Hellion (47 page)

The rest of the night followed a pattern. The men made love to Isabelle in turns, then they would bathe and drink restorative liquids that Guy had brewed up for them. Guy would feed her small tidbits from time to time.

“To help keep up your strength, my pet,” he murmured.

In the end exhaustion overcame her and she fell asleep.

“You did well, my friend,” Guy d’ Bretagne said to Hugh. “She has surely conceived this night, but if not, we shall try again in another few weeks.”

“I did it for Vivienne,” Hugh said. “A child will make her happy, she says, though I do not believe it.”

Guy barely heard him. His attention was turned to Belle. She was pale, but she slept a normal sleep. He did not hear Hugh leave the chamber, but, finally noticing he was gone, Guy put his own head down and slept.

“Was it necessary to remain with them for the entire night?” Vivienne asked her lover peevishly as he entered their bedchamber.

“Your brother wanted to make certain that I impregnated her,” Hugh answered. He, too, was exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to sleep. He did not want to have to answer her jealous questions.

“How many times did you use her?” Vivienne demanded.

“Three, four, I cannot remember. Guy kept feeding us all some damned aphrodisiac he had brewed up to enhance our desire. Vivi, I want to sleep and not speak on this. Leave me be now. I have done your bidding because it will make you happy, but I am tired.”

Aye, he was tired. He realized, too, that he had the problem of deciding what he was going to do about the situation that he and Belle were caught in. First, however, he needed sleep. Making decisions from a position of weakness was not a very wise thing.

“Very well, my Hugh,” Vivienne said, “sleep. I suppose you have earned it this night.” Then she grew silent.

When Hugh awoke, it was midday, and Vivienne was gone from their bed. He lay quietly, considering his options in light of his newly returned memory. Was he to tell the d’ Bretagnes he knew everything? And what of his wife, Isabelle, who so
easily played the whore to Guy d’ Bretagne? How had she come here, and why? His two falconers would, of course, have some of the answers. He slung his legs over the bed, his feet making contact with the floor, and stood up.

He did not bother calling for a servant, dressing himself instead. Entering Vivienne’s day room, he startled the women serving there. One of them jumped to her feet, and hurrying to a table, poured a small cup of pale amber liquid into it. Seeing her, he waved her away. “I need nothing to strengthen me, Marie,” he told her. The damned stuff has probably helped keep my memory at bay, Hugh thought. Vivi knew all kinds of little potions and nostrums for everything. She was always mixing up something. She was probably even now in the little interior stone room where she brewed her elixirs. “Where is your mistress?” he asked the serving woman.

“In her special chamber, lord,” came the answer.

“I will see her before I go to the mews,” he told the woman. That should keep her from hurrying to tell her mistress he had refused his daily libation. Instead he went directly to the falcon mews. “Lind, Alain, to me,” he called upon entering the stone tower.

At once the two falconers were by his side, chorusing in unison, “My lord!”

“I remember,” was all he said.

“Praise be to God and His Blessed Mother!” Alain answered.

“No one else knows, and I have not yet decided whether I shall tell them. Only we three know,” Hugh explained.

“What of the lady Isabelle?” Lind asked.

“How did she come here?” Hugh Fauconier asked the young man.

“She and Sir Rolf went up to King Henry’s court to seek word of you, my lord, when you did not return. My lady was frantic with worry. The king promised to help them, but then he took a fancy to my lady and forced her to remain at
court. She avoided him quite skillfully, my Agneatha said, hiding herself among the queen’s ladies. One day she told me we should go to Normandy for she had learned that you were last seen in the company of her dastardly brother, Richard de Manneville. Sir Rolf did not know, and I begged my lady to reconsider her decision, but she would not. She gained boy’s clothing, I know not how, and she cut her hair, dying it dark with walnut stain. We traveled to Normandy in the train of Archbishop Anselm, for my lady had convinced his high steward that her two falconers would be delivering a merlin to the duke’s infant son, a gift from the king to his nephew.

“When we left the archbishop’s party, we went directly to Manneville, where we stayed for several weeks training a bird for my lady’s brother. Sieur Richard’s lady wife befriended us, and my lady revealed herself to the lady Blanche. It was she who told us where you had been taken. Again I counseled caution, but my lady Isabelle said she must be certain that you were really here before she appealed to Duke Robert for aid. Once we had agreed to serve the d’ Bretagnes, however, we were unable to leave La Citadelle without drawing pursuit. Then lord Guy discovered that my lady was no lad, and you know the rest.”

“Nay, the rest my wife must tell me,” Hugh said in a dangerously dark voice.

“My lord,” the practical Alain interjected. “We all did what we must do to gain your release. Now we must take the first opportunity to flee this place and return home to Langston. You have a son waiting there. My lady’s one fear was that the child would grow up without his father. She is a good and brave woman who has risked much to free you.”

“What time of day does she usually come here?” Hugh asked them.

“In mid-morning, my lord,” Lind replied.

“I will try to come then on the morrow,” Hugh said. “If I
cannot, do not tell her that my memory has been restored. That must come from me and no one else.”

The two falconers nodded, in complete agreement with their lord.

Part IV

L
A
C
ITADELLE AND
L
ANGSTON

Late Summer 1104-Autumn 1106

Chapter 16

“M
arie tells me that you did not take your strengthening elixir today,” Vivienne said to her lover as they lay abed that night. She ran her beautiful slender fingers across his smooth chest.

“I do not need any further medication, Vivi,” Hugh Fauconier told his mistress. “Surely your brother told you of my fine performance with his precious Belle last night. I need no potions, Vivi, unless, of course, you are dosing me in an attempt to keep my natural memory from returning. Why should that frighten you?” He caught her hand in his and, bringing it to his lips, began to nibble upon the fingers.

“It does not, Hugh,” she lied, but her heart thudded nervously.

“Good!” he said, “then it is settled,” and rolling her beneath him, he pushed into her, her cry of pleasure ringing in his ears. This was all she wanted of him, he realized; his ability to give her pleasure and to dance obedient attendance upon her. His lack of resistance to her authority, his meek acquiescence these past months, had led her to believe she loved him. For now he would continue to please her.
Until he decided what he was going to do
.

Isabelle was what confused him. He had every right to go, and leave her behind to the fate she had chosen for herself. Why could she not have remained at Langston like a proper wife? And yet, he smiled to himself, was what she had done—disguising herself as a boy, and coming after him—totally out
of character for Isabelle of Langston? She had always been a hellion. Responsibilities and motherhood had not changed her, he realized. And if she had not come seeking him, would his memory have returned as it had last night when she cried his name in her ecstasy? Perhaps without her he would have remained under the d’ Bretagnes’ enchantment forever. It was possible he owed her a greater debt than he could ever repay.

But could he forget that for these past months she had been Guy d’ Bretagne’s most complaisant mistress? And what of your beauteous mistress, now lying by your side? the voice in his head prodded him.
That was different
. A man might have a mistress, but a woman should remain faithful and true to her lord. Yet how could Isabelle of Langston have remained true under the circumstances in which they both now found themselves? Would he really have preferred her to fling herself from the battlements of La Citadelle in remorse? He had to speak with her. And he had to begin thinking of a way that they could all leave La Citadelle. If he had indeed impregnated his wife, the d’ Bretagnes must not obtain possession of his child.

He slipped from the bedchamber in the morning, leaving Vivi sleeping soundly after an active night. Making his way to the mews, he found Isabelle already there, fussing with Couper.

“Good morning, Isabelle of Langston,” he said quietly.

Her startled green-gold eyes met his blue ones. “
You remember
?” she whispered softly. “Ohh, Hugh! Tell me that you do remember!”

“I remember, ma Belle,” he murmured, and then she was in his arms, weeping, clinging to him.

“
How? When
?” she asked him.

“When you cried out my name in your passion,” he said.

She looked up at him, blushing, her dark lashes wet and spiky. “No one would help me, Hugh. The king even tried to seduce me. He wanted me to remain at court for his pleasure. Rolf did not know what to do. I knew that you were not dead. I just did not know where you were, but I had to try to find
you, Hugh! Are you terribly angry with me?” The words tumbled out one after the other as she tried to explain it all to him. Would he understand? Or would he hate her for what had happened?

“Why did you not remain at Langston, Isabelle?” he asked her.

“
And if I had
? The Langston men who were captured with you were so fearful of the d’ Bretagnes’ magic, they did not even try to help you, or escape so help might be obtained for you. If I had not sought you out, Hugh Fauconier, who would have? Your playmate, Henry Beauclerc, was more interested in seducing your wife than he was in finding you. When you think that you went to Normandy at his behest, it is disgraceful! And Duke Robert was little better. If Lind and I had not come seeking you, you would have been attempting to get a child upon some other female two nights ago!” Her temper was engaged now as it had not been in many months.

Hugh could not help but laugh. She was the most outrageous woman in the entire world, a perfect hellion who would brave anything, obviously, to get back her own. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her firmly. For a moment her mouth softened beneath his, and then she pulled away, hitting him a blow that staggered him. “Belle!” he protested.

“What kind of a great trusting fool would go off to Manneville knowing what a wretch my brother Richard is? Could you not have made the peace he tricked you into believing he was offering you at Duke Robert’s court? Did you have to go to Manneville with him?”

“It seemed impolite to refuse his invitation, especially since he was being so publicly contrite and pleasant before the duke,” Hugh said, rubbing his arm. The hellion had bruised him, he was certain.