‘I had only taken notice last evening, my lord. ’Tis why I got out of bed to serve you your wine.’
Her face blushed then, in memory no doubt of what serving him wine had led them to. He would not pursue that topic now.
‘Other than watching it from my place down the table in my father’s house, I am not experienced in all of the pomp and ceremony expected by a lord. I do not know that I ever will be.’ He smiled at her then. ‘At least the duke had the good sense to make me only a baron. A baron is not high enough to worry over all the pretensions of rank. We are still close enough to the ground to keep our feet there.’
‘So, is your duke favouring those of his warriors who faced the same challenges as he?’
He laughed then, at her scrupulously polite manner of calling the duke a bastard. He was, and everyone knew it, he revelled in it and used it to tweak the noses of those he wished to insult. But few made it away unscathed if they used it to insult him.
He’d suspected that William had been attempting to raise up a few deserving men who’d begun life as he had, but upon investigating the locations of their awarded demesnes and the proximity to Godwin’s supporters’ holdings, he was beginning to think there were other issues at play.
‘I am beginning to wonder if just the opposite might be true, lady. The three of us given lands to hold if we could take them are all bastards of noble men who were trained together with my half brother in my uncle’s holdings in Rennes. I begin to suspect that we are expendable to the duke or his nobles.’
‘That is outrageous,’ she said. ‘To use you like that is…’ She did not finish the sentence.
‘Extremely practical actually. We three hold no lands and have no powerful allies at home who would be outraged—’ he nodded to her as he used her word ‘—at our deaths in taking or holding these lands. In fact, I believe that all of the nobles holding lands around this and the other grants have legitimate heirs who could take over at any moment for us.’
Why had they not been aware of this before? Probably because he and Brice had been too busy seeing to Soren’s care and too overwhelmed by the news of the grants to look too closely at the reasons behind it. It had been questionable in that first week if Soren would survive the blow that came after the surrender was called. Even now he remained behind, recuperating and gaining strength while waiting for the duke’s troops to move northward after taking control of the south.
‘You mentioned three, my lord? Dare I guess that Brice is included in the duke’s largesse?’ she asked.
He laughed then. ‘Do you think him expendable after being forced to work with him these last days?’
She smiled then and Giles saw a glimpse of the beauty she could be when her face lit with pleasure. ‘Though I would never say this before him, and pray that you will not reveal it to him, he seems to want only your good and pursues it without delay. He stands ever at your back. Has it always been thus?’
‘Oui.Aye. And Soren as well. I hope you meet him.’ The words were out of his mouth and he shook his head denying them. ‘Nay! He has an appeal to women that none can match. After he claims his land and marries, then I will let him visit here.’
Now she laughed. ‘He worries you so?’
‘Women flock to his side, lady. He never sleeps alone for want of a woman.’
‘I shall remember that if he visits, my lord. Mayhap Emma could be prevailed upon to aid him?’
‘Ah, you say that as a jest, my lady, but you have no idea of his powers over women. Pray you never witness it!’
‘Will you allow him to visit then?’ she asked.
‘Pray God, he will join us by winter’s end. He was struck down from behind during the battle, but the last word I received said he does yet survive. The duke has also promised Soren lands in the north.’
Giles grew quiet, offering up a prayer in this holy building that Soren did survive and was able to take what was offered them.
Fayth waited for a moment when he grew silent and then asked her questions. ‘Do you have other sisters or brothers, Lord Giles?’
‘Nay, I was my mother’s only child.’
‘She yet lives?’ she asked.
‘Nay,’ he replied with a sad smile. ‘She is dead these last ten years.’
She knew so little about him and this was her opportunity, for he seemed willing to reveal himself to her now. ‘How many years have you?’
‘I have twenty-and-three to your ten-and-eight years.’
‘So you know my age, then?’
‘But, of course, I wanted to know if my bride was long in the tooth or a young woman who still blushed.’
‘Ah, but you failed to ask if she was addle-brained as I have been these last few days,’ she jested. She watched him approach and stop before her, sitting down in the chair once more.
