “Addie, wake up.”
Adalind’s eyes popped open to find her mother gazing down at her, her lovely face bathed in firelight. The small chamber was dark and warm and Adalind lay there for a moment as she oriented herself. The last she recalled, she had been in Emilie’s solar with her grandfather and Maddoc had come in to…
Maddoc! Adalind sat bolt upright and nearly smacked her mother in the process. Christina had to move swiftly to get out of the way as Adalind leaped out of the bed.
“Mama!” she exclaimed. “Maddoc told Papa that he wants to marry me!”
Christina was fighting off a grin. “I know,” she said. “Everyone knows. Papa told me but Willow heard us speaking, and she quite happily spread the news until Papa told her to stop. Unfortunately, she did not listen so he spanked her. Now she is in my chamber weeping. Grandmother is with her and I am here with you. How do you feel?”
It was a concise outline of the past few hours and it took Adalind a moment to absorb it all. She looked at her mother with wide eyes, both confused and elated. Truth be told, she wasn’t quite sure what she was feeling. Excitement didn’t quite encompass it all.
“I… I am not sure,” she said. Then, she ran to her vanity and grabbed the bone comb, running it through her long blond hair swiftly. “I must find Maddoc and make sure he meant what he said. Perhaps he was momentarily mad. Perhaps he was under a spell!”
Christina couldn’t help the smile that spread across her lips. “He was not momentarily mad nor was he bewitched,” she assured her daughter. “When Papa told me what had happened, I immediately sought him out and we had a very long conversation. He meant what he said, Addie. He has asked permission to court you.”
Adalind looked at her mother with shock. “I do not believe it,” she hissed, throwing the comb down and snatching the alabaster pot of beeswax to rub over her lips. “I must speak with him.”
Christina laughed softly. “Papa has forbidden you from being with Maddoc without a chaperone,” she said. “Please come down to sup. You will feel better when you have eaten something.”
Adalind grabbed her woolen cloak, brown and lined with rabbit fur. “I do not want to eat,” she said. “I cannot. Mama, do you realize what this means? Maddoc is… he is… merciful heavens, I still cannot believe it!”
Christina continued to chuckle as Adalind wrapped up in her cloak and bolted to the door. She reached
out a gentle hand to stop her daughter.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To find Maddoc,” Adalind said. “I told you, Mama – I must speak with him. I must understand what has happened.”
“I just told you that Papa does not want you to be alone with him. If Maddoc is truly a suitor, then he will be treated like one.”
Adalind lifted an eyebrow. “You may trust me that nothing unsavory will occur between us,” she said. “I promise to behave. I will not throw myself at the man. Please, Mama… please?”
Christina knew better than to try and stop her. Adalind had been waiting her entire life for this moment, a moment she never truly believed would come. Propriety aside, she couldn’t deny her daughter. The glow in Adalind’s face had her relenting.
“I left him in the knight’s quarters,” she said softly. “Papa and everyone are in the smaller hall where the evening meal is commencing. I do not know if Maddoc is still where I left him, but you can slip outside and find him. Oh, and Walter de Burgh will be supping with us tonight.”
Adalind’s features hardened. “Then I will not eat in the hall. I do not want to see the man.”
“I did not think so,” Christina murmured, stroking her daughter’s hair. “I will tell Papa you are not feeling well.”
Adalind kissed her mother on the cheek, hurriedly, and slipped from the chamber. Fortunately, the stairs were out of sight of the great hall in the keep but the entry door was not. Christina, who had followed her daughter downstairs, made sure that everyone’s attention was elsewhere before directing her daughter to quit the keep.
A fog was rolling in once again from the east as Adalind entered the bailey. The air was cold and moist, and the sentries on the wall with their dogs and torches were eerily shrouded in mist. She pulled her cloak tight as she headed for the knight’s house, a small building set against the massive fortress wall that housed the army commanders. There were four good-sized rooms and then a bigger common room. She knocked politely on the door, her stomach in knots.
After several additional knocks, it was clear that the quarters were empty. With a slower pace, she headed back across the bailey towards the enormous feasting hall that was built all by itself in the southeast corner of the castle. It was only used for big events; the rest of the time, the soldiers tended to gather in it to eat their meals or sleep. The family almost always used the smaller, more private hall in the keep. Thinking Maddoc might be in the bigger hall, she made her way towards it. She was just into the shadows of the structure, shielded from most of the bailey, when she heard a voice from behind.
“What are you doing wandering out here?”
Adalind recognized Maddoc’s tone as she whirled around to face him. He came up behind her, his blue eyes glittering as their gazes locked.
“’Tis cold,” he said, his voice softer. “Why are you not inside supping with de Burgh?”
Adalind found she was rather breathless at the sight of him. Her heart was beating so loudly against her ribs that she was sure he could hear it.
“Probably for the same reason you are not supping with him,” she said. “I do not wish to be near him.”
He gave her a half-grin. “That is the truth,” he agreed. “But in my case, it is more likely that your grandfather forbade me from going anywhere near the man. I am, therefore, assigned to the night watch so I can stay away from him. I am supposed to stay away from you, too.”
Adalind shrugged, as if she hadn’t time for such nonsense. “That does not seem natural to me.”
“Nor to me.”
It was a warm and, perhaps, leading answer. Adalind gazed at Maddoc with a rather wide-eyed stare. It was the man she’d always known, the man she’d loved from her earliest memories, but as she gazed at him, she could only think of one thing to say to him.
“Maddoc, why?”
He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
She swallowed hard for her mouth was dry. Nerves were causing her to tremble. “Why…” she swallowed again. “Why did you say those things earlier?”
His grin broadened. “I believe I was quite clear.”
She shook her head. “But it does not make any sense to me,” she said, almost pleadingly. “As a child, I would follow you around until you would chase me way. Do you remember? You would tell me to go away or you would turn the dogs on me. Then I would run off and hide for a time before writing you notes in the dirt apologizing for making you angry. Do you remember that as well?”
His gaze was warm. “Of course I remember. You only knew a few words so your notes were mostly gibberish, but I will tell you a secret about them.”
“What?”
“They always made me smile and then I would feel tremendously guilty for being so harsh with you.”
She smiled faintly, but just as quickly sobered. The subject at hand was too serious to get off course with other recollections.
“Maddoc, please do not toy with me,” she begged. “Tell me why you have changed your mind about me. Surely you must know how this has affected me. All my life… all my life I have dreamed of you and now…”
She trailed off, unable to continue as she averted her gaze. Maddoc could see how confused she was. In truth, he had been confused as well. He’d spent the entire afternoon reflecting on what he’d said and a good hour discussing the situation Christina. The woman’s only concern had naturally been for her daughter and Maddoc had been duly interrogated. By the end of the conversation, his confusion had transformed into certainty. It was as if reasoning his thoughts out with her mother had clarified everything. Now, as he gazed at Adalind, he had never been more certain about anything in his life.
“Now you will make my dreams come true,” he murmured, taking a step closer to her. “I explained my reasoning this afternoon. I am not sure I can elaborate on that, Addie.”
She wasn’t convinced. “You do understand that I have been asking you to marry me since I was about five years of age, and you have been resisting me since that time?”
“Sometimes it takes me quite a while to make up my mind.”
“It took you thirteen years?”
He shrugged. Then, he cocked his head pensively. “You never did answer me, you know.”
“Answer what?”
“I asked you if you still found anything attractive about me. You did not answer me.”
She looked at him as if he were daft. “Are you serious?”
“Of course.”
She threw up her hands. “That is the most foolish question I have ever heard,” she declared. “Maddoc, I have spent the past several years unsuccessfully attempting to put you out of my heart and out of my mind. When I first saw you two days ago, after having not seen you in years, it was as if every thought and dream I ever had about you was confirmed and I knew I could never forget you no matter how hard I tried. When I spoke of committing myself to the convent, it was not an attempt to force you into a proposal. It was because I knew I could never marry another man while my heart belonged to you. I would be doing both him and me a great disservice. Papa thought that perhaps someone would eventually come along that would change my mind, but I assured him that was not the case. The heart wants what the heart wants.”
Maddoc’s expression was soft. “And it still wants me?”
Adalind could feel her nervousness, her disbelief, fading as she looked into his eyes. She was coming to realize this was the moment she had waited for her entire life; face to face with Maddoc, spilling her most personal feelings to him. The best part was that he was actually listening. Maybe this wasn’t a dream, after all.
“Aye,” she finally murmured. “It still wants you. It always has.”
His smile returned, a tender gesture she had never seen from him before, one that sent her heart racing again. When he reached out and took her hand, bringing to his lips for a tender kiss, she thought she might truly faint. She actually felt lightheaded, giddy as she had never felt in her life.
“I do not honestly know what has changed my mind,” he whispered. “All I know is that it has, in fact, changed, which is more of a surprise to me than it is to you. I see such joy and warmth and passion in you, Addie. I see a perfect and beautiful woman, and I do not blame these men who have made fools of themselves as they attempt to gain your attention. Now, I would do it, too. I want to get to know you, as an adult, and understand this magic you seem to have. It intrigues me like nothing ever has.”
Adalind was back to trembling again as he continued to hold her hand. She closed her eyes tightly, briefly, as his words sank deep.
“I have waited so long to hear those words from you,” she murmured, opening her eyes and fixing him with her teary gaze. “You cannot know how much this means to me.”
“Actually, I think I do. The words mean a great deal to me as well. I have never spoken them before, to anyone.”
She stared at him for a moment before a hint of a smile came to her lips. Then, the smile grew until it was broad and beautiful. She was positively glowing.
“Truly?” she breathed.
“Truly.”
“You will not try to chase me away again or turn the dogs on me?”
He laughed softly. “I will not, I swear it.” He brought her hand to his lips again, depositing a warm and sweet kiss on her knuckles as his gaze bore into her. “Will you accept my suit, then?”
Adalind was having difficulty breathing as he tenderly kissed her flesh. All she could do was nod her head, rather recklessly, before throwing her arms around his neck. She’d only meant to hug him, thrilled beyond measure, but she never got that far. Maddoc’s face and mouth were suddenly in front of her and their lips met with such force that he audibly grunted as he tipped back, thrown off balance by her passionate attack. But just as swiftly, his arms were around her and his warm and soft lips were kissing her as he had never kissed a woman in his life.
She was sweet and hot, incredibly delicious. The sweet scent of her filled his nostrils as he suckled her lips, tasting her, acquainting himself with her. He could have very easily lost himself in an even deeper kiss but he wasn’t oblivious to the fact that they were in the bailey, though shielded. It was possible that someone might see them and he knew he would be in a good deal of trouble if news of the encounter got back to David. So he kissed her firmly one last time and set her on her feet.
Fathers and Sons Page 39
