There was a shocked silence, and then Henry began to laugh. “You jest, Rolfe. That face of yours sends my loveliest ladies swooning, yet you would settle for a plain girl?”
Rolfe flinched. He supposed it was too much to hope that the ugly duckling had grown into a swan.
“Few marriages are made for preference,” Rolfe replied stoically.
“But…you are your own man. No one is tellingyou youmustmarry this girl, so why would you wish to?”
“Not counting the domestic peace she will bring me, she and I are neighbors. She has lived there for a long time, and can help me in dealings with my other neighbors. Then, too, she has retainers. I have nine knights who follow me, but some are not suited to command and I need men to hold the other seven keeps.”
“I can see your reasoning, Rolfe, but I can find you a wife who can accomplish at least half your purpose and is pleasing to look at.”
Rolfe shrugged. “There are always women like Amelia.”
Henry understood that very well. He was living openly as man and wife with Princess Alice of France. As long as a man had his mistress, what matter his wife’s looks? It was true.
“Very well,” Henry concurred. “Is it only my permission you require?”
“More than that, Your Majesty. I have offered for the girl and was refused. Without explanation.”
“To deny his only daughter a husband?” Henry growled. “By God, you will have her three weeks hence. I will have the banns posted immediately and my messenger will reach Sir William on the morrow.” Then, in a less aggrieved tone, he asked, “But you are certain this is what you want, Rolfe? You have no hesitation about this marriage?”
He certainly did, but that need not be mentioned. “I am certain,” he declared, and Henry grinned. “Then you will be pleased to know the lady is sole heir to Sir William, and Montwyn is worth five knights’ fees, as I recall. She was also her mother’s sole heir, and her mother left her a dower of three keeps.” Henrychuckled here. “The vassal at Rethel has six sons you might find useful. Lady Leonie is also niece to the earl of Shefford, and there are other uncles and aunts, most of them well placed. It does not hurt a man to be well connected, eh?”
Rolfe was shocked. She was an heiress with a much richer dowry than he’d known about, and highborn relatives as well. He supposed all this ought to please him, but in truth he had believed her a solitary woman, and now he began to wonder if his anger had made him take on more than he wanted to.
Chapter 5
LADY Judith did not know why Rolfe d’Ambert wanted to marry Leonie. If she had known she would have been furious. As it was, Judith was in a state of near hysteria.
She had put off telling William of the king’s order in hope that something would come about to stop the wedding. But it was the day before the wedding and she was in a panic.
She sat at the table on the raised dais waiting for William to join her, having sent a servant to rouse him from sleep. It was morning, and much earlier than William usually woke. She prayed his soggy mind would clear long enough for him to understand, but only long enough for that. To have him sober for any great length of time would jeopardize everything she had accomplished over the years. If William ever realized what she had done, he would kill her.
Judith did not dwell long on that thought. She knew that, given the chance to go back in time, she would do nothing different.
William had destroyed all her dreams. He had been in a drunken stupor caused by grief over the loss of Elisabeth, and emerged from it to find that Judith had taken advantage of his drunken state and tricked him into marriage. He beat her nearly to death for this, andthe small scar she bore on her left cheek had remained. She would never forgive him for it.
Vanity was her sin and her undoing. She had been so sure William would accept her as his wife and be happy about it. After all, six years ago she’d been a beautiful young woman lacking only a dowry. Her high-boned cheeks, jewellike green eyes, and heavy, dark blond hair set her apart from most other women. Many a man had wanted to marry her for her beauty alone, but none were as well landed as William of Montwyn.
But William, it turned out, did not own all Judith believed he did. Three of his keeps belonged to his daughter. Had she known that, Judith would never have tricked William into marriage.
He was in such a rage over the marriage that Judith had had to lie and say she was with child. It was either that or be cast out immediately. Of course, Judith could never have a child. An abortion the year before had ruined her womb, but William did not know that.
To protect herself from the time when William would ask about her supposed pregnancy, she encouraged his inclination to stay drunk. And she had kept him in a state of drunken forgetfulness since then. She didn’t care that she had helped to ruin the man, for she’d hated him from the day he beat her. She hated him still. He was only a drunk now. She could not bear to be near him.
Judith took charge of Montwyn, indulging her every whim, from owning costly gowns and jewels to keeping handsome lovers near her. Everything was in her charge, and she had seen to it right after marrying William that his daughter was not at Montwyn to interfere.
It had been easy at first to tell William that Leoniewas visiting relatives. Later, she found she could make him believe that he saw Leonie regularly, so ill with drunkenness and grief was he. He was, within a short time, permanently disoriented. He could be told anything, be made to believe anything.
Relatives and neighbors stopped inquiring after Leonie, thinking she had gone to Pershwick of her own choice rather than stay with a drunken father. Leonie was told that her father wanted nothing to do with her, and she was forbidden to visit Montwyn. One way or another, Judith managed to keep everyone from learning the truth.
In the meantime Leonie’s dowry remained part of Montwyn and Judith spent all the profits. She turned down Leonie’s marriage offers, in William’s name, for she had no intention of giving up the use of Leonie’s land. If killing the girl could have brought that land to Montwyn permanently she might even have killed her, but Elisabeth’s acursed will left the land solely to Leonie. If she died without issue, the land would revert to Shefford.
Now, by the king’s order, she was being forced to give up the land. Who was Rolfe d’Ambert to be so favored by His Majesty? Judith had dealt with both his offers, first for Pershwick, then for the girl herself, so she knew it was Pershwick the suitor really wanted. Why hadn’t he just taken the keep by force if he wanted it so badly? This was infuriating, she told herself for the tenth time as she paced her room. She had managed everything so cleverly, and now this!
“Judith.”
She started. She hadn’t heard William approach. When she looked at him, she was shocked. He looked horrid, far worse than usual. William was sick every morning until he’d had his first drink, but today heseemed barely able to pick up his goblet. She would have to have her say before he finished even this first drink.
