The Conqueror's Lady. Terri Brisbin

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СКАЧАТЬ with his own, he’d placed his men to oversee every aspect of the workings of her keep and people and had done it without any regard for her.

      Fayth squinted then, as the soreness in her head made it impossible to concentrate on her stitches. Tossing the gown she was repairing into the basket at her feet, she tilted her head one way and then another, trying to ease the ache there.

      ‘Ardith,’ she said, beckoning the girl to her side. ‘Can you loosen these braids? The weight of them is pulling too much.’

      Fayth turned herself in her chair, allowing Ardith to get closer. Once the girl let down the twist of braids some of the pain eased. Fayth closed her eyes, relaxing her head and letting her chin fall to her chest. Her hair hung loosely now around her shoulders and she waited to see if the pain would pass.

      The silence surrounded her for a few minutes until Ardith’s nervous breathing drew her attention. As she raised her head her gaze met that of her captor as he stared at her from his place inside the door. She hadn’t heard the door open, but it was apparent he’d been there for several minutes.

      ‘Sir Giles,’ she said, rising to stand yet refusing to call him by another title he now claimed. ‘I did not hear you enter.’

      Fayth motioned to Ardith to arrange her hair once more. It might be her chambers, but it was not proper, with a man present, to be so undone. Ardith hurried in her attentions and Fayth winced against the pulling as the girl gathered her hair into one long braid and replaced the veil on top of it. Once her hair was covered, she faced him and nodded.

      ‘Are you well, lady?’ he asked, his deep voice accented by the language of his own country.

      ‘Other than …’ she began, and then realised that any complaints would sound trite when compared with those her people could offer.

      ‘Your head?’ he asked, nodding in her direction. ‘Does it still pain you?’ He stepped closer, handing the helm tucked under his arm to one of his men.

      ‘It is improving,’ was all she would offer. Emma’s words about appearing strong before him echoed in her thoughts and, though he frightened her to her core, she was now the only one left who could protect her people. They must be uppermost in her priorities now.

      Now that her father was gone.

      Fayth glanced down and saw the ring he still wore, dangling there as a sign to everyone of her father’s death and this man’s new rule.

      He frowned as she looked up at his face. Then his gaze and his mouth hardened. The tension in the chamber grew until one of his men whispered something under his breath to him and Giles nodded as though reminded of some task.

      ‘Now that it is safe to move about the keep and village, I thought you might like a respite from your stay here,’ he said, his voice neither welcoming nor comforting. Another whisper from his man and he said, ‘I know you worry about your people, our people, and I would have you be at ease over their condition now that I have—’ he paused, searching for a word ‘—arrived.’

      Tempted in spite of her resolve to be wary of this stranger, she nodded. ‘I would like that, sir.’

      He motioned the others out of the chamber ahead of them and then held out his arm to her. With his armour in place, it was clear he did not yet feel safe in her keep. That thought made her smile for the first time in many days. As she lifted her arm and placed her hand on his she felt a sense of anticipation unknown to her since learning of her father’s death.

      Although this warrior carried her father’s ring, she had no way of knowing the part he had played in his death. Chances were, though, from the way he had seized control of her lands with his king’s permission, he had been involved. Now, regardless of the origin of their lives, their destinies were entwined and she needed to find her place in this new world his arrival had wrought.

      They stopped just outside her door and he turned back, speaking to her of Emma and Ardith. ‘The old one and the girl have the freedom of the keep and village now, lady. They need worry not over their safety.’

      Without saying so, he told her that the man who had tried to rape her servant and had knocked her unconscious was under control. Had he been executed, then? Disobedience in time of war could be punished with death, she knew. Was this man such a hard commander that he would do that? She stopped then and faced him.

      ‘Why? Is that man dead?’ she asked.

      ‘Nay, not dead,’ he answered before tugging her along at his side. ‘Stephen has learned not to disobey my orders.’

      She shivered at the coldness of his words and the inherent threat as she moved down the stairs to the main floor. Then out into the yard they walked until she stood in nearly the exact spot where the incident with Ardith had occurred.

      He stopped and Fayth took a few moments to catch her breath. Even feeling well she would have difficulty matching his long strides, but feeling as she did, only his arm pulling her along had kept them together. Now, she inhaled deeply, enjoying the scents of soil and air and the recent rain. Harvest had passed even while her father rode the length of England following their king and it had been a meagre one.

      Both Emma and Ardith followed them, along with three of the knight’s men. Once she could breathe more easily, he led her to one of the smaller yards where he’d penned her people the day of the attack. The people were gone and the enclosure held cattle once more, though fewer than before.

      Fayth lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun and peered to the limits of the yard. There along the perimeter of the wall, his soldiers now paced. As she moved her gaze to the farthest part of the yard his soldiers worked alongside some of her men, carrying logs that would be hewn into boards for repairs to the walls and the other buildings.

      ‘Part of the blacksmith’s cottage burned during the battle. They rebuild it now,’ he offered, pointing in the other direction where men worked on the small croft that was attached to the smithy.

      Everywhere she looked, the situation was the same. Though outnumbered now because so many had fled at first sight of the invader’s forces, her people wore no prisoner’s chains. Indeed, many seemed to be doing their usual duties in spite of a new lord in control of the lands. Suddenly, as many saw her there, they stopped their work and stared at her. Before she understood what was happening, Sir Giles clasped her hand in his larger one and held it high into the air.

      ‘As I told you,’ he called out in a voice loud enough to travel across the open space to the walls, ‘your lady is alive and well.’

      Fayth could not help her response, for her people called out her name, and it resonated around the yard, warming her heart and giving her pride at their concern for her well-being.

      ‘You did this to show them you have not killed me?’ she asked. She turned to face him and saw amusement in his features. His blue eyes, so dark and intense, now lit with some humour.

      ‘I have not killed you, yet, demoiselle,’ he answered in a voice meant only for her ears. Leaning in close to her, he whispered, ‘If I discover you still work to betray me, it may yet happen.’

      The shiver of fear tore through her at his words and tone. She wanted to believe he was speaking in jest, but there was a thread of steely resolution and something else, something dangerous, in his voice and she did not doubt for a moment that her life was in peril should he choose it to be so. Leaning away, СКАЧАТЬ