“Well,” he said as he turned for his chamber. “If the man wants to borrow a pair of horses to make it home, I will happily loan them to him. McCloud d’Avignon saved my life more than once in France so he can have whatever he wants. You should be grateful to him, too.”
“Valor, I….”
He cut her off. “Please, Mother. For my sake. Just… be kind.”
Margaretha didn’t reply as she watched him walk into his chamber, leaving the door open as he began to strip down of his weapons and mail. He was unbuckling and unstrapping things, tossing them onto his bed or even onto the floor. When he began pulling off his tunic, she turned away and headed back down the stairs, heading to the kitchens to ensure the evening meal would be on time.
As she made her way out of the keep, crossing the bailey beneath the clear, dusky sky, her thoughts were lingering on the man her son had called his friend. A slovenly man who smelled of compost. Old, grizzled, she didn’t like the look of him one bit. How her beautiful boy could befriend such a decayed example of a man was beyond her comprehension.
But Val was magnanimous that way; he tended to make friends easily, a likable man that was greatly esteemed by all. In truth, she envied that quality about him. He was a good judge of character and she was proud of that. But in this case, she simply thought he had lost his mind. She’d have to keep an eye on Val’s friend to ensure the man didn’t make off with anything of value when he left Selborne. Even if Val was unconcerned with the man’s obvious poverty, Margaretha was not so blind.
She fully intended the man and his daughter would be gone at sunrise.
*
Vesper was fairlycertain she had died and gone to heaven.
The tiny chamber that the gruff older woman had put her in had a small bed, but very soft, a basin for washing, and a hearth that a servant had stoked when she’d arrived. Vesper had asked the same servant for hot water to wash with but the woman evidently thought she’d meant a bath, so one had been brought up to her, complete with soaps and towels.
It was a type of bath where it was basically a copper pot with tall sides and a stool in the middle of it, meant to sit on and bathe sitting up. Before Vesper could protest the trouble of an actual bath, servants filled the copper pot with hot water, several inches of it, and Vesper was able to have a hot bath, something she’d not had in weeks. The lure of that luxury was stronger than her protests.
Aye, this was heaven.
So, she sat on the stool and poured the hot water over her body, lathering up the soap that smelled of lavender and scrubbing every inch of skin. She even washed her hair with it. Living at Eynsford Castle for the past eight years, she’d grown up with access to a fair amount of luxuries– baths,soaps, fine wines and sweets, things that most people considered extravagances. Lady Eynsford had expensive taste and her husband indulged her. And being that Vesper had been one of the woman’s wards, she, too, was the recipient of some fine things on occasion.
In fact, she’d loved her life at Eynsford Castle. She didn’t want to leave it. When her father had shown up two weeks ago, purely by surprise, she hadn’t been all that glad to see him. After her mother had died, Vesper had been sent to Eynsford while her father had gone to France, burying his grief fighting Henry’s wars. Vesper had been glad of it, though. She was so glad that for six straight months after coming to Eynsford, she wept with joy every night while saying her evening prayers.
Giving thanks she no longer had to face unspeakable shame and pain at her home of Durley.
It was shame that she had forced from her mind, unwilling to remember it or speak of it, well forgotten until her father had shown up again, acting as if he wanted to renew his relationship with her. Vesper wanted nothing to do with him but Lady Eynsford had pleaded with her to try. He was her father, after all, and people do change. They grow older and realize their regrets in life. Perhaps McCloud had realized his, as well.
Aye, she’d listened to Lady Eynsford because she’d had little choice. But her heart wasn’t in it because every time she saw her father, she saw a man who had refused to protect her from a simpleton brother who liked to crawl into her bed at night.
God, she couldn’t even think about that.
But here she was, heading back to Durley with her father, back to the place where those horrific memories were lodged. But this time, it was different– her simpleton brother had graduated from trying to fondle his sister to murdering innocent people.
When her father had gotten drunk one night and confessed Mat’s wicked activities, Vesper knew she had to do something. She wasn’t exactly sure what she could do, but something had to be done. She had to stop her foolish brother from destroying himself and taking the entire family with him, for no man would want to marry a woman whose brother was a known murderer.
Therefore, it wasn’t Mat’s life she was saving but her own.
She could admit that to herself. She was selfish and she knew it, but she had her whole life to live and dreams to fulfill, and she wouldn’t let Mat ruin her prospects. There wasn’t an altruistic bone in her body when it came to her father and brother.
Sweet Jesù, what has my family become?
So, she took comfort in something as simple as a warm bath, trying not to think of what lay ahead for her. After washing every scrap of skin and hair, she dried off before the warm fire and dressed in a dark green surcoat that she’d made herself with fabric supplied by Lady Eynsford. Her damp hair went into a braid, trailing down her back. Sitting by the hearth, she was warm, clean, and content for the first time in days. Somehow, it made facing her coming tribulations more bearable.
A knock on the door roused her from her thoughts. The chamber was so small that the door was literally right next to her. Rising from her stool, she cautiously opened the panel to find a handsome man standing there. Their eyes met and he smiled timidly.
“My lady,” he greeted. “I have come to escort you to sup. Are you ready?”
Although Vesper really didn’t recognize the man, she recognized the voice as that of her father’s friend, the very man who had invited them to feast. She opened the door wider, rather surprised by the vision in front of her. The man she’d seen back at Whitehill had been a big man with piercing green eyes and a bright smile of straight white teeth, but she’d been unableto see much more than that because he’d had a helm on that had obscured much of his face. Truthfully, she hadn’t paid any attention. But the man standing in front of her…
Now, she wished she’d paid more attention.
As she’d noticed at the first meeting, Val de Nerra was a very big man, broad-shouldered, but now that he wasn’t wearing his mail protection, she could see that he had a head of curly, dark hair and a square jaw. His skin was darker, too, as if he spent a lot of his time out in the sun, which made his bright eyes even brighter.
And that smile… Vesper wasn’t one to find attraction with men. In fact, they rather frightened her. But Val was the most attractive man she’d ever seen and that smile was a large part of it. Something about those big teeth made her heart flutter strangely.
