“I heard you the first time,” she said quietly, staring at her empty hand as she slowly realized that she had no soap left. “My soap is all gone.”
“Ye are clean enough.”
“Am I?”
Even though she still felt an urge to keep washing herself, she allowed Nigel to pull her out of the water. She stood silently as he briskly rubbed her down with the drying cloth, obviously trying to warm her as much as he was drying her skin. When he reached for her clothes and saw the gown he hesitated, then frowned at her. Gisele finally roused herself enough to speak.
“I have no ill feeling about the clothes,” she said.
“I mean no offense, nor do I wish to stir up any ill memory, but I am surprised he found something to fit ye so quickly.”
She gave him the sad ghost of a smile. “The cut of the clothes tells me they probably belonged to a young maid. The chemise will be good enough for now.”
Nigel gently tugged the chemise over her head and laced it up, then led her over to their bed by the fire. For one brief moment he had thought about separating their beds, then decided that would not really help. It might even make her think that he was setting her aside because of what Vachel had done.
He quickly gathered up the things she had left by the brook and put them in her saddlepack. As he got some wine and food for their meal, he kept a close but subtle watch on her. The way she just sat there staring into the fire made him uneasy. He felt an urge to slap some life back into her. Nigel shook his head as he sat down beside her and gave her some food. Brutality had caused her troubles. He would be no better than DeVeau if he used brutality to try to pull her free of her dark mood.
“Did he rape ye, lass?” he asked, deciding the best way to try to solve her problem was to be direct.
“Non,” she replied as she slowly began to eat, her hunger beginning to revive as she tasted the food.
“Praise God,” he muttered, and briefly squeezed one of her hands. “I feared that ye had suffered while I sat in that wood trying to plan your rescue. That because I wasnae quick or clever enough, ye had endured some pain.”
“Nigel, you were in time. Vachel but touched me a little. I let that trouble me far more than I should have. Even if you had not succeeded in saving me from that bastard’s unwanted attentions, you would have still saved me from a hanging. That is no small thing. In truth, I was not expecting your help at all.”
“Why? Because ye had crept away from me like a thief in the night?” He watched her closely, and felt relieved when she cast him a look that was an amusing mixture of embarrassment and irritation. She was beginning to recover.
“I had my reasons for leaving.” She hoped that would end the discussion, but a quick peek at Nigel’s face told her that she was not going to be allowed to just dismiss the matter.
“And I should like to hear what those reasons were.”
“It was suddenly clear to me that this hunt had grown much fiercer than it had ever been, and much more dangerous. I no longer felt able to put your life at risk, to use you to shelter me from my enemies.”
“So, ye would have me believe that after we have spent weeks hacking our way through DeVeau’s men ye suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and decided it was now becoming too dangerous? And that riding off alone, nay kenning where ye were going, leaving me alone in my weakened condition, was safer for both of us?”
It did sound remarkably witless the way he told it, but Gisele had no intention of letting him know that. She was also not going to let him try to stir her guilt by speaking of his ‘weakened condition’. Nigel had tossed Vachel DeVeau around as if he were no more than an empty sack. That was hardly the act of a sickly man. Gisele thought it a little harsh of Nigel to be questioning her and expecting sensible answers after all she had just endured.
“As you had just explained to me last eve, we were either near or even on DeVeau lands, and that ensured that the port you were taking us to would be swarming with the fools. I just felt that it had all become too complicated. There had always been a chance that we could get to a port, onto a ship, and sail far away from my troubles. Suddenly, it did not look as if that were possible any longer.” Gisele softly cursed and glared at Nigel when he greeted her explanation with a mocking sound of disbelief. She thought that it was rather clever, and deserved better than his blatant derision.
“Ye may have thought that, lass, but I fear I dinnae believe that is the whole truth of it.” It took only one quick glance at the stubborn, cross look on her face for Nigel to realize that she was not going to tell him any more. “Ye stumbled right into your enemy’s arms, loving,” he added quietly as he put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close to his side, pleased when she revealed no fear or resistance.
“I know that,” she grumbled, then sighed and leaned against him. “I was traveling to my cousin Marie’s. At least I thought I was. It is clear to me now that I really did not know the way to get there. Marie does not live anywhere near a DeVeau. I know that because I sought her aid once before.”
He idly picked up her medallion from where it rested against her chest and studied it for a moment. “Ye are fortunate none of the men took this from you,” he said, as he released his hold on it. “’Tis a fine piece that could have brought them a few coins.”
“I am not sure any of them really saw it, praise God. It was hidden beneath my jupon, as it has been most times since you reminded me that lads do not wear such fine baubles. The ones who did see it, Vachel and his man Ansel, saw it as nothing remarkable. It is obviously still bringing me good fortune.”
“Aye, it is. Gisele, I am nay calling ye a liar, but something does puzzle me.”
“And what is that?”
“Ye said that Sir Vachel didnae rape ye, only touched ye a wee bit.”
“That is correct.”
“Then why would ye try to flay the flesh from your wee bones with unending scrubbing? It makes no sense to me.”
Gisele smiled sadly and allowed him to gently push her down onto the bed. The weight of his body as he lightly sprawled on top of her felt comforting as well as exciting, and she was glad. The very last thing she wanted was for her stupidity and Vachel’s unwavering, cruel arrogance to destroy what she felt for Nigel. It would have been easy for Vachel to make her the frightened woman she had been when she had first met Nigel. That would have been too high a price to pay for her cowardice.
