Rise of the Defender (22 page)

     Dustin looked somewhat humbled, piling the
material into a stack. “’Twas my father’s doing, not mine,” she turned to
Christopher with a twinkle in her eye. “The baron wanted Lioncross so badly he
would have married Medusa to get it.”

     She saw him crack a smile and she was
pleased at her accomplishment. To share a humorous moment with him brought one
more facet to their deepening relationship. With Rebecca finishing storing the
bundles of fabrics, it seemed that their visit was drawing to a close and Dustin
was reluctant to leave. She and her friend were used to spending the entire day
together, and with the prospect of her leaving shortly for an unknown amount of
time, she missed Rebecca already.

     She turned hesitantly to Christopher. “My
lord, might I speak with you? Privately?”

     He uncrossed his arms and immediately
opened the door. Taking the silent cue, Dustin quickly passed through, and he
followed. Outside, he faced her expectantly.

     “I will not be seeing Rebecca for a while, my
lord, and I was wondering if you would allow me to visit with her for the day?”
She had never had to ask for permission to call on her friend and found it
strange to form the words.

     “Visit for the day?” he looked doubtful. “She
needs to finish those clothes for you, Dustin. Your presence would only distract
her.

     “Nay, it would not, “she insisted. “I could
help her. I have done it before.”

     He eyed her, seeing how eager she was. He
shrugged. “I will allow you to stay for the rest of the morning, then,” he said.
“I shall leave Edward here to escort you home.”

     She did not protest the guard, remembering
well what happened two days ago. She smiled, a real smile. “Thank you, Christopher.”

     He cocked an eyebrow at her, a faint smile
on his lips. “Christopher, is it? 'Tis ‘my lord' when you want something, and
‘Christopher' when you get it.”

     She giggled and before he could stop himself,
he touched her cheek lightly with a gloved hand. It was a sweet gesture, not
lost on Dustin. Her eyes gazed warmly back at him.

     But Christopher was embarrassed with the
display of tenderness and cleared his throat sternly. “I have work to do, my
lady. I shall expect you home by the nooning meal, if you can stop chattering long
enough.”

     “Aye, husband,” she said saucily as he
opened the door for her, causing him to do a double-take.

     She’d called him ‘husband.’ He almost
smiled, startled to hear the title from her lips. Hell, he almost looked around
to see if she was addressing someone else but he knew she was speaking to him. He
was
her husband and, much to his astonishment, growing to like it.

     Dustin and Rebecca spent a pleasant hour as
Rebecca began work on a surcoat. Dustin sat and watched as her friend carefully
laid a pattern and cut it out. She had seen Rebecca do this many times before,
but had never had the desire to learn to sew herself. She’d rather climb a tree
or ride a horse.

     Christopher and David had retreated to
Lioncross and Edward stood vigilant watch outside the hut door. Dustin tried to
coax him inside twice, but he smiled and refused politely. He was sworn to
protect her, and if he were to sit comfortably inside the cottage, he could be
caught off-guard by danger.

     “In all the years that we have known each
other, and with as many times as I have been to your hut, I have never had to
have an escort,” she commented as Rebecca matched thread to the sapphire-colored
fabric.

     “But you are a baron's wife now,” Rebecca
replied. “You are too valuable to be allowed to run free and alone.”

     Dustin shrugged, leaning forward on her
elbows. “I do not feel any different,” she said, which was a lie. She felt very
different. “What I mean is, I am still the same person I was four days ago, the
only difference being I am married now.”

     “And married to the Defender of the Realm.”
Rebecca was still having trouble coming to grips with the awesome nature of her
friend’s husband. “My God, when I think of that, my mind fairly explodes with
disbelief.”

     Dustin smiled faintly. “How do you think I
felt upon learning it? I am not a worldly, fine woman Rebecca. I am simply not
worthy of the man.”

     Rebecca’s head came up. “Ridiculous, Dustin.
You are the most beautiful, kind woman I have ever known. Of course you are
worthy of him. Did he tell you otherwise?”

     “Of course not,” Dustin replied. He's never
been anything but kind, at least for the most part. Except when he spanked me.”

     “
Spanked
you?” Rebecca repeated. “What
on earth for?”

     Dustin turned away, ashamed. “For throwing things
at him and yelling.”

     Rebecca laughed heartily. “I have seen you
do worse. He will be spanking you every other day if he considers that a
grievous offense.”

     “Oh, be quiet,” Dustin pouted. “You spank
your children, not your wife.”

     “You do when your wife is as stubborn and
spoiled as you are,” Rebecca replied with a grin, noting her friend’s
expression. “Oh, Dustin, do not carry on about it. If I married a man as
handsome as Sir Christopher, he could spank me thrice a day and I wouldn’t mind.”

     Dustin looked at her friend. “You think
he's handsome?”

     “Aye, verily,” Rebecca was focused on her
material. “The most handsome man I have seen.”

     Dustin turned away thoughtfully. So Rebecca
thought he was handsome, did she? To hear her comment only reinforced the very
same thoughts Dustin was trying to ignore.

     “This thread does not quite match,” Rebecca
commented, holding up the spool for Dustin to see. “Let's go see Mr.
Codwalader. If he doesn’t have it in his stock, then he can probably dye the
correct shade for us.

     Dustin nodded, following Rebecca into the
small kitchen room where she had almost met her end. They went out the back
door, heading for the heart of the village where the merchant’s shops were, and
completely forgetting about the knight who was standing watch on their front
door.

     Certain events happened purely by accident.
Dustin and Rebecca stayed to watch Mr. Codwalader dye the thread a matching sapphire
blue, an event that took a bit of time, which the two of them lost track of.

     Edward, promptly at noon, stuck his head
into the hut to announce their imminent departure and was baffled to find the
cottage deserted. Concerned for his mistress and terrified that Christopher
would blame him if anything happened to her, he set out in search of Lady de
Lohr.

     He had no idea where to look, of course,
and after a half hour of searching, he made his way back to Lioncross. David
was waiting for him in the bailey, his eyes widening when he saw Edward was alone.

     “Where is she?” he demanded.

     Edward was grim. “Gone,” he said
reluctantly. “David, I need help looking for her.”

     “Gone? What in the hell do you mean?” David
asked urgently.

     “Exactly what I said,” Edward ran a hand
across his face. “Christopher is going to kill me. I was standing watch outside
the front door the whole time and the two of them must have slipped out the
back door. I have no idea where they went.”

     David’s mouth went agape but he shut it rapidly.
“Chris has got to know of this,” he turned and dashed into the castle.

     Edward dismounted and, not so eagerly,
followed. Five minutes later, Christopher and the entire company of knights
were mounted and tearing through the open gates toward the village.

     Dustin and Rebecca, completely unaware of
the uproar they had caused, sat quite happily in Mr. Codwalader's store and
watched the man mix dye to achieve the exact color of the material. They chatted
with the wrinkled old man about different subjects, for Mr. Codwalader was very
knowledgeable and they enjoyed his company. His wife had died years ago and he
was alone, so he always enjoyed very lengthy conversations. Blissfully ignorant
of the knights that were even now roaring into the village, they continued their
discussion without reservation.

     Christopher split up his men, sending half
to one end of the village for a hut-to-hut search while he and David and Edward
took the main street. His gestures were sharp, his commands brusque, and no one
wasted any time carrying out his orders.

     It was difficult for Christopher to express
the emotions that were filling him. Anger, of course, but also a certain amount
of apprehension after the attack the other day. He knew he had found his wife
by pure chance and he had no desire to test his luck again. He had no idea
where she might have gone but when he found her he hoped for her sake that her
bottom had recovered somewhat from the other day because he was surely going to
give her more of the same for filling him with a fear he had never experienced
before.

     To imagine something horrible befalling
Dustin brought terror to his veins and he was greatly disturbed by it. Angry
with her for causing it and angry with himself for being weak enough to feel it.

***

     Mr. Codwalader dyed the thread to
perfection and, still wet, handed it back to Rebecca. She accepted the spool on
a wire, still chatting leisurely with the little man and Dustin promised to pay
him for it the next day.

     After lengthy good-byes and thank-yous, the
two women left the shop and cut through the small village, back to Rebecca’s
hut. They had no way of knowing they had missed the search party by mere yards,
as they had exited the rear of the shop while Dustin's husband and his knights
had entered another shop a few doors down, nearly ripping the panel of the
candlemaker's shop off its hinges in their haste.

     Still neglecting to remember her watchdog,
Dustin and Rebecca spent a good deal of time going over the dresses again as
the baron and his men nearly ripped the little town apart by the seams looking
for them. Finally, Dustin’s stomach rumbled and she suddenly remembered about
Edward and her promise to Christopher to return by the nooning meal.

     “What time is it?” she exclaimed, throwing
the front door open. She was verily surprised to find that Edward was gone.

     “Well after mid-day,” Rebecca squinted up
to the sky.            “Where is your knight?”

     “I do not know,” Dustin replied, puzzled. “Mayhap
he got bored and went back to the keep.”

     She and Rebecca shrugged at each other, unconcerned
with Edward, but Dustin was very concerned about being late for the nooning
meal.

     “I hope Christopher isn’t too angry with
me,” she said, kissing her friend’s cheek good-bye. “Thank you, Rebecca. I
shall see you tomorrow.”

     As she had done hundreds of times before,
Dustin gathered her skirts and walked casually back to the keep, enjoying the
day and the birds and the sky, still totally unaware of the chaos that was
erupting on her behalf.

     That ignorance was not to last for long.

***

     Three hours later, the knights rode back
into the bailey, greeted by a host of soldiers and young squires to take their
animals and their gear.

     Christopher dismounted, tearing his
gauntlets off and tucking them under his arm, his eyes riveted to the castle
doors and his face set like stone. David walked up beside him.

     “Try not to be too hard on her, Chris,” he
said. “Her friend said she did not deliberately disobey you.”

     Christopher didn’t reply, which concerned
David. He knew his brother better than anyone, and when Christopher was silent
it was usually a sign of extreme anger. But there was nothing more he could
say, so he slowed his pace and let his brother continue on, into the castle, to
deal with his wife alone. He wondered if he shouldn't follow at a safe
distance, just to protect Dustin should Christopher go out of control. He had
never seen that happen; still, he was concerned all the same.

     A serving wench directed Christopher
outside and he found his wife in the small kitchen yard, dressed in her usual
peasant garb with her hair pulled back to the nape of her neck, feeding her
rabbits.

     Christopher marched up on her and stopped a
few feet back, preparing to explode. He wanted to yell his head off but as soon
as he saw her standing so innocently feeding her pets, he choked on his anger.
But not quite; he was furious with her and had to clench his hands behind his
back to keep from shaking her.

     “Dustin?” he said in a remarkably
controlled voice.

     She turned around and he was caught
off-guard to see that her face lit up in a smile. “My lord, you have returned,”
she said pleasantly, shoving the rabbit she was holding back into his hutch. “I
asked where you had gone and no one was able to tell me very much. Is Edward
with you? He left Rebecca’s hut before I did but I have not seen him.”