“Lady?” The familiar husky growl cleared all question of Jervois and Alice from Lily’s mind.
Taking Alice’s warm hand in her own, she made her way unhurriedly toward the fireplace, where Radulf sat polishing the long, lethal blade of his sword.
He watched her come, his black eyes dancing with the flames. His face was impassive as Alice made her curtsy and stammered some excuse about passing and thinking Lily might be home.
“Do you often go about York on your own, lady?” he asked her mildly.
“I have one of my uncle’s servants with me, my lord. He is outside tending my horse.”
Radulf nodded and glanced to Lily, but as usual her eyes were cool and unreadable. He shrugged and turned back to his sword, his long fingers slow and thorough as he oiled the finely wrought steel.
“Come Alice,” Lily said in a light voice. “We will go to my chamber, where we can speak in private. I am sure Lord Radulf and his men do not want to hear the frivolous chatter of women.”
Radulf snorted a laugh, but Lily had already turned away, Alice close behind her. Lily shut the door to the bedchamber behind them and immediately felt better. As well as reducing the noise from so many men, it weakened the constant tension of Radulf’s penetrating gaze.
She took a deep, calming breath.
“I hope you mean to tell me what this is all about,” Alice said, plopping down onto the straw-filled mattress. “My uncle is from home or I would not have been able to come. Your servant was very mysterious, Lily.”
Lily sat by Alice’s side. The girl’s color was still high, and now her blue eyes shone with curiosity.
“I am going to ask something of you,” Lily began. “I will be honest. It may be dangerous and you may feel the might of Radulf’s anger, and believe me, he can be very angry indeed. But mostly, if I am discovered, he will be angry with me. In fact he will probably forget about you altogether, Alice.”
Alice’s blue eyes had grown bigger and she leaned forward in breathless silence.
“I want to take your place when you leave the inn. I will become Alice of Rennoc and you will stay here in my bedchamber and pretend you are me. I’ve thought about it, and if you pretend to be unwell, then no one will interfere with you.”
“Oh, Lily, do you mean to escape?” Alice cried out in dismay.
Startled, Lily pressed her fingers to her friend’s lips and looked nervously to the door. In truth, escape had not entered her head. All she had thought of was Radulf and Lady Anna. Now that Alice had brought the subject up, she dismissed it.
Where would she go? Who would hide her? And if she did run, what would become of her people?
Besides, how could she leave Radulf when all she wanted to do was stay?
“No, I don’t mean to escape,” Lily said, when it was clear no one had heard Alice’s voice in the other room. “I need to follow Lord Radulf, and it has nothing to do with politics, Alice. It is a personal matter. He is going to meet someone and I wish to follow him and . . . and watch him.”
Alice twitched her skirts. “I see,” she said, and from the tone of her voice Lily sensed that she did.
After a moment Alice covered her hand, squeezing it comfortingly.
“Radulf is a great lord, Lily. Great lords do not have to cleave to one woman. Even I know that, and I am still a maid. There is no place for jealousy in the lives of such as Radulf.”
Lily’s back stiffened. “I am not jealous,” she retorted sharply. “I merely want to see the woman for myself, and read their feelings for each other by their actions. A wife needs to know these things if she is to survive in marriage, particularly if she is an English woman married to a Norman lord.”
Alice’s eyes softened with sympathy. “What you say is all very sensible, Lily, but when I met Lord Radulf at the castle he seemed more than fond of you. Why should he want another woman?”
Lily stared and then gave a high laugh. “Ah no, Alice, you are wrong. Radulf is a passionate and earthy man, and what you saw between us was but his lust. But you are a maid still and I will say no more.”
Alice flushed and shrugged one shoulder.
“Maybe I am ignorant, but it seemed he had an affection for you.”
Lily dismissed her friend’s comment as innocence and maybe wishful thinking. She rose to her feet and began to pace up and down the narrow
room. Her heart was thudding anxiously inside her and she could no longer keep still. “I do not say these things lightly or to upset you, Alice.
Please, will you help me?”
