Claire Delacroix (63 page)

Alys held herself stiffly. “Edana said the knight was concerned for me.”

“Aye, he spoke of your needing
comfort
? Malvina laughed as Alys’s cheeks burned, then shook her head. “Ah, Alys, do you not see how pathetic you are?”

“It seems I owe you thanks for making the matter clear,” Alys said frostily.

“Make no mistake, Alys,” her cousin declared with a shake of her finger, “you shall find yourself out of Burke’s bed as quickly as you were dumped within it, with naught to show for it but a rounding belly.” Malvina sneered. “Just like your mother. The man knows for what you were wrought.”

“You are wrong!”

“Aye? Mother says that men believe that bestowing their seed is a great gift—but ’tis where they put their
ring
that matters.”

Malvina looked pointedly at Alys’s bare fingers. Alys could not keep herself from hiding them in the folds of her kirtle.

“ ’Tis odd, I note no ring on your hand,” Alys commented.

“Yet.”
Malvina smirked. “Knights do not wed bastard serving wenches, Alys.” She laughed. “No doubt Burke and I shall share a jest over your foolish hopes at the midday board.”

Alys’s heart thudded in her chest.

“Mend my kirtle now, Alys,” Malvina invited, tossing the offending garment onto the table, “and I shall permit you to attend my nuptials with Burke.” She paused, letting her scornful glance drift over Alys. “Even if he has had you as his whore.”

Alys snatched up her basket angrily. “Mend it yourself!” she cried, and flung herself out the kitchen door.

Burke was impatient beyond anything he had known.

He knew that Alys needed her rest, but still it vexed him to linger in this cursed place. Indeed, he would have simply carried her away while she slept, but he was quite certain his lady would have much to say about that.

He would have her agreement first.

Burke conceitedly avoided Deirdre, not trusting himself to
hold his tongue over what Alys had endured the day before. Indeed, the sight of those marks marring his lady’s soft flesh could not be pushed from his thoughts. He fervently wished he had a healer’s skills, not merely some unguent, to ease those marks away.

He would have sat diligently beside her all the night long, ensuring that she slept well and undisturbed, but Alys’s charges of his disinterest in her reputation had cut deep. ’Twas true enough that such a course would have prompted chatter, though Burke would have cared little for that.

But Alys cared. Out of respect for his lady’s desires, Burke stayed away.

It nigh killed him.

His mood was not improved when Malvina came to seek him out. He and Kerwyn were occupied with the cleaning of Moonshadow’s hooves, a task the destrier tolerated poorly and one that, in all honesty, was not even due to be done.

That ’twas better than doing naught said much of Burke’s mood.

“Burke! Where
are
you?”

The sound of Malvina’s voice made Burke wince and Kerwyn chuckle. “I believe the ostler has need of me,” the stable-hand said with quiet mischief, earning a dark glance from the knight.

“Abandon me to her and you shall regret it,” Burke muttered through his teeth. “I shall hunt you down and wring a penance from your hide.”

“Ah, but this lady’s presence is a heavy penance in itself,” Kerwyn retorted, his eyes dancing. “I must weigh the cost of lingering against any threat you make.”

Burke chuckled despite himself at the truth of that. “You can ride the beast, if you only remain.”

“Aye, if he will permit me.” Kerwyn scraped at the hoof Burke held and Moonshadow shuddered in agitation. The destrier
twitched and fought once more to pull his foot from the knight’s grip. He whinnied when he failed and Burke tightened his grip.

“Finish it quickly!” he bade the stablehand, feeling Moon-shadow’s temper rise. ’Twas time to be done with this labor or abandon it.

“Burke! Here you are!” Malvina appeared suddenly at the end of the stall. Her shadow slanted into the tiny space and a deluge of exotic perfume wafted before her. Moonshadow’s nostrils quivered dangerously and Burke knew trouble was, quite literally, in the wind.

“Leave it be and step away!” he instructed tersely.

“Done!” Kerwyn cried in the same moment and darted backward, his hands in the air.

Burke released the stallion’s hoof just as Moonshadow threw back his head in fury. The steed kicked hard, narrowly missing both men, and swung his hip against the wall of the stall, clearly intending to flatten those who tormented him. Kerwyn swore as Moonshadow’s weight landed solidly against the wall a mere arm’s length in front of him.

“He must like you,” Burke teased. “For he missed.”

The stablehand laughed in his relief but the stallion exhaled mightily. Moonshadow had not had his say fully as yet, and Burke took a wary step back.

To his astonishment, Malvina appeared betwixt him and his steed. He had nigh forgotten her presence, but clearly that omission was not to go uncorrected.

“Burke,” Malvina chided with a sly smile, clearly oblivious to the furious steed behind her. “How can you so ignore me when I have sought you all the day?”

Moonshadow fought the tether and the bit. He lifted one heavy foot and Burke spied trouble just before it happened.

alvina, look out!”

Burke caught the girl with one arm and swept her out of harm’s way in the nick of time. Moonshadow kicked directly where she had been, his tolerance of perfume limited at the best of times. The destrier stamped, flung his weight against the opposing wall of the stall, snorted and fumed.

Then, apparently satisfied that he had made his opinion clear—or that his tormentors had retreated sufficiently—the stallion settled.

He blew insouciantly at the contents of his feed bin, scattering hay in every direction. Clearly pleased with his deeds, he acted for all the world as if naught were amiss.

Burke breathed a sigh of relief. The beast would not willfully hurt another, but there was always a chance of his miscalculating his weight and strength.

’Twas then Burke realized that Malvina still clung to him. He stepped back, trying to set a distance between than.

But to his chagrin, Malvina wound her arms around his neck. “Oh, Burke, you saved me from dire peril! How wondrously gallant!”

“Anyone would have done as much,” the knight said grimly, working a little more diligently to extricate himself.

“But you
did
” the girl breathed, landing a wet kiss on his
cheek. Burke met Kerwyn’s gaze and nearly laughed, for the stablehand—safely out of the girl’s view—puckered his lips in a swooning mimicry of the daughter of the house.

Burke tried to look stern. “Malvina, you must not make much of little.”

“How modest you are.” Malvina purred, and rubbed her breasts against him. “ ’Tis no small thing to be so brave a man as you.”

Burke refrained from commenting that ’twas her own foolishness that had placed her in jeopardy.

“No doubt your father would have been sorely displeased if my steed injured you,” he said with a cool smile. He deliberately broke her embrace, then stepped away.

The girl was not so easily deterred as that. “I think we should seal the moment with a kiss,” she suggested. “Mother constantly asks me about the course of your suit.”

With those words, Burke knew he had to find some means of escape that would not reveal his utter disinterest in Deirdre’s eldest.

And he was fortunate enough to find it.

“Ah, Malvina! Your kirtle has been mired.” Burke grimaced as if this were more dire, hoping against hope that she would see fit to change. “Malvina, you should not have sullied your garb with a visit to the stables,” he said with a winning smile. “Perhaps if ’tis cleaned immediately, there will be no stain.”

Kerwyn smirked, but Malvina’s brow darkened as she examined the mark upon her skirt. She laid her fingertips on Burke’s arm and leaned closer as the knight fought his urge to recoil. “I shall not be long. Wait for me!”

Malvina trotted to the stable doors, and Burke ran one hand through his hair in relief.

“One can only hope that it takes her half the day to choose her garb,” he muttered, and Kerwyn laughed aloud.

Edana came into the stables just as Malvina left, the two passing in the portal. The goatgirl uttered a greeting, but Malvina brushed past, her nose in the air.

Kerwyn straightened as Edana headed toward them with a pert smile. The goats, stalled beyond Moonshadow, began to bleat as if they knew she drew near.

“I am coming, ladies!” she called with a cheerfulness Burke found far from his own mood.

“Good morning, Edana,” Kerwyn said with surprising formality. The girl flushed and returned the greeting.

But Burke eyed Edana. “I thought you minded Alys.” He surveyed his surroundings impatiently. “Indeed, if the lady would only awaken, we would be gone before that one returns.”

“But she
is
awake,” Edana declared. “That is why I come for my ladies.”

“She is?” Alys was awake and she had not sought him out? Burke frowned. “Is she well? Does her injury still plague her? There is more of the unguent, if she has the need.”

“She is well enough. Indeed, she has gone to visit Heloise.” Edana graced Kerwyn with another warm smile, and the stablehand grinned foolishly. Then the goatgirl headed for her wards, her hips swaying.

But Burke blinked, unable to credit her tale. Alys had awakened in his bed and left, without even thanking him for his concern? ’Twas unlike his lady to show such a lack of manners.

And how could Alys not have desired to see Burke as ardently as he wished to see her this day?

A less confident man might have been insulted, but Burke knew there was still some issue between them. Alys was avoiding him, he had guessed aright. Why else would she take such an unnecessary mission upon herself in this moment?

Burke propped his hands on his hips and turned to call
after the girl. “And who is this Heloise? Where might she be found?”

“The anchorite,” Kerwyn supplied instead. “She lives in the stone hut on the point. ’Tis a good few miles along the coast.”

“Miles? Alys was to lie abed this day!” Burke protested. “She was to heal, not walk miles alone!”

Edana shrugged. “Alys insisted on visiting Heloise. She was supposed to go yesterday but could not in the end. I went in her stead, but Alys worries about Heloise.”

With a pert smile, Edana opened the latch and the goats spilled noisily into the corridor. She patted them as they passed her, greeting each by name, Alys’s doings clearly the last matter upon her mind.

Burke gritted his teeth. He had not surrendered all to win naught. Nay, he would not countenance Alys’s avoidance. She would hear him out, and she would hear him out on
this
day.

“Fetch Moonshadow’s saddle for me, if you will,” Burke requested of the stablehand, who still stared after the goatgirl. “And point me in the direction of this anchorite’s abode.”

“Burke! I am coming!” Malvina cried from the keep. “The mark was removed with but a bit of water and I am again at my finest.”

Burke deliberately ignored the stablehand’s smirk. “Kerwyn, make haste, if you value your hide!”

“Empty threats,” Kerwyn teased, but he fetched Moonshadow’s saddle so quickly that Burke had no complaints.