Melissande clearly fought her urge to laugh at his grumpy confession.Their gazes met and he found hers twinkling, and he was glad to have amused her in this moment.
“You will have to invite me,” he noted and her laughter faded.
She inclined her head to Quinn, her composure restored.“I would suggest, husband, that we ride to Annossy as soon as might be, before the Lord de Tulley feels compelled to make more demands.”
“Aye, my lady, you speak the truth in that.”Quinn reached for his chausses and boots, well aware that she had not agreed with him.“I will send your maid to assist you.”
She nodded agreement, her lips tight, and he doubted he would see the fire in her eyes anytime soon.
He might hold Annossy’s seal, but he had lost all favor with its lady.
Tulley was a fool.
Melissande could not believeTulley’s choice.
How could her liege lord surrender the seal of Annossy to Quinn, and so readily as this?She as yet knew little of her lord husband—yet he held the greatest prize in Christendom within his grasp, by her accounting.Five years she had administered Annossy, and so flawlessly that Tulley had been fulsome in his praise.
And now he gave the holding away.
Worse, with that surrender, she had become no more than Quinn’s possession.She had no standing, no legal rights beyond his own, no argument to make in her own favor.Oh, Tulley’s choice burned.
Their agreement was moot, as well.She would be compelled to invite Quinn to her bed, for she had to conceive a son to protect even this position of weakness.Melissande felt cornered and filled with a new fear, one she had never hoped to experience.All depended upon her womb—not her wits, not her talents, not her experience.How she hated to have her future dependent upon Fate and whim and her husband’s inclination.
Melissande had Berthe draw her hair back tightly, choosing to look stern and cold.She could not bear for Quinn to touch her and reduce her to a wanton, not on this day.She had need of solitude to accept the change in her stature and fortify herself for the challenge ahead.She donned a thick gown of deep blue wool and a sturdy wimple, blaming the cold for her desire to hide herself away.She descended to the hall and broke her fast in silence.
She could not even look at Quinn in her consternation.
Did her father weep in his grave?She could imagine so.Sayerne had begun to devour Annossy, after all.
They departed immediately after breaking their fast, though Quinn had a short conference with Tulley.Of course, Melissande was not privy to the discussion.She fought her sense of injustice and kept her gaze downcast even as she seethed.
Her mare was saddled and waiting in the bailey, and Quinn lifted her to the saddle.She avoided his gaze, for she knew that if he smiled at her, she might forget herself.A company of Tulley’s men escorted their party down the winding road to the gates of Tulley’s town.At the gates, they were left to their own, and took the road that led east and slightly north.
Tulley’s holding filled the valley between two ranges of mountains.At the lowest point of the valley ran the river Helva, its headwaters far ahead of their party.The peaks of the mountains defined the boundaries of the territory on three sides, the slope on the northern side cultivated in tiers that basked in summer’s sunlight.The southern slope was thick with trees, which were mostly conifers.The distant end was lost in rocky outcroppings and jagged peaks.On this day, the river was glazed with ice in areas, and both trees and fields were covered with snow.From its position at the widest and lowest point of the valley, the keep of Tulley defended the entire valley.
Annossy lay ahead and to the left of the main road that followed the river’s course.It perched on higher land, that vantage point offering a view toward Tulley and to distant Sayerne.Sayerne was beyond Annossy and had once been larger, but in these days, it was Annossy that prospered.Melissande’s family holding’s most valuable crop was wine.Privas was larger, perhaps larger than Annossy and Sayerne together, but it was almost completely forested, being on the south side of the road, opposite Annossy and Sayerne.There were more holdings further up the valley, and indeed, more between Tulley’s keep and Martinach, but this was the part of the valley Melissande knew best.She could see those three keeps if she narrowed her eyes against the winter sunlight, in their various states of repair, though a banner flew only from Annossy’s tower.Indeed, it was the only tower of the three that stood whole, with a roof.From this distance, the banner’s silver and blue hues could not be distinguished but she could see its flicker against the snow of the fields.
Behind them, the road and valley continued to descend toward the junction with the river Darke at Martinach, a town administered by Tulley but plagued with flooding in the springs.The crops were rich there, though.Melissande knew it only as the place to turn south to take the road to the Beauvoir Pass, beyond which lay the Italian states, Rome, and sunshine.She had never journeyed through that pass.Beauvoir, too, was governed by Tulley and she did not doubt that its tolls contributed significantly to Tulley’s treasury.Following the Darke River north led to Geneva and thence to Paris and the lands of the French kings.Perricault lay in that direction, sheltered in the next valley to the north, and she wondered anew if Tulley’s tale of Arnaud was truth.Again, she had not travelled that road.Tulley had been the limit of her journeys.Beyond the mountains to the north and end of the Helva valley was the domain of the Holy Roman Emperor and his courts.Tulley answered to him, but as he had suggested to Melissande, neither king nor emperor looked closely at this corner of Christendom.
The air was already cold, and Melissande knew that as they continued, it would become colder yet.The valley rose toward the headwaters of the Helva and the mountains there were difficult to cross even in summer.The sunlight was fiercely bright on this day, the sky clear and the wind wicked.She was dressed for the weather, though she doubted that the cloaks of Quinn and his companion, Bayard, were thick enough.
Their blood must have thinned in Palestine and for a moment, she felt sympathy for them.She did not even know from whence Bayard had come.
She rode beside her husband in silence.Berthe was at her left and Bayard on Berthe’s left, so that the men flanked the two of them.The four squires in service to both knights followed behind.Quinn made several attempts at conversation, but it seemed that his words froze in the air before him.
“You are vexed with me,” he murmured finally and Melissande knew that only she could hear the softly-uttered words.
“I am disappointed in the Lord de Tulley’s choice,” she confessed, keeping her tone even with an effort.“But as a mere woman, my opinion is of no import.”
He slanted her a glance and his eyes glowed gold, as she already knew they did when he was intent upon some matter.“I shall have need of your counsel, wife.”
“Will you, sir?I should think a man would only be granted the seal to a holding when his own skills were such that he could administer it in his own right.”Her voice had risen and she was aware that Bayard was watching her.Berthe’s lips had thinned.
Quinn exhaled, evidently aware of the same.“We shall speak of this in privacy, my lady.”
Melissande did not reply.She could well imagine how he would convince her to be of aid to him.She liked to believe that she would be able to resist his touch, but already knew that battle to be lost.
It was unfair!
