Christopher shrugged. “That is up to you,” he said. “But telling him what you told us is a good start. And if it matters… I think Curt has married a strong lady. If you are willing to learn and grow, you will make a fine wife and a fine countess. You can do much more for your people in such a position than you can fighting like a rebel.”
Elle thought on that. “Mayhap,” she said. “But I never thought I would have the opportunity to be something other than what I am.”
Christopher smiled at her. “It is a grand opportunity that few have,” he said, but he quickly sobered at the look on her face. “I know it is not what you expected or how you planned that your life should be, but here we are. You must make the best of it. Fetch your husband, Lady Leominster. Let your new life begin.”
The words were very true. Elle was coming to think that the English warlords were far more reasonable and wise than she’d been told. Her experience with them had been different from anything her grandmother or even her father’s soldiers had mentioned, and that had her questioning everything.
What if my grandmother was wrong?
Peter was waiting for her by the tent opening. He had a cloak in his hand, though she had no idea where he got it. Politely, he offered it to her, but rather than let him put it on her shoulders, as a fine lady would have, she took it from him and put it on herself. She was an independent lass with no idea how to be proper, but somehow, it was rather endearing. With a grin, Peter followed her out into the night.
Curtis was somewhere out there, waiting.
Elle was going to find him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
He’d left withouta word to his father.
Curtis was so angry, so disillusioned, that he’d left the de Lohr encampment with only a word to Westley, who had no idea why his brother was grabbing his saddlebags, his weapon, and heading to the corral for his horse. Curtis told Westley that he’d return in the morning and to make sure Lady Leominster wasn’t there when he came back. As Curtis took off on his fat golden warhorse, Westley had gone running for his father.
Curtis had intended that his father should know that he left, but also that he would return in the morning so Christopher wouldn’t send out search parties. Curtis needed time alone, and Christopher would have to understand that. The town closest to Brython on the English side of the border was Presteigne, and that was exactly where he was heading. He’d find an inn, order a good meal, and sleep in a good bed and not a traveling cot, which was never very comfortable. He’d have a fire and peace and comfort for the night before heading back to the encampment and demanding his father annul the marriage.
As he saw it, that was necessary.
Did he really want the annulment? No, he didn’t. He’d rather been looking forward to a marriage with Elle. She had momentswhere he could see her warmth, her eagerness to please and willingness to learn, but they were so few and far between. He didn’t really mean all of those things he’d said to her. He’d said them because he was angry and she’d pushed him beyond his limit. He was angry because she seemed to be giving up on them before they even got started.
Perhaps that was what angered him the most.
She couldn’t see past the knight to the man beneath.
Now, all he felt was disappointment.
Presteigne was less than an hour’s ride from Brython. It was still early enough in the evening that people were still out in the street, hovering around open doors from homes or inns as warm light streamed through doorways and onto the darkened street. He could hear laughing and talking as he entered the edge of town because there were three inns on this side of the village alone. One of them seemed particularly popular, but he was looking for something quieter. He wanted peace tonight. He needed it. It was supposed to be his wedding night, but he was going to spend it getting drunk.
Unfortunately, the town’s six inns and three taverns were all busy this evening. It was a cold night, so people were looking for some kind of warmth and shelter for the evening. He ended up going back to the east side of the village and selecting The Earl and the Oak, a two-storied inn that had more of a tavern feel to it because there was drink and entertainment below while the sleeping rooms were upstairs. Curtis stabled his steed in the livery behind the inn before proceeding inside to secure a rented chamber for the night.
The innkeeper, a tall man whose lower half of his left leg was a wooden peg, was more than hospitable to a knight willing to pay well. He took Curtis to the best chamber he had, on the corner of the building overlooking an alley and the livery yard.It was guaranteed to be quiet, away from the street, and Curtis ordered a meal before settling in for the night.
He suspected it was going to be a long one.
The first thing he did after settling in his rented chamber was to simply sit in silence. He had been in a month-long battle where noise filled the air both day and night. Siege engines, men screaming, and the sounds of battle had been part of his life every minute of every day. As the night deepened around him, he lit a fire in the small hearth and sat by the window that overlooked the alley.
The night above was clear, with a brilliant moon hanging in the sky. He could hear nightbirds in the distance, and all around him there were sounds of civilization as people hunkered down for the night. He could smell the evening meals wafting upon the breeze, and occasionally, he could hear a husband and wife speaking. In fact, across the alley was a small cottage with a small yard and a little barn. He watched as a child, a small boy, came out of the barn with a bucket of what was evidently milk. The child shut the barn door and headed into the house, where his mother thanked him for milking the cow.
Somehow, that family had his attention. It was a simple family, and he couldn’t see if they had more than just the one son, but he could hear the mother’s voice as she sweetly spoke to her child and encouraged him to eat all of his bread and vegetables. Meat was very precious to poor families, so the poor would generally eat only vegetables for their meals. But it struck Curtis that the boy didn’t seem to mind that they were poor. In fact, he probably didn’t even know they were poor. All that mattered was that he had a loving mother and a loving father and a warm home to grow up in.
Somehow, that depressed Curtis.
He wasn’t sure what he had expected of his own marriage, but he had expected at least what his father and mother had.Even though he had heard stories, from his own father, no less, as to how much his mother did not want to get married, they were still able to put aside their differences and raise ten children. Curtis only remembered the warmth of his family when he was young and how his older sisters doted on him. He only remembered his parents being loving toward each other, and, quite frankly, that was the example set for him. Of course he should want that for his own marriage.
But it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
As he listened to the mother and the father talk to their young son, he began to sorely regret how he’d spoken to Elle. He wasn’t usually a man to get upset like that, and most definitely not with women, but she had hurt him. The more he thought on it, the more he realized that was why he had lashed out the way he had. He had told her to be gone in the morning, but a large part of him was hoping she was stubborn enough to disobey him. He was also thinking that perhaps he should just go back to the encampment tonight and apologize to her for becoming angry. Perhaps if he did, they might smooth things over.
But he didn’t have high hopes.
His meal came several minutes later. There was an enormous bowl of stewed beef chunks with currants and carrots, plus a custard that was full of onions and baked with cheese. It was delicious. There was also plenty of bread and butter, and a big bowl of stewed apples with cloves and honey. Lastly, there was an enormous pitcher of what turned out to be warmed wine that was full of spices. He sucked down the stewed beef and the onion tart and practically inhaled the bread and butter. He didn’t realize he was so hungry until he took the first bite, and after that, everything on the tray ended up in his mouth in short order. Even the trencher, a flat disk of stale bread, was eaten because it was soaked in the gravy from the stewed beef.Between bites, he drank copious amounts of the spicy wine until there was nothing left.
