“Thank you. I will start with those then. May I serve you a helping too, my lord?”
“Yes, if you would, Tally. Clare, would you like to take your seat next to Fabian?”
The little head shakes, and Clare buries her fingers in Stefan’s tunic.
“She has been naughty. Again. She broke your mirror. I told her you would be angry, and that she would be punished when you returned.” This from Fabian, speaking around a mouthful of pigeon pie.
Stefan’s warning frown suggests he has not appreciated Fabian’s intervention in the matter of the mirror. However this does perhaps explain the child’s reluctance to greet Stefan on his return.
“My mirror. I see. How did that happen, Clare?”
His tone is gentle, but even so Clare is weeping quietly. She clambers further up onto his lap, clinging to Stefan as though she expects to be hurled from his embrace at any second. In fact, his arms tighten around her. He strokes the back of her head and her shoulders, murmuring nonsense into her hair. It is clear he adores this little girl, mirror or no.
Eventually, with a last gulping sob, she stops crying. She turns in Stefan’s arms to lift her tear-stained face. Her mouth is still quivering.
“I am sorry, papa. It was dark, and it fell.”
“Tell me about it, love.”
“I woke up in the night. I heard a noise, and I thought it was you. I thought that you had come home. I wanted to see you so I got out of bed and went to your solar. B-but you were not there. I was looking for you, and I banged into the mirror. The big one that stands beside the window. It fell and it broke. Otto came. He had a lamp. He called for Mathilde and told her to see me back in bed. In the morning the pieces of the mirror were gone, I do not know where it is now.”
“The shards of glass might have injured someone, so I buried them.”
I turn my head at the new voice. A tall man in his middle years has taken a seat on my other side.
“Ah, Otto. I was wondering where you might be. You will by now have heard that we are honoured by the presence of a new duchess.”
“Indeed, my lord. And may I say what pleasure it is to meet you, my lady. This keep will benefit from a mistress.” His gaze is fixed pointedly upon the tiny figure huddled in my husband’s lap. I wonder if disciplining small girls isto form part of my housekeeping duties. I do hope not, for I shall have no aptitude for it.
“Clare, you should not wander around the castle at night. Not on your own, and not without a light.” Stefan’s tone is serious now, and when Clare would have pressed her face into his chest again he cups her chin and holds her gaze. “If Otto had not come when he did, you might have been injured. You could have cut yourself and I would not have wanted that. You are my very precious little girl and I do not want anything bad to happen to you. I will punish you, but it is not because I am angry about the mirror. It is because I want to keep you safe. Do you understand that?”
She nods, her eyes filling with tears again.
“Tomorrow you will help Otto to clean the mirrors that remain to us. You are to spend all morning at it. That is to be your punishment. You will work hard and you will not complain. Is that clear?”
Clare nods, the faintest of smiles playing at the corners of her mouth. She looks as though a huge burden has been lifted, the weight of the guilt she has carried, and perhaps fear of her punishment too.
I know that feeling.
Chapter Ten
I should insist that Clare take her usual seat in order that I can devote my full attention to my new bride on her first evening in my home, but I do not have the heart for that. Instead, I allow her to remain in my lap while we eat.
Her eyes are fixed on Tally. Clare observes every move my wife makes, listens to every word. She is fascinated, and I sense terrified too. She has already lost one mama, perhaps she fears accepting this new one lest disaster might strike a second time. I have not the words to reassure her, so I fall back on kindness and as much patience as I can muster. This has ever been my strategy with Clare, and hope that these will be sufficient to bring my timid little goddaughter out of her shell. Now though, I have Tally too to aid my efforts and I hope the pair of them will become close. I do my best, but Clare needs a woman’s love.
By the time the repast is over Clare has fallen asleep. I shift her in my arms to find better ease for both of us.
“She is a pretty child. Did you say that she is cousin to your sons? Your niece then?”
I turn to Tally, who has been quiet by my side throughout the meal. I suppose Clare is not the only female here somewhat awed by the circumstances in which she finds herself. I shake my head.
“Strictly speaking, she is not. Clare’s father, Edmund de Ranelagh was one of my knights, a man of courage and honour. I liked him very much.”
“He is dead then?”
“Yes. He died at my side in battle, in Lombardy.” I pause to recollect. It was a skirmish in which I might well have lost my own life but for Karl’s intervention. But fate was on my side that day. It was not on Edmund’s. “He fell as the battle drew to a close. We carried him from the field, barely alive. He died after perhaps an hour. In that time though he charged me to see to the welfare of his widow and unborn child. Eleanor, Lady de Ranelagh, did not choose to reside here at Richtenholst though I invited her to join our household. She and my own late wife were cousins, but they did not like eachother overmuch. I think we were all a little relieved that Eleanor chose to maintain her home separately in a manor house about five miles from here.”
Tally frowns, and I realise this is the first time I have mentioned my first wife to her. Until meeting my sons a couple of hours ago I doubt she even contemplated the possibility that, like her, I had been married previously. But Juliana is dead now, has been gone for over a year. I loved her well enough and mourned her passing, but my concern is with the living. I return to my story.
