He wondered.
“Over at the tournament field, there is a stable block,” he said. “Did you see it?”
Al nodded. “I did, my lord.”
Lance looked at him. “Go there,” he said. “Climb into the loft and hide there. Wait for me. I do not know when I will be able to ask Lady de Barenton about this cross, so it may take time. Wait for me there and I will come to you when I can.”
Al nodded quickly. “I will go now, my lord,” he said. “Thank you. I’ve not known much kindness as of late, so your generosity is most appreciated. I will not forget it.”
I’ve not known much kindness as of late.
Lance could relate to that. He hadn’t, either, so perhaps in helping this unfortunate soul, he was making himself feel a little better. He didn’t receive much kindness, but he could give it.
Small as the gesture was.
Waving Al on, he watched as the cloaked and tattered figure slipped through the gates of Lioncross Abbey, out into the night with the competitors’ encampment glowing in the distance. The tournament field was beyond that, and there, Al would find the stable. And he would wait for an answer to his question. As Lance thought of that, he realized that he’d taken the cross just so he’d have a chance to speak with Catalina again.
God, he was pathetic.
So much for ending his pursuit once and for all.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Is she stillout there?”
Standing by the lancet window in their borrowed chamber at Lioncross, Essien nodded.
“She is,” he said. “Her mother is trying to convince her to come inside.”
Catalina had been seated at a dressing table that Brielle had brought in from another part of the keep. She had been permitted to collect all of her possessions in her father’s tent, and Adabella and Ines were safe and happy in the nursery at Lioncross with the other de Lohr grandchildren for the night, so the events following the short mass at Lioncross’s chapel had run fairly smoothly.
Except for one.
Rebecca.
Even now, she was standing in the bailey below their bedchamber window, crying as if her heart was broken. She’d been informed of the marriage, like the rest of the de Lohr household, because a special supper was prepared away from the feast for the tournament competitors as Essien didn’t want five hundred people celebrating his wedding when all he really wanted to do was celebrate quietly with his new wife.
Therefore, preparations had been made for a small supper that was only attended by the couple, Harald, Christopher and his entire family, plus Addax, David, Peter, Ashton, Rhys and Maddoc, the de Wolfe brothers, Paris, and Kieran. That was the extent of the circle, and it was a lovely meal of roasted chicken to celebrate what had been a quick blessing by the priest from the church of St. Andrew in the village. That blessing followed a wedding mass, and about four hours after Essien won the joust tournament, he found himself with a wife and a new life.
And he couldn’t have been happier.
But Rebecca wasn’t.
She didn’t create a fuss during the mass or the meal, probably because her mother threatened her were she to do so, but now that everything was over, night was upon them and so was her lack of restraint. With the feast for the competitors going on in the great hall, Rebecca planted herself in the bailey and wept below Essien’s bedchamber window. Both Essien and Catalina could hear the sounds, now with Dustin trying everything she could to force Rebecca inside.
It was the least bit dramatic.
“I am sorry she is so upset,” Catalina said, standing next to Essien as they both peered from the window. “If I thought it would help, I would speak with her. Mayhap to assure her that I will take good care of you and she needn’t worry.”
Essien put his arm around her shoulders. “I do not think she is worried about someone taking good care of me,” he said. “It only matters thatsheis not taking care of me. Thank God.”
Catalina laughed softly. “It is difficult to be so young and so in love.”
Essien shook his head. “Make no mistake,” he said. “She is not in love. In fact, if none of this had happened, she probably would have forgotten about me by tomorrow, but the fact that I’ve gotten married before she’s had a chance to try to woo mehas somehow made this into more of a personal failure to her rather than a lost love.”
Catalina looked up at him. “Do you want to hear something odd?”
“What?”
