“Tell him only that you escorted me home to Crewel.” The man did not move. “I will not have Guibert Fitzalan riding on Crewel to rescue me, do you understand? I will flay you myself if he learns what has happened here. Now go.” The man still did not move. Leonie sighed. “He is my husband. Imustgo with him. Do not make it more difficult, I beg you.”
She signaled to him to help her mount, and he did so, reluctantly. She then rode out of the clearing without waiting for anyone. She rode in the direction of Crewel Keep. It did not take Rolfe’s men long to catch up with her.
She did not turn around once to see whether Rolfe was behind her.
Chapter 43
THE next week passed in a torrent of emotions, and she spiraled between deep depression and impotent fury. Rolfe indeed followed her back to Crewel and dragged her up to their room. She expected the worst, but what he did was to lock her in. Later she learned he had drunk himself into oblivion that night.
He released her the next day, but nothing had changed. He wouldn’t listen when she tried to explain about meeting Alain. He wouldn’t listen when she said there had been no question of her leaving with Alain. He wouldn’t listen. He would not speak to her. The servants avoided her for fear of his anger.
The worst was that Wilda and Mary were sent away, leaving her bereft. There was no one at all for her to talk to.
If he would leave, the tension might become bearable, she told herself. But he did not return to the siege at Warling. He did not even leave the keep to hunt. He stayed near Leonie, yet away from her, as if he did not trust himself to be with her, yet could not leave her alone.
She knew exactly what he thought. He expected her to flee, and he was there to make certain she didn’t. Finding Alain’s two notes together and crumpled on the floor the day Rolfe locked her in the room told her how he had found her and what conclusions he haddrawn. She knew how damning that scene in the clearing had been, but there was no way to put things right when he wouldn’t listen to her.
He would not even sleep with her in their bed, but was sleeping on a pallet in the antechamber, like a guard outside her door.
She knew she could not go on that way much longer. Frustrated and angry, Leonie threw open the door that separated her from her husband. His eyes were open. He was staring at the ceiling. He was ignoring her and it sent her over the edge. She looked around the antechamber for something to throw at him.
“Do not, Leonie.” His voice was low and menacing.
“Why not?” she demanded furiously. “Then you could beat me and we would have done with this!”
“Beat you?” Rolfe sat up on his pallet. “I killed a man for doing just that and you dare to think I—”
“What?”
“Calveley is dead by my hand,” he told her tonelessly. “I could not let him live after what he did to you.”
Leonie was stunned. “How did you know? I never said—”
“The last week I was gone from here I spent with your father, rendering him sober enough to accept my challenge.” As her eyes reflected panic, he said irritably, “I did not kill your father, woman. He was not the villain I believed he was. He had his wife turn him into a drunk. He was weak, and hardly guiltless, but he did not order you beaten, Leonie. He did not know anything, did not even know you were at Pershwick all these years,” he finished a bit more gently.
“How…could he not know?” she whispered, nearly in shock, and Rolfe explained all of it.
“Right now he is overcome with remorse for failing you so terribly,” he finished.
She was sickened. Why had she not once tried to force her way in to see him? She might have saved herself and her father so much misery. She might have learned the truth sooner.
“I shall go to him now!”
“No!”
“No?” she cried. “How can you sayno?”
“Give the man a chance to regain his self-respect, Leonie,” Rolfe said adamantly. “He will come toyouwhen he is ready. You may be certain he will.”
She glared at him, near tears. “Do not wrap your refusal in noble sentiments! You say no to keep me imprisoned here. Why deny it?”
“Damn me!” Rolfe exploded. He reached her in two strides, taking no notice of his undressed state. “I returned here to tell you all I learned about your father, and found you run off with your lover!”
“He was never my lover!”
“Liar!” His hands bit into her shoulders. “I would not be surprised if you left his note out on purpose so that I could be drawn into his trap. Youdidknow he had men waiting to attack me?”
“I know it now, but I did not know it then. How could I? I had not seen him before that day, I swear it.”
