The Devil’s Diadem. Sara Douglass

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      We departed Rosseley shortly afterward. The king, Summersete and Scersberie had been with the column forming on the road outside. Once the earl had mounted, he and Stephen led our contingent from the courtyard and the column began to move westward.

      I turned on Dulcette’s back for a last look at Rosseley. The sun was well up and the manor house gleamed golden in the light, the meadows and orchard green and verdant. I must have intuited somehow that I would never return for the house blurred as tears formed in my eyes, and I turned back to the road ahead, wiping at my eyes as I did so.

      I kept Dulcette close to the cart which held Lady Adelie, Mistress Yvette and Evelyn as well as Rosamund and the baby, John. Alice and Emmette rode their horses beside me; the twin boys, Ancel and Robert, also horsed, were far ahead close to their father.

      The column held some sixty or seventy knights and men-at-arms. I was somewhat relieved to see that, while they all carried weapons, none wore their maille hauberks, which indicated that the king and earls did not think we were under any immediate threat. I thought the knights and soldiers must be relieved also, for today promised to be warm and the maille hauberks would have been stifling. Most of the knights and soldiers rode at the head of the column, but some fifteen or so brought up the rear behind me.

      As well there were two score or so male servants and grooms, and another twelve carts besides that which held Lady Adelie. We travelled fast, even the carts, for we had some fifteen miles of roads and byways to travel to get to our first destination — Walengefort Castle, residence of the Earl of Summersete.

      Dulcette was a delight to ride, her amble so smooth and comfortable I could relax completely. She and I had come to some silent agreement: we would respect each other. She no longer tried to run away with me, and I allowed her freedom in choosing her own path and pace. About mid-morning Ludo rode past and asked how I did. I simply smiled in return, and I think he was happy, giving me a nod as he rode on.

      The day wore on. We stopped briefly at noon, resting under the shade of a group of beech trees and eating a lunch of fruit and bread and beer. I ate with the countess and her children (save the twin boys who stayed near their father), while the men cloistered themselves into two groups a little way off. Eventually, as servants packed away the lunch and men remounted their horses, Stephen came over to assist his mother and Evelyn back into the cart.

      Then he led Dulcette over to a fallen log so that I might mount.

      I was a little self-conscious with him this close and with his attention only for me. He and I had exchanged only a handful of words since he’d returned to Rosseley with his father, and the only times I had seen him were with other people attending and little chance for us to speak.

      Now Stephen fussed over me as I mounted, making sure my feet were well set in the stirrups and the girth tight.

      I prayed that the earl was not watching.

      ‘Maeb,’ he said, finally stopping to look up at me, one hand on Dulcette’s rein that I might not ride forward.

      He paused, and I looked at him, feeling as if my heart turned over at the sight of his warm, handsome face.

      He smiled, slowly. ‘I look forward to escorting you home to Pengraic,’ he said, his smile stretching even wider.

      Then he slapped Dulcette’s neck and walked back to where his own horse waited.

      I sat there a few minutes longer, searching for every layer of meaning to that short statement, and what that look in his eyes conveyed.

      Soon enough, I recollected myself to look round. Surely the earl would be sitting his horse, staring at me silently.

      But he was far distant, still on the ground, talking animatedly with the Earl of Scersberie, and I had the feeling that he’d not noticed a moment of what had just passed.

      I turned Dulcette’s head for the road, where Lady Adelie’s cart waited for the main column to ride on.

      That afternoon Stephen pulled his horse back to ride for a while by his mother’s cart, talking to her.

      Together with Alice (Emmette rode ahead, before her mother’s cart), I rode a little distance behind the cart, which gave me the opportunity to sit and watch Stephen to my heart’s content. Of all СКАЧАТЬ