Jordan watched for a few moments, out of sight, knowing she should break up whatever conversation was going on and escort Annaleigh back to her bedchamber, but she couldn’t seem to manage it. The two of them were sitting a proper distance apart, beneath the glow of the torches, but whatever War was saying had Annaleigh in gales of laughter. When Jordan realized that, she couldn’t keep the smile off her face, either.
Perhaps her matchmaking was going to pay off, after all.
Turning for the keep, she left Annaleigh and War to their conversation.
CHAPTER NINE
It was earlymorning over the softly rolling hills of the Scots border. The land, at this time of year, was green for the most part, with fields of grain waving golden in the wind. William employed a good many farmers on his lands, men he fairly treated, as they worked the land and gave him a cut of the profits. That went for the agriculture as well as the sheep herders, and there were many this far north. He’d lost track of the herds he had, though Kieran knew. The man wasn’t only his second in command, but he kept control of all of William’s properties. Because of that, William cut Kieran in for some of those profits, as well, making Kieran a very wealthy man.
On this morning, William had been up before dawn because he’d had a shipment of yew saplings. William had about two hundred archers and the yew wood was for new bows that his men had asked for. The older bows were becoming brittle and in order to keep his archers well-armed, William had ordered the wood. He and Kieran were at the gates in the morning as the wagons of wood began rolling in, brought specifically from a man down in Yorkshire who grew groves of such saplings.
When the last wagon rolled through the gates, William ordered the portcullis lowered as Kieran checked in the last of the wagon loads. Anthony helped him, given that he had a head for numbers, while Talus remained on the walls, vigilant. Troy had returned to Wark before dawn, a journey that took less than an hour, leaving William to continue hosting Herringthorpe.
In fact, Herringthorpe had been heavy on William’s mind.
He was probably just being foolish, but something War said the day before had stuck with him no matter how hard he tried to shake him. He kept telling himself that he was being ridiculous, but that didn’t seem to settle him down.
Something to do with War’s mother.
Jane de Percy.
There was more than just an acquaintance there. Many years ago, before William had met his wife, he’d known, and been fond of, Jane de Percy.
When War had spoken her name, it had shocked him.
But the shock was wearing off.
Jane had been a lovely woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and a big smile. She’d been the youngest daughter of one of the great de Percy families. In this case, from the allied castle of Sedgefield in North Yorkshire. Jane’s father and John de Longley, the Earl of Teviot and William’s liege at the time, had been undergoing some negotiations, so Geoffrey de Percy had brought his family with him for a nice, long visit.
And William had come to know sweet Jane.
He had to admit that he was indecisive as to whether Jane was marriage material and he further had to admit that Jane was far fonder of him than he was of her. She was fun and vivacious and he liked that, but he never looked at her as someone he could love deeply. It wasn’t that she was terribly lacking in any way other than the fact that she was very much a little girl whohad never grown up. It was endearing for a while until it became annoying.
But that hadn’t stopped him when the woman seduced him.
He knew Jane was madly in love with him. She’d told him enough. She hung on his every word, chased away any other woman who seemed to be interested in him, and generally acted possessively of him for the time she was at Northwood Castle, seat of de Longley. He was amused by her at first and didn’t give her infatuation much consideration, mostly because she was immature and he figured that she’d forget about him soon enough. But one night, she’d found him in the stables tending a lame horse.
That was where the intimate involvement had started.
The hour had been late. At the time, William didn’t know how she knew he’d be there, alone, but he found out later that she’d paid a servant to report to her on his movements. As he’d taken care of the horse, she appeared in the dim stables, dressed in a heavy cloak. Their conversation had been light, as it usually was, and Jane was always quick to smile or compliment him. But this time, it was different. She wanted to talk in private, she said, someplace where they could not be interrupted. He agreed, though he didn’t know why, and they’d gone to the rear of the stall and sat in the straw. No sooner had he sat down when Jane dropped to her knees and tossed off the cloak.
She wasn’t wearing a thing underneath.
Truthfully, William wasn’t repulsed by her. She had a sweetly rounded little body with big breasts and, being human, he’d succumbed to her seduction. He let her push him back on the straw and unfasten his breeches. He let her put her mouth on his manhood, which sprung to life when she touched him. He let her straddle him, rubbing her wet heat upon him and when he could stand no more, he lay her back on the straw and took her innocence as she wept for joy beneath him.
That went on for the next two weeks.
Jane was the aggressor in all instances. She would catch him in the stables or send him a note asking him to meet her in the alcoves of Northwood’s great hall. He could have refused her but he didn’t. He would meet her and she would put her mouth all over him before he positioned her against a wall or lay her on a floor and drove his throbbing member into her wet and willing body. For Jane, it was all about the love she felt for him but for William, it was all about her responsive body and his natural male urges and nothing more.
She loved him and he let her.
Perhaps it made him a cad, perhaps not. Jane got what she wanted and he took his pleasure with her. But it all came to a halt one evening when William happened to be in the guest corridor of Northwood’s vast keep. He heard Jane and her father arguing, how Jane wanted to marry William but her father wouldn’t hear of it. No de Percy was going to marry a mere knight, even if he was a rising star among the knights on the Scottish border. Even when William intervened and offered for her hand because it was the right thing to do given that he’d already marked the woman, Geoffrey stood firm.
No marriage to a de Wolfe.
The next morning, Geoffrey, his wife and daughters, and the two hundred soldiers he brought with him abruptly left for Yorkshire, leaving de Longley puzzled until William told him what had happened. It made more sense then and de Longley wasn’t particularly peeved at William for driving out de Percy, but he had hoped for an alliance.
What he ended up getting was polite coldness whenever he sent missives.
