Isabel was so angry that she was twitching. “What about whatIwant?” she said. “I am the heiress. This ismycastle.”
“Then what do you want, my lady?”
“I want you out!”
“Because you feel that we have insulted le Kerque?”
“Because you disrupt everything,” Isabel said. “Need I mention your display to Lady Mira earlier today?”
That brought Douglas some pause. He had been wondering when he would hear about that little action, and here it was. He cleared his throat softly.
“It was not what you think, my lady,” he said quietly. “I realize my action was for all to see, but there was a reason behind it.”
Isabel was nearly beside herself. “What on earth could that reason be?”
Douglas lifted a blond eyebrow. “Because your ladies, the ones you take great pains to mentor and teach, have decided I am a target for the most inappropriate attention,” he said. “Two of them have even hid in the privy to watch me while I relieve myself. Is this the sort of behavior you let go unchecked?”
Isabel was shocked. She went from angrily twitching to taken aback very quickly. “Of course not,” she said. “My ladies are the very model of decorum.”
He shook his head. “In my experience, they are not,” he said. “And I am not entirely sure their parents would think so, either, yet you’ve done nothing about it. You’ve let them harass me, spy on me, and God only knows what else that I do not know about. Therefore, I’ve had to take matters into my own hands.”
Isabel was horrified. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Douglas was becoming irritated because she seemed too defensive, as if he was making things up. “It means that I convinced Lady Mira to pretend to be in love with me so that your ladies would back off and leave me alone,” he said. “Lady Mira did not wish to do it, but I forced her into it. I would not have to if you had taught your ladies some discipline in the first place, so do not blame this on me. This is your folly, Lady Isabel. Not mine.”
Isabel was absolutely stunned. Stunned and outraged and offended. He had insulted her, her teaching methods, and the very young women under her tutelage.
But the truth was that he was right.
Isabel had known that her ladies had taken a shine to Douglas. They had admired him and giggled about him. She had heard it. She also knew that their admiration of Douglas had distracted them from their tasks, because she had seen it from time to time and admonished them accordingly. But shedidn’t know about the spying in the privy. That was new to her. Or perhaps she had heard it but refused to believe it, or even let it take up space in her mind, because she knew her ladies were better behaved than that.Axminster’s Angels.The finest families trusted her.
But de Lohr was from a fine family, too. Perhaps the finest in all of England.
And he didn’t have a high opinion of her or her ladies.
I’ve had to take matters into my own hands.
If such a thing got around…
“Then you are telling me that what everyone saw was not a genuine gesture of romance?” she finally said.
Douglas shook his head. “Nay, my lady, it was not.”
“You did it to discourage my ladies?”
“I did it so I could piss in peace.”
That was a blunt way of putting it, shocking to a lady’s ears, but Isabel had heard enough shocking things in this brief conversation. “I see,” she said, noticeably subdued. “Then I apologize, Sir Douglas, for the measures you’ve had to go to in order for a little peace. You must understand, however, that my ladies are not used to strange knights in the castle and—”
“And that is your excuse for their lack of discipline?” he said, cutting her off again. “What happens when they go to a party or another household and see strange knights? Will you use that excuse when they follow the man around and annoy him into being cruel to them? How much understanding will you have when you are the one who is being paid to teach them discipline? It will be your fault, not theirs.”
Isabel was becoming angry again. “As you have pointed out more than once, Sir Douglas,” she said snappishly, “I will accept responsibility for their behavior and take great steps to ensure it does not happen again. But your very presence since you arrived at Axminster has disrupted everything.”
He rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help it. “So now you are back to blaming me again,” he said. “Lady Isabel, I am here because I am ordered to be here. Not because I want to be here. I have other things I could be doing, more important things, but here I am, trying to prevent an aggressive neighbor from taking all of this away from you. Mayhap I should simply leave and take my men with me. Then you can fend for yourself, and when Tatworth’s allies return and take your castle, you can tell everyone how that was my fault, too.”
He hadn’t raised his voice, but his message and words were clear. Isabel, usually so confident, had to admit that she understood his reasoning. And she was blaming him for everything simply because she didn’t feel as if she needed, or wanted, any outside presence at Axminster.
“I would not blame you,” she said. “You seem to think badly of me.”
