She smiled, relieved, and offered him her hand so they could both rise. “You will forgive me, then?”
“There is naught to forgive, lady,” he assured her, uncomfortable that she would not give up. “You misunderstood, is all.”
“So I did. But for my peace of mind, could you go a bit easier on Aylmer—until you feel he can take it, that is.”
Lanzo grinned and nodded, and Reina left them. But she knew Aylmer had been told her wishes when she heard him call out, “Lady,” in the most complaining tone. She did not stop. The boy was only seven, after all. He had many years ahead of him to get battered and bruised.
Chapter Forty-four
Reina had forgotten about her guests until Gilbert, looking for her, met her in the forebuilding. Lord Roghton and his lady wife were requesting lodging for the night, on their way to London. It was a common enough occurrence. When the court was in London, they would get parties of travelers as often as two or three times a week.
“I have not heard the name before. From where do they come?”
“Northumbria.”
“Jesú, as far away as that? Well, make them welcome, Gilbert, and find a chamber for them. And if I can manage to get through the hall without their notice,” she added with a grin, looking down at her filthy clothes, “tell them I will join them at the evening meal.”
“Aye, my lady, but the lord has stopped here before, many years ago, I believe it was,” Gilbert felt it necessary to warn her. “He asked for a night’s lodging then, too, but ended up staying nigh a sennight.”
Another common occurrence, a practice of those with large retinues or only one estate who frequently exhausted their own stores, and so would travel about for months at a time, stopping at one keep or another until they had worn out their stay, all at little or no cost to themselves.
“One of those, eh?” She chuckled, not minding for the simple fact that Clydon could afford such extras at table.
She still could not place the name, but she did remember when she came down to supper later that day and saw the man. She had been five or six at the time of Lord Roghton’s last visit and she had thought him the ugliest creature alive. He was still hard on the eye, though she was no longer a child to be frightened by it. A man nearing two score years, he had been overweight before and was even more so now, but that had naught to do with it. He had cruel eyes, there was no other word for it; a large, bulbous nose that distracted from them if you let it; and two hideous scars, one that twisted his mouth into a permanent sneer, and one that puckered his cheek and pulled down the skin near his left eye.
His wife was not yet present. Reina could only pity the woman such a husband. ’Twould be different were there any kindness in him, but she was remembering more and more of his first visit, and that was not the case at all. In fact, she believed Roghton had made himself so obnoxious with his subtle insults and little cruelties that her father had finally asked him to leave. Well, she would see if he had changed any, but she wished mightily that Ranulf were here to deal with him instead of her.
He stood with Sir William and Lady Margaret. Reina’s younger ladies were all mysteriously absent from the hall. She could not blame them. Roghton really was the stuff of nightmares.
Searle and Eric both appeared simultaneously at her side ere she reached the group by the hearth. They were ridiculously protective of her whenever Ranulf was away and they were left behind, and had been the recipients of her sharp tongue more than once since she had become so testy. But for once she was grateful for their presence.
Searle had married Louise de Burgh as Ranulf had intended, so Reina did not see much of him anymore, except when Ranulf was gone. That match had worked out rather well, considering the lady had had to be dragged screaming and kicking to her wedding bed. The last Reina had seen of her, she had been blissfully contented. Whatever Searle had done or said to her, it had had a magical effect. Would that she could do the same with Ranulf.
“Ah, Lady Rhian, is it not? The child with the witch’s black hair. Do you remember me, lady?”
Reina stiffened. Two insults in as many sentences? Did the man think she was a complete idiot, that she would assume his words an innocent mistake? Gilbert would have told him her name.Hehad to be an idiot could he not remember a simple first name given him mere hours ago.
“Actually, Lord Ralston,” she replied, paying him in kind, “my name is Reina—Reina Fitz Hugh. Do you care to forget it again, you may simply call me lady, as is my due. And were I a witch, you would not feel safe to sleep under my roof, so ’tis fortunate I am not.”
She was not her mother, to ignore innuendos and sly taunts, and pass them off as unimportant in deference to keeping the peace in her hall. If Roghton thought he could get away with that nonsense here, now, he had better think again.
She had managed to surprise him. He had not expected to have his disrespect tossed back at him, not by a woman at any rate.
Disconcerted as he was, his reply was civil. “I understand you are newly wed, Lady Reina.”
“Aye, if you can call four months newly wed. My husband is away to London, however, with his father, Hugh de Arcourt.”
“Lyonsford?”
“The same.”
She did not hear another offensive word after that, which was amusing did she care to think of it, since Clydon was more powerful than Lyonsford. This just went to prove that a lady in charge of a small kingdom was not as impressive as a warlord owning much less—unless she cared to mention the names of those warlords as being relations.
His wife arrived, and Reina, like everyone else who had not seen her yet, went into mild shock. In complete contrast to her husband, she was a woman of stunning, incomparable beauty. Blond, fair-skinned, with the face of an angel. Even Eadwina had cause to be teeth-gnashingly jealous.
’Twas inconceivable that this vision of loveliness could be wed to a man like Roghton. Who could be so cruel as to have arranged a match between such opposites?
Searle and Eric were both awe-struck. Actually, every man in the room had gone silent and still, in some way affected by the lady. Reina was mayhap the only one to notice the delight of the husband in the reaction to his wife. He enjoyed the sensation she caused, and then the horror that such a desirable, exquisite thing could be his. Despite that, he took the lady to task for being late, embarrassing her and anyone near enough to hear his deliberately harsh scolding. And Reina was sure it was deliberate. ’Twas more a demonstration to dispel the disbelief and clarify for anyone still in doubt that she really did belong to him.
