“I-it is beautiful,” she said simply, lifting her head to look at her traveling companions once again. “I…I have never worn anything like this before.”
“It suits you,” Evelyn said confidently. “It used to be mine but I can no longer fit into it. I am more than happy to give you my clothing that no longer fits. I am pleased you can use it.”
Brighton nodded, a hesitant gesture. “Y-you have been most kind, my lady,” she said. Then, she looked between the two of them. “You have both been most kind. As I told you last night, I do not mean to appear ungrateful for anything you do for me, but this is all quite… overwhelming.”
Katheryn and Evelyn were understanding. “I cannot imagine what you are feeling,” Katheryn said quietly. “But we will do everything we can to make you feel comfortable.”
Brighton wasn’t sure what to say to that. She’d never known such genuinely nice people. She simply nodded and returned her attention to the open window, which happened to face north, into Scotland. Her home. Katheryn and Evelyn exchanged sympathetic glances.
“Will you tell us about your home, my lady?” Evelyn asked, simply to keep the conversation flowing. “Have you lived in a convent your entire life?”
Brighton sensed they were simply trying to include her in conversation so she wouldn’t feel left out. She wished they didn’t feel that way, for she truly didn’t have any desire to chat the journey away, but she responded to them nonetheless.
“I-I have,” she said. “Coldingham is… well, it is my home. I love it there.”
“Did you receive an education?” Evelyn asked. “Did you have regular duties?”
Brighton nodded. “I-I learned to read and write,” she replied. “Sister Acha was insistent that I learn. I can speak Latin and Italian because one of our sisters, Sister Andria, only spoke Italian and a little Latin. She was in charge of the kitchens so if you wanted to eat, you had to learn to communicate with her.”
Katheryn and Evelyn were fascinated with an Italian nun. “That is wonderful,” Katheryn said sincerely. “I have never actually met someone who lived in a convent. Did you have times of leisure or did you pray all day and all night?”
Brighton grinned at their naïve questions. They acted as if she had lived on the moon for the past nineteen years. “W-we prayed at appointed times, just as you do,” she said. “When we were not praying, we were working. I worked in the kitchens and in the garden. Some nuns worked with the animals, as we had many sheep and goats, and some nuns did the sewing, the scrubbing, and things of that nature. We also had a small infirmary where nuns would tend the sick, but we are not a healing order so the infirmary was very small.”
Katheryn and Evelyn were very interested in life in the convent. “Was it a big garden?” Evelyn asked. “The one you tended, I mean. Our mother has a large garden at Castle Questing, where we grew up, but Patrick would not let us have a flower garden at Berwick. He says that military installations do not have flower gardens, so all he allows us to grow are vegetables for the table.”
Brighton’s thoughts shifted from Coldingham to the enormous knight with the pale green eyes. Even the mere thought of him caused her heart to flutter, just a bit. It was an unfamiliar feeling, indeed. The man must have put a devil’s curse on me to make me jump every time I so much as think of him!
“W-we did grow some flowers, but we mostly grew herbs and vegetables,” Brighton said. “We grow a great deal of lavender and roses, for even roses can be eaten or used in medicines. Roses are my favorite.”
“Mine, too!” Evelyn piped up, shifting the baby on her lap. “When Hector and I were courting, he would bring me roses all of the time. He still brings them to me on occasion. He is thoughtful that way.”
Courting was such an alien concept to Brighton that she hadn’t much to say to that. These women lived in a world of husbands and children, and she did not. Still, she was having her first glimpse into a world other than that of a convent and she wasn’t hard pressed to admit it was intriguing. A world where husbands and wives and children made life happy and content. Inevitably, her attention moved to the baby, who was grinning at her again. When Evelyn saw where Brighton’s attention was, she lifted the baby in her direction.
“Would you like to hold her, my lady?” she asked. “Adele is a very good baby. She would be no trouble.”
Although Brighton hadn’t spent any time around children, she had a strong maternal instinct. She liked to nurture things, both plants and animals, and she was very fond of children as a rule. With a timid smile, she reached out for little Adele.
“S-she is very beautiful,” she said as Adele slid into her hands. “How old is she?”
Evelyn’s affectionate gaze was on her daughter. “She will have seen one year in September,” she said. “She is such a happy girl. She has been a joy, unlike my other three, who were holy terrors at this age. The screaming they went through!”
Katheryn chuckled. “At least you have had two girls to balance out the males in the family,” she said. “I am outnumbered.”
As the two sisters giggled and chatted about their children, Brighton settled the baby on her lap and cuddled her. She was sweet and soft and warm, grinning her big four-toothed grin. Brighton was very content with the baby in her arms. Adele eventually fell asleep against her. As Brighton sat back against the seat, cradling the sleeping child, she was coming to think that there was nothing so sweet in this world as a child in her arms. Having never experienced such a thing, her first experience was one of joy.
Something more in this strange new world that pleased her.
The party bumped along the road for another hour or two, with the men outside the carriage talking, issuing commands, and the children on ponies running about under their father’s supervision. At one point, Brighton caught sight of one of the knights – and it was difficult to tell who it was with all of the armor the man was wearing – with a very small boy on the saddle in front of him. The child was having a marvelous time.
In all, it had been a relaxed journey in spite of all of the heavily-armed men. Somewhere around the nooning hour, the party came to a halt and the knights moved the carriage and wagons off the road, into a field that had a brook running through it. The children were released from their ponies and from the wagon, as were the dogs, and soon there was a gaggle of children running around, screaming and laughing, playing in the warm weather. Dogs barked and chased the children as the adults brought forth food for the nooning meal.
Brighton climbed from the carriage, helped out by one of the knights she remembered from the night before, the one who had been at Patrick’s command when he’d carried her away from the fighting. She didn’t know his name but he looked rather like Katheryn’s husband with big shoulders and green eyes. Since she didn’t know him and he made her rather nervous, she quickly walked away from the carriage, moving clear of the commotion between the ladies and the children and the dogs. She’d handed the baby back over to Evelyn long ago and, now with her arms free, she looked around at their surroundings as she rubbed at her arms, somewhat numb from having held them in the same position for so long.
A light breeze blew through the trees, fluttering the grass, and no one seemed to pay her much attention as she stood there. The men-at-arms on horseback had spread out, undoubtedly to watch for any threats to the party, and the knights seemed to be lingering with the women and children. The knight who had helped her from the carriage was now on the ground with two small boys jumping on him, while off to the left, Katheryn was in the embrace of her tall, red-haired husband. It was a delightful family scene, to tell the truth, and Brighton could tell that these people were all quite close to one another. There seemed to be a good deal of love and camaraderie going on, something she found very sweet.
In truth, it wasn’t something she had seen much of in her life, this kind of love and camaraderie. The nuns of Coldingham could be rather severe and harsh, at times. There wasn’t a good deal of affection at the priory
. Even Sister Acha had been a strict woman, not given to fits of emotion, so Brighton was rather awed by the sight of people who were open with their affection.
She was also saddened by it.
Saddened in that she had never known such tenderness. She found herself wondering what it would be like to be embraced the way Katheryn’s husband was embracing her, or hugged the way that Evelyn hugged her children. Such sweetness to it all, something she’d been denied her entire life. She began to feel a longing in the pit of her stomach that she couldn’t begin to describe, a longing to be shown affection and treated tenderly. She hadn’t really known what she was missing until now. And now that she realized how much more there was to life, she felt both confused and deprived.
Soon enough, she couldn’t watch the tender scene any longer. It hurt her heart to witness such care and love, and she had no idea why. Swiftly, she turned for the nearby brook as it disappeared into a copse of trees. Trudging through the long grass with her skirts held up, she disappeared into the trees as well.
Anything to be free of witnessing things she would never know.
It was cool in the trees as the sunlight filtered in overhead, birds singing in the branches. Lost in thought, Brighton wandered deeper into the grove. Alone in the trees, the urge to flee washed over her again but she fought it. She’s already decided against it. She was, therefore, a woman without a home, without a family, and without any place to go.
She was lost.
Feelings of depression swept her. It was difficult not to feel sorry for herself. Her hands brushed the traveling dress she was wearing and she looked down at it, thinking on the English who had given it to her. It was lovely to have people be so kind to her but it couldn’t go on like that forever. At some point, she would have to settle somewhere and find a life of her own, which wouldn’t include Katheryn and Evelyn and their charming children. It wouldn’t even include Patrick, the big knight who made her heart flutter strangely. She didn’t like feeling that her future was nothing but fog, unable to see through it yet knowing something was there just the same.
It was the unknown she feared.
“Lady Brighton?”
A soft, deep voice startled her and she turned to see Patrick coming through the foliage. She took a step back, away from him, intimidated by the sight of him. Even after their calm conversation last night, she still wasn’t completely comfortable in his presence.
“I-I… I just needed a moment of privacy, my lord,” she said, her stammer strong because she had been startled. “I should have told you, I suppose. I am sorry.”
Patrick shook his head. “You need not apologize,” he said. “If anyone should apologize, it should be me for invading your quiet moment. I came to make sure you were well. My sisters were concerned.”
Brighton smiled faintly. “I-I am well,” she said. “They worry over me as if I am one of their children.”
Patrick gave her a lopsided grin, the dimples running deep. “They are very motherly,” he agreed. “You’ll not escape that, no matter if you are a grown woman. They will still be concerned for you.”
He said it somewhat humorously and she dared to smile in return. “I-it is very kind of them,” she said. “I do not mind. They were quite motherly this morning as they helped me to dress.”
She looked down at herself which made Patrick look down at her as well. He’d spent the entire morning thinking of her even though he couldn’t see her, tucked back in the carriage with his sisters as she had been. But the vision of her before she’d entered the carriage back at Berwick stuck with him.
Dressed in a deep blue wool that clung indecently to her figure, he’d been struck by her womanly curves just as the other knights had been. Alec and Hector, the married men, pretended not to notice but the unmarried men, Kevin and Apollo, noticed without trying to seem as if they weren’t. That had infuriated Patrick, who had sent the young knights to ride point at the head of the column, far up ahead of the lady they’d briefly lusted after.
Not that he’d blamed them for their reaction, but he wanted their minds on their duties and not on the lovely young woman in the carriage. At least, that’s what Patrick told himself. The truth was that he wanted to be the only one thinking about her. The curvy figure encased in dark blue and her beautiful brown hair plaited in an elaborate braid was something for his eyes alone.
He was sworn to protect her, after all. In some odd way, that meant she belonged to him.
… didn’t she?
But she had been saying something to him just now, hadn’t she? Something about his sisters smothering her…? He realized that he hadn’t really heard her and, again, not wanting to embarrass himself by asking her to repeat what she’d said, he pulled on the few words he’d managed to hear in order to concoct an answer. But he was coming to think that the woman could suck every thought from his head without even trying, for she’d done it before with him.
He looked at her and his mind seemed to go to mush.
“My sisters try their best to be helpful,” he said belatedly. “They have been my chatelaines at Berwick for a few years and I find them indispensable.”
Brighton couldn’t help but noticed he seemed detached. It had taken him forever to answer her even though he was looking right at her. She was coming to think that he didn’t have much interest in what she had to say, which embarrassed her greatly. Clearing her throat softly, she put her head down and gathered her skirts, preparing to move past him.
“A-again, my apologies for wandering away,” she said. “I will return with you now if that is your wish.”
He reached out, a massive hand grasping her arm before she could walk away. “That is not why I came,” he said. Then, he lifted his other hand, which she hadn’t really noticed because it had been partially concealed behind his back. He had a bundle in it, a kerchief that was wrapped around some items. “My sisters said you’d not eaten so I brought you some food. Would you sit and eat now? We only have a few minutes before we must continue on our way.”
The food bundle in his hand enticed her, for she was hungry. She nodded her head, watching him as he moved to a big rock next to the creek. He set the bundle down and untied it, revealing a good deal of food within. He smiled weakly.
“If you please, my lady?” he said, pointing to the feast.
Hesitantly, Brighton made her way to the rock and sank to her knees beside it. Beneath the cool shade of the trees, she timidly picked up a piece of hard white cheese, biting into it. It was very good. Quite famished, she collected a piece of bread as well. Mouth full, she looked up at Patrick.
“I-I will gladly share if you’ve not eaten, my lord,” she said.
Patrick had been waiting for the invitation because he’d brought enough food for two people. It had been rather clever of him, he thought. Casually, he planted his big body on the edge of the rock, taking a piece of cold beef and popping it into his mouth. All the while, he kept eyeing Brighton as she ate ravenously.
“How has your journey been so far?” he asked, simply to make conversation.
She nodded her head, swallowing the bite in her mouth. “P-pleasant,” she said. “I held the baby for some of the journey. She is very sweet.”
“Adele?” he said. “Aye, she is. She is adorable and looks just like her father, much to my own father’s displeasure. He had hoped she would look like a de Wolfe.”
Brighton put more cheese in her mouth. “I-I am coming to understand that everyone in your command is related,” she said. “It has not been explained to me, but I see there are relations around you, at least with your sisters. Do you have more?”
He nodded. “I have a rather large family,” he said. “In addition to Katheryn and Evelyn, who are with me at Berwick, I have five brothers and another little sister who are not. You see, it all started many years ago when my father married my mother. I have already told you she is from Clan Scott. My mother came with two cousins who married two of my father’s knights. Aunt Jemma married
Uncle Kieran and Aunt Caladora married Uncle Paris. When those three couples had children, they all ended up marrying each other, so Katheryn and Evelyn are married to a son of Jemma and Kieran, and Paris and Caladora, respectively. Our three families are deeply intertwined.”
Brighton was listening with interest. “I-I see,” she said. “Do you have a wife I’ve not met, then?”
He shook his head. “Nay,” he replied, giving her a rather embarrassed grin. “Oh, it was not for lack of trying on Uncle Paris and Uncle Kieran’s part. They had a daughter or two they tried to saddle me with… I mean, marry me to… but I felt strongly that there was much I want to accomplish in life and it would be difficult for a wife to have a husband with great ambitions. I could not condemn her to such a life.”
Brighton chewed on a small green apple. “D-do you mean this appointment for Henry, the one you spoke of last night?”
“Aye.”
“W-what will your duties be for the king?”
Patrick swallowed the food in his mouth, reaching for a piece of cheese. “To simplify the explanation, the king is an elderly man and he has not been well,” he said. “The king has several men who are his personal guard, called the Lord Protectors, and I have been given the honor of being the captain of that group. I am to leave for London in a fortnight to assume my post by September.”
Brighton was vastly impressed. But she realized that she was also somewhat disappointed. She wasn’t sure why, but she was. Perhaps it had something to do with him leaving in a couple of weeks and her never seeing him again. Other than the priests, Patrick was the only man she had truly had any contact with outside of the walls of Coldingham. Hated English or not, they had established a strange bond. Right now, they were having a lovely conversation, something she’d never done before, at least not like this.
Nunnery Brides: A Medieval Romance Collection Page 35
