Knight's Rebellion. Suzanne Barclay

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СКАЧАТЬ thank you for your good wishes, Lady Alys.” He’d learned she was a healer of some repute and unwed because, if you could believe it, her parents had left the choosing of a husband to her. Now he meant to be that man. “Will you have some of the roasted fowl?” Ranulf set himself to charm. No easy task, for she was a skittish thing. The meal was an extravagant one, fit for a feast day, but she ate little and drank even less. She also had an annoying habit of avoiding contact with him. Even in such lavish surroundings, with plenty of room for the diners, it was inevitable that hands brush or thighs touch.

      Despite Ranulf’s efforts to capitalize on this, Lady Alys managed to keep her distance. Even more curious, she wore gloves. They were of the finest-quality leather, thin and pale as her own lovely skin. But gloves nonetheless. Mayhap she’d been burned or she suffered a skin rash. Not that he cared. He’d have taken her if she had two heads and no legs.

      “Gareth, you need to stretch out and elevate your leg,” Lady Arianna said as the servants began clearing the tables.

      “I must speak with Ranulf,” the earl replied.

      “Why do the four of us not repair to my solar? You could be comfortable there and converse with Lord Ranulf in private.”

      Ranulf could scarcely credit his luck. Dining with an earl and now invited into the Sommervilles’ inner sanctum as though he were already part of the family. The Fates had surely smiled on him…a blood connection with a noble family, a large dowry and a toothsome bed partner to initiate in all the ways he liked to be pleasured. He was less pleased when they reached the richly appointed solar and he heard what Lord Gareth had decided.

      “I regret that I cannot issue a writ against Sir Gowain without sworn warrants of his deeds,” the earl said. “It may be that someone else has done these things and implicated Gowain.”

      Ranulf ground his teeth together. “Your honesty and sense of duty to the law do you justice.” And I curse them both.

      Lady Alys exclaimed, “Surely Lord Ranulf’s word is enough.”

      “’Tis not a matter of his word, Alys.” Gareth frowned. “Have you forgotten what nearly happened to us?” He turned to Ranulf. “Years ago, my family was wrongly accused of treason, solely on the strength of rumor and the false witness of villainous men. We managed to outwit them and unmask the true criminals, but ‘twas a near thing. Though I am certain your proof is solid, I’d not outlaw a man without making certain he is guilty.”

      “But, Papa…” Lady Alys began.

      “‘Tis all right,” Ranulf said. He’d rouse the earl’s suspicions did he complain. “I will provide whatever you need.”

      As Lord Gareth enumerated the proofs he would require against Gowain, Ranulf took a sip of the wine, rich, smooth Bordeaux wine, not the sour stuff they kept at Eastham. When he and Alys were wed, he’d eat and drink only the finest. He’d refurbish Eastham from cellar to turret. Of course, it would never be as grand as Ransford.

      Hmm. Ranulf cocked his head, considering yet another course of action. If something should happen to her brothers, Ransford and the wealth of the Sommervilles would be hers. And his.

      “I am sorry to disappoint you,” said the earl.

      “Disappoint me? Never. Your caution and concern are proof the king chose wisely when he named you his justice. On the morrow, I will return home and begin gathering information.”

      “If you and Lord Ranulf are done, may I ask a boon, Papa?”

      “Of course.” The earl gave Alys a dazzling smile.

      Lady Alys lifted a velvet bag from a nearby table and withdrew from it a stack of books. Kneeling at her father’s side, she handed him the top one. “I have finished my herbal.”

      “Alys!” the earl cried. “What a tremendous accomplishment!”

      “Thank you, Papa, but I am anxious to have them copied ere something happens to the originals. Please say you’ll let me go to Newstead Abbey.” Her pleading smile would have melted iron.

      “You know I’d let you go if I could, but I’m weeks away from being able to ride, and I’d not send my precious love unescorted.”

      “I could take Sir Miles and a goodly troop.”

      “Nay.” Tears sprang into the earl’s eyes, and he looked to his wife for support.”

      “Mayhap we could send to London for some lay brothers to do the copying,” her mother offered.

      Lady Alys shook her head. “The nuns” work is the finest in the land. They alone can do justice to my books.”

      Ranulf thought the lot of them stupid and sentimental. But he also saw a way to achieve his goal. “If I might offer my services, my lord. I have with me a fighting force of five knights and thirty mounted men. No one would dare strike at the lovely Lady Alys while she was in my care.”

      “Thank you, Lord Ranulf. Oh, Papa. Please, please.”

      “Well…” Lord Gareth murmured.

      Ranulf sensed him weakening. “If we started early and set a brisk pace, I could have her there by vespers,” Ranulf said.

      “Very well.” The earl’s grudging permission was drowned out by Lady Alys’s shrieks of delight.

      Ranulf’s pleasure was quieter, but just as sharp. Silently he planned a small detour on the way to Newstead.

       Chapter Two

      “Are you certain we are not lost?” Alys asked.

      Lord Ranulf started. “Nay, I know exactly where we are. You can trust me to see you safely to our destination, dear Lady Alys.” His smile was patronizing yet smug, as though he knew something she did not.

      Above all things, Alys hated lies and secrets. She shifted in the saddle, uneasy, suddenly, with a man she’d dismissed as a harmless fop. “I’ve twice traveled to Newstead, but nothing about this wild country seems familiar.” Not the rugged mountains glaring down at her from on high, nor the black forest crowding close to the narrow road.

      “Surely you do not mistrust me.”

      “Nay.” There was no reason for Ranulf to deceive her, yet the notion that he hid something persisted. She did not have her great-aunt Cici’s ability to read minds, but with her special healing gift had come an awareness of people’s nature. Her first instinct about Ranulf had been wariness. In her eagerness to leave for Newstead, she’d ignored that vague unease.

      Well, her family often warned that someday her impetuous nature and penchant for wanting her own way would get her into trouble. Mayhap it had. Feeling lonely and afraid for the first time in her life, she studied Ranulf.

      The raised visor of Ranulf’s helmet shadowed his smooth, pleasant features. Too smooth, mayhap. Ranulf had shown her many faces in the short time since they’d met. The bland one he had on now, the furious mask he’d worn when he’d demanded her father outlaw СКАЧАТЬ