“Aye, here I am and here I stay.”Alienor was certain she had not the wherewithal to face the household again this day.
“Would you not sup this evening, my lady?”Giselle asked, a hint of apology in her voice.
Alienor merely shook her head and returned to her work.Truly, joining the company below was the last thing she wished to do.Besides the greeting she was likely to receive, her stomach had been unsettled all day and she had no desire to eat at all, lest it be troubled further.When Giselle did not leave, she glanced up to meet the girl’s troubled gaze.
“I would request only a lamp when you have the chance.”She made the last stitch of gold into the crown and surveying her work.It needed rubies around the circlet, Alienor decided, digging in the basket of floss for a length of crimson silk.Rubies were a jewel of kings, after all.Was it not said that unicorns had a red carbuncle of great healing power embedded at the root of their horn?
“The board fairly groans with fine dishes to tease the palate,” Giselle said.
Alienor smiled at her.She was pleased when the girl smiled back and advanced into the solar.“Not this night, Giselle.I fear I have no taste for food.”She was so occupied with the shape and placement of the rubies she would stitch that she barely noted Giselle beside her.
“Oh, my lady, ’tis the loveliest banner ever I saw.”
“’Tis not done as yet,” she said, sensing the girl wanted to return to the festivities downstairs.“Please fetch me a lamp, lest crusading season be upon us and my lord be without a banner.Then I shall expect you to eat my share at the board this night.”
“Aye, my lady.”Giselle darted to the door, bobbing a curtsy before she glanced back.“My lord does not crusade, my lady,” she added softly.
Alienor looked up with surprise.What manner of knight had she wed?
“All knights crusade in these parts,” she said.Or they rode to war as mercenaries.
“Not my lord Dagobert,” Giselle said with conviction and admiration.
“Then the keep shall have a new banner,” Alienor said, still confused.
The girl seemed satisfied with that prospect but she smiled and curtseyed again, then disappeared, leaving Alienor alone again.
Did not crusade.Alienor decided upon oval rubies, like the cabochon stones she had glimpsed once embedded in a chalice at the monastery in Perpignan.A knight who did not partake of bloodshed readily and at every opportunity was a rare man indeed.She was unable to suppress a swell of pride that this rare man, a man of peace and prosperity, was hers.
Hers if she could but win him back.Alienor frowned and promptly stabbed the needle into her index finger beneath the cloth.
Dagobert carriedthe lamp carefully down the corridor to his mother’s solar.The silence in that chamber made him doubt Giselle’s word that Alienor was there.The shadows were falling long in the room and he hesitated in the doorway.
Then he caught sight of his wife seated on the window ledge, turning toward the fading light that she might have some illumination for her work.
She was a vision.
The red samite spilled over her olive green linen kirtle and the golden light from the sinking sun made her warm coloring even more exotic.The shadows made her lashes appear more luxuriant, and her lips more richly red.He stepped into the room and she started at his movement, her tawny eyes wide with surprise as she stared at him.She did not seem to breathe, but watched him like a doe about to fly.
“’Twas said you had need of a lamp,” he offered, the words sounding like an excuse for her company even to his own ears.
“Aye,” Alienor agreed simply, and stood, putting her work aside that she might come to him for the vessel filled with oil and wick.“I thank you for your trouble,” she said with soft formality.He noticed that she ensured their hands did not touch when she took the lamp.Nor did her gaze rise to his, and so great was her discomfort that he wondered whether he had misjudged her.
“Your presence in the hall has been missed this day,” he commented when he knew he should have left.
She cast a surprised glance over her shoulder.“I should think not.”Her conviction was as clear as her discontent.
It did not seem the manner of a traitor and Dagobert was intrigued.
Aye, it seemed the manner of a woman who had been treated unjustly.
Alienor placed the lamp down carefully on a chest and sat upon the ledge to take up her work again.This time, she leaned toward the lamp’s light.
“Why would you say such?”He braved the question, then almost took a step back at the hostile glare she slanted his way.
“I should think it clear that all know I have insulted my lord.”She bit out the words with such annoyance that Dagobert felt new optimism.
“Indeed?”
