Bread and Chocolate. Philippa Gregory

Чтение книги онлайн.

       The Favour

      ‘Lady Ygraine?’

      She stopped at the whisper from the doorway. ‘Who’s there?’ she asked sharply.

      A man stepped out of the shadow. Brown hair, brown eyes, a warm appealing smile. ‘Me,’ he said.

      ‘David,’ she said coolly. ‘What is it you want? I am on my way to the hall.’

      He nodded. Everyone in the castle was invited to feast with the lord and his lady on this night before the tournament. The fighting men would drink deeply, laughing heartily at jokes that were old, at jests which were not funny, hiding from each other the deep coldness of fear that gripped their bellies.

      ‘I wanted a word with you,’ he said. ‘Several words.’

      He put his hand out to draw her towards the doorway where they would be out of sight of the big double doors leading into the hall. She stiffened and drew back.

      ‘David St Pierre, I am not lingering with you on stairways or in darkened doorways,’ she said. ‘I have to go to dinner. My lady mother will be looking for me and if I am late I will be whipped. You do me no favour by keeping me here.’

      He dropped his hand at once and stepped to the side, out of her way.

      ‘I would not have you hurt, sweetheart,’ he said quickly.

      She gasped at the endearment. ‘I’m not your sweetheart,’ she whispered fiercely. ‘Never will be. David, you know this full well. Why d’you keep tormenting me and teasing yourself with this? You’re the poorest knight in the country. Your horse is a laughing stock. Your castle is some tumbled-down ruin God knows where. My lady mother and my father look a good deal higher for me than some poor knight on the Border marches. And you know it.’

      He nodded. ‘I know it,’ he said. ‘But I feel…’

      ‘Feel!’ she said abruptly. ‘What have you or I to do with feelings! When I am wed and have three heirs in the cradle I will have time for feelings. But for now I must know obedience to my mother’s will and nothing else.’

      ‘You’re very young,’ he said softly. His voice held a world of tenderness. ‘Very young and very lovely. I don’t want to see you married to some great lord who will use you, and beat you, and breed sons on you.’

      Ygraine tossed her head and the veil from her tall headdress brushed across his face like the shadow of a kiss. ‘What would you have me do?’ she asked him. ‘What would you have me do? I didn’t choose this life, I didn’t make it so that men are lords and women their servants.’

      ‘I would have you listen to your heart,’ he said. The lilt in his voice was like that of a travelling storyteller. ‘I would have you listen to your heart and see if it doesn’t bid you to love me, and come to me. And see then whether I would be your master – or whether we would live as two birds in an apple tree.’

      She laughed aloud like a child, throwing her head back in genuine amusement. He grinned back at her, watching the light play on her bare throat and pale skin.

      ‘Hedge sparrows in a gorse bush more like,’ she said. Her smile to him was suddenly warm. ‘I’d die of cold in your hovel and then you’d see sense and wed a girl who could bring you a dowry big enough to rebuild your tower.’

      He shook his head, suddenly serious. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘I shall love only this one time. I shall love only you, in all my life. I love you; and if I can’t have you then no other woman will do for me. No other bride, no other love. No-one, from this day onward.’

      She was silenced by that pledge, by the seriousness of his tone. ‘David?’ she said, uncertainly.

      ‘D’you know what I would like?’ he asked.

      She stepped a little closer to hear his low voice.

      ‘D’you know what I would like above anything else?’

      She shook her head, her eyes on his mouth. Their faces were very close.

      ‘I should like to wear your glove on my lance tomorrow at the jousting so that they know, so that they all know, that whatever the hopes of your mother, whatever the usual way of doing things, that you are promised to me and I to you. They can rage then, or they can yield. I should like to carry your favour.’ He paused and gave her a little smile. ‘It is a fair exchange, Ygraine. You carry my heart.’

      ‘I don’t carry it where everyone can see it!’ she retorted. ‘I would be shamed before the whole castle, David. You’re a dreamer. You’ve been too long in the wilds of the north. You’ve forgotten what real life is like.’

      He nodded. ‘But what if we made a new real life? What if we decided on different rules, on marriage for love, on children raised in our home, not sent away for training as you were, as I was?’

      She shook her head slowly. ‘There’s no other life for me,’ she said sadly. ‘You can have your dreams, my David. But I have to marry as my mother bids me. I never asked for your heart. I never smiled on you more than courtesy commanded.’

      He put his hand forward and took her chin. He turned her face up so that she met his eyes. Her eyes were a deep blue, almost violet.

      ‘Liar,’ he said tenderly.

      The deep crimson blush came up from her neck up to her forehead and died away again, leaving her pale. He saw that her mouth was trembling as if she were about to cry, and he СКАЧАТЬ