A Merry Medieval Christmas: Historical Romance Holiday Collection

by Laurel O'Donnell

  “Fire!” called out her father.

  “Don’t worry, Father, it’s just a game,” Eva assured him, patting him on his shoulder.

  “That’s right,” said Adam. “It’s called Snapdragon. The object of the game is to snatch the flaming raisins out of the burning brandy, putting out the fire in your mouth as if you were a dragon.”

  “That’s silly and dangerous,” scoffed Eva.

  “Nay, it’s not.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “I have been playing this since I was a boy. Watch how it’s done.” Adam walked over to the bowl and snatched a raisin from the blue flames. He put it in his mouth, and Eva gasped, seeing his mouth on fire. Then he closed his mouth, made a face and swallowed. Opening his mouth to show her that it was gone, the crowd cheered for him. “See? It’s easy,” said Adam, walking back to her father’s chair.

  “I want to try it,” said her father in his slurred speech.

  “Nay, Father,” said Eva. “Grandmother wouldn’t allow it.”

  “What is this?” snapped her grandmother, storming up to them. “Healer, I told you to watch over him.” She picked up her cane and knocked the healer over his head.

  “I’m sorry, my lady,” stuttered the healer. “But Sir Adam –”

  “Sir Adam, you will stay away from the earl, and not bother him again. Do you understand?” Lady Barbara glared at Adam.

  “Grandmother, Father is enjoying himself. There was no harm done,” explained Eva.

  “I want a flaming raisin,” called out her father.

  “What is this monstrosity on his head?” Lady Barbara flung the crown of greenery from the earl’s head, causing him to shout out.

  “Naaaaay, wench. Leave me be!”

  Everyone turned to look at them and the music even stopped playing.

  “Healer, wheel him up to his room at once. He shouldn’t even be down here,” ordered Lady Barbara.

  “Grandmother, let him stay at the festival. He is enjoying himself,” Eva pleaded with her.

  Her grandmother glared in her direction. “I hope you did that little errand, Eva. Because if not, there is going to be hell to pay.”

  Lady Barbara and the healer left with the earl and the celebration started up once again.

  “What little errand?” asked Adam.

  “Nothing. It’s not important,” said Eva, watching her father being wheeled away. When the music started up again, Eva wanted nothing more than to be in Adam’s arms. “Would you like to dance, Sir Adam?” she asked boldly, taking the chance that he wouldn’t say no.

  “I thought it was the man’s prerogative to ask the woman,” he said with a flash of white teeth.

  “Well, since we are both looking like women tonight, I didn’t think it made a difference.” She held back a chuckle.

  He made a face, but then nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Just let me get a drink of ale to cool the fire in my mouth and I’ll meet you by the Yule log for a dance in just a moment.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” she said, looking up at him shyly, hoping by the end of the night he’d kiss her again.

  She loitered by the Yule log burning brightly on the hearth, wondering what was taking Adam so long. The room was very crowded and she didn’t see him anywhere. Then, just as she was about to go look for him, she spied his hideous disguise in the crowd and waved at him.

  “Sir Adam, here I am,” she called out to him.

  He wore his mask, but when he noticed her he came to her side.

  “Is your mouth still on fire?” she asked playfully, grabbing his arm. “Because if so, perhaps we will share a hot, passionate kiss later under the kissing bough.”

  “Aye,” he answered in a high squeak. Then he cleared his throat and said “Aye” in a much lower voice.

  “Is something wrong with your voice?” she asked as they started the dance. “Did you burn your tongue on that flaming raisin?”

  “What raisin?” he asked, sounding as if he truly didn’t know what she was talking about.

  They danced a little but he didn’t hold her tightly like she expected. Instead, he kept his distance and seemed stiff and aloof. He wasn’t acting like the friendly, chivalrous man he usually was when he was around her.

  “That was nice what you did for my father,” she said, trying to start up a conversation.

  “Nice,” he repeated, sounding like a fool. What was the matter with him? Had she done something to make him angry? She wanted to lighten up the situation and see him smile at her again. So the next time he turned, she moved closer. Hoping no one would see her, she pinched him playfully on the rear.

  He turned so quickly that he stumbled. And when he fell to the ground his mask went askew. Seeing more of his face, she realized that he wasn’t Adam. Eva reached down and ripped off his mask, feeling like a fool.

  “You’re Sir Adam’s squire,” she retorted.

  “I am,” he said with a crooked smile. “Surprise, my lady.”

  “Sir Adam made me look like a fool.” She put her hands on her hips.

  “Well, it is Feast of Fools,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  “When you see Sir Adam, you can tell him that I don’t think his jest was funny. And you can also tell him I’ll not take part in this Feast of Fools another minute.” She turned and stormed off.

  “Wait!” cried Bryce, jumping to his feet and running up behind her. “Where are you going, my lady?” He fumbled with his mask, trying to put it back on his face.

  “I’m going to spend the rest of the night in my chamber. Alone,” she added as an afterthought, just so Adam wouldn’t get any ideas of coming to see her. She was furious with him and needed to think about this situation in private.

  “Nay, not your chamber, my lady,” begged the squire. “What if I take you out to the stable instead? Or perhaps for a walk on the battlements.”

  “Why would I want to go anywhere with you?”

  “Perhaps another dance, my lady. Just please don’t go back to your chamber yet.”

  “Yet?” She raised a brow and studied his face. He held that silly mask up to his face and she could barely see his eyes. In one motion, she snatched the mask away from him and threw it to the floor. “Tell me what is going on. Where is Sir Adam and why don’t you want me to go to my chamber?”

  “No reason.” His voice squeaked again.

  “He told you to distract me, didn’t he?” she asked, suddenly seeing things clearly. “He’s in my chamber, isn’t he?”

  “I – I – I’m not sure where he is,” said Bryce, not sounding at all convincing.

  “I’m going to my chamber and if Sir Adam is in there, I’m going to wring his neck.” She stormed off and Bryce followed. “If you don’t turn around and stop following me, I’ll have my grandmother do something horrible to you,” she threatened as she continued to walk.

  “Not Lady Barbara. That woman scares me,” said the squire, stopping in his tracks.

  Eva headed off to her solar without him tagging along, thinking that it wasn’t that long ago when she was the one who scared men away. Bryce didn’t seem frightened of her, just her grandmother, so she wondered if things had changed.

  Eva didn’t like the fact she was known to have frightened off men in the past. She wanted more than any young maiden to someday marry. But since the time her grandmother took her mother’s place, Eva felt as if she didn’t have a choice of her own. She always did what her grandmother told her. Now, she realized that she was turning into an old shrew like Lady Barbara. That didn’t feel good at all.

  Eva pushed open the door to her bedchamber, stopping in her tracks when she saw Adam standing at her desk. His back was to her and he was looking at something in his hand. Then she realized the lid to her chest was open and the missive was gone.

  “Sir Adam!”

  He turned on his heel, the missive dangling from his fingers. She realized that he was holding the parchment up to a candle, trying to read though it even though it was sealed in wax.
/>   “Eva. What are you doing here?”

  “Me?” She stormed into the room and slammed down the lid on the box. “Give it to me.” Her hand shot out for the missive. He pulled it away and held it up over her head, out of her reach.

  “You wrote this missive to the king, pretending to be your father, didn’t you? Then you even sealed it in wax and used his signet ring to make it look like it came from him.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t I? I’m willing to bet this is a missive telling the king not to come here, just like the other missives he’s been getting for the past six months.” He used his thumb to break the seal, and scanned at the missive as she reached for it, trying to get it. He kept holding it higher above her head. “Just as I thought. You are forging messages from your father.”

  “I had to do it. It was for his own good,” she tried to explain.

  “His own good?” asked Adam, sounding sorely disappointed with her. “What is wrong with him?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Don’t play games with me, Eva. And don’t think I didn’t notice that he never uses his right hand. I’ll bet that splint on his right leg has naught to do with bones being broken, but rather a ploy because he probably can’t walk either, can he?”

  “Stop it. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “His speech is always slurred although I realized that he hardly ever drinks, so it isn’t from being well in his cups. Something happened to him and you are trying to keep everyone from knowing about it, aren’t you?”

  “He fell from a horse six months ago and broke his leg,” Eva told him with tears in her eyes. “But afterwards we realized that he couldn’t use his sword arm or his right leg. I cannot let the king know about it because if he does, he’ll strip my father of his title and take away his castle and his lands forever.”

  Adam didn’t know what to say. Tears flowed from Eva’s eyes, and he truly felt bad for her as well as the earl. But he was sent on a mission and to keep this information from the king would be treason.

  “I’m sorry, Eva, but I can’t ignore this now that I know the truth.”

  “What are you saying?” she asked. “You’re not going to tell anyone are you?”

  “The king needs to know about this. I have to tell him.”

  “You have to tell him? What does that mean? And how did you know about the other missives sent to the king?”

  “He knows because he is the king’s spy,” said Lady Barbara, standing in the doorway.

  “That’s speculation and you can’t prove it,” said Adam, not wanting to admit in front of Eva that he’d been sent there on a mission for the king.

  “And that’s where you’re wrong,” snapped the woman. “I knew there was something deceitful about you, and I have the means to prove it.” She looked down the hall and nodded. Bryce took a step forward with his head down.

  “Bryce, you never could keep a secret,” mumbled Adam, sorely disappointed.

  “The old woman threatened to beat me with her cane the way she always hits the healer,” exclaimed Bryce. “Plus, she threatened to have me thrown in the dungeon if I didn’t tell her what she wanted to know.” The boy gripped his mask in two hands, twisting it until it broke in two. “I’m sorry, Sir Adam. I had a little too much spiked wassail and wasn’t thinking clearly. I told her everything.”

  “Everything? What do you mean, everything?” asked Eva with wide eyes.

  “He used you, just as I told you he would,” said her grandmother. “He seduced you with kisses and food just to learn our secrets and you stupidly fell for his games.”

  “Is that true?” asked Eva, looking at Adam as if she were appalled. “You sent your squire to dance with me, so you really were using me and being deceitful.”

  “It is true that I am on a mission for the king to find out what is happening with the earl. But I assure you, I didn’t seduce you,” Adam told her.

  “Oh, really?” She looked at him and raised an angry brow.

  “Well, mayhap I did seduce you, but I assure you it wasn’t just to get answers. I care for you, Lady Eva.” He took a step toward her and she took one backward.

  “Stay away from me and don’t ever touch me again.”

  “You have to believe me when I tell you that I have feelings for you. You mean something to me. It wasn’t so at first, but over the past sennight I – I think I have been falling in love with you.”

  “Hogwash,” snapped her grandmother. “If that’s true, then keep your mouth shut and don’t say a word about this to the king.”

  “He has to tell him. It’s his job,” said Bryce. “After this mission, the king has promised to make Sir Adam a baron.”

  “Bryce!” Adam closed his eyes partially, knowing his squire’s tongue was only going to make matters worse.

  “So that’s what this is all about?” asked Eva, looking at Adam as if she hated him right now. “You pretended to like me and give me everything I desired just so I would give you what you wanted?”

  “Nay, that’s not true,” said Adam. “I gave you what you desired because I wanted to make you happy.”

  “You are naught but a liar,” snapped Eva. “You hold the power to ruin my father’s life and take away everything from my family. How can you stand there and lie to my face? You only did all those nice things to get what you want. Well, get out of here and go tell the king whatever you have to, but don’t ever show up on my doorstep again. If you do, I will throw you in my dungeon and have you beheaded.”

  “Eva, you don’t understand. I have to tell the king. If I don’t, it’ll be treason.”

  “Then go!” she spat, holding out her finger and pointing at the door. “Go get your title of baron, and I hope you enjoy it. And take your squire with you.”

  “Eva,” he said, stepping toward her, still holding on to the missive.

  “Get out!” she shouted, picking up the wooden chest and throwing it at him.

  Adam clenched his jaw, wanting to say so many things, but not being able to say a one. Instead, he clutched the missive tightly in his hand and stepped around her, making his way to the door. “Come, Squire,” he said as he left the room. “We will not stay where we are not wanted.”

  Chapter 9

  Dancing Ladies and Fortunetellers

  Eva sat at the dais the next day, eating some of the worst food she’d ever tasted in her life. It almost seemed like everyone was in sour spirits since she threw Adam and his squire out of the castle last night. The servants in the kitchen as well as the knights and every person in the castle asked where he was. She didn’t say a word because she couldn’t bring herself to tell them the truth.

  Even her father had been asking for Adam. It was all too much and she could no longer live this way. She didn’t want to lie anymore, so she told her father the whole truth. The earl had told her that it didn’t matter what happened to him, but only that he wanted to see her happy.

  Eva picked at the food on her trencher, not able to eat since she missed Adam so much. She’d tossed and turned all night, not able to sleep either. What had she done? Why hadn’t she taken the time to talk things over with Adam? Instead, she’d thrown him out and even threatened to have him imprisoned and beheaded. This was the old Eva rising back to the surface. She didn’t like the old Eva anymore.

  “You did the right thing,” said her grandmother from next to her. Her father refused to come to the great hall saying things would never be the same without Adam. He had no desire to eat or play games anymore.

  “I can’t believe Adam deceived me like that,” said Eva, feeling as if she wanted to cry. “I was falling in love with him, Grandmother.”

  “I warned you that he was no good. I could feel it in my bones. Now, because of him, we will lose everything. I wish you had never let him enter these castle walls. If I ever see his face again, I swear I will gouge out that man’s eyes.”

  “Grandmother,
please,” said Eva, pushing away her trencher feeling that horrible knot in her stomach again.

  “I am going to take your father some food and give the healer a break,” said the woman, getting up and leaving the table.

  Eva was about to get up and go to her chamber when the herald blew the straight trumpet and announced that a group of traveling gypsies had arrived to dance for them and tell their fortunes.

  The music started and in came nine dancing ladies playing tambourines. They wore long, colorful clothes and veils covered their heads. Small bells were attached to the bottoms of their skirts so they jingled when they walked.

  It didn’t interest Eva, so she got up to leave. As she passed by the dancing ladies, the last one in the line grabbed her arm in a tight grip. She looked up, angry that the woman would touch her.

  “I want to read your fortune,” said the woman, turning her palm over.

  “I don’t think so.” She tried to pull away but the woman had a strong grip. “Let go of me, or I’ll call for my guards.”

  “Eva, don’t do this to me.”

  “Adam?” She looked up into the gypsy’s eyes to see that it, indeed, was him. “I thought I threw you out of here and warned you to never return.”

  “I had to talk to you, Eva. Please understand that I love you. I don’t want to hurt you or your family.”

  “Then don’t go to the king with the information,” she challenged him.

  “I don’t have a choice. It’s my job.”

  “Then don’t come back here because I am not going to forgive you ever. I don’t want anything to do with you ever again.”

  “Sir Adam, the old lady is coming down the stairs.” Bryce hurried up to Adam wearing the same gypsy disguise and holding a tambourine. “I really think we ought to go.”

  “Grandmother,” Eva called out, knowing that would scare the men off.

  “Give me a chance to make it up to you, Eva,” begged Adam. “I promise I’ll find a way to make everything all right.”

  “What is it, Eva?” asked Lady Barbara, tapping her cane on the ground as she approached. “Are these gypsies giving you trouble? I’ll call for the guards.”