My Heart Belongs to You (Medieval Romance Trilogy Book 3) (25 page)

Alex shrugged. “It’s of no consequence. Once Father Edward meets with King Alexander in Edinburgh, they will speak with the Pope and secure an annulment.”

“I only hope the Pope will listen to reason.”

“He will,” Alex answered with conviction. “He’s not happy with the English king. Luckily, our King Alexander is on good terms with the Pope. No doubt the riches you sent will help convince the Pope to grant an annulment from Sir Malcolm. You must be a pauper after sending your entire fortune to bribe His Holiness.”

“Fortunes can be easily made and lost. I seek a greater treasure.”

“Ah, yes,” Alex sighed like a love struck boy, “the Lady Ysabelle is indeed a treasure worth seeking. I wish I could find such a rare jewel for my own.”

Sipping from his cup, Nicholas breathed deeply and endeavored to broach a subject that brought him great discomfort.

“Have you known many women?” he asked.

Alex grinned and sighed with relish. “Yes, and had my fair share.”

And run from every one afterward when they spoke of marriage. Nicholas wondered if Alex would ever be bitten by love.

“Have you never been in love?” Nicholas asked.

Alex choked on a crust of bread, his eyes wide with horror. “Never! A woman is not to love. She is to make love to.”

Nicholas shook his head. Heaven help Alex when and if he ever truly fell in love. It would surely bring him to his knees. “But surely there has been one particular lady who weighed more heavily on your mind than another.”

“Only our mother.”

“I speak of a woman of your own.”

Quirking his brows, Alex thought for several moments. “No, there is none. Why do you ask?”

Nicholas shifted with eagerness. “What did you do to get a reluctant woman into your bed?”

“I seduced her more slowly.”

“How? How did you seduce her?”

Alex shrugged. “The usual ways. With a look, a whisper, a kiss or two. It was all a game.”

Love a game? Nicholas didn’t see it that way. He wanted something permanent with Ysabelle. Something to last a lifetime. This information was not going to help Nicholas. He wanted more than games. He wanted forever with Ysabelle.

“One day, your heart will be broken, and it will serve you right,” he said.

Alex snorted. “Hardly. For my heart to be broken, I would have to fall in love. And I will never love any woman. See how faithless our own mother was to my father? Though he’s never spoken of it, I know he never recovered from her betrayal. Women are fickle creatures, and I won’t allow one to betray me the way our mother betrayed my father.”

Nicholas had never thought of how his mother’s infidelity might have hurt Alex. Nicholas had suffered brutally because of it. Although Alex’s father had sent him away, Nicholas realized Alex cared for the man. And because Nicholas loved Alex, he wouldn’t confide his anger at Lord Ramsay. It would only drive a wedge between the two brothers.

“I wish to know how to woo a lady,” Nicholas confided in a careful whisper.

Alex’s sudden bark of laughter filled the hall. The other men sitting at the lengthy table ignored him even though they saw Nicholas glare angrily at his brother. They were used to Alex teasing the dark lord. Alex was the only one who could get away with it. Many of them wondered why Nicholas tolerated his elder brother’s humor when he had so little of it himself. It was simple, really. Nicholas had oath-men and captains who had proven their loyalty, but Alex was Nicholas’s only family. His only friend. Someone Nicholas confided with on a few guarded topics. Alex was also the only man Nicholas trusted completely. Even so, Nicholas held back his deep feelings over their childhood and the cruel treatment he’d suffered at the hands of Alex’s father.

Alex grinned. “Have you fallen in love with her already?”

“Who?” Nicholas asked with confusion.

“Your wife, brother. Lady Ysabelle. Have you fallen in love with her?”

Nicholas threw a look of disgust at his brother. “What is love? She is my wife and I desire her. That is enough.”

“Yet, you wish to woo her.”

“I seek to ease her fears.”

“I see. She still doesn’t like you, hmm?” Alex nodded his head in a knowing manner. “Well, I doubt not you are enjoying yourself in her bed, so I willna offer suggestions on that. The servants have reported that they heard you…”

Nicholas cut him off with a heavy glower. “It’s not a topic any of you should discuss.”

Alex shrugged. “Yet, it reaffirms your marriage. I doubt the English king will want to pawn Ysabelle off on another mon with your babe tucked securely in her belly. Her lands are another matter.”

Nicholas grunted. “She is troubled. I don’t know how to calm her sadness.”

This confession was hard for Nicholas. It didn’t sit well with him to confide such things to anyone and he braced himself for Alex’s laughter.

It did not come.

A frown pulled at the corners of Alex’s mouth. “Has she told you why she is so sad?”

Nicholas sighed with regret. “No. She refuses to speak of it. She is full of sorrow and I don’t know what to do to help her.”

“Do you think it’s because she fears you?”

Nicholas shook his head. “I have yet to raise a hand to her and I know she enjoys our passion. Her sorrow speaks of deep grief and I don’t have the heart to scold her for it.”

“Perhaps she fears for her people,” Alex said.

“Perhaps.”

“Who can understand a woman’s logic?”

Nicholas agreed. “So, what can I do?”

“She probably doesn’t trust you, yet.”

“I have done nothing to betray her trust.”

Alex cocked one brow. “You don’t think so? What about stealing her away when she was wedded to Sir Malcolm? You have brought war to her doorstep.”

Nicholas was silent for several moments, thinking. “What would you do to earn her trust?”

“Have you sought her out and spent time just talking with her?”

Nicholas sighed impatiently. “Occasionally.”

“You should do it more often.”

“What should we speak about?”

“Nothing and everything,” Alex chimed. “Ask her opinion. Find out what she likes. If all else fails, tell her she is beautiful. Women love to be told that, especially by their husbands.”

“How do you know such things?”

Alex shrugged. “Most men learn these things just by being around women. You’ve kept yourself sheltered with men and haven’t become aware of what makes a woman happy.”

With renewed hope, Nicholas nodded his head. At this point, he would try anything.

“Have you danced with her, brought her flowers, or joked with her?” Alex offered more suggestions.

“Flowers?” Nicholas raised a brow. “Where would I get flowers? And I don’t know any jokes worthy to tell a lady. I have enough common sense to know the ribald jokes my men tell me are not for a woman’s tender ears. We don’t have a minstrel here to provide music. In case you haven’t noticed, we are under siege.”

Undaunted by Nicholas’s dark glare, Alex laughed. “You asked, and I offered some suggestions. What you do with that information is your business.”

Muttering an irritable curse, Nicholas rose from the table. Without a backward glance, he left the hall. If Alex weren’t his brother, Nicholas would enjoy planting his fist squarely in the man’s face. Dancing and jokes? Bah!

Walking out into the sunlight, he ground his teeth together. Flowers! How could he obtain flowers inside the castle? Were such trivial things really necessary?

A memory flashed through his mind of his wedding day, when Alex had given Ysabelle a bouquet of flowers. It mattered not if it was necessary. It mattered only that it was worth the effort. It had meant so much to Ysabelle. And pleasing her was all that was important.

Turning, Nicholas headed toward the castle wall, pondering the intricacies of the fairer gender.

*

“By the Holy Rood, you have broken my toes! Heaven help Ysabelle if you ever dance with her.”

Ysabelle froze when she heard these words. She was just returning to her room after feeding Sara when she passed by the bedchamber where Alex slept. The door was slightly ajar and, when she heard Alex’s exclamation, she hesitated, listening intently. Soon, Nicholas’s curt reply filled the air like a blast of wintry wind.

“Unlike you, my lady wife doesn’t have feet as big as a barge. Why do you get to lead?”

What was going on?

Ysabelle couldn’t resist. Tip-toeing closer, she leaned her head against the cool oak panel.

“Because I am the teacher, brother,” Alex replied. “When you’ve learned to dance properly, then you can lead.”

“But I want to lead now.”

Ysabelle heard Alex’s exaggerated sigh. “Impatience will get you no where. I know it may be difficult, but you will just have to relinquish control until you learn what to do.”

Her lips twitched with amusement. Silence followed. Then, Ysabelle heard the unmistakable sounds of subtle movement within the room and she imagined the two men moving across the floor together. Did her ears betray her, or could she hear Alex humming a tune?

Lifting her hands, she pressed them hard against her mouth to muffle a laugh. Dancing? What had possessed these two men?

“Keep your arms up,” Alex barked instructions. “Don’t hold me like a sack of grain. Do you expect Ysabelle to tolerate being squeezed to death? Relax your hold. You’ll crush her hand if you hold it so tightly.”

“Stop moving so fast,” Nicholas commanded. “I cannot keep up.”

“Can you not count either?” came Alex’s flippant response. “I told you to bend on the count of three. Do as I say, else you will crash into other dancers, and then you’ll have a fight on your hands.”

“Anyone who seeks a fight with me shall have it,” Nicholas growled.

“Yes, and I’m certain Lady Ysabelle will be quite impressed with her husband’s decorum when you start a brawl at the king’s court. You have the etiquette of a sheepherder.”

“What does etiquette matter if I’m challenged in a contest of arms? I have never withdrawn from a fight,” Nicholas said.

“Nicholas, you should have no need to fight on the dance floor, unless your lady’s honor is in question, which I highly doubt. A fight willna endear Ysabelle to you.”

“I hardly see how dancing will endear me to Ysabelle either,” came Nicholas’s surly reply.

“Perhaps not, but it is a pleasantry that women enjoy.”

“Coupling is also a pleasantry a woman enjoys. I prefer it to dancing,” Nicholas returned.

“We are not talking about your preferences, brother. We are talking about pleasing your lady.”

There was a long pause. “Yes, I wish to please her.”

Brooding silence followed and Ysabelle’s heart did a flip-flop. Nicholas’s declaration amazed her. He wanted to please her? Could it be true?

“Ouch!” Alex cried. “You clod! My toes are all but broken. I give up.”

“Fine!” Nicholas’s voice sounded curt. “You’re not much of an instructor anyway.”

“I didn’t ask for the chore. Send for someone else.”

“Who?” Nicholas sounded as though he spoke through clenched teeth. “The English army sits upon our doorstep. I doubt they would allow a dance instructor to pass through our gates just so I can learn to dance with my lady.”

“Why don’t you let Ysabelle teach you?” Alex asked in a defensive tone. “Maybe you’ll be more gentle when you tread upon her feet. I think you’ve broken both of my big toes.”

“It serves you right for sticking them beneath my feet. You’re not very graceful.”

“And you think you are?”

A low growl was Nicholas’s reply. “Enough!”

Ysabelle was stunned when Nicholas yanked the door wide and narrowly missed bumping into her as he charged out of the room. The Scots Ram came up short, staring at her with amazement.

Caught eavesdropping!

Gasping with surprise, Ysabelle’s cheeks heated with embarrassment as the two men stared at her. It was one thing to be caught listening, but to have witnessed her husband’s obvious discomfort with dancing made it doubly worse. Even now, Nicholas’s color heightened as he glared at her.

“What do you want?” he asked in a low growl.

“I beg your pardon, my lord. I was merely passing by. I didn’t mean to pry.” Spinning about, Ysabelle raced down the dark corridor to the lord’s chamber. Inside, she slammed the door behind her. Leaning against it, she pressed a fist to her mouth to silence her laughter.

“You dolt!” Alex yelled at Nicholas.

Inside her room, Ysabelle heard him all the way down the hall, for his voice was not quiet.

“What?” Nicholas asked.

“Have you no manners? One does not speak to his lady wife in such a manner if one seeks to woo her to dance with one. Especially when one dances as rotten as you do.”

Pressing her ear to the doorway, Ysabelle could just imagine Nicholas’s eyes narrowing on his brother’s smirking face. She didn’t need to try to hear what they were saying. Their loud, angry voices echoed through the hall.

“And one does not speak thusly to the lord of this keep unless one would like to find himself kicked out on his arse,” Nicholas spat back.

“Fine!” Alex barked. “Find someone else to teach you to dance. It might be wise to take some lessons on manners at the same time.”

“I asked you to teach me proper decorum. You could not even do that.”

Alex snorted. “Look at what I have to work with. A heathen!”

“I should throw you out and let the English have you,” Nicholas ground out the words.

“It would be the lesser of two evils I troth.”

Retreating footsteps sounded and then the slamming of a door. The two men must have gone downstairs. Inside the bedchamber she now shared with her husband, Ysabelle smiled. Though he was obviously embarrassed by it, the fact that Nicholas was making an effort to learn to dance and speak with manners filled her with overwhelming joy. She felt beyond flattered. He was trying to please her.

But dancing? What was the Scots Ram thinking?

She was stunned when the door opened suddenly and Nicholas walked into the room. Whirling about, Ysabelle stared at her husband as he closed the door. Heat climbed up her neck. Taking a couple of steps backward, she twined her hands nervously behind her, wishing she could disappear.