“Meaning you will forgive me for this lesson you have earned?”
He was right and she was wrong in this instance. Of course she would forgive him. But she would not assure him of that.
“You do not have to do this now!” she cried. “At least wait until you are not so angry.”
“I am not angry with you any longer,” he replied patiently. “I even understand what you tried to do.” But then his voice hardened and she knew she was lost. “But I will not be manipulated like that, lady, and best you learn it now.”
She wondered if tears would help at this point. Likely not. He was too barbarous a lout to appreciate them.
“What if I promised to be the boring, silent, cowering wife you apparently want? I will give you no more reason to call me little general. Will that satisfy you?”
Obviously not, if his frown was any indication.Jesú, what had she said to bring back his anger? But she had no chance to find out. The reprieve she had hoped for came at last in the sound of a knock at the door.
With a relieved sigh, she told Ranulf, “That will be your father, and none too soon.”
His frown darkened considerably. “He would not dare.”
Reina cringed inwardly, afraid her next words were going to make her situation even worse. “I—ah—I believe I invited him.”
Ranulf came to his feet with a growl, making Reina jump back with a gasp. But he did not say anything. The look he gave her said it all, giving her no doubt that he felt she had again contrived to manipulate him.
“I—I will send him away,” she offered in a small voice.
“Nay, you will let him in,” he replied, his own tone rough but controlled. “And you will stay also. I do not intend to hunt you down when this is finished.”
She winced but complied, opening the door. For the briefest moment she thought of defying him again and fleeing. Her own curiosity put the thought aside. And she still had one hope, that Ranulf would reconcile with his father and thereby forgive her for her part in bringing it about. A small hope, but one that put her on Lord Hugh’s side again.
“Do you come in, my lord,” she said, closing the door when he did. “You can speak privately here, do you deign not to notice me. Unfortunately, I cannot leave. I am to be punished as soon as you are finished, you see.”
“Reina…” Ranulf said warningly.
“What difference if I tell him?” she retorted with a baleful glare. “I am going to scream loud enough when it happens that the whole of Clydon will know anyway.”
“Thank you for the warning,” Ranulf said low, with distinct menace. “I will be sure to gag you first.”
Hugh cleared his throat at this point, looking decidedly uncomfortable. “If this is not a good time—”
“Thereisno good time for the opening of old wounds,” Ranulf snarled. “But you are determined to see mine bleed, so have your say and be done with it.”
“Think you I like this any better than you, to learn after all these years that my father lied to me? I even realize now that he deliberately kept us apart, before I knew of you and afterward. He was still an active man when you were sent to Montfort, yet he turned over the management of all his holdings to me at that time. I was barely older then than you are now, Ranulf, nor did I know the first thing about stewardship, for I had practically lived at court with my wife up until then, thinking I had many years yet ere such responsibilities would be mine.”
Ranulf said nothing to that, and the look on his face was no indication whether it made any difference as to how he felt. Reina felt like kicking him for his silence. If he had no questions, she certainly did.
“Why would your father do what he did?”
“I cannot say, lady, and his reasons died with him several years past. Mayhap he did not know of Ranulf’s birth until much later, and then—”
“He knew,” Ranulf cut in. “My mother told him, which was why he wed her to the village smith.”
“And near half of all village babies die in the first or second year,” Reina pointed out. “Could he have kept the knowledge from you to spare you the loss if Ranulf had not survived?”
“Lady, had I known of Ranulf from his birth, he would have been brought into the keep to raise, given every care. I simply do not know why my father would leave him to the care of villeins.”
“Jesú,” Reina whispered, recalling another who had given her baby to villeins with the hope it wouldnotsurvive. She glanced at Ranulf and wondered if he was recalling the same thing, or if he had already surmised that possibility but thought it was his father who had hoped he would die. ’Twas better not to mention that, but Hugh had not finished anyway.
“And I can think of only one reason why he still kept the knowledge from me. I had another natural son, whose mother’s family was very powerful. They would not let me marry the lady. She was already betrothed. But I was forced to make her son my heir.”
“Forced?”
