Malia Martin (31 page)

But would her life be such a mess if he were not there?

“Nervous?”

Aleene jumped and looked up into the sparkling blue eyes of her husband. Guilt made her wince.

“There is nothing to be nervous about. The hall looks marvelous hung with boughs and the smell from the kitchens is making me drool.” He held out his arm to her. “Shall we? Your people await, my lady.”

Aleene only stared at his arm. Even in the dim light she could make out lean muscles and the golden hair that dusted his forearm. She let her gaze travel up to Robert’s chest, then to his face. Oh, what a beautiful man. “I’m afraid,” she said.

Robert let his arm fall to his side and sat quickly beside her. “My love.” He reached out and took her hand in his. The familiar warmth seemed to seep right into her blood and pulse into every part of her body. “I shall be with you.”

Aleene looked away. How hard it was to accept such a statement as good after so many years of fearing closeness.

“And, anyway, I think you might find this night easier than you believe it will be.” He smiled, his teeth bright in the shadowy room. “Come.” He pulled her up and started for the door.

She hesitated, but then took a deep, breath and followed. She shook as they entered the hall. Always before the small tremor in her hands was hidden from all, but now Robert turned and looked into her eyes. He had felt her fear.

“I’m here.”

They entered the hall and all noise ceased. People turned in their seats to watch as she and Robert made their way to the head table. Candles flickered on every table and from every sconce. Boughs of green draped the tables, filling the air with the scent of pine. They had not had such a celebration since the time of her father, and even then there had been tension. She had never realized it as a child, but now as she remembered back she knew the people had not celebrated with her family. They resented the dark Spaniard that ruled them.

Aleene stared at the ground before her feet as she walked. And, still, they resented the dark lady who ruled them.

She sat, tears burning the back of her throat. Her life was so full of questions now. Always, before, she had not questioned, she had just moved forward in her goal to rule Seabreeze for it was the only place her heart had ever been happy.

Now she questioned. Would these people do better under therule of Aethregard? Her step-brother was a weasel of a man, but his father had been able to unite the people behind him. And they all seemed to relish the thought of Aethregard as the lord of Seabreeze.

The thought brought an acid taste to Aleene’s tongue and she grimaced as she sat. Robert still held her hand as she finally lifted her eyes and met the gazes of her people.

No! Aleene raised her chin. She could not question. She knew that Aethregard would make no kind of a leader. And she knew with a certainty that she could. She would just have to prove it, as she had set out to do when Tosig had died.

A man at one of the tables toward the back of the hall rose and for a heart-stopping moment Aleene thought he was going to walk out. Perhaps they would all leave in defiance of her.

Instead, the man came up between the rows of tables to stand before her. He bowed solemnly.

“We have heard, my lady, how you fought to keep an Englishman as our king. We know you were favored by Harold, may God rest his soul, and we know that you mourn him as we do.” The man held out a small bundle and placed it before her. “For you.” He bowed again, then turned and made his way back to his seat.

Perplexed, Aleene stared at the small bundle.

“Open it,” Robert whispered from beside her.

Tentatively, Aleene reached out and unwrapped the gift. A simple necklace of seashells fell to her lap and she held it up for everyone to see. “’Tis beautiful!” She smiled out at the man at the back of the hall. “Thank you so very much.”

He bowed and sat as Aleene had Robert tie the necklace around her throat. She caressed the shells at her throat that seemed more beautiful to her than all the jewels in the world.

Aleene looked up again as another man came to the head table and laid a gift in front of her. She bit back tears as he, also, expressed thanks for her courage. Part of her wanted to reject their praise. She had been anything but brave, but she stayed her tongue and only smiled.

By the end of the Christmas celebration, Aleene had a great collection of small trinkets given to her by the people of Pevensey.

That night, as she and Robert settled into bed, Aleene lay on her side and could not think of a more happy moment in all her life.

Robert curled up behind her, and Aleene turned around to burrow into his warmth. They stayed that way for a moment before Aleene’s body began to react to Robert’s closeness. She stretched languidly, then pressed herself against him.

“You’re insatiable,” he whispered against her ear, causing goose bumps to raise along her arms. She laughed softly, kissing his neck and arching her body into his.

His hands moved down her arms and cradled her hips, pulling her against his hard manhood.

“Insatiable,” she agreed, kissing a line down his throat and over his chest before she used her legs to push him over onto his back. She climbed on top of him, straddling his hips and kissing his mouth. He groaned as she brought him into herself, his hands on her hips helping her find their rhythm. She smiled in the darkness, tilting her head back and feeling him inside her.

One of his hands left her hip and ran up her side to cup her breast. Aleene sucked in a quick breath, then bit her lip when Robert’s thumb flicked at her nipple. She quickened their rhythm, her eyes fluttering closed as the intensity within her grew. She felt her insides tighten, tense, and then fall apart in a great release, and she gasped.

“Insatiable,” he laughed against her temple when she crumpled against him, replete.

“I love you,” she said, “my Cyne.”

The next morning it was as if the night before had been a beautiful dream and she had awoken to a nightmare.

T
he moment his men marched Cuthebert through the gates of Seabreeze Castle at the points of their spears, Robert knew he had made a great strategic error. The people of Seabreeze stared at him with renewed animosity, and Aleene lifted her chin even higher.

When he had ordered the treacherous steward run down, Robert had only been thinking of the look in his lady wife’s eyes when she awoke the morning after their Christmas celebration. The terrible rumors that buzzed about the castle were almost more than she could bear.

Robert looked at the stooped old man surrounded by strong warriors and rethought his first instinct, which was to throw the pitiful Cuthebert in the dungeons. “Take him into the hall. Don’t let him from your sight!” he said roughly.

A low murmur of disapproval followed him as he stalked toward Aleene. She stood at the entrance to the kitchens supervising the women. They did not need her there, truly, but Robert knew that Aleene was trying desperately to keep her authority in the face of catastrophe. He took her hand when he reached her and felt her flinch.

“I shall never hurt you, Aleene,” he said softly. Words for her ears only.

Her lids flickered shut for a moment before she squeezed his hand. “You should have let him go.”

“I could not!” Robert stopped himself and took a deep breath. “He must answer for the lies he has spread.”

“Lies?” Brows arched over dark eyes. “You do not believe I pushed my stepfather to his death? Cuthebert says he saw me do it.”

Robert cupped her cheek in his hand. “Do not play this game with me, Aleene. I know you could not have done such a thing.”

They stood silently for a moment, Aleene’s gaze full of such agony Robert wished only to spin around and kill the foul little steward who had crushed his wife’s burgeoning happiness.

Aleene was shaking her head. “I will not hurt Cuthebert. I don’t want you to hurt him, either.” She closed her eyes. “I only wish my people would take my word as truth.”

Robert cursed. “I shall not hurt him.” He turned and went to the hall. One of the serving maids skittered out of his way as he entered, and he knew his look gave away the anger that ran through his veins like fire.

“Cuthebert!" Robert yelled, causing the man who sat hunched at one of the tables to jump. “What cause have ye to defame the name of your lady, my wife?”

Robert stalked toward the man and stopped, his hands in fists at his hips.

“You were not here before!" Cuthebert whined. “She hated Tosig. She killed him, and I saw it with my very eyes.” He darted glances about the room, catching the eyes of a few servants. “And now you ...” Cuthebert looked up at him, then quickly averted his gaze. “You stand behind her in her perfidy.” The man had begun his accusation with a loud voice as if to make it carry to those working in the hall, but he ended in a squeak as Robert grabbed the front of his tunic.

“I stand behind the lady of this castle, a lady who saved your rotten hide.”

Cuthebert gulped so hard Robert felt the man’s Adam’s apple slide against his fingers. “She killed our lord.”

“Your
lord
was- a disgusting excuse for a man.” Robert hissed into Cuthebert’s ear, then flung the man back onto his seat. With a deep breath, Robert furrowed his fingers through his hair. “Why do you make these ridiculous ac? cusations now, Cuthebert? Why did you not come forward with this information when Tosig died?”

The man sat up straighter as if, finally, he was sure of what he said. “I did.” He nodded to punctuate the sentence. “I told Aethregard.”

Robert scowled when he heard the name.

Cuthebert lifted his pointy chin. “He wished me to keep what I had seen to myself because he did not want Lady Aleene’s reputation damaged.” The man slitted his gaze and sneered. “She
was
to be his wife, after all.”

“The day Aethregard thinks of another with no thought to himself is the day men live upon the moon.”

“Aethregard was to be our lord. A good man of English blood!”

“A swine no matter what blood runs in his veins.” Robert shook his head and turned away. Servants had begun spreading fresh rushes. They stood staring at him, baskets of dried herbs forgotten in their hands.

“Go!” Robert yelled to them, gesturing toward the door. “I am conducting business, not a play for your amusement.”

One of the women snorted, then laid her basket on the ground and turned with a swish of her skirts. The others followed. Another mistake if he were ever to salvage his and Aleene’s authority among the people of Seabreeze Castle. Robert sighed loudly.

“Let him go.”

Robert rubbed at a spot just above his nose and turned to see his wife.

She looked at Robert. “You should never have brought him back here.” Aleene went to stand near Cuthebert. “Let him run away.” She stared disdainfully at the steward. “If it was truth he spews, he would not have run.”

Cuthebert did not answer, which made his lying all the more blatant to Robert’s way of seeing it.

“You will not defend yourself to the lady, I see.”

“’Tis not I who need defend myself,” the man said, never looking up from his toes.

“Oh, and are you not the courageous one, talking to your feet . . .”

“Cease!” Aleene slammed her hand down on the table before Cuthebert. The steward slid quickly away from her. “Go, Cuthebert.”

The steward eyed the swords of the men who still watched over him.

“I do not think . . .”

“Please, Robert.” Aleene lifted pleading dark eyes to him. “Let him be gone from here.”

Robert held his breath for a moment. His morning had been filled with one mistake after another; would this be yet another? He let out the air in his lungs and gestured for the two guards to stand down.

“Go,” Aleene said.

Cuthebert stood slowly, took a few steps toward the door, then began running. He heaved raspy breaths that echoed in the high-ceilinged hall and his feet spit up stray herbs the servants had left behind.

Robert sank down on the bench Cuthebert had just vacated. “I wanted to prove him wrong before your people.”

“That will not work, Robert.” Aleene smoothed her gown with shaking hands. “I do not want their trust because they are shown that another lies. If I am to ever be one of them, if I shall ever be the true lady of this castle, they must trust
my
word.”

Aleene sat at the head table that night and looked out over the people gathered for supper. With a yearning pain she remembered the Christmas celebration only a few nights before. It had been the most wondrous night of her life, and she had actually let herself believe that things would be different.

Closing her eyes, Aleene dredged up all the courage she could find and stood. The low murmur of voices receded until silence echoed in the hall.

“You have all heard the accusations of the steward, Cuthebert,” she said, her voice breaking on the man’s name. Aleene cleared her throat and continued. “I cannot prove them false.”

Soft gasps followed her words. “I can only tell you that I did not kill Tosig. Tis my word against Cuthebert’s, and I can only hope that you will believe me.”