The Fallen One (19 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

    
It was the middle of
the night by the time Mathias and Cathlina reached Longtown, a berg near the
Scots border that had seen more battles than most.
 
It was a strict blend of Scots and English, a
mixed bag of nationalities.
 
It was also
a wild and lawless town.

    
There was a small
church just south of the town, built of stone and surrounded by a graveyard
that was overflowing its perimeter. Decades of battles had seen to that.
 
It was cold and misty as Mathias reined the
weary charger up to the door and dismounted, pulling an exhausted Cathlina off
behind him.
 

She was unsteady on her feet, yawning and
sleepy, but she had never complained during their long ride north.
 
The road hadn’t been particularly good and
the horse excitable, making for slow going.
 
As he tied the charger up near a heavy growth of grass and vines that
the horse could feast on, he took Cathlina’s hand and led her do the ancient
iron and wood door.
 
The big iron knocker
made the entire structure shake.

    
It took four separate
tries on the knocker before someone attempted to answer the door.
 
By that time, Mathias was irritated and when
the timid, sleepy man opened the door, he shoved his way in and pulled Cathlina
along with him.
 
The man, very dirty with
wild hair and missing teeth, hovered fearfully.

    
“Are you the priest
here?” Mathias asked him. “My lady and I wish to be married immediately. Rouse
who you must in order to accomplish this.”

    
The man shook his head
and tried to run off, but Mathias would have no part of it.
 
He grabbed the man by the neck and held him
fast.

    
“Did you hear me?” he
said, less friendly this time. “My lady and I wish to be married immediately.
You will perform the ceremony.”

    
The priest shook his
head again, yelping when Mathias squeezed. “I am not the priest,” the man said.
“I must get him.”

    
Mathias was weary and
brittle, translating into a harsh manner. With Cathlina tightly in-hand, he
followed the man as he scurried back into the darkness and into the rather
large church built of big blocks of brown stone.
 
Cathlina clung tightly to Mathias, peering at
her surroundings and thinking them to be dank and spooky.
 
Everything smelled of the candles they used
that were rendered from fat, a heavy and greasy smell that had the ambience of
a burnt body.
 
It was a rather sickening
smell.

    
In fact, Cathlina put
her fingers to her nose as she followed Mathias to the rear of the church.
 
The frazzled man threw open a small oak door
which ushered them into a sort of common room.
 
There was a table and the remains of a meal on it, and old straw
scattered about that had the smell of urine.
  
As Cathlina and Mathias paused, the frightened man opened another small
room and hissed at the occupants.
 
They
could hear voices on the other side, both irritated and curious.
 
Eventually, a man in a stained nightshirt
emerged, pulling on his brown woolen robes.

    
“I am Father Malachy,”
he said, rubbing his red and crusty eyes. “What is it that you wish?”

    
Mathias pulled
Cathlina against him. “I am Sir Mathias de Reyne,” he said. “My lady and I wish
to be married immediately.”

    
The priest rubbed his
eyes again to get a better look at them both.
 
He seemed particularly interested in Cathlina; wrapped in a dark blue
cloak with a rabbit skin lining, she appeared rather small against Mathias’
bulk.
 

    
“This is most
irregular,” the priest said. “One does not simply walk into a church and demand
marriage.
 
It is a process by which the
couple is made ready to accept God as supreme creator of their lives. You must
live for Him.
 
Where is the lady’s
family? Have they given consent?”

    
“I can pay you ten
gold crowns,” Mathias said impatiently. “Can we dispense with this lecture and
get on with it?”

    
The priest looked at
him, shocked by the amount of money the man was willing to pay.
 
His curious, apprehensive gaze passed between
Mathias and Cathlina.

    
“Are you running from
someone, child?” he asked Cathlina.

    
She shook her head.
“Nay, Father.”

    
“Is he forcing you to
marry him? Is he brutish?”
   

    
She giggled; she
couldn’t help it. “Nay, Father, he is not forcing me and he is not
brutish.
 
We simply wish to be married.”

    
“If he is forcing you,
you must tell me. You will be safe here, as I will protect you.”

    
Cathlina found the
statement hysterical; the priest was about her size and Mathias was a giant by
comparison, well over six feet in height and all manner of power about
him.
 
Mathias caught her mirth and merely
rolled his eyes.

    
“Am I forcing you?” he
asked.

    
She put her hand over
her mouth to stifle the uncontrollable giggles. “Well,” she said. “Mayhap. But
I am going along with you happily.”

    
He shook his head at
her.
 
“Silly wench,” he grumbled
affectionately. “Let us have him marry us before you condemn me further.”

    
Mathias was already
digging out the coins; the priest could hear them jingling. With a shrug,
because he couldn’t sincerely see any reason to deny them and it was clear that
the lady wasn’t in distress, he herded them into the main part of the church
and, with the frazzled man and another acolyte as a witness, joined Mathias de
Reyne and Cathlina de Lara in marriage.

    
After paying the
priest the promised coinage, Mathias mounted his wife on the skittish charger
and in the dead of night, headed into Longtown and the Ladyseat Inn.

***

    
Cathlina awoke the
next morning in a strange room, to strange sounds, and for a moment had no idea
where she was.
 
It was daylight outside
but she could hear the gentle patter of rain on the windowsill.
 
She lay there a moment, looking around the
room without moving her head, struggling to orient herself.
 
She could see her cloak and satchel over near
the wall on a chair that had been made from twigs.
 
It leaned heavily.
 
As she stared at the chair and her
possessions, gradually, it all came back to her.

    
Lady de Reyne
.
 
She was Mathias’
wife now.
 
It didn’t seem real, not in
the least, and the surge of joy and excitement she felt at the thought was
palpable.
 
After their hasty marriage at
St. Michael’s Church, they had spent another hour in misty weather hunting down
the Ladyseat Inn.
 

Once they finally found it, it was dead
quiet and still except for a few drunken patrons, but they had managed to find
Justus and Sebastian sleeping soundly in a small room.
  
Since the inn was full, they vacated the
room to give Cathlina a bed to sleep on.
 
She’d tumbled in to bed with hardly a word to either of them.
 
She was asleep before her head hit the
pillow.

    
Propping herself up on
an elbow, she looked around to see that she was quite alone in the very little
room.
 
She didn’t even know of Mathias had
slept with her.
 
It was cold, too,
because the fire was out and the hearth was a big, sooty mess.
 
Climbing out of bed, the first order of
business was to get dressed and find her husband.

    
She was still in the
dark green linen surcoat she had worn from the day before but her shoes and
hose were off, indicating that Mathias must have removed them after she fell
into an exhausted sleep.
 
The floor was
cold as she hopped over to the chair that contained her cloak and satchel, and
the first thing she saw was her hose neatly rolled up on top of the bag.
 
Her shoes were underneath the chair.
 
Setting her hose and shoes on the bed, she
opened up her satchel and began to dig around inside.

    
Given that Kenneth had
afforded her ample time to pack a satchel before whisking her off to Mathias
the day before,
 
she had managed to pack
everything that mattered to her although it had been tricky with her nosey
sister around.
 
Inside her satchel was an
oil cloth bag, resistant to water, and she dumped the contents out on the
bed.
 
It contained a frayed reed
tooth-brush, a bag of soda mashed with lemon for her teeth, a big bar of lumpy
soap that smelled of lavender and a phial of flax seed and lavender oil that
kept her skin from drying out.
 
She also
had a comb and a variety of things for her hair.
 
Her sanitary supplies were also tucked into
the bag, linen and absorbent moss that were used during her woman’s time.
 

    
Her satchel contained four surcoats, hose,
undergarments, shifts, and her boots.
 
She pulled out a clean shift and a lovely pale gold surcoat of
simplistic fashion with long belled sleeves, snug bodice, and a rounded
neckline that showed off her slender neck and shoulders. She found herself
wanting to dress for her new husband, wanting to please him so badly in
appearance and manner. All of this was still so new and unreal to her, the
adventure of a lifetime that she was more than ready to partake.
 

    
Taking her bar of soap and a small linen
rag from her satchel, she found a small bucket of cold, stale water near the
door.
 
It was only half full and she had
no idea how long it had been there, but it was clean water and that was all she
cared about.
 
Quickly, she stripped off
the shift and surcoat she slept in, washing her face and body in the cold
water.
 
Drying off with her used shift,
she donned the new shift and the gold surcoat.
 
Her hair went into a thick braid that draped over one shoulder, and hose
and boots went on her feet. She was just packing everything back up when the
door to the chamber creaked open.

    
Mathias stood there, hand on the door latch
and a surprised look on his face when he saw that Cathlina was up and
dressed.
 
His expression of surprise
quickly turned to one of appreciation.

    
“You are awake,” he said, his voice soft.
“I thought you might still be sleeping.”

    
She shook her head, feeling nervous at the
sight of him.
 
Was he glad they had
married? Did he regret making such a life-changing decision? Her stomach was in
knots with apprehension and excitement. She smiled timidly.

    
“I woke up a few minutes ago,” she said.
“What time is it?”

    
“Mid-morning,” he said, coming in to the
room and shutting the door behind him. “Are you hungry?”

    
She nodded as she quickly finished packing.
“Quite,” she said. “But I am ready to leave when you are.
  
I am sorry I slept so long; you really
should have awoken me earlier.”

    
He smiled, drinking in the sight of her,
still in disbelief that he had actually married her. “You were exhausted,” he
said softly. “Besides, it gave me time to purchase some things when the
merchant stalls in town opened.”

    
She cocked her head curiously. “What did
you purchase?”

    
He nodded, digging into a pocket in his
tunic and pulling forth something small.
 
Cathlina didn’t see what it was until he held it up into the light.
 
Then, she could see that it was a golden band
encircled with pale green stones. It was exquisite.

    
“I wanted to get you this,” he murmured,
reaching out to take her left hand and making a point of sliding the ring onto
the third finger. “I was ill-prepared with a wedding band last night when we
were married so I wanted to make amends. My father picked this out, actually.
He said you would like it.”

    
Cathlina looked at the ring,
astonished.
 
“It is the most beautiful
ring I have ever seen,” she whispered.
 
Then
she looked up at him, her big brown eyes glittering. “For me? You would really
give this to me?”