Letting out a pent-up sigh, she put her hand against her sternum as if to ease her racing heart. All jesting aside, the man had made her feel faint with his sweet kiss and charming ways. She realized she wouldn’t have been disappointed if this farce they were about to perpetrate were real.
But it was only make-believe.
Perhaps that would come to be the biggest disappointment of all.
CHAPTER FIVE
He’d been agreat knight, once.
Eric le Kerque had fought with the armies of Henry III as a younger man. He’d been to France, to Flanders, and a dozen other places during his years as an active fighting man. He loved to travel and loved being part of the greater army because he felt as if he was truly a man of destiny. He was well respected and liked by his men, something that continued to this day as he trained royal troops. But one thing that had changed was how he viewed the world in general, battles included. That fearless knight who was courageous in battle had come to an end in a little skirmish outside of Paris.
The day when Eric had transformed into something different had started out just like any other day. It had been a cold winter, and he awoke that morning to frost on the ground and a faint dusting of snow falling from clouds the color of pewter. They had been preparing to lay siege to a small castle belonging to a French duc who had stolen property from Henry, and the king wanted it back. Eric had suited up that morning and prepared to fight, but as he was approaching the castle on horseback, a volley of arrows cut both him and his horse down. The horse died andEric didn’t, yet the road to recovery was more difficult than he could have possibly imagined.
The arrow had cut into his torso and damaged nerves to his legs. Because the initial arrow strike hadn’t killed him, they had every reason to believe that he was going to recover, but a poison had taken hold a few days after the strike and he’d been sick with that for months on end. The poison had weakened everything about him, and when it was all finished, he had no strength in his arms and his body as a whole was diminished. But he had worked very hard to regain his strength, as much as he was able, and because Henry liked him, he put him in charge of helping train royal troops. His assignment had been Axminster Castle.
That had been about ten years ago, and Eric was good at what he did. He was a good instructor and he had patience, which was important when dealing with raw troops. He taught them to ride, to walk in a column, and military ethics, but when it came to anything that had to do with weaponry, he would leave that to his sergeants.
He didn’t want to be around it.
His fear of deadly objects had made him a somewhat ineffective knight when Tatworth attacked. He was good with tactics and defenses, but when it came to the actual fighting, he remained at the castle and in command while he sent his men out to fight. He didn’t get involved in any of the allies or their meetings, while Isabel did. Because of this, he hadn’t even met Douglas until two days after Tatworth surrendered. Isabel had told him about the allies stationing troops at Axminster, something he didn’t agree with, so he’d sent word to Douglas thathewas in command once again and allied help was no longer required. That had brought Curtis to the castle to explain, yet again, that they were going to station de Lohr troops there for the foreseeable future and that Douglas would be in command while Eric would continue with his duties.
Eric had no choice but to accept it.
That had been six weeks ago.
This afternoon, as his men were being trained by others, Eric made his way to the keep and slipped in through a door used by the servants. He made his way up to the top floor, up the narrow servant stairs, until he reached a chamber that faced the northwest. The top floor of Axminster’s keep had six chambers, interconnected, but that meant doors could be locked from the staircases and no one could enter the maze of chambers. That was why Eric and Isabel had been meeting there for the past few years, pretending that lonely chamber overlooking the northwest was theirs and theirs alone.
Pretending it belonged only to them.
Here, he had waited for his love to come.
“My apologies for my lateness,” Isabel said as she came through the door. She gestured toward the servant staircase. “Is that one locked?”
Eric had been sitting at the window, gazing at the activity below. “Aye,” he said. “Lock the chamber door behind you, my dearest.”
Isabel did. With a sigh of relief, she pulled off her wimple, letting he red hair tumble down her back. She set the wimple aside, scratching at her scalp as she made her way over to Eric. He smiled at her, opening an arm, and she leaned into him as she peered from the window.
“Do you see any of my ladies down there?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not recently,” he said. “But I did hear about Douglas and Lady Mira.”
Isabel put her fingers to her forehead as if to ward off a headache. “Oh,” she said. “That.”
“Aye,that. What are you going to do about it?”
Isabel shrugged. “What can I do?” she said. “Douglas is not under my command, so I cannot discipline him, but I told Mirashe is not to allow that type of display ever again. Evidently, he has asked for her hand.”
“Is that so?”
“I have been told.”
Eric moved over so she could sit beside him on the stone window bench. “He really should have known better,” he muttered. “He is a de Lohr. He knows about propriety. What he did was impetuous. And vulgar.”
Isabel looked at him. “Do you think so?”
Eric shrugged. “Truthfully, I do not,” he said. “All things considered, I suppose it was rather romantic, but not for all to see. He risks her reputation doing that.”
Isabel rolled her eyes. “Reputation,” she scoffed. “Pah. What he risks is nine other ladies weeping their hearts and out and becoming hysterical because he has declared for Mira. Primmy actually fainted.”
