“My… my lords,” she said, lowering her gaze quickly. “I am Cadelyn d’Aubigney.”
Kress looked at Padraig curiously. “D’Aubigney?”
Padraig held up a hand, discreetly, to let him know it was something to be discussed out of the earshot of those who did not know of Cadelyn’s true identity. In addition to Lady Summerlin, there were the other two women from town– the tall lass with the copper curls and the shorter one with the long, brown hair, and it was clear that Padraig didn’t want any more to be said. He turned to his wife.
“Please take Lily-Elsie with you when you go,” he told her. “This conversation is not for you.”
Lady Summerlin started to leave but realized he’d not included the woman with the copper curls in that command. “What of Lady Susanna?” she asked.
“She will remain.”
Confused, and unhappy, Lady Summerlin flounced off with Lily-Elsie on her heels. As the women quit the hall the same way they’d come, Padraig turned to the table.
“Lady Cadelyn, you and Lady Susanna will sit with us,” he said, indicating the spot directly across from Kress. “There is much to discuss.”
Bric and Achilles moved down the bench so Cadelyn and Susanna could sit. When everyone was seated and settled, Padraig looked to Cadelyn. There was a sense of expectation in the air as he looked at her, as if now, the situation they’d concealed for so many years was to finally be revealed.
The moment they had prepared for was at hand.
“As you know, you are to be escorted to The Paladin near Chester to join your betrothed, the Earl of Ellesmere,” Padraig said. “These men know who you are, and what you are. They are men of the highest order, sworn to secrecy, so we may speak freely on the subject.”
He turned to Kress, expecting the man to say something, but Kress didn’t speak right away. He was eyeing the woman with the copper curls who was sitting next to Cadelyn. Given that William Marshal had told them that Lady Cadelyn had a female bodyguard, he suspected who the woman was.
“You are the bodyguard The Marshal told us of,” he said to the woman. “Lady Susanna, is it?”
Susanna nodded. “Aye, my lord,” she said. She, too, sensed that the knights weren’t going to acknowledge that they had already previously met, not under the best of circumstances, so she went along with the charade. “I am Susanna de Tiegh.”
“Where are you from?”
“My father was Baron Coverdale of Aysgarth Castle in Cumbria.”
Kress nodded. “I have heard of it,” he said, his gaze lingering on her. “But you… aladybodyguard? How did this come about?”
Susanna met his gaze steadily and Kress found himself looking into fine features and eyes the color of a sapphire. She wasn’t unattractive in the least, but her hair was uncombed and her dress slovenly. She almost had a masculine way about her, tough and seasoned in a world of men who would not accept that from a woman.
Anywoman.
If Kress could guess, the woman had to be close to thirty years of age, and obviously unmarried. No husband would permit his wife to assume duties that Susanna had assumed, and if he did, then he would be a poor excuse of a man.
She was quite an oddity.
“My father had two children, twins,” Susanna said, breaking in to his train of thought. “My brother and I were inseparable. Anything he did, I did, and that included fostering. We both went to Exelby Castle to foster years ago, but I did not want to learn what fine ladies learn. I wanted to do what my brother was doing. Lord de Geld, the Lord of Exelby, was not a very firm man. He let me do as I wished, against the advice of the knights. As it turned out, I was better than most of their recruits.”
She was making a statement of fact, without gloating in her manner, but the distaste the men felt at the thought of a woman thinking she could possibly be as skilled as they were was evident. Achilles, seated next to her, spoke up.
“Then Exelby must have had a good many weak men parading as warriors,” he said, doubt in his voice. “Were you knighted?”
Susanna turned to look at him, the very big and bald knight who was a good deal younger than his bare head would suggest. “Nay,” she said, lifting an eyebrow. “Were you?”
Kress fought off a grin at her saucy reply but he could see that Achilles found nothing humorous about it.
“By men better than anything you have ever stood against,” he growled. “A woman who does not know her place in life is an insult to every man who has ever lifted a sword.”
To her credit, Susanna didn’t openly react to his offense. She kept her composure. “I would be happy to demonstrate just how much of an insult I am,” she said. “Say the word and I shall meet you with my sword wherever, and whenever, you wish.”
Achilles’ eyes narrowed. “I would not lower myself to such a thing.”
Susanna shrugged. “As you wish, my lord,” she said, returning her attention to Kress. “Do all of your men fade from such a challenge? Mayhap, they are not up to the task ofescorting Lady Cadelyn to her betrothed. That task requires men of courage.”
