Andressa’s hands flew to her mouth as tears popped from her eyes. She was so grateful that she could hardly express herself.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “It all seems like a dream… I cannot believe you should help me so.”
Maxton’s expression was gentle, something completely out of character for him. But with her… it was easy. “You are unaccustomed to someone being kind to you,” he said. Then, he winked at her. “You had better get used to it.”
Before she could reply, several servants appeared at the solar door bearing food and drink. There was also a servant bearing parchment and quill, and with the situation more or less settled, the knights began to disburse as the food was brought into the chamber and placed upon a table near the hearth. The knights broke into small groups, quiet conversation among them, as Maxton pulled Andressa to her feet and, collecting her chair, took it over to the table so she could sit.
Now, it was just Maxton and Andressa at the table as the others wandered away. The servants had left behind boiled beef, boiled carrots and peas, a soft pottage of cheese and honey, bread, butter, and a steaming pitcher of hot milk with honey and cinnamon in it. Andressa picked up a spoon, her eyes big on everything in front of her, before she delved into the cheese pottage. Once she tasted it, she couldn’t shovel it into her mouth fast enough.
“What do you plan to do once you are back at Chalford Hill?” Maxton asked, reaching over to pull the parchment and quill left on the table in his direction. “It has been four years since you have been there. Surely you have great plans.”
Andressa’s mouth was full of more soft cheese. “I do not know,” she said honestly. “I never thought I would return, so I do not know what I will do.”
“Well,” he said casually as he began to sketch out Andressa’s map in the ashes from memory. “The first thing to do is find someone to help you manage it.”
“Why?”
“Because you are to deliver a child soon. The infant will take much of your time. What will you do with your empire?”
She hadn’t thought of that and a hand moved to her belly, timidly touching it. She spent so much time avoiding touching it, avoiding acknowledging it, that it seemed strange to feel her belly, firm and rounded.
“Everyone will wonder about the father of the child,” she said, swallowing the bite in her mouth. “How can they know the truth? I am sure they all know I have been at St. Blitha for the past four years. They will know that I have not married.”
“Why not?” he asked, concentrating on drawing the chapel exactly the way she had. “Do you really think anyone at Chalford Hill has kept watch on you?”
Andressa thought about that as she pushed the cheese away and moved to the beef. “Probably not,” she conceded. “In truth, I do not know anyone there any longer. I was gone for eight years and when my parents died… I am sure my aunt has brought in her own servants and maids. I am sure I do not know anyone there any longer.”
“Then they would not know that you left St. Blitha, say, a year ago and married,” he said, scratching out the old abbey walls. “They would not know that it was your husband laying siege to Chalford Hill to regain it for you.”
She stopped chewing. “Husband? But I have no husband.”
He looked up from the parchment. “You have me.”
“You are not my husband.”
“I would like to be.”
Andressa almost choked with what was left in her mouth. She had to quickly grab at the cup of hot milk Maxton pushed inher direction and slurp it to push the beef down. When she was finished coughing and sputtering, she looked at him with utter shock.
“Maxton,” she hissed. “Are you mad? Why should you want to marry me?”
He set the quill down, a smile tugging at his mouth. “Because you see me in a way no one else does,” he said quietly. “You have called me kind and generous from the start of our association. You see me through the eyes of someone who does not know of my past, or of the things I’ve done. No one has ever looked at me that way before, Andressa. I never thought to marry, but if I did take a wife, I would want her to look at me the way you do. You only see the good in me and that makes me want to be the best man I can possibly be. If you have such faith in me, then mayhap I should have faith in myself.”
It was, perhaps, the sweetest thing Andressa had ever heard. Not only that, it solved her question of whether or not she was good enough for Maxton, something she’d been wrestling with from nearly the start of their association. But she was still overwhelmed with it all; everything was happening so quickly.
“You are the kindest and most generous man I have ever met,” she murmured. “Oh, Maxton… you cannot know how happy your words make me but, clearly, you are a blind man. Can you not see what I am? I surrendered myself to a man who was not my husband and now I am paying the price. I have been a laundress at an abbey for four years, working my hands until they bleed, eating crusts and berries and anything else I can steal in order to survive. I live like an animal. Are you sure that is the kind of wife you want?”
His smile broke through and he reached out, collecting her cold, slender hand. “If you are willing to see the best in me, then I am willing to see the best in you,” he said. “I told you that you are not the only sinner between us and, as for the rest, you didwhat you had to do to survive. That tells me that you are stronger than you know. I would be proud to have such a woman by my side.”
“Even though you have only just met me?”
“I do not need days or months or even years to tell me what my heart already knows.”
Andressa stared at him a moment longer before tears of joy pooled in her eyes. “And you are certain of this?”
“More certain than I have ever been.”
She blinked and the tears spilled down her cheeks, which she quickly wiped away. “Then if you are certain, I would be honored,” she whispered. “More honored than you will ever know. But tell me one thing.”
