Warlock and Son (9 page)

"I have yearnings, too," she sighed, "but a man may wander, and a woman must stay." Magnus looked up sharply, feeling compassion for the first time. "Nay, surely if thou dost long to see more of the world, as I do, it must needs go hard on thee to rest."

"I shall rest, as I must," she sighed, "for I know full well that a wanderer's life would pall, and I would long for house and husband. Yet I may dream."

Magnus smiled with sympathy. "Aye, at the least, we all may dream. That is not denied us, is it?"

"To dream, aye." She rose in a graceful turn, took up the flask, and refilled his glass. "But only to dream-never to be free."

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"Even so," Magnus commiserated. "I have longed for such freedom, and do now seek it-yet I begin to suspect that I shall not find it." He sipped the wine.

"How so?" The lady frowned. "Thou dost wander; how canst thou not be free?"

"Why, for that I am still what I was reared to be," Magnus explained. "I look upon the peasants, and though they may scarce see more than a hundred square miles in their lives, they have a boisterousness, a looseness to their actions, that I have not, and never will. A nobleman, a gentleman, is born to restraint in action, lest he give cause for broils that may include hundreds-and he can never shake off the notion that the welfare of those about him is his care."

She leaned toward him, and lowered her voice. "That others' happiness is thy concern?"

"Aye." Magnus felt too warm, but he smiled. "Even though I've known them not, I know that all the folk of Gramarye must be as much my care as the King's and Queen's-and if they are sad, I feel the need to cheer them."

"But I am sad." She leaned closer, and her eyes seemed huge. With a surge of lightheadedness, Magnus noticed that her neckline was cut lower than he had realized, and her lips were trembling with sadness.... He leaned to those lips as if drawn by a magnet.

For a minute, nothing existed in the world save her lips, and the sensations they aroused in him, the blood beginning to pound in his veins, the need for her so hot it would not be denied.... He broke off, alarmed at himself. "Nay, lady," he gasped, "I am like to abuse thine hospitality." He set the goblet down and forced himself to his feet. "I cry thy pardon. I must away, ere I give offense......"

"But if thou dost leave, though wilt most shrewdly offend!" she protested, her breath catching in a sob. Alarmed, Magnus turned back and saw her eyes overflowing with tears that ran down her cheeks as she looked up at him, forlorn. His heart twisted, and he reached down to comfort her, but she rose into his arms; her lips enveloped his, her body pressing against him, curves melding to his angles, churning against him with her need, moaning low in her throat; and his hands began to move over her back, then down, caressing her hips, and up, to cup her breasts....

He broke off, staring down at her, seeing half-closed eyes, her shoulders bare as her gown slipped down, and his gaze was riveted to the high, soft curve of her breast.... She caught his hand, pressed it up against that curve, and sought his lips again. The kiss was longer, more urgent; she mewed in her throat, almost sobbing, and Magnus traced the contours of her body, entranced....

A crash, and a bellow.

They sprang apart; then Magnus leaped between the lady and the door to shield her, but an iron gauntlet slammed into the side of his head and sent him reeling, a spear-point jabbed his ribs, and he looked up to see the guardsman who had confronted him at the church, leering with vindictive glee, while behind him, a terrible old man cuffed the woman as though she were a hound, bellowing, "Wanton! Traitress! A night gone, scarce three hours on the road, and thou hast found another fool to warm thy bed! Nay, thou hast
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stained mine honor once too oft, and never shall again!" He yanked his sword out of his scabbard, and the lady fell back, screaming.

Magnus gathered himself and shot upward, knocking the spear aside and slamming into the guardsman. The man reeled back and Magnus twisted the halberd out of his hands, whirling toward Sir Spenser ... Just in time to see the lady spinning away with a scream, to slam into the wall. Her husband advanced on her, face red with rage ...

... and a blow struck Magnus from behind; he staggered, seeing stars, but anger flamed through him, and he turned as he hit the wall, to see the soldier swinging a club and two more guardsmen coming up behind him.

Magnus sidestepped automatically, caught the man's wrist as it went by, and hurled the soldier against the stones. He whirled to parry one spear with his captured halberd, brought the butt around to crack the pate of the other guardsman and, as he fell, turned back to the second, parrying his next thrust and swinging the halberd-butt at his head. But the guardsman managed to block in time-and Magnus lashed a kick at his kneecap. The guard howled and fell, and Magnus turned ... To find.himself facing Sir Spenser, steel in his hand and blood in his eye, breathing in hoarse rasps and closing fast. Magnus almost turned and ran right then; the old man was a sight to make even the most hardened soldier quail, with his glaring eyes and gleaming sword. But training came to the fore, and Magnus whipped out his own blade, blocked a cut, riposted, parried, counterthrust, and settled down to some fast and furious fencing.

The end was foretold-fifty years cannot last long against twenty, and the older man's experience and skill were countered by Magnus's training, which made him as adept as Sir Spenser, while his reflexes were faster and his endurance much longer. And, though Sir Spenser had thirty years' experience in battle, Magnus had fifteen that had started in his childhood. Outraged honor warred against frustrated hormones-but as the rage cooled, Magnus began to be able to think again, and contented himself with parrying and occasionally thrusting, just a little, to keep the older man off balance. Sir Spenser's breath came harder and harder, his movements slowed, and in ten minutes' time, Magnus caught his sword in a bind, slapped it from his hand, and pinned him against the wall. "Now, Sir Spenser," he said sternly,

"though I've shamed myself as well as thee, thou shalt answer to thy peers for this day's deed, and I shall bear witness against thee."

"And I will bear witness against
thee,"
said a guardsman's voice behind, "that the lady was abed with thee when Sir Spenser came in this chamber. And thou, Nigel?"

"I too," the second guardsman answered, and the third grunted assent. The lady cried out, and Magnus backed away to help her to her feet, never taking his eyes from the four men. One of the guardsmen made a tentative movement toward his fallen halberd, bu*. Magnus's sword tip flicked toward him, and the man halted.

"Not a trial," the lady moaned, but Magnus didn't flinch. "What is a peasant's word, against a lord's?

Nay, Sir Spenser, will you or nil you, you will stand before the assembled lords for this."

"Why, then, I will, and there's not a one of them will blame me when they know the cause," the old knight growled. "I had thought to spare the lady public shame, and so forebore to charge her to her father's face when first I caught her in her adulterous games-yet I see I was wrong in my patience. Nay, if
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thou must needs shame her and her father before his peers, have at it! The lords of this dukedom shall meet in Sterling Meadow two days hence; I rode to meet them, when this loyal soldier came to warn me that a whelp was sniffing after my bitch."

Magnus held his temper and made his own guess as to the guardsman's motives; loyalty was the least of them. The lady only sobbed and moaned, shaking her head.

"Ah," Magnus breathed. "So that is the way of it, eh? That it may not come to court."

"Do not humiliate me before them all!" the lady said through her tears.

"I would not, though I've strong cause," Sir Spenser said, his face stony. "Wouldst thou be so cruel, youngling?"

"Nay," Magnus said slowly. He straightened, sheathing his sword, but turning so he could keep an eye on the guardsmen. "Dost thou wish satisfaction of me, then?" Sir Spenser's eye kindled, but he said with regret, "I've had what I may. Get thee gone."

"Why, so I will," Magnus said slowly, "yet I hesitate to leave this lady to thy revenge." She moaned and clutched at his sleeve.

Sir Spenser gave them both a look of disgust, then said, "I will visit her with no punishment." The lady went limp, sobbing.

"Yet I'll not keep her by to shame me more," he added, his voice grinding. "Back to thy father, lady!

And do not think to tell him lies, for I and all my men will meet him in Sterling Meadow in two days' time, to tell him of thine infidelity."

"No-o-o-o," she moaned. "Not my father! And how should I face my mother? The shame.. ." And the punishment, Magnus realized-but within the family. It was no concern of his.

"Thou hast forfeited thy place by me," the older knight growled. "I shall not divorce thee, for 'twould shame me as much as thee, and thou shalt have thy dower lands again, to dwell on in what comfort thou mayest-but we cannot live as husband and wife more, for thou hast broke that bond." He looked up at Magnus, and his voice was a whip crack. "Take her hence! I wish thee joy of her!" Magnus knew very well that he would have no joy of such a woman-he wouldn't be able to trust her for a second. On the other hand, he couldn't just leave her in the forest alone. They came out of the castle, to find two grooms holding their horses. The grooms helped the lady to mount her palfrey, and she and Magnus rode off into the forest, he silent, she weeping.

But as soon as the leaves closed about them, she turned on him. "And a fine knight-errant thou art!

Couldst thou not defend me from his anger? Thou, who didst seek to seduce me, and would have forced me had he not burst in upon us?"

The unfairness of the lie struck Magnus speechless. He could only stare at her for the moment.
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" 'Tis thine advances have left me bereft of house and place!" she said hotly. "Nay, I am therefore thy charge now, to house and feed! Thou must needs take me to the altar!" The horror of the prospect jolted Magnus out of his stupefaction. "Why, what a lying shrew art thou!

'Twas thou didst bend thy wiles to seduce me, and hast brought this coil upon thyself!"

"Liar!" she screamed, and her hand swept around for a ringing slap. "I am a lady bred! Never would I stoop to such indignity!"

Cold rage cleared his head, and Magnus narrowed his eyes, probing with his mind. She must have been mildly telepathic herself, for she screamed, clutching at her head, and he felt her horror at the mind-probe. "Thou art a witch!"

"A warlock." He barely glimpsed her memory of the event, but knew that she was aware that he had seen it. "Warlock or witch, thou art surely no gentlemen, thus to peer among a woman's secrets! Nay, thou art wholly undeserving of knighthood, for thou art most unchivalrous!" She bowed her head, weeping bitterly, a broken woman.

But Magnus knew better now than to trust appearances. "I am no knight, but a squire only; I have not sought higher rank. Thou hast the right in that, if in naught else. Surely there is no truth in thy claim that I am in any wise beholden to thee for thy welfare, for thou hast played this game with many men before me."

"Mine husband lied, in saying . . ." Her hot accusation trailed off as she looked into Magnus's eyes.

"Nay, thou wilt seek within my mind to prove thy contention again, wilt thou not?" she whispered.

"Nay." Magnus's lip curled. "Yet there are witnesses, I doubt not-the servants and, though thou mayest not have thought, the Wee Folk. Hast thou kept thine hearths clean, and left them their bowls of milk?" He paused, long enough to see in her face that she had not. "They owe thee no debt of gratitude, and will not lie for thee. Shall I call them to testify?"

She hesitated just long enough to realize that a warlock probably could do just that, and be answered; then she took refuge in anger again. "Thou canst not know the shame and horror of forced marriage! Of maidenly dreams of love, torn asunder by a forced coupling with an aged partner who doth inspire in thee naught but disgust!"

Magnus did feel a stirring of sympathy; he had experience that enabled him to imagine.

"I, but a lass of sixteen!" she cried. "Nay, canst thou be amazed that I found no delight in him? Can it astound thee that I took my pleasure where I might?"

Magnus did feel sorry for her, but realized it was the course of folly to admit it. "Yet thou didst take that pleasure with no thought for the hurt or shame thou didst heap upon thine husband, or even on thy lovers."

"What concern had they for me?" she demanded. "What concern hadst thou? Did any of thee care for aught but the pleasure of my body? Nay, if thou hast had shame, thou and they, thou hast had naught but thy just desserts!" She glared up at him. "Or wilt thou tell me thou hadst true concern for me?"

"Nay," Magnus admitted, "yet I do pity thee. Therefore will I conduct thee to thy father's house, and see
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thee safely there-yet no further."

"Oh, valiant man!" Her words dripped scorn. "O squire worthy of knighthood! Hast thou no thought for the shame that shall be mine? Aye, my father may yet grant me my dower house-yet there he will be sure that I shall live alone, apart from all folk of any degree, the jest of the other ladies, and never again to know human company-for a castoff wife is better dead!"

That, Magnus knew, was true. Medieval society was hardly generous to those who were divorced, especially females.

"It falls to thee," she snapped. "Thou wast the final cause of my humiliation. 'Tis for thee to give me place and station among my peers! 'Tis for thou to call for annulment, and to marry me! Come, carry me off!