Love Everlasting (17 page)

Julianna observed all of this activity with
growing amusement, until Royce came into the room, unbuckling his
belt as he walked. Michael was with him.

“There isn’t space enough in here for a
person to turn around!” Marie exclaimed. She glared at the servants
who were emptying the hot water into the tub. “Lord Royce, you
cannot intend to bathe in the presence of all these people.”

“Can I not?” Royce sent a smile in Julianna’s
direction that plainly said he’d do what he pleased and no
maidservant would stop him. He continued, speaking to Julianna,
“Michael has the room next to this one. He and I will bathe and
change our clothes in there. As soon as I select the tunic and hose
I plan to wear this evening, I will leave and you may enjoy your
own bath in complete privacy.”

“I have no complaint at all, my lord,”
Julianna responded, smiling to let him know she meant what she
said. “Will you knock on the door when you are ready, or shall I
come to you?”

“Come to me,” Royce said. “I expect you will
take longer than I to dress and I have some correspondence to
attend to. Michael and I will work until you are ready.”

The charcoal did not warm the room very much,
but Julianna was so glad to remove her wrinkled and stained
garments that she didn’t care how chilly it was. The moment she and
Marie were alone she pulled everything off and stepped into the
tub. It wasn’t large and, being tall, she had to sit with her knees
drawn up almost to her ears. Hot water and her own scented soap
eliminated any sense of inconvenience. Ignoring Marie’s outraged
protests that she’d contract lung fever, she soaped her hair as
well as her body and used the two extra buckets of water to rinse
the soap away.

All of the time that Julianna was in the tub,
Marie kept complaining, about the rough voyage aboard the
Daisy
, her bout of seasickness, the cold ride to Norwich,
the small size of Julianna’s room, and her own accommodations near
the kitchen.

Julianna scarcely heard her. She was thinking
about Royce, how he’d cared for Alexander and Sybilla, how he had
lain fully clothed beside his wife and kissed her tenderly.
Julianna’s damp fingers rested against her lips, until Marie’s
surly voice intruded on her dreamlike state.

“Is it your intention to keep Lord Royce
waiting?” Marie demanded. “If not, decide which gown you want to
wear, so I can find the shoes that match it.”

“I do think, Marie, that you’d be well
advised to speak to me with greater respect,” Julianna said, “else
Lord Royce will dismiss you.”

“Don’t think to threaten me,” Marie snarled
at her. “Lord Deane assigned me to watch over you, and so I have
faithfully done ever since.”

“He set you to spy on me, you mean,” Julianna
said. “Lest you have forgotten, Lord Deane is dead. You are Lord
Royce’s servant now, and he will decide whether you continue in his
household, or whether you are sent elsewhere to live.”

“If you try to get rid of me,” Marie
declared, “I will tell Lord Royce everything I know about you.”

Julianna sighed in frustration. It was
basically the same threat that Kenric had made. Both of them knew
too much about her past. She thought she had stopped Kenric - for a
time, at least - with her false agreement to continue spying for
him. Finding a way to stop Marie from spilling all she knew was a
more difficult prospect. Julianna was certain that Marie was
sleeping with Kenric and providing information to him each time she
went to his bed. Kenric was using Marie, but she would never
believe that.

“I am not trying to get rid of you, Marie,”
Julianna said. “I just want you to be more careful. If you say or
do anything to make Royce suspicious of you, both of us could land
in the nearest dungeon. So could Kenric. You wouldn’t want to be
responsible for his death, would you?”

“No.” Marie clasped her hands and began to
wring them. “No, I want Kenric safe.”

“Then be more careful. I will wear the dark
green silk gown.”

“Your hair will be wet for hours,” Marie
grumbled. “It was foolish of you to wash it so late in the
day.”

“Dry it as best you can with a towel, then
braid it and pin it up,” Julianna said. “I’ll wear my gold circlet
and no veil. Since the king and queen aren’t here, we may dispense
with some formality.”

When she was ready for the evening, Julianna
turned to the maid and spoke with a kindness she did not feel.
“Marie, you need not climb all of those steps again tonight. Lord
Royce will be with me and if you return here, he will only dismiss
you. I’m sure you are tired, and likely not completely recovered
from being so seasick. Eat in the servants’ quarters and then go to
bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thank you, my lady.” Marie actually sounded
grateful.

Before Julianna knocked on the door of
Michael’s room, she waited until Marie was gone and the servants
had come to carry away the bath water and the tub. While she waited
she thought of various ways to get rid of Marie without arousing
Royce’s suspicions.

Royce knew from their previous meetings that
the King’s Constable of Norwich did not like spies. Lord Cortland
hid his shrewd mind behind a bluff, open manner, but he could not
quite conceal his distaste for Royce’s work. The only thing the two
men had in common was their unflinching loyalty to King Henry.
Cortland did know how to keep a secret and had done so many times
in the past, a fact that raised him high in Royce’s estimation.
Royce wasn’t sure that Cortland regarded him with the same degree
of respect.

Cortland and his guests sat at the high table
for the evening meal. The great hall was far from crowded; when
King Henry was not in residence the castle garrison numbered only
seventy-five knights and men-at-arms, and some of those were on
duty, either on the walls or in the town.

“You will soon be overflowing with guests and
servants,” Royce observed to Cortland in an attempt to open an
uncontroversial topic.

“We have room enough.” Cortland’s sharp tone
hinted at offense. “We are used to royal visitors.”

“I know you are. Norwich is one of the king’s
favorite castles. That’s a high compliment to your management,
Cortland, even if the royal court does eat everything in the
storerooms before they all move on to the next castle.”

“Not to mention what they do to the latrines
after all that eating and drinking.” A faint glint of humor showed
in the constable’s eyes. “Ah, well, we have enough servants to muck
out the mess afterward. I don’t imagine you have arrived so far in
advance of the royal party just to discuss my arrangements for
feeding the guests and cleaning up after them. What’s amiss,
Royce?” Cortland leaned forward, turning a little to face Royce
more directly. He spoke across Julianna, who sat between the two
men. “Do you have word of a plot against the king?”

“Nothing is certain.” Royce noted Julianna’s
sudden stillness and he wished Cortland had held his tongue. “If
you can make time, my lord, I would prefer to speak with you later,
in some more private place.”

“In my chambers, then,” Cortland said. “After
I complete my evening rounds. I suppose Cadwallon and Michael will
join us? They are your spies, aren’t they?”

“Cadwallon and Michael are King Henry’s men,”
Royce said in a quiet way that suggested Cortland ought to stop
asking questions.

“My lord Cortland, how does your lady wife
fare?” Janet asked from her place at their host’s left side.

Hearing her, Royce guessed that Cadwallon had
instigated the question. Cadwallon was ever sharply attentive to
what was going on around him, though to those who did not know him
he appeared indolent and lazy. Not for the first time, Royce
blessed his friend’s quiet cleverness.

“My poor lady is much the same, I fear,” Lord
Cortland responded to Janet’s query. “I thank you for asking.”

“Is she ill?” Julianna inquired politely. “If
she’s here at Norwich, perhaps Janet and I could visit her and give
her news of the court. A bit of humorous gossip might lift her
spirits.”

“My wife does not gossip,” Lord Cortland said
in a repressive tone. “She is not at Norwich. She has been confined
to her bed at Sleaforth since the birth of our youngest child two
years ago.”

“I am so sorry,” Julianna murmured. “I did
not know. My lord, since Janet and I are apparently the only ladies
present at Norwich, may we supervise the preparation of Queen
Adelicia’s apartments? Janet knows the queen rather well, and I am
slightly acquainted with her, so we have some idea how she likes
her rooms arranged.”

“Is this some scheme of yours, Royce?” Lord
Cortland demanded.

“I have not heard of the idea until this
moment,” Royce said. “I think it’s a suggestion that’s to your
benefit. You cannot be looking forward to having to arrange all the
details of a lady’s chambers.”

“Not at all. I am a soldier, not a courtier.”
Lord Cortland offered a tiny smile to Julianna, a slight upward
tilt of his mouth that quickly disappeared, though his tone was
gentler when he spoke to her. “Thank you, my lady. I would
appreciate your assistance, and that of Lady Janet.” After that he
sat in silence, turning his wine goblet around and around until
Royce took pity on him.

“Julianna,” Royce said, rising and extending
his hand, “I know you are tired. I’ll see you to our room.”

“And I,” Cadwallon added with a nod to Royce,
“will escort Janet to our rooms and kiss our children good night
before I rejoin you.”

“Very well then.” Lord Cortland leapt to his
feet, a look of relief crossing his face. “A pleasant night’s rest
to you, my ladies. My lords, we will meet again in one hour.”
Calling to two of his knights to accompany him, Lord Cortland lost
no time in leaving the great hall.

“What a charming host,” Julianna murmured to
Royce. “He couldn’t wait to get away from Janet and me.”

“I admit, Cortland is not much for gallantry,
but he is an honest man, and a good man in a battle,” Royce said.
He took Julianna’s arm and guided her toward the main stairway. He
walked slowly, his attention elsewhere, so he scarcely noticed that
Janet and Cadwallon were some distance ahead.

“Is anything wrong?” Julianna asked.

“What do you mean?” Royce had been
contemplating the galleries above the great hall and thinking of
archers secretly placed there to aim deadly arrows at the king - or
his own men, in the same hidden locations, secretly protecting the
king from danger. He did not like those open galleries at all,
though a shortbow was a difficult weapon to conceal, and a Welsh
longbow was even more noticeable.

“If you and Cadwallon are meeting with Lord
Cortland in private, that must mean you are preparing a secret
plan,” Julianna said.

“Why, my lady, are you seeking information
that you can pass on to Kenric?” He found it surprisingly difficult
to keep sarcasm out of his voice. He hated the idea that Julianna
was dealing with that miserable agent of King Louis, but he
reminded himself that he must not let her guess at his
feelings.

“I can pass nothing to Kenric,” she noted
calmly. “He isn’t here.”

“Yet,” Royce said between his teeth.

They reached the stairs and began to climb to
the third level. Julianna went ahead of Royce, so he had a
thoroughly enjoyable view of her slim waist and gently swaying
hips. He calculated the time available until he was to meet
Cortland and judged he’d have just enough time to bed his wife
quickly and efficiently, before he left her to a satisfied sleep
that would keep her in their room until he returned. Thus he could
assure that she would not learn of the order he intended to give to
his guard not to let her leave the room. Julianna would do no
poking or prying about the castle that night, not if he could
prevent her.

“Damnation,” he muttered. When Julianna
looked at him with raised brows he motioned her on, offering no
excuse for his foul mood.

He had deliberately been trying to bind her
to him by his lovemaking. But he had miscalculated. He hadn’t
realized that every passionate episode would also bind him more
closely to her, until he wanted her with the unceasing desire that
a starving man experiences for food. Still as suspicious of her
possible motives as he had been on the day when he’d first met her,
uncertain of her loyalty to her husband or her king though he
remained, yet he longed to tumble her onto his bed and take what he
knew she would not deny him.

They came to a landing and Julianna smiled at
him over her shoulder. Stiffling the exaspirated oath that rose to
his lips, Royce caught her about the waist and pulled her close.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but her arms went around his neck
readily enough. Her lips parted invitingly and Royce could not
resist. He kissed her long and hard. When he was finished she
looked at him with a warmth that echoed the heat suffusing his own
body, and he could feel her trembling against his arm.

“This is undignified,” he whispered. “Kissing
on a dark staircase is something servants would do.”

“Perhaps that’s why it’s so exciting,” she
whispered back.

“Come.” Releasing her, he caught her hand and
pulled her up the rest of the steps, heading for the level where
their room was located. Julianna wove her fingers through his and
laughed softly. That maddening, intensely female sound made Royce
ache to seize her then and there.

“Yes,” she breathed. “Oh, Royce, let us
hurry. It has been three nights.”

“I know how long it’s been,” he growled. Then
he shook his head in wonder at himself. He was behaving like a
randy squire. He’d had women in the years since he’d been widowed,
but none had ever affected him the way Julianna did.

He knew himself well enough to understand why
he wanted her so often and so eagerly. It wasn’t just her body,
though she was delightful to hold and her enthusiastic compliance
pleased him. What most intrigued him about Julianna, and had from
the first, was the mystery of her mind. He was beginning to think
he’d never plumb those feminine depths.