Bond of Blood (25 page)

"Do not become involved in your husband's affairs; seek to know nothing of them. Try to wean your affection from him. Moreover, never come here alone, and if a messenger should come from your father or from me and ask you to go aside with him, by the Holy Name, do not do it. To seem to know anything of your father's doing will be death to you, for he purports to bring you here and keep you from your lord."

"No, he could not.” Leah was convinced her husband controlled the world, but she was afraid to claim much influence with him. “For pride alone Cain would have down the castle, even if he had no care for me, and, Mother, in spite of what you have said, I am sure he has a kindness for me."

"As a breeder of young. Hush, quietly. There is no need for the maids to hear. How could Lord Radnor have down the castle if you are in it? He will pay what is asked, for he must breed an heir, but he would hate you for this. I have told you only so that you can show yourself innocent—so that you will not be punished for your father's faults."

"Oh heaven, he will punish me for father's fault anyway. He will be fit to tear me apart when I tell him."

"Tell him! You are mad! This is for your ears alone so that you may take care. If Radnor hears this he will take vengeance and your father will either murder me or set me in the deepest dungeon of the keep to rot."

"Nay, Mother, it will not be so. It is your care that has given us warning. I will pray my lord that you may come to Painscastle. You will be safe there and we may be together always."

"To be a handmaiden to my own daughter. Do not be foolish, child," she said sharply as Leah shook her head and started to protest. "It must be that way if I am a second woman in your home. Even if you would suffer me to be the lady of the house, and I do not think from what I have seen of late that it would be so, your husband would not suffer it. I will not do it, Leah. Only hold your tongue. This habit you have of telling your lord everything will bring you to grief."

They had parted with more tears and kisses on that, and when Leah reached the hall and found Cain still engaged with his father, she was grateful for the respite from her problem. To tell or not to tell, and it was a bitter choice. When they mounted up to leave and Leah kissed her mother for the last time, she wept again and so bitterly that for some time she could not have spoken even if she wished to. Her husband rode by her side without interference. He felt her emotion to be natural and was, moreover, occupied with issuing instructions for the order of march. These were so detailed and cautious that Giles looked questioningly at his master. Cain met his eyes steadily and shook his head.

"For now just look sharp."

"But for what?"

Radnor shifted his eyes briefly to his wife. There was no sense in frightening her or making her sadder than she already was. "Later, Giles," he said. It was not likely that Pembroke's men would attack so close to the keep with the other guests leaving sporadically.

For the first few miles the territory they rode over was familiar to Leah who had been hawking and hunting over it. There was nothing new in the low green hills and sparkling streams to assuage her grief or divert her mind from her troubles. If only she had the faintest notion when her father planned this thing; if only she could wait until they were abed. She could tell Cain anything then. Leah was not experienced, but there was no mistaking the effect she had upon her husband in bed. He would not be angry then, at least not with her. She could make him promise anything then, too, and he would hold to his word so that her mother would be safe. But if her father made his try that day and her husband were caught unawares he might be hurt in the fight. Leah was so sunk in her own thoughts that she never noticed the preparations against attack that Radnor was making. Was it more likely that Pembroke would try close to home or farther away? Close, Leah thought, because he could use his own men, because it would be easier to get her home, and because there was less chance that Radnor would overtake his attackers and win her back again. But if they were prepared her father would know that her mother had confessed; if they were not prepared, Cain might be hurt. Scenes from the tourney rose in her mind. Come what might, she had to speak now. Above all, Cain must not be hurt.

"My lord."

"Have you had your fill of weeping?"

"I pray you, be not offended. I have never parted from my mother for so much as a day, before this."

"I am not offended," Radnor replied. He was not really attending to her. His eyes followed the meeting of the low hills with the sky on either side of the rough track, and his forefinger ran up and down the puckered mark that drew up his mouth.

"I have something to tell you, my lord." Leah's voice trembled so noticeably that Cain turned to look at her with attention.

"Well?"

"No, it is not at all well."

"I know," he said in a resigned tone that struggled to conceal its amusement. "You have left all of my clothes behind, or yours, or the bed, or something else from which you cannot be parted—we must return."

"Oh no, my lord, I am not so careless. Indeed, the matter is of greater moment. Do not be angry with me, for it is none of my doing or desire."

"Of greater moment than my clothes?" Radnor laughed heartily. "I cannot believe it." Then, seeing the tears in his wife's eyes, he became serious. "Very well, I will not be angry. But suppose you tell me about what I am to keep my temper."

"My father," Leah faltered, "my father sometimes does strange things."

"This once, at least, a woman has spoken less than the truth," her husband muttered. Leah, however, was so encompassed by her own fears that she scarcely heard him and did not understand him at all.

"I have heard that he proposes to take me by force or guile and hold me to ransom." She gasped out the words as quickly as possible and held her breath, waiting for the storm to break.

The silence, however, was broken only by the sound of the horses' hooves, and after a minute or two Leah dared to breathe easily and look sidelong at her lord's face. He looked, instead of shocked or angry, smilingly interested, as well he might since his hope of Leah's innocence was more than confirmed.

"Who told you?"

"You are not angry? You do not care?"

"You did not answer my question. I suppose, if I think about it, I am a little angry, but certainly not with you. Who told you?"

Men were utterly incomprehensible, thought Leah. A decision about who would be crowned in a faraway city at some unspecified time in the future could throw them into an ungovernable rage, but treachery at home, among their own relations, moved them not a whit.

"My mother told me," Leah replied with more assurance. "She must have overheard my father making his plans."

"She has courage. If your father knew he would make matters most unpleasant. Ay, well, you may be easy on that head. I will do nothing to inform him and I will keep you safe."

Leah's spirits rose. She was not to be blamed for what was no fault of hers after all, and if Cain was not troubled and furthermore understood her mother's position, why should she be worried? They were now out of the area familiar to her, and she looked about with bright eyes. The countryside was changing. The lows hills were in the background now and they were traveling through a fertile valley where the fields gave promise of plenty in spite of the settled drought.

The people of the small hamlet they had passed were not like the people on her father's land either. There had been a flurry of fright when the armed cavalcade came into view, men and women running from their labor in the fields towards the houses, but it had subsided when Radnor called out something Leah did not understand.

After that fear diminished. When they passed through the straggling dusty street with low mud and wattle cottages thatched with straw on either side, the people came out to stare and exchange comments with the members of Radnor's troop who spoke their tongue. One old man, toothless, bald, and dressed in a sheepskin so matted with grease and dirt as to look almost smooth and black, hobbled to Radnor's side and passed a remark that made her lord laugh and throw some copper coins. That had been only an hour ago, and now they were coming to an even larger village.

Here the people were even less frightened. Lord Radnor stopped and asked Leah if she were thirsty or hungry, since it was nearly midday. Thirsty, Leah replied. She would be grateful for a drink, the road was so dusty. But even before Cedric, accustomed to doing the lord's buying in English villages, had dismounted, a rather pretty young woman with a year-old boy on one hip had come out of a nearby hut carrying a wooden bowl of milk. This she had offered wordlessly, but with a smiling, clumsy curtsy to the bright vision on the grey gelding. Other women came up shyly to look at Leah's wonderful clothes—wonderful to them, although the pale grey tunic and darker, dusty green gown were among the simplest and hardiest Leah now owned.

They were even more fascinated when Leah stripped off her gloves to take the milk and exposed her white hands with their long, shining, buffed nails and the great betrothal ruby winking on her finger. One even made so bold as to touch one of Leah's braids with a grimy, broken-nailed finger. Many of the village girls had fair hair too, but none of them had the time or knowledge to care for it, and it soon became matted and scraggly. To them the braids seemed like the spun gold hair of the fairy princesses occasional minstrels sang of in the village in exchange for food and a night's lodging.

Radnor was at first surprised when the women came out, because ordinarily they did not venture forth even when peaceful troops passed for fear of being carried off. He realized that it was Leah's presence that made them show themselves. First of all her appearance and clothing were an almost irresistible draw, and secondly her presence virtually guaranteed the proper behavior of the men escorting her.

He was pleased too with Leah's manner, which showed neither revulsion at the dirt and odor of these people nor any friendliness or compassion towards them. She nodded kindly at the woman who had given her the milk and allowed the others to touch her without really acknowledging their presence. Radnor had just flung another handful of copper coins wide and was trying to pick out a small enough piece of silver to pay for the milk—or rather to reward the woman for her free offer of it, for in itself the drink was not worth even the smallest of the copper coins—when the warning he had been half expecting came.

"Ware! Arms!"

Instantly Leah was surrounded by a group of hard-faced veterans who cleared the other women away rapidly, if not kindly, with the butts of their spears. Radnor, slapping on his helmet and lifting the great shield that had been strapped across his back to cover him, was moving to the front center with Giles coming up hurriedly from the right. Before Leah could shame herself by crying out to ask what was happening, a firm hand clasped a lead rein to her horse and the cheerful Beaufort reassured her.

"It is nothing, madam. Be of good cheer. Probably no more than a single messenger going from one place to another, but in these hard times it is well to be sure."

Leah did not like that lead rein on her horse, but as Sir Harry made no move to use it, she remained silent, looking anxiously towards her husband. The sound of hooves came closer at full gallop; plainly it was a single messenger, but he might be the forerunner of an armed band. A second or two later, Leah heard the horse sliding to a halt, then what must have been the messenger's breathless voice, and finally Cain's laugh. The group surrounding her disappeared as quickly as it had formed and Cain was coming back, pushing off his helm and shifting his shield back over his shoulder. Radnor himself unhooked the lead rein and Sir Harry fell back.

"Is that needful, my lord?"

"What? Oh, the rein? Yes, I believe so."

"Why? Do you have so little faith in me?"

Radnor was surprised by the question and looked at his wife. He answered honestly, "No, I think you would stand well enough. I do not like your father, but there's good blood in him and as good on your mother's side. It was more that lily-livered creature you are riding. I think at the first shout or smell of blood he would bolt. Your heart I honor, but I greatly fear that those lovely white hands are not strong enough to hold a bolting horse."

"It is true that Cold Dawn has never seen or smelled blood, but I could not ride my hunting mare for such a trip, could I?"

"Of course not, you did right to take your hack. I will buy you some riding mares at Smithfield the first Friday we are in London. I do not like geldings. When you take the manhood away—even from a beast—you cut the heartstrings too."

There seemed to be nothing to stay for, yet they did not move and Radnor, even as he spoke to Leah, looked back along the road on which they had come.

"May I ask for what we wait, my lord?" Leah's voice was steady because she willed it. She was really afraid there might be a fight, and she had changed her mind about wanting to see men fight.

"Oh yes, did I forget to say? We wait for Hereford, who is not a quarter of a candlemark behind us, according to the messenger. He was to go north with Chester, but some matter has changed his plans and now he proposes to ride with us. As well, actually. With two of us together, no one would be mad enough to attack. We will stay this night at Hereford Castle, and you can—no, I will tell you of that later."

Chapter 11

Lord Radnor could not have continued his conversation with his wife even if he had intended to do so, for the Earl of Hereford was coming down the road at a spanking pace. Once he pulled his horse up beside Cain's all had to yield to him.

"If I ever heard of such a mutton-headed idiot as you,” Hereford exclaimed. “You ride off with a quarter of the number of men you usually have, carrying a woman with you, and with intentions of staying at Oxford's keep. I thought you were jesting, but Pembroke told me you meant it."

"Of course I meant it,” Radnor replied calmly. “Oxford must needs give me the keys and the direction of Pembroke's house in London. I must stay somewhere, and that will be most satisfactory to my purpose."