Melissande wondered whether her Captain of the Guard knew some detail about her new husband, and resolved to find out.
She was keenly aware that her hired warriors were nigh matched in number by Quinn’s party, and certainly so if the boys who rode as squires with Quinn and his comrades were counted as warriors themselves.She did not doubt that they were each and every one adept with a blade.
She could not help her sense that Annossy had been besieged and over-run by her new husband and his fellows.
But the villeins seemed to welcome the arrival of a lord to administer the holding, even without knowing much of Quinn.Once again, Melissande regretted her gender.He was a stranger, a man whose history and skills were unknown to them, but because he was a man, they greeted him with enthusiasm.The truth of it was sufficient to make her seethe, but she smiled, not wanting to hint that she was not the ally of Annossy’s new lord.
They came and knelt before Quinn, kissed his hand and pledged their fealty.The women smiled at him.The men watched him with admiration.The village boys followed him.The sentries and men-at-arms expressed pleasure to have a knight and crusader of his experience leading them and Melissande heard their relief at his arrival.She wondered at that, as well.He reviewed the guard on the walls and jested with the men and she saw how they stood taller after his words.At the evening meal, the servants in the hall saw that every course was served to him first.That was how it should be, but still Melissande found it irksome.She felt as if she had ceased to exist.All the labor she had done in this hall was as naught.All the sacrifices she had made for Annossy were forgotten, as was her lineage.
She had not done that badly, had she?
Their ready loyalty to a knight and stranger along with her uncertainty of how Quinn would use his advantage combined to leave Melissande concerned.She had not shared the detail of his paternity because she wanted Louis and George to accept him.In hindsight, she wondered if her whim had been foolish.It had seemed churlish to taint his arrival at Annossy with that truth, since he seemed to be different from his father, but now it would be more churlish to blurt out the truth.
Indeed, Quinn was polite beyond every expectation.He was the one who brought her into every conversation.He was the one who consulted with her about Annossy’s traditions.He was the one who ensured she was not forgotten, which left her feeling both grateful and unsettled.She did not wish to owe him more than marriage dictated she did.Each time she glanced his way, he granted her the engaging, crooked smile that made her heart lurch.
She feared that this was but a game to him and she was naught but a pawn.
A pawn who had to conceive his son with all haste.
Perhaps that explained Quinn’s charm.He knew what had to be done, and he but waited for her to make the invitation.Perhaps he meant to soften the blow to her pride.Melissande no longer knew what to think.
It was after the evening meal that Gaultier came to her.He bowed low and Quinn watched him, his eyes narrowed slightly.Indeed, there was a crackle of animosity between the pair.It was only in noting Gaultier’s obvious displeasure that Melissande wondered at his own objectives at Annossy.It was true that Gaultier was tall and straight, a fine figure of a man and a knight often watched by the maidens of Annossy.His hair was so dark as to be almost black and his eyes were a striking hue of green.She knew he was a younger son with no hope of inheritance himself and she had been glad when Tulley had sent a man of such abilities to her gates the year before.Gaultier flicked a glance at Quinn that was markedly hostile and Melissande wondered again if there was a root to their seemingly immediate dislike.
“My lady, I would confer with you,” Gaultier said.
“Surely whatever you would confide in my wife can be told before me, as well,” Quinn said, a thread of steel in his voice.He reached out and took Melissande’s hand, and Gaultier watched the gesture, his expression impassive.His eyes darkened, though.
“Before her departure, my lady granted me an assignment,” Gaultier said, keeping his tone formal.“Since it was the lady’s task, I would tell her of the result.”
“And what task was that?”Quinn asked Melissande.Truly, the Captain of the Guard had an insulting manner, and she believed that Quinn was striving to be fair.Gaultier should not have tried to urge her away from Quinn’s side to confer, after Quinn had bidden him to speak.
She was wed.She was chattel.
“There was a raid at the mill,” Melissande told Quinn.“We heard of it in the morning and I intended to ride there to confer with the miller as to the damage, but Tulley’s messenger arrived before I could do so.He insisted that I must ride with haste to Tulley, so Gaultier went to the mill, at my dictate.”
“A raid?”Quinn asked and she saw Bayard glance over.The other knight’s attention was avid and his charm dismissed.“By these same villains who harry Annossy’s borders?”
“I believe so,” Melissande said.
“And what did you discover?”Quinn asked Gaultier.
“I would speak with the lady,” Gaultier said, his tone stubborn.“She granted me the task and the tidings are due to her.”
The two men glared at each other, but Melissande spoke with quiet resolve.She knew her duty, even if she disliked the truth of it.“Gaultier, you have pledged your fealty to Quinn de Sayerne, Lord d’Annossy, and this report is thus owed to him.”It was her responsibility to ensure that her lord husband was not insulted and she hoped she managed the feat well.She had never been much of a diplomat.
Quinn’s features might have been set to stone, and she feared she had not been sufficiently fulsome.
“Sayerne?”Gaultier echoed and Melissande realized what she had said.“You hail from Sayerne?”he asked Quinn, his opinion of that more than clear.His voice rose slightly and the name of Quinn’s home estate began to be repeated in the hall.The villeins and servants stared at their new lord in surprise.
“My father was Jerome de Sayerne, it is true,” Quinn said, not flinching from the truth.He stood to address them all, his voice ringing over the company.“He and I parted ways twenty years ago, for we argued, and Lord de Tulley took me under his protection.I was only a boy, but Tulley sponsored me that I might train for my spurs.He found me employ to ensure that I gained experience at war, then suggested I take the cross when the pope called for the crusade.He sent word to me a year ago in Palestine, summoning me home, for my father had died.I had thought to rebuild Sayerne, but Lord de Tulley, in his generosity, granted me a bride instead.”Quinn took Melissande’s hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing the back of it as he smiled down at her.His smile was tight and she knew he was not pleased by the timing of her revelation, though she had not intended either to hide his lineage or suddenly reveal it.
“And Annossy,” Gaultier said, his tone silky.
“And Annossy,” Quinn agreed, their gazes locking again.
“What splendid good fortune for you,” Gaultier continued, and it was clear he thought otherwise.
Quinn took his seat beside Melissande again, her hand securely captive in the breadth of his own.“And what did you discover while the lady was at Tulley?”
