“I am surprised you gave such weight to her view,” Talbot continued. “You should simply have snatched her and carried her off.”
“I would never so dishonor a lady.”
Particularly not Evangeline of Inverfyre.
“It should not be necessary.” Talbot rolled his eyes. “Have I taught you so little of the persuasive arts?”
Ramsay shook his head and spoke with heat. “I do not wish to persuade a lady to become my wife, to cajole her or convince her. I wish her to desire that end as much as I do. Surely there can be no other basis for happiness in marriage.”
“He speaks a truth there,” Otto said. “If she declined you, then the loss is hers alone.”
“I thank you, Otto,” Ramsay said and the older man bowed his head.
“Then the matter is resolved and we can return to Normandy,” Talbot said with a confidence Ramsay did not share.
“Nay,” he said, surprised by his own vehemence.
There was the ring. Nay, he could not ride away as yet.
“Nay? But truly, Ramsay, one woman is much like another once she becomes a wife. Choose a different one as your objective, for this one has declined you.”
“I would be certain of her welfare.”
“How?” the other knight demanded. “Will you steal into her bedchamber to watch upon their nuptial night?”
“Of course not!”
“Will you disguise yourself and take a place in their household, the better to spy upon the lady?”
“Nay!”
“Then what is your scheme, Ramsay? To my thinking, the matter is out of your hands.”
As much as Ramsay disliked it, there was truth in Talbot’s words. “She might have need of a champion.”
“One whom her husband, Rufus Percival, is glad to welcome into his abode.” Talbot shook his head at the low prospect of that. “Nay, my friend, the sole course remaining is to abandon your ambitions. If we ride south on the morrow, we might reach Tours within a fortnight. Forget this lady and win another.”
“There can be no other.” Ramsay recognized the truth in his own words as soon as they were uttered aloud. His bride must be Evangeline. He knew it in his very soul.
À mon seul désir.’Twas no accident he had chosen a ring with that inscription.
Talbot waved a hand. “There are hundreds of others.Thousandsof others. If you intend to linger about these chilly and savage lands, sleeping in abandoned keeps lacking so much as a roof in the hope that your lady, after wedding another, decides she has need of you, you may do as much alone.”
“Then I will bid you farewell now,” Ramsay said, knowing his friend would not depart alone, despite his threats. “For I will linger.”
Talbot snorted. “You may end up wed after all, though I would be inclined to believe you had a fortuitous escape this day.”
“Do you know aught of marriage at all?” Otto asked and Talbot snorted.
“More than most,” he said with a laugh. “Given my father’s enthusiasm for the office.”
“Aye, four step-mothers in a dozen years might taint a man’s view,” Otto ceded.
“Let knights like Ramsay shackle themselves to one woman alone. I shall savor the delights of many instead.”
“When your legacy comes to your hand, you will have need of an heir,” Otto advised.
“I think to spend it all instead, then cast myself upon the mercy of Ramsay.”
