Bond of Blood (39 page)

As he said the word "son" he realized that he had a wife whose weight was only a little more than a third of his own. He turned back and dismounted to question the merchant in earnest about breeding possibilities and price. The haggling was long, spirited, and involved, Radnor having forgotten all about the dignity of his position in his determination to have the mare for Leah at a reasonable price. Somewhere at the back of his mind, even as he bargained, Cain knew that Leah was rather late, but Joan of Shrewsbury had taught him the habit of waiting patiently for women at markets, and he assumed his wife had lost herself among the toys and gewgaws offered.

The deal closed, Radnor remounted and looked around again, this time a trifle impatiently. It was more than a full candlemark past the appointed time and no wife was yet in sight. He was beginning to wonder whether he should send some of his men to look for her when Cedric appeared riding through the crowd, bloodied and pale as parchment.

"My lord! Thank God I have found you so quickly. Come home at once."

"Good heaven, what has befallen us now?" But Cain did not wait for a reply. "Arm and ride," he called to his men, and spurred his horse beside Cedric's.

"We have your lady safe," the man-at-arms said, shaking his head as if he was still slightly stunned, "but we greatly fear another attempt upon her. We are so few, we could not hold the house alone. Sir Harry was half frantic because he knew not where to find you earlier, and my lady was so terrified that at first she could tell us nothing."

Cain was incapable of either question or reply. He felt as if a huge cold hand had gripped his vital organs and was squeezing them so that he could not think or breathe. There was no consciousness of surprise or fear, nothing at all, until his men parted before him in the guardroom of his own house and he saw Leah seated, weeping, on a stool with Beaufort standing awkwardly behind her. She looked up, leapt up, and cast herself into his arms with nearly enough force to overset him, clinging and shuddering in spite of the interested attention of the retainers.

"All right, Leah, all right. No harm can befall you now. I am here. I will keep you safe," Cain soothed in a perfectly calm voice. "What happened, Beaufort?"

"I hardly know what to tell you, my lord, but it was thus." Sir Harry looked a trifle dazed and was bleeding from several small cuts. "We went to the market—myself and a dozen men, as you ordered, and rode about for a while. Her ladyship was rather uneasy about being behind her time, however, and could take no pleasure in the sights so we went very early to the Horse Market. That must have been not more than a quarter past two candlemarks after Sext. There we looked at the mounts and watched for you."

"Sit down, Beaufort, you look as if you may be hurt."

"Nay, my lord, I am more shocked than hurt. As we looked, a dealer came up leading a very beautiful black mare and began to show the animal's paces. He spoke much to her ladyship of the mare's merits and finally asked her to try the mount. I was at fault, I suppose, in permitting it, but I could see no harm and madam seemed eager to do so. It is here that I became a little confused. We rode, at the dealer's suggestion, to the edge of the market where there was more space. My lady mounted and rode a soft amble in a circle around us. Upon a sudden, and for no reason I could see, the mare broke into a full gallop straight away over the field."

Beaufort drew breath and there was a murmur of confirmation from the men who had been with him.

"We were taken by surprise, my lord. The mare seemed so docile and her ladyship rides well for a woman, so we did not think to guard against bolting. That was not the least of the surprises we were to have. In a few minutes before we gathered our wits, a group of armed men had appeared out of nowhere and surrounded my lady. She began to cry out for succor, and, of a truth, I knew not what to do. We were thirteen against many more."

"How were they dressed? What were their colors?"

"No colors, my lord, but I must tell you that even in my hurry they seemed an ill-assorted group. I think that there were two parties of different minds about everything except the seizure of her ladyship. It was thus I sent Cedric at the gallop to the house for those at home and we prepared to engage or follow to the best of our ability.

One group, those who seemed to me like the lowest type of hired assassins or men-at-arms, desired only to run. The other group was dressed no better, but I should judge them, nonetheless, to have been men like myself, knights errant in the pay of some great house. They wished to fight and they would not trust the others to take her ladyship away alone. That group, by God's mercy, was so engaged in watching the others and they so hindered each other that Cedric arrived with the men in time."

"And then? Did you manage to hold one of them?"

"No, my lord, they were too many still and, truly, I thought of nothing but having her ladyship safe again. Beyond what I have said there is little to tell. We wrested her from them, and I took her up before me, but she was so shaken, as you see, that I dared not stay. Also we feared that they might summon help and try again. I knew not where you had gone, and my lady could tell us nothing for weeping. I was also afraid that a force might be laid in wait on the direct route home or even in the house, for not a person was left behind but the women servants. We came very slowly by back streets. Then we wasted more time trying to calm her ladyship enough to tell us where you had gone, and by then we realized that you must have already come to the Horse Market, so Cedric went there to look for you."

"I thank you, Beaufort, you have done me good service. We will talk further when I have quieted my wife a little. Set a watch, Giles. I am almost certain that there is no need, but it is well to be safe."

Cain half carried Leah up the stairs and tried to lay her on the bed. She would not let him go, however, and cried so hard when he tried to loosen her hands from his surcoat that he finally sat down and took her on his lap. "You are safe now, sweet love, you are safe. Hush, be quiet. May I be damned if I ever let you out from under my eye again. Enough, Leah, you will make yourself sick with crying."

She quieted finally, resting against him, and with her increasing calm and the wearing away of his shock it was just as well that Leah was holding her husband. He kissed her hair, pressing his mouth against her head until he could control the trembling of his lips. The scars on his face stood out flaming red. It was one thing to try to destroy him; that was a legitimate move in the bitter political struggle, but if Cain could have laid hold upon the woman who had so frightened his darling—for he knew it must be the queen—he would have torn her apart with his hands and teeth.

The minutes passed and Cain's mind began to function rationally again. The attackers did not mean to frighten her, they meant to have her. The lower class of men might have been thieves who wished to take a rich gentlewoman for ransom, but the knights errant? Would Maud dare hire men directly for the purpose of taking the wife of a vassal? Besides, why should she do so this day when she planned his death on the morrow?

"Leah, can you speak to me now?" A little nod and a sniff and a shudder. "You will not be frightened again if I ask you about what happened?"

"Only hold me tight," she whispered hoarsely.

"My love, my love, I will hold you as tight as you can bear. Among those men, did you see any face you knew, any horse you knew, any garment and color that was familiar?"

Leah shuddered. If she spoke she would be betraying her father and might give Cain a bad opinion of her; if she was silent, Pembroke might try again more successfully. With wits sharpened by terror, she temporized. "You must know. You must know already, if you ask. They had changed their horses and their garb, but I have known them long." Her whisper broke and she began to tremble and sob again. "I would not have spoken, but I thought I would never see you more."

His arms drew her tighter until Leah gasped with pain. "I am sorry, love. I did not mean to hurt you."

He was not angry at what she had said. Leah, really recovering now, permitted a very tremulous laugh, half sob, to escape her. "Better broken ribs than a broken heart. My lord, could it be that my mother was right? Could my father desire to take me for ransom and not mean to harm you?"

If Pembroke wanted Leah, he wanted her only because she was Radnor's heir. The suspicion that had almost died when she admitted that she had recognized Pembroke's men stung Radnor anew. "Perhaps it is so. It does not matter. You need not fear to be lost to me."

Leah did not need that assurance. She knew her husband would not give her up readily because she was his wife, the woman who would bear him sons to continue his line. She understood too that he was fond of her because of his gentle treatment and his readiness to do things that would please her. His passion she could not credit as a personal thing. Although she loved Cain for himself, not simply because he was her husband, she did not assume that feeling could be reciprocated, because she took it to be not only unusual but even a trifle sinful.

"In any case," Radnor continued, "there will be no second chance. I will send to the king to say I cannot come tonight. Do not fear, I will not leave you alone again."

Leah had clutched at Cain at the mention of the king, but in the time it takes for a deep sigh she had loosened her grip. "No, you must go. These are great matters. You would come to hate me if you failed in your duty on my account."

Her husband moved his head from side to side like a man in pain. She was right, of course, and there was no other time to see Stephen because Radnor knew he might be dead on the morrow. But why did Leah urge it? Did she wish to be taken by her father? Were the tears and terror because the abduction had failed?

"It is true that much rests on tonight's meeting. But if I were to lose you" Cain stopped abruptly. What ailed him, that he was about to confess his infatuation when he was not even sure of her good faith? "I will tell you how it can be. If I go alone, leaving Giles and the entire troop—"

"Oh, no!" Leah shrieked. She jumped off his lap to stand before him, her hands gripped his shoulders, her eyes level with his. "If you went unsupported into that nest of vipers, I would die of fear. You do not know. You cannot understand. When those men took me, I was afraid, but I could scream, and when I was safe, I could weep. You do not know the fear that freezes the very soul, that numbs the heart and tongue and brain until you are dead although your body lives. You do not know how I fear for you. I could have told where you were this afternoon. I only pretended to be hysterical so that I would not have to answer. I did not want the men to call you because I thought the attempt to take me might be a trap to draw you forth."

Cain turned his head aside. He was not brave enough or trusting enough any longer to allow Leah to see his eyes filled with tears. He wanted so much to believe her that it was like a physical sickness inside him. He knew too that he was tilting at shadows. Not even Pembroke would dare take her from the house when he was not ten minutes' ride away.

"Very well, Leah, you shall have your way. I will take half and leave half, and we will both fear half."

What a day, thought Lord Radnor, leaning against his horse and wiping his mouth. First Hereford, then Gloucester and Leicester, then the attack on Leah, and now a combination of Stephen and too much drink. No wonder his stomach was turned. He felt in his purse for the fiftieth time to make sure the precious letters were safe. They didn't mean a thing, though. Stephen didn't mean a thing. And since the whole world was spinning faster and faster, nothing meant anything because they would soon all fly off straight up to heaven.

It would be fun to fly through the air, almost as much fun as trying to keep to his feet on the crazy, spinning world. But he could not fly away. There was something he had to do—the tournament. For an instant, Radnor was sober. Oh, God, the head he would have tomorrow. If he could see to hit a barn or had the strength to fight a mouse, he would be fortunate.

"Cedric," he said thickly, "I want to sleep in my own bed tonight. Do not let me stop and sleep midway." He raised his foot towards the stirrup and began to laugh again. "Help me to my horse. This damned animal. I will have to get rid of it. It keeps changing its size. Up and down, up and down."

"No, my lord. Yes, my lord," Cedric replied soothingly, and signaled sharply for help. His lordship was no light burden.

Once in the saddle Radnor was steady enough and gave his men no trouble, only beginning to sing and laugh helplessly from time to time. It took four of them, however, to get him up the stairs because he showed a stubborn inclination to sit down on each step, kicking at them and insisting they were tickling him when they tried to lift him up. Giles had the forethought when he first saw his master to send Beaufort up to explain to Leah so that she should not think that he needed help because he was hurt. She was rather frightened, because she had much experience with drunken men, but one look at her husband as he staggered in washed away her terror.

Radnor sober could be terrifying; drunk, he was charming and ridiculous. Leah could not help laughing both with Cain and at him. When she tried to undress him, he rolled across the bed on which his men had placed him and escaped, forcing her to pursue him and corner him before she could convince him that he would be more comfortable unarmed. Naked, except for shoes and chausses, which were untied and dangling loose around his hips, he conceived a desire to dance.

If Radnor conceived a desire when drunk, there was nothing to do but to satisfy it. So they danced, not well, but with a great deal of merriment. She told him to take off his shoes and go to bed. He would have none of it. She begged him to allow her to take off his shoes and put him to bed. He would have none of it. He would sing.

Leah covered her ears and sank down on the rushes almost hysterical with emotion piled upon emotion throughout the day. Cain asked tearfully why she did not like his voice. Leah assured him, choking with laughter, that she did. Then they must sing duets. Leah ached between laughing and trying to sing. Finally in despair she sent the page to ask Giles to come up.