Evangeline turned to consider him. “You were there when he claimed Mama’s heart.”
“Claimed her heart?” Her companion’s brows rose. “Is that what they tell you of it?” He shook his head, obviously amused. “Your father was a landless renegade, bent upon securing his claim to Inverfyre at any price when I joined forces with him. I was one of several who followed him. Aye, those were the days! We fought all the time, battling the MacLarens for your father’s birthright. Once he seized the holding and rebuilt the keep, he decided he had need of a son, and thus a bride.”
Evangeline listened intently for this was a wilder version of the tale she knew.
Ahearn nodded. “He heard tell of a maiden at Abernye and something of the rumor fired his blood. Perhaps it was the detail that she was a skilled archer that intrigued him, for a bride who could stand by his side in battle on such a contested holding would be no small asset. We rode north at his whim, eight of us racing through the night, uninvited, to her father’s keep at Abernye. The Hawk won an invitation through the gates by some smooth tale that left all of us marveling. And then we saw her, the overlooked daughter of the house.”
It was hard to imagine her mother as a maiden, let alone as a woman undesired or overlooked. Aileen had a commanding presence and a surety in her manner that provoked all to heed her words. Evangeline was intrigued.
“She was a plain lass, seemingly quiet, but her cleverness could not be mistaken. Aye, ’twas in her eyes that one found evidence that she was not witless, though the tale was that her mother had been mad. Another man might have ignored the laird’s daughter, in favor of his young and flirtatious new wife. By the telling of it, many had. But the Hawk’s gaze settled upon the lady and his choice was immediately made.”
Evangeline smiled in her delight. There was naught like a tale of love at first sight to thrill her! “And she knew he was the warrior for her at once, as well,” she said. “’Twas love at a glance.”
Her words prompted Ahearn’s unexpected laughter. “Your mother was too clever to lose her heart like that. She was wary of the Hawk and rightly so, for he was not so acceptable a guest in those days in those days.” Ahearn sighed. “And there was a restlessness about him, one that had not been sated by the claiming of Inverfyre. He was like a caged beast within the walls of Abernye, and doubtless she thought him unpredictable as a result. She was not wrong.”
“What happened?”
“Your mother was seized in the night, bound and forcibly wed to the Hawk in her father’s own chapel. We held a knife to the priest to gain his aid.” Evangeline gasped but Ahearn nodded. “Then she was cast across the Hawk’s saddle and carried away from her father’s abode, abducted by a stranger who had claimed her for his own. We fled through the night, carrying her into darkness against her will.”
“She must have despised him!”
“She did, for a while.” Ahearn smiled. “But the Hawk has a way about him, and your mother, ah your mother saw the secrets in his heart.”
“She is perceptive.”
“She was both fierce and vulnerable, a woman who prompted his tenderness and one who compelled him to face dark truths. She was not afraid to challenge him and that made him heed her words, eventually.” Ahearn nodded again. “Meanwhile, he cherished her as no one in her life had ever done. It was not long before they both realized what we had seen more quickly, that they were two halves of a whole and that they neither could ever be content with another.” The older man wagged a finger. “His heart had seen true.”
“But he had chosen for her,” Evangeline felt compelled to note. “I could never bear for a man to make my choices for me.”
“Even if he was proven right?”
“Even so!” she agreed and they laughed together as they arrived at the gates of Dunhaven.
And so it was that Evangeline’s betrothed, Rufus Percival, first saw his intended when she was laughing in the company of another man. Little did Evangeline guess that even though she had rebraided her hair and Anna had cleaned the hem of her kirtle as best as might be done, even though she looked radiant and lovely, as well as fully in command of the palfrey she rode, that merriment cast a shadow of doubt into the heart of Rufus Percival, a man who never ceded to another man over any trifle.
He certainly would not make an exception for the attention of his intended bride.
* * *
“There arethose who succeed because of their skill in the making of plans, and others who triumph due to their ability to make prompt decisions,” Otto said when the party had returned to their temporary lair and the horses were being brushed down.
Ramsay bit back a smile as he exchanged a glance with Talbot.
Aye, their thoughts were as one. Another lecture. How the older man did love to pontificate.
But Otto was wise, as well, and merited a listen.
Talbot returned to brushing down his steed, while Ramsay turned his attention to the stallion stolen from Evangeline, unable to keep himself from admiring the creature. Foudre was contentedly eating while he awaited tending, but Ramsay thought to put the greater challenge behind himself first. The boys brushed the other steeds and prepared the meal. The stables they had established on the ground floor of the ruined tower were warm and busy, filled with the fragrant promise of a hot stew mingled with the familiar scent of the horses.
And this stallion. Ramsay could not cease to wonder at the magnificent creature. Black as night, sleek and powerful, the destrier was both large and beautiful, as vigorous as a good horse could be. What a prize! What a triumph in breeding!
The majestic stallion also was opinionated. His nostrils flared when Ramsay drew close to him and already they all recognized that he was inclined to bite. His nips were not gentle either—nay, this beast bit sufficiently hard to leave an impression. He might have understood that Ramsay’s possession of him was illicit, though horses, in the knight’s experience, were always content to be with those who treated them well. This one gave Ramsay no such chance.
That was the other reason Ramsay tended the creature. He did not wish to risk the welfare of any of the boys. It was, after all, his fault that the destrier was in their custody. He had tethered its reins to the wall, giving the beast less range, but he had already dodged kicking hooves twice.
Talbot, of course, was mightily amused.
“I am brushing you,” Ramsay informed the steed. “Which is suitable care for a horse that has run in the elements. I have stabled you and the straw is both abundant and clean. I have provided clean water for you and horsebread made only yesterday. You are not abused or otherwise in discomfort.”
