Читать книгу The Captive Bride - Susan Paul Spencer - Страница 13

“A wager,”said Sir Aric, “that she’ll not come of her own accord.”

“She’ll come,”Senet said, sitting calmly in the lord’s chair in the great hall. He was flanked on either side by Aric and Kayne. Farther away, in his finest robes, sat Lomas’s priest, Father Aelnoth, waiting in stony silence for

Lady Katharine to attend her own wedding. “She understood me well, I vow.”

“I fear Aric has the right of it,”Kayne murmured, his gaze moving slowly over the castlefolk who filled the hall, each and every one of them staring up at Senet with mute reproach. They clearly loved their lady, and had no wish to see her wed by force. “And I do not think it wise that you sent Clarise to tend her. You know what Lady Katharine thinks of her. You might have done better to let her own ladies help her to prepare.”

“It is best, I find, to give no importance to what Lady Katharine thinks,”Senet told him. “At least not until we’ve wed and she’s had time to reconcile herself to her new state. At the moment, she’s not capable of thinking rationally. As to her ladies—”he looked to where Mistresses Ariette and Magan were sitting, on the other side of Father Aelnoth, their faces and bodies rigidly held “—they are not to be trusted until they have made their allegiance to their new lord.”

“I cannot see Mistress Magan bowing to you for any reason,”Aric said irately. “She’s a stubborn, meantempered little wench. Put her elbow in my stomach when I merely tried to set her on my horse, so she did.”He rubbed the offended area and cast a look at the female in question. She took note and gazed back at him with narrowed eyes.

“Clarise returns,”Kayne said, drawing the attention of them all toward the stairs. “Alone.”

Concern was written on the delicate girl’s face as she hurriedly moved toward them. Senet didn’t wait for her to cross the great hall, where all those waiting had turned to watch her, but rose and strode to meet her halfway. He took her hand before she could speak and led her back toward the stairs.

“Lady Katharine will not come,”the girl said breathlessly, in French. “She would not even dress. When I tried to speak to her, she threatened to—”

“I’ll deal with her.”Senet cut her off in a low voice, striving to maintain his outward calm for the benefit of their avid audience. “You need never be afraid of Lady Katharine, Clarise. I promise you this on my honor.”

Kayne and Eric had joined them, and he set Clarise’s hand on Kayne’s arm. “Take Mistresses Ariette and Magan to the solar and wait for me there. I will bring Lady Katharine.”He began to ascend the stairs. “And bid Father Aelnoth to prepare himself. We will begin the ceremony shortly.”

Guards stood at the door of the chamber in which he’d locked his bride. At the sight of him, they stood aside and let him enter. The first thing Senet saw, apart from Katharine standing by the room’s small, lone window, yet dressed in her chemise, was the expensive gown he’d brought her as a wedding gift—lying on the floor.

“We will have an understanding regarding Mademoiselle Clarise,”he said, shutting the door behind him.

Katharine lifted her chin and folded her arms. “Will we?”she asked insolently.

“Indeed, my lady, we will. She is to be treated as an honored guest at Lomas, by yourself, as my wife, and by every other person who bides on my lands, including your ladies. I will not tolerate the least slight toward her, and if she should even once be driven to tears—”

“Never have I met such a hypocrite,”Katharine said, sneering. “Only a few hours ago you spoke so sweetly of the eternal love you bear for your departed betrothed, yet now you trumpet openly an even sweeter concern for your French whore. If you love her so well, Senet Gaillard, then pray, marry her.”

He moved toward her slowly. She stood her ground, eyeing him with defiance. She was, he thought, a beautiful creature, with her long red—gold hair unbound, flowing down the length of her shapely body and past her hips. The chemise she wore was thin enough to tease and entice. He felt a shocking, overwhelming lust for hersomething he’d not felt with the myriad other women who’d tempted him before. But just as he’d not let other women rule him during the past ten years, with passion or lust or anything so foolish, he would not let her do so either. He would be master at Lomas, and the sooner she learned that, the better for all concerned. Especially for her.

“If Mademoiselle Clarise should shed even one tear because of you, Katharine,”he repeated, moving until he stood directly in front of her, “I will turn you over my knee and punish you.”

She pressed her face closer to his, unafraid and daring. “If you think I should deign to waste my time in tormenting your witless little whore, then you greatly mistake the character of my mind. I would rather labor in the kitchens, on my knees, yet, than lower myself to so much as countenance her existence. Keep her away from me, and we shall have no quarrel.”

He shook his head. “Such a sharp tongue you possess, Katharine.”Setting a finger beneath her chin, he lifted it even higher. “No soft and gentle wife will you be, I vow.”

She slapped his hand away. “No wife will I be. I will not wed you!”

“I will give you a choice,”he continued in the same calm tone. “You may don the wedding gown I have brought—”he nodded at the heap on the floor “—or you may be married as you are, in your chemise.”

“You are deaf, dumb, blind and senseless!”she shouted furiously, her hands balling into fists at her sides. “I will not wed you!”

“I give you the span of a minute to make your decision.”

“You would not humiliate me so,”she said with disdain. “You, a knight of the realm? You would not parade any woman before her own people so nearly undressed. And certainly not the woman you mean to have as a wife.”

Senet felt the sharp truth of her words deeply, as if they were knives striking a wound. It would be the meanest manner of torment, especially for a proud woman like Katharine.

“Nay, I would not subject you to such a humiliation, but if you are determined, so be it. You are the one who will conclude the outcome. Quickly, now, Katharine, for we will be wed, even if 1 must carry you naked before all those assembled below.”

“So be it,”she said in a low, heated tone. “I take no responsibility for what you have forced me to, and my people will know the full of it. You may carry me naked before them and stand me in front of a priest, but I will not say the words, Senet Gaillard. I will not.”

He didn’t think he had ever admired a woman so completely before now—certainly not since Odelyn had died, and never in this manner. Katharine was fierce as any warrior, her spirit strong and her determination true. The knowledge that she would be his filled him with exultation. Bending, he looped an arm about her legs and, ignoring her cry of surprise, lifted her over his shoulder. Senet walked out of the chamber and toward the stairs, deaf to his bride’s loud fury and the ungentle blows she struck upon his back.

The great hall was filled to overflowing, Katharine saw as she descended the stairs carried like a sack of grain over Senet Gaillard’s shoulder. And every single person present watched as he made his way, with her all but naked save for the thin chemise she wore. Gritting her teeth she put every ounce of strength she possessed into the fists she flung at him.

“Bastard!”she shouted furiously. “Bastard! Bastard! Oh, God.”She gave up when they reached the bottom of the stairs, and sank her aching fingers into her unbound hair, letting herself go limp against the bouncing rhythm of his stride, wishing that she could somehow disappear. That her people should witness her shame was beyond repair. She would never forgive him. A loud murmuring rose up, and from somewhere to her left she could hear Father Aelnoth making a feeble protest. Katharine shut her eyes tightly against all of it.

He carried her to the small garden solar just off the hall, where her ladies spent many hours plying their needles in the greater sunlight that the chamber’s tall paned windows provided. He set her on the floor, and Katharine barely had a moment to collect herself and push her hair from her face before Ariette and Magan threw themselves at her.

“Oh, my lady!”Magan cried. “We’ve been so worried for you.”

“Are you well, Lady Katharine?”Ariette asked. “Oh, here, please—”She began to pull the hair covering from her head, in order to set it over Katharine’s shoulders.

“Nay, Ariette.”Katharine stopped her. “Senet Gaillard wishes to humiliate me openly. Let him do so and prove what manner of lord he intends to be.”She gave that man a defiant glare.

“Lady Katharine, you are overset,”Sir Kayne said gently, untying the elegant cape about his massive shoulders. “None of us would ever allow such a thing.”Keeping his eyes lowered, he quickly set the garment about her. No sooner had he done so than Senet grasped it and tossed it back to his friend.

“Lady Katharine chooses to humiliate herself, Kayne, and you’ll not save her from such rash foolishness. She will wear my cloak when we wed.”

“How many times must I speak the words?”Katharine demanded. “I will not—”

“Quiet, woman.”Senet cut her off impatiently. “I can scarce think with all your noise.”

Noise? Katharine thought with complete outrage. She’d acquaint him with noise. She opened her mouth, only to have him dismissively turn away.

“Aric.”He said to that man, who was standing by the door, watching the scene with clear amusement.

“Aye?”

“Which of these women do you prefer? Mistress Magan or Mistress Ariette?”

“Senet,”Sir Kayne said uncomfortably, moving nearer to the women as if to protect them.

“Which one?”Senet demanded.

Sir Aric’s lazy gaze fell on Magan, and she pressed more closely to her mistress. Katharine set an arm about her, feeling the younger woman’s violent trembling. She realized, with sudden clarity, what Senet Gaillard meant to do.

“You will not,” she said.

He looked at her, his blue eyes cold, his handsome countenance as inflexible as stone. “I will.”

Their gazes held for a long, silent moment, with only Magan’s soft whimpering filling the room.

“She is my ward,”Katharine said at last, striving to keep her tone even. “I have sworn to keep her beneath my protection until she marries.”

“Then perhaps Aric had best take her to wife, rather than as a whore.”

“You ask much of me,”Sir Aric said over Magan’s sudden wails. “I don’t want a wife.”

“There are compensations,”Senet told him. “She comes with property and monies, a small but prosperous estate in Somerset, and full rights to several acres of forested land. All of it yours for the bedding of her.”

Magan gripped Katharine with both arms, with fingers and nails, weeping violently, pleading for safety.

“You cannot do this!”Katharine shouted. “To violate one so innocent—and a lady born. She would be ruined forever, with no chance of gaining a respectable husband.”

Senet turned to look at her. “She is in your keeping, Katharine. Think of the way to make certain of her safety, for I assure you it is very simple.”

She couldn’t. God help her. She couldn’t say the words to put herself into his keeping forever. He wouldn’t do this horrible thing to Magan. It was impossible.

“Take her, Aric,”Senet said, his voice hard and unyielding. “You may use my chamber if you desire privacy for bedding your newly betrothed bride.”

“Very well.”Sir Aric pushed from the wall. “But I’ll have to tie a cloth about her mouth to keep her quiet.”

“Tie her any way you please,”Senet said above Magan’s loud cries. “Only make certain that you finish the task. You may wed her in the mom.”

A brief madness broke out as Sir Aric tried to wrest Magan out of Katharine’s grip. Katharine started it by shoving Magan toward Ariette and then striking Sir Aric full in the face with her fisted hand. It was a good blow, knocking the huge man back a pace and stunning him. She would have hit him again if Senet hadn’t picked her up off the floor.

“Leave him be, Kayne!”he shouted when his blond comrade began to pull his sword out of its scabbard. “You must stand with me in the matter. Give me your trust, my friend. I will not betray it.”

“Sir Kayne!”Katharine cried, struggling against Senet’s steely grip. “You are sworn to protect innocent maids!”

Scowling, Sir Kayne shoved his sword back into its place. “I never thought to see you torment a lady so, Senet. Any lady.”He moved toward Ariette, and held her as Aric scooped a now screaming Magan into his arms and tossed her over his shoulder.

Ariette shrugged free of Kayne’s gentle grip, covering her mouth with both hands, watching with wide—eyed horror as Aric carried Magan from the chamber. Her cries could be heard echoing throughout the great hall, becoming fainter with each passing moment.

“Oh, my lady,”Ariette murmured, tears coursing down her cheeks as she pleaded with Katharine. “Oh, my lady.”

Senet had put Katharine on her feet once Aric had carried Magan away, and now she shut her eyes and covered her ears, striving to drown out the sound of Magan’s distress. But it was impossible. The girl’s terrified visage swam before her, and her cries rang in her head.

“I give way,”she said faintly, dropping her hands to her sides. She repeated it more loudly, turning to Senet with all her fury, “I give way!”

He crossed his arms and faced her.

“Your word, Katharine, that you will stand beside me of your own accord, before all those assembled in the hall, and become my wife. You will readily take your vows, in full voice and agreement, for all to hear. There will be no question of your willingness.”

She nodded wearily. “Aye.”

“You will cover your nakedness with my cloak, accepting this mark of my possession without protest.”

Her eyes opened, but not to look at him. She stared at the floor beneath her bare feet. “Yes.”

“When you have become my wife, you will instruct your people to make their pledge of fealty to me, their new lord. I want no discord in Lomas, and no false loyalties.”

She swallowed, then released a long breath. He waited.

“It will be as you have said.”

He nodded. “Kayne, go and tell Aric that he is to bring no harm to Mistress Magan so long as Lady Katharine honors her word. He is to keep her out of the hall until I send for them, when all has been done. I shall want Mistress Magan to make her pledge of fealty.”

Kayne left the room without a word. Senet unclasped the cloak about his shoulders.

“I will take no blame for what you have forced me to, Katharine.”He set the cloak about her shoulders. She gave no resistance when he clasped it. Indeed, she would not even look at him. “I meant to make you my wife with every honor that is your due. I will yet do so, if you will but let me.”

She shook her head in stony silence.

“So be it,”he said. “Mistress Ariette, wipe your tears away. Go and tell Father Aelnoth that Lady Katharine and I will present ourselves in but a few moments. He is to make all ready. Now.”

“My lady.”Ariette murmured.

“Go, Ariette,”Katharine said dully. “Do as our master has told you.”

When she had gone, Senet lifted Katharine’s chin with a careful finger, until her eyes met his own.

“Katharine,”he said softly, “you fight against your own measure. Not mine. ‘Tis the fool’s way to spite yourself.”

She shrugged free of his touch. “Better a fool of my own choice than a willing slave. You have forced me into servitude, Senet Gaillard, but nothing more will you have of me.”

“I do not want you for a slave,”he told her. “I mean to make you my wife, Katharine. To honor you as such.”

Her voice, when she spoke, was low. “Wife or slave, my lord, it makes no difference. They are the same.”She leaned closer, gazing at him with eyes reddened and weary, yet still holding the light of defiance. “The very same.”

The ceremony was brief, for which Katharine was grateful. She let Senet Gaillard lead her to the dais where Father Aelnoth waited, and, before all those assembled, she made her vows. She felt the eyes of her people upon her, felt, too, their deep regret and sorrow at the manner in which their lady was wed—in such a state of undress, without even shoes on her feet, her hair uncombed and unornamented. And wearing Senet Gaillard’s cloak, which so clearly marked his victory and her defeat.

He stood beside her, holding her hand upon his arm, and solemnly repeated his vows. When the priest gave him the kiss of peace, he passed it to Katharine in a brief, firm meeting of lips. Then he surprised her, when Father Aelnoth asked whether he had any token to make proof of his pledge, by opening the leather pouch that hung at his waist and pulling out two gold rings, joined together, as was common, by a thin band of silver. He set the rings into Father Aelnoth’s hands, and when they had been blessed, took them back and broke away the silver bond. Taking her left hand, he touched the smaller of the gold circles upon the tips of each finger, as Father Aelnoth spoke, “In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost.”until he reached her fourth finger, and slid the ring all the way on.

It was a beautiful ring, clearly crafted with care and made of such clean, pure gold that it shone almost white. She had not expected this of him, just as she had not expected the beautiful gown that Mademoiselle Clarise had earlier delivered to the north tower, and the surprise kept her silent as Senet Gaillard took her other hand and set the ring meant for him in it Katharine’s fingers curled around it She could throw it in his face, if she liked. It wasn’t part of the bargain they had made, and she had already peaceably taken her vows. To do this thing—to put the ring upon him as he had done to her—would only serve to make her appear compliant and willing.

The silence in the hall was thick with meaning, and Katharine slanted a glance at the myriad, wide—eyed faces staring up at her, waiting.

She lifted her gaze to Senet Gaillard’s handsome countenance. He was waiting also, patiently. There was no sign that he meant to force her to perform the small service.

Katharine uncurled her fingers and reached down to take his hand. Her own hand trembled as Father Aelnoth began to speak, “In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son…”and she moved the ring from his thumb to his forefinger to his middle finger and finally, to the fourth finger, where she slid the ring on.

The hall resounded with a collective easing of breaths, and Senet took her hands in his, holding them tightly. Katharine could no longer meet his gaze. It was over. They were man and wife, and Lomas was his.