Lady Gallant (45 page)

A sharp elbow jabbed into his chest, and he stumbled backward, falling on his rump. He sat up, cursing, but stopped when he saw the crimson flush that spread over Nora's face and neck and down to her breasts. He'd shattered the ice, by God's teeth.

Not wanting to do anything that would bring back that ice, he rose and made himself leave. As he quit the chamber, he caught a glimpse of Nora's face, still red, and couldn't help chuckling.

Nora heard and shouted at him, "Go cozen one of your bawds, my lord. Surely Mag is about somewhere ready to give you what I will not."

Christian's amusement vanished. He had forgotten how great was his sin, how cruel were the deeds for which he must atone.

No fuzzy, fat puppy was going to make up for his transgressions. No, it would take a long time, this atonement. A long time indeed.

Several weeks later Christian was well settled into Failaise but was not a feather's length closer to earning the forgiveness he desired more than he ever imagined. Pacing in his study late one afternoon while his clerk deciphered a message from Inigo, he crossed the path of a golden ray of sunlight. The haze of light struck the silver clasps of his coat, and he stopped, studying the flashing sparkle of his signet ring. It reminded him of the disaster of Nora's jewels.

Those jewels. Three days ago they'd arrived from the city in a silver-embossed casket. Pendants, rings, pearls in great ropes, and golden chains. Rubies and diamonds, yellow and red gold, more diamonds. He'd been glad of their arrival, for that morning he'd transgressed yet again by telling her she could not walk in the forest with Arthur.

She hadn't wanted his company and had said so. Her refusal had stung his already wounded pride, and he'd forbidden her the walk. Why should she enjoy herself, he'd told himself, when he longed for her so much, he would have followed in her wake like that puppy he'd given her, trotting at her heels, yearning for a pat on the head?

Thinking the jewels would soothe her ire, he'd brought them to her soon after she'd stomped into her chamber and slammed the door. At first, when he'd handed her the casket, she'd merely stared at it. He'd opened the lid for her, and his heart had thumped painfully as he watched her eyes widen in shock.

"What means this?" she asked.

"They are yours," he said. "You don't seem to want my words of apology, so I thought mayhap you would desire—"

"To be bought?"

He shook his head. He had been about to say that the jewels were as bright as her mind and soul, but she'd fixed her thoughts on bribery. She muttered something he couldn't hear and ran to the window, throwing it open. Digging a hand into the casket, she threw its contents out into the air. Unable to believe what he saw, Christian was slow to react. He watched a necklace with pearls as big as the tip of his thumb sail out the window before he cursed and hurled himself at his wife.

Snatching the casket back, he shoved her aside and peered out the window. The gravel path and lawn were sprinkled with jewels. A stableboy and gardener were standing on the path, gawking up at him. The rope of pearls hung like a white garland from the ivy on the wall below the window.

"Damnation," Christian said. "Don't leer at me," he shouted at the bewildered servants. "Pick them up." The stableboy blinked up at him and pointed to a chain of rubies and diamonds hanging from a tree branch. "Oh, God's blood, I'll be down anon."

Drawing inside, he turned on Nora. "Ungrateful scold, I was trying to please you." He snapped the lid of the casket closed.

"You dare tell me when I may and may not walk and then expect me to welcome gifts?" Nora curled her lip. "I suppose you think that because I am a woman, I have the moral character of a child, and that mere trinkets can appease me when I've been treated like possession."

Confused, Christian tried to decipher her reasoning. "You make no sense."

"You're expecting me to behave like a child. Only a babe can be spanked and then comforted with a fruit sucket."

"I wouldn't spank you," he said, trying not to show his bewilderment. She'd refused to speak to him further, though, and he'd had no choice but to leave her.

Shaking his head in disgust, Christian brought himself back to the present and resumed his trek across the study. He still didn't understand why she'd thrown that embroidery box at him as he'd stepped out of her chamber.

"My lord, the cipher. My lord?"

Christian held out his hand for the paper. The clerk stood by as he read the message, constantly wiping his hands on his black robe. Christian finished reading, then rolled the paper into a cylinder and touched it to a candle flame.

"Leave me, Thomas."

"My lord, it's too dangerous."

"At once."

Thomas left, and Christian walked to a book stand and placed both hands flat on a translation of Plato. The cool leather of the binding failed to soothe him. He closed his eyes, searching for the will to command his rage. With Inigo's help, his father had taken over the search for their attackers. Not two days ago, Inigo had discovered that one of the murderers belonged to the household guard of Bishop Bonner. The Earl remained wary, Inigo had written, for if Nora had not betrayed them, someone else had.

Christian agreed. Bonner had been at the masque when the heretics had snuck out of the cellar against his orders. So had de Ateca. Jack Midnight had appeared out of nowhere to save them when they were attacked at the docks, and Christian had no faith that it was good fortune or Midnight's perversity alone that made for such a coincidence. His thoughts churned as he fondled the pages of the book. He would go to the city tomorrow. It shouldn't have been a heavy task to spy out the face of one of his attackers at Bonner's palace, yet he hadn't. However, the man could have been in hiding.

Someone pounded on the door, jarring Christian from thoughts of revenge upon Bonner. "Enter."

The door opened. Blade hovered at the threshold, but Nora appeared behind him and shoved him into the study. Surprised, Christian smiled at her. She returned his greeting with a scowl.

"The only reason I'm here is to protect Blade," she said, then punched the young man on the arm. "Out with it."

"I thought you'd be pleased," Blade snapped at her, "or I wouldn't have confided in you."

"I don't like de Ateca," she said, "and it is beyond my imagining to think that Lord Montfort could set you to cozening him. The man eats boys for dinner."

Christian rounded the library table and approached the youth. "What have you done?"

"Naught," Blade said.

Laying a hand on Blade's arm, Christian said, "Come now, marchpane, tell me a tale."

Blade stared at Christian, silent.

"You know what happens when he speaks like a lovestruck gallant," Nora said. "Better confess."

Edging away from Christian, Blade slipped behind Nora before the older man could stop him. "As your dear cousin, I invited de Ateca to Falaise."

"Why?" Christian lifted Nora out of the way and headed for Blade. "Why, sweeting? Tell your loving cousin." He reached for the youth.

Blade danced out of Christian's way. "To provide you with a more cunning adversary than Nora."

"You're still angry for your own grievances, not Nora's."

"Both." Blade scuttled behind Nora again.

Christian stopped tracking him and put his hands on his hips. "You're mad. This day I've found nothing but vicious magpies in my house." At their pleased looks, he cursed. "When will the
conde
arrive?"

Blade wandered to a window and glanced out. "Oh, now, I think."

"God rot your hide." Christian sprang to Blade's side in time to see grooms leading several horses toward the stables. Sliding a look at Blade, Christian said, "You'll pay for this mischief. De Ateca may have the appetites of a Greek, but he has the twisted complexity of a Medici, and you've brought him near my wife."

As he finished, he noticed the quiet of the chamber. He and Blade looked up to find Nora gone.

"God's toes, she's gone to meet him."

Christian hurled himself out of the room with Blade close on his heels. One wrong word from Nora, and de Ateca would have the means to send all of them to their deaths. Nora was clever but innocent, and no match for the Spaniard. Praying that he reached them in time, Christian hurtled downstairs after his enemy and his love.

Nora was approaching the gallery when she heard thunder on the staircase. His eyes smoldering, Christian swept down on her. She forestalled him.

"I'll rid us of de Ateca," she said.

"You can't."

"I got rid of you, did I not?"

She almost grinned when she saw Christian's neck and face flush.

"Listen behind the arras if you must," she added, and entered the gallery before her husband could object.

Ignoring his furious whisper of her name, Nora glided into the sunlit room with a greeting for the
conde
. Slender as a whiplash, the Spaniard glittered as he bowed over her hand, the light catching the shine of his hair and the rich silver brocade of his cloak.

"I fear you've caught me alone, my lord," she said. "Blade and my husband have yet to return from hawking. And you must forgive our lack of proper greeting, for, you see, that flighty cousin of ours misremembered his invitation. I have ordered rooms prepared, but there will be delay."

De Ateca made light of the inconvenience, as Nora had expected he would, and she hastened to put her stratagem to work.

"I've sent for wine, my lord, and welcome this chance to converse with you alone, for I fear Blade has taken a liberty in inviting you to Falaise." She managed to conjure up a flush. "Being but newly married, I find I need solitude with my husband, and this is his wish as well. Indeed, my lord is sending Blade to Castle Montfort anon, so that we have privy time to learn of each other."

Nora watched de Ateca's face but could catch no hint of anger or irritation.

"Perhaps I will give company to the boy on his journey," the Spaniard said.

"Oh," Nora said. She hadn't thought the man would be so persistent. The arras that concealed Christian and Blade jiggled, and she took the movement as a sign of her husband's displeasure. "Of course, it will be as my lord decides."