Читать книгу Promised to the Crusader - Anne Herries, Anne Herries - Страница 6

‘Please don’t go,’ the girl cried and clung to the young man in desperation. ‘Don’t leave me, Zander. If you go, I think I shall die of a broken heart. I cannot bear it if you leave me.’ She loved him so much and her life would seem empty without him.

Zander was tall and strong, but still a youth, being no more than seventeen years of age. He bent his head to drop a kiss on the girl’s fair hair, hiding the pain her entreaty caused him.

‘I must go, my dearest heart,’ he whispered, his throat catching with emotion. ‘You know I love you and shall until the day I die—but my father was murdered and most of his lands have been sold to pay debts. My mother has gone to a nunnery to weep for him, but I must avenge his death. To become strong enough to demand justice for my father, I must join the crusade and become a knight. Only then may I avenge my family and claim you as my bride.’

She gazed up at him, her eyes as blue as the summer sky above them, her pale hair wild about her face. Somewhere a meadowlark sang, but she did not hear its sweet song. All she knew was that the person she loved most in all the world was going away and she might never see him again. She tugged at his simple short tunic, her face strained with grief.

‘What shall I do if you are killed?’ she asked pitifully. ‘How can you leave me so?’

‘You are not alone, Elaine. Your father loves you dearly and will care for you. If I am killed, then you must forget you ever knew me.’

‘I shall never forget you,’ she vowed passionately. ‘You are the only man I shall ever love.’

‘You are but fourteen,’ Zander said and smiled tenderly. His hair was the colour of night and his eyes grey with a silver light in their depths. She thought him beautiful, his sweet singing voice a romantic delight, for he sang songs of love to her and played with her in the meadows all the summer long, making her chains of daisies. ‘I do truly love you, but your father would not let us wed. He has promised that if I return a knight with a fortune I have won for my valour, then he will look kindly on us, but until then I can offer you nothing.’

‘I care for nothing but you…’ What would all the gold in Christendom matter if he were killed and did not return to claim her?

‘I will not take my wife to a hovel and expect her to live like a pauper.’ Zander’s mouth hardened, his eyes becoming flinty. ‘I must go, Elaine. When my quest is over I shall come for you.’

‘And if I am wed?’ she demanded, her head high, eyes bright with pride. He had refused her and she would not beg for his favours.

‘Then I shall wish you happy and go away.’

‘You do not love me as I love you…’ She turned away, hurt and angry because he would not listen, but he caught her arm, swinging her back to face him. Then he bent his head, his mouth taking hers in a kiss of possession that told of the man he would be one day—a kiss that had her near swooning for love of him. ‘Zander, forgive me…I love you…’

‘And I you.’ He touched her cheek with his fingertips. ‘Take care, my beloved. I shall dream of you—and I swear that one day I shall come back to claim you.’

So saying, he pushed her gently from him and left her standing there as he mounted his horse and rode away. Elaine stared after him, tears trickling down her cheeks. She loved him so desperately and she was afraid that he would never return.