“Can you stitch pictures?”the older woman demanded.
Alienor nodded.“Aye.”She had embroidered hems for the seamstress on many occasions, though she could not imagine why Iolande would ask as much.These heavy garments surely would not be embellished.
Iolande nodded curtly.“My son needs a new banner and ’twould be fitting for you to take the task.”She nodded once, even as Alienor blinked in surprise, then moved across the room to open a trunk.
Alienor trailed in her wake, her eyes widening in surprise when the older woman dropped a length of heavy red samite into her hands.The cloth gleamed with the luster of silk, and Alienor ran one hand across its rich softness in admiration.
“I have saved this cloth but do not trust myself to the task,” Iolande confessed.
Alienor looked up, relief settling in her heart when she met the hope in those blue eyes.She was being granted an honor and she knew it well.
“I shall do my best, my lady,” she vowed.
Iolande smiled.“Aye, I know it.”she said, though there was little opportunity for Alienor to savor that compliment.“His insignia is a crowned unicorn on a red field such as this samite.I will call for his old standard that you might learn the design.”
“I thank you, madame.”Alienor curtsied and held the beautiful fabric to her chest.Indeed, she would make a place for herself in her husband’s home, even if Dagobert did refuse to speak with her at night.
To embroider his standard was the task of a wife and she would do it well.
The sun had passedits zenith when Iolande called for a harpist to entertain the women, and Alienor sensed without turning that Alaric had entered the solar.She glanced up in time to note Iolande’s lips thin in disapproval, undoubtedly because such a man had no place in this chamber.Another of the women smiled secretly to herself, which Alienor could not explain so readily.
Then she turned and met the warmth in the goatherd’s gaze and all else was forgotten.
Had anyone else noted that she spent time with him?Alienor thought of the woman’s smile and feared there was gossip in the hall about her.Was that why Dagobert declined to speak to her?
Her cheeks burning, Alienor bent quickly back over her work to hide her reaction.If only her husband had troubled to speak to her as this man did.
’Twas then she realized that he had answered the summons for a harpist.He carried an instrument and braced it on his knee, clearly familiar with it.Alienor alone seemed surprised that a goatherd should possess such a skill.
The other women’s voices rose as they requested different songs and vied for Alaric’s attention, but Alienor concentrated on the evenness of her stitches.Despite her efforts, she was unable to keep her ears from burning when Alaric finally strummed his harp and began to sing a romantic ballad in his deep voice.
If her husband had possessed the ability to sing thus, she would have been unable to deny him naught.
She supposed she should be grateful for such mercies.
“Sidon has been attacked—Anjouwill not come.”Eustache said by way of greeting when Dagobert met him to climb to the solar and his lady wife.
Dagobert cursed under his breath at the unwelcome tidings.His gaze flew immediately to the knight following his friend: the messenger was a man he knew and whose word he trusted.With a last longing glance up the darkened stairs leading to his solar, he turned his attention to the two men.
“Sidon was lost?”he demanded, and the tired knight shook his head, giving Dagobert’s worst fears a momentary reprieve.
“Nay, but they have taken heavy casualties and are loath to march out so soon.”
Dagobert frowned slightly at the import of this news.“How long ago?”
“Two weeks past,” the knight replied, shuffling his feet for a moment as though unwilling to continue, his gesture drawing the attention of both Dagobert and Eustache.
“Out with it,” Eustache demanded sharply.
The knight flicked an apologetic glance to Dagobert.“’Twas but a rumor,” he confessed uneasily.
“I would hear the tale,” Dagobert insisted.
“’Twas said the attackers headed for Montsalvat.”
Eustache and Dagobert exchanged a glance of surprise at this unanticipated development.
“To parlay?”Eustache asked, but the knight shook his head.
