Gruffydd hadn’t expected her to spout that very revealing bit of information. “Cadwalader was an old man who died in his sleep,” he said, loudly and firmly. “Elle had no hand in it. Stop perpetuating those vile rumors.”
“But she did!”
If Gruffydd could have throttled her in front of Christopher and gotten away with it, he would have. But all he could do was snap at her and pray Christopher wasn’t going to change his mind about everything.
“You will keep your lipsshut,” he hissed angrily. “Shut your mouth and live longer, Melusine. You are a stupid and foolish girl. That is why none of your relatives want you to live with them. That is why you have no husband!”
Melusine turned red in the face, suddenly realizing she shouldn’t have said what she did in front of Hereford. But that was typical for her—speaking first, thinking later. She further realized she could make a fragile situation worse, and from the look on Gruffydd’s face, he was ready to kill her. Quickly, she struggled to make amends.
“You are correct,” she said. “I… I am sorry. I do not know what I am saying. Elle did not deliberately do anything to Cadwalader, I know that. But the men said that she killed himbecause she was so young and he was so old, and she wanted him to bed her nightly, so it killed him. That is all I meant.”
Gruffydd rolled his eyes. “For the love of God,” he muttered. “Juststop talking.”
Melusine did. Feeling rebuked and ashamed for running off at the mouth, she lowered her head and pulled scraps of food off the table, eating anything she could get her hands on simply to keep from talking. Gruffydd had his hand on his head in disbelief of what Melusine had just done, of the horrible things she’d said. He dared to glance at Christopher, who was still standing at the tent opening, gazing out at the night beyond.
But Gruffydd knew he’d heard everything.
As Melusine kept her head down, Gruffydd stood up and stretched his weary body. He was hoping that Hereford would let him go into the keep and retrieve his personal possessions, if they were even still there. Elle might have given them away, for all he knew. As he made his way to the brazier to warm his hands, Curtis suddenly appeared in front of his father.
“You summoned me, Papa?” he asked.
Christopher nodded, stepping back to indicate the small, dark-haired woman seated with her back to the tent opening. “We have found another Gwenwynwyn female,” he said. “This is Lady Melusine, a cousin to Gruffydd and Lady Elle. She has been most concerned for Lady Elle’s health, so I thought you could tell her how the lady fares.”
Curtis looked at his father in puzzlement, and then frustration, before looking to the lady, who had turned to look at him by this time. He found himself looking at a dirty, pale young woman who in no way resembled her cousin.
“You summoned me for this?” he muttered to his father. “Papa, I should be back—”
“Tell the lady her cousin is well,” Christopher said, interrupting him. “In fact, you can take her with you. It mighthelp Lady Elle to have her cousin with her. It might ease her anxiousness, if you understand my meaning.”
Christopher was trying to help Curtis with Elle’s rebellious demeanor. Curtis began to understand that. Surely it would calm her to have her cousin with her. But he shook his head.
“She is sleeping now,” he said. “Most peacefully, I might add. Bringing this woman—her cousin—to her now would not only awaken her, but would more than likely agitate her again, because she’d have to deal with her cousin’s emotions now. Truly, she has enough of her own.”
Christopher didn’t want to be unkind. “Curt…”
But Curtis shook his head firmly. “Nay,” he said. “She is asleep and she is calm, and that is what I wish for my own evening—calm and sleep. I do not need to watch over two hysterical women tonight. Please, Papa.”
Christopher gave in, though reluctantly. “Very well,” he said. “I will have Myles watch over Lady Melusine tonight. But tomorrow, they are to be reunited.”
Curtis waved him off. “As you wish,” he said. “I must return. Westley is watching over the lady, and if she wakes up and finds me gone, and a squire as her guard, she might give Westley a struggle.”
He didn’t even wait for Christopher to reply. He was heading back the way he’d come, out into the night. Christopher didn’t give his abrupt behavior too much thought because the man was exhausted, as they all were.
Curtis wasn’t the only one who wanted calm and sleep.
After that, Christopher summoned Roi and Myles and had them both tend to Gruffydd and Melusine. Christopher would trust his sons to tend to the Welsh prisoners, and tomorrow would dawn a better, brighter day. But for tonight, Christopher simply wanted to be alone in his own tent. It was yet another victory in a long line of victories for the mighty Earl of Herefordand Worcester, and he’d done enough today. He’d earned his solitude.
When sleep finally came for him, it was filled with dreams of home.
CHAPTER SEVEN
She gradually becameaware of sounds.
That was Elle’s first awareness that the world was going on around her. She could hear a man speaking and people moving about, but she could also hear birds singing. Somewhere, overhead, a hawk was screeching against the wind. He must have been looking for a meal, because it began to occur to her that it was morning.
A new day had arrived.
Elle opened one eye and looked around a little before she opened her other eye. For a moment, she had no idea where she was and how she got there. Everything was unfamiliar. But it was clear that she was in a bed—someone’s bed—and somehow, she had gotten there.
