Gisele muttered a curse, but she did as she was ordered to. Even with her cap on she had begun to realize that her disguise was not as good as she had thought it was. Lurking silently in the shadows was probably the safest thing for her to do. She was beginning to think there was no way she could truly hide. As a woman she had been easily seen and easily remembered. She was not really having any better luck as a boy. There did not seem to be any other choices, however, except hiding deep in a cave until someone proved her innocence or the DeVeaux forgot about her and found someone else to torment. Gisele did not believe either would happen. She could not survive in a cave without some help, and the DeVeaux were well known to have very long memories.
A young man stepped out of the inn across the badly rutted road and abruptly captured all of Gisele’s wandering attention. She tensed, torn between hope and fear. There was no mistaking her slender, almost beautiful, cousin David. What she was not sure of was whether or not she should approach him. He had not rushed to her defense when her troubles had begun, but she could not believe that he would hand her over to the DeVeaux, either. When he started to walk away, she impulsively hurried over to him, catching up to him just outside of a small, dark alley.
“Here, boy, what game do you play?” David demanded when Gisele shoved him into the alley.
“David, it is your cousin, Gisele.” She yanked off her cap and ruffled her curls. “Do you not remember me, cousin?”
She waited, standing stiffly before him as he stared at her. Suddenly, he gaped and grabbed her by the shoulders. After a long moment of silence, Gisele shifted on her feet and tugged free of his hold.
“Are you completely mad?” he said, his voice hoarse and softened by shock.
“I was beginning to fear that you were. You were staring at me as if I were some vision you were ill-pleased to see,” she grumbled as she tugged her cap back on.
“What have you done to your hair, and why are you dressed like that?”
“I never thought you lacking in wit, cousin. I am trying to look like a boy.” She glared at him when a look of pure derision settled on his beautiful face. “These clothes belonged to Guy’s page.”
“I am not surprised that fool Guy is behind this madness.” He paced back and forth for a moment before facing her again. “You nearly got Guy killed.”
“Ah, so you have spoken to our sweet-tongued cousin, Maigrat.”
David grinned briefly, then frowned, dragging his long fingers through his thick black hair. “She has no great love for you, that is true enough. She does not like people who speak their minds as sharply as she does, especially if what they say disputes her truths.”
“I may have disagreed with her a time or two,” she said, ignoring the mocking sound he made, “but that is not reason enough to decry me as a murderer, or believe that I would do anything that would hurt Guy.”
David put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a brief hug. “I found it hard to believe that you would hurt Guy, and he was most adamant in his support of you.”
“He is well?”
“Almost healed enough to walk out of Maigrat’sdemanse, just as he threatens to every day.”
Gisele laughed and then watched David closely as she said, “Guy was one of the few people who believed in my innocence.”
He blushed and took a step back. “I wish I could deny that, but I fear you speak the ugly truth. The only defense we all have, and it is a very weak one, is that you had made your loathing of the man evident to anyone who would listen to you, and you often threatened him with some heinous punishments. There is no pardon for us. You should never have been given to him. We were blinded by power and wealth, I think. No one of such a high standing had ever joined our family before, and we hungered for it.”
“You keep saying we and us. Do you speak for the others?”
“Most of them. A few, like Maigrat, have their own reasons to refuse to change their minds, and I fear that refusal has more to do with their dislike of you than the truth.” David watched her a little warily as he said, “You can be curt, Gisele, and are cursed with a sharp, bitter tongue that can stir some people’s anger and dislike.”
“They are but humorless, and I have no need of them. Is my family going to help me now?” She waited tensely for his reply, knowing she had let her hopes spring to life and afraid that they were about to be crushed again.
“We have already begun to try to find the truth,” he replied then returned her impulsive hug. “We have also been trying to find you. You must come with me now. You can no longer be allowed to run about France alone and unprotected.”
“Alone?” Gisele frowned as she moved away from him. “Did Guy tell you that I was alone?”
“He said something about a Scotsman, a knight who survived by selling his sword. He has obviously deserted you. One can expect little else from a man of his ilk.”
“No, Nigel would not desert me.” Gisele felt as surprised by her sharp defense of Nigel as David looked. “He is gathering some fresh supplies and having our horses tended to.”
“You are still with the man? That will not do, cousin. You cannot travel alone with a man, especially one no one knows. I will pay this man his fee and send him on his way.”
Gisele stared at her cousin, eager to tell him that he was a complete idiot, but knowing that this was not the time for an argument. Here was a trouble she had not foreseen, and she cursed her blindness. Men were always eager to defend their women against the sinful thoughts and inclinations of other men, and since he had done nothing to protect her from her brutal husband guilt could easily make David very hard to turn aside. Nigel would soon be looking for her, and Gisele was sure her cousin would not be greeting Nigel cordially when he met him. Gisele lightly chewed on her bottom lip and wondered how she could pull Nigel out of the confrontation she had unthinkingly thrust him into.
Nigel stepped out of the baker’s too warm shop, took a deep breath of the cool outside air, and immediately knew that something was wrong. He felt the first stirrings of panic when he could not see Gisele where he had left her. His hand on his sword, he began to search the small village. He stopped and stared when he found her just inside a narrow, shadowed alley not far from the inn.
The young man she stood with presented no clear threat, yet Nigel disliked him immediately. He inwardly grimaced, ruefully admitting, that some of that dislike was born of jealousy. The youth was tall, lean, dark-haired, and dark-eyed, and even Nigel could recognize his beauty. None of that diminished the danger Gisele could be putting herself in, however. Her safety depended heavily on her remaining hidden. When Nigel heard the youth say he would pay him and send him on his way, dismissing him like the basest of mercenaries, he stepped forward.
“Keep your wee purse tied to your belt, laddie,” Nigel said as he stood next to Gisele. “I ask no coin for protecting the lass.”
