“Thank you, my lord,” she said. “I am deeply honored to be a member of the House of de Shera. I shall do my best to always be worthy of my station.”
Gallus’ smile was back. “You are Lady Allesley now,” he said. “You are a baroness and most worthy of that title. My brother is a very fortunate man.”
Courtly looked at Maximus, surprise registering on her features. “I had completely forgotten about your title,” she said. Then, she teased him. “Be assured I did not marry you for your rank.”
Tiberius entered the conversation. “Or his comely looks.”
As Maximus scowled at his younger brother, Courtly laughed. “I did indeed marry him because he is the handsomest brother,” she said. “No offense, my lords, but I am rather partial to him.”
Tiberius kissed her on the cheek. “You have no taste in men,” he said, “but I am happy to call you my sister.”
Courtly accepted Tiberius’ kiss, watching Maximus push his brother away when he thought the man lingered too long around Courtly. But she could also see that it was in good-natured fun. The brothers clearly adored and supported one another, as she’d seen from the beginning. It was heart-warming to see such interaction from a powerful family that not only worked well together out of sheer family loyalty, but also liked one another. That was rare. Courtly grinned at Tiberius as the man made faces at Maximus, but Maximus was content to ignore the man soundly, at least for the moment.
“We were just married at St. Clements,” he told Gallus. “It is my intention to send my wife back to Isenhall with Jeniver while we continue on to London.”
Gallus nodded, watching Tiberius as the man continued to act the fool behind Maximus’ back, much to Courtly’s amusement.
“Agreed,” Gallus said. “She will be safe there. As you can see, we have accomplished a great deal since we arrived back in Oxford yesterday. All of the men we brought with us to Oxford are mobilized and I have sent word to Isenhall for another four hundred. They have orders to move swiftly and meet us at Braidwood Manor in London, de Russe’s place.”
Maximus nodded. Hughston de Russe was part of the de Montfort ally network and his home outside of London, big and fortified, was usually where de Montfort’s supporters gathered. It had become their unofficial headquarters. It was clear that the entire de Shera contingent was ready and waiting for Maximus. He was the lone straggler when usually, he was the first one ready to move.
Today, however, he didn’t care about that. He could only think about the fact that he was soon to leave his new wife. Even though he knew he had to go, and he’d known it for some time, it wasn’t sitting well with him.
“When do we leave?” Maximus asked reluctantly.
Gallus eyed Courtly, but now for a different reason. He cleared his throat softly. “How soon can you be ready?”
Maximus knew what he meant. He glanced at Courtly, seeing her laughing at Tiberius, and he sighed faintly.
“Give me an hour,” he said softly.
Gallus nodded, watching as Maximus, aware of Tiberius’ antics behind him, lashed out a big fist and caught his brother squarely in the chest. As Tiberius grunted and, laughing, nearly fell to the floor, Maximus took his wife by the elbow.
“I will meet you down here in an hour,” he told Gallus. Then, he turned to Tiberius who was rubbing his chest where his brother had slugged him. “When my wife left last night, she lefther possessions behind. They should be in Gallus and Jeniver’s chamber. Will you please retrieve them and bring them to me?”
Tiberius nodded but Gallus spoke. “Jeni is sleeping right now,” he said. “She has not been feeling well since yesterday. Can it wait until she awakens?”
Maximus nodded, as did Courtly. “Please do not disturb her, Lord de Shera,” she said. “I can wait.”
Gallus smiled at Courtly. “You will please address me as Gallus,” he said. “You needn’t be so formal with me. We are family now, after all.”
Courtly nodded her head gratefully, humbled by the acceptance she was being given by these men who, quite possibly, would have to defend that acceptance against her crazed father when he found out what she had done. But no one seemed to care, and certainly no one had mentioned it. As Gallus had said, they were family now. And family defended and protected family, no matter what the circumstances.
With that, Maximus took his wife to the second floor chamber he had shared with Tiberius. It was the very first door at the top of the stairs and he shoved the sticky door open, revealing a rather small and messy chamber. There were two small beds, both of them jumbled and messy, and there were various things on the floor– a worn tunic, dirty hose, a pair of boots. In fact, Courtly tripped over a boot as she entered the room and Maximus kicked it away from her.
“Ty lives like an animal,” he said. “I apologize for the state of the room.”
Courtly grinned at him. “Isadora lives the same way,” she said. “You should see our chamber at home– clothes, poppets– all manner of clutter. She likes to pick flowers but she feels terrible for throwing out old, dead flowers, so we have that issue to deal with as well. There are dried weeds everywhere.”
Maximus smiled as he reached out and unfastened her cloak, pulling it off and revealing the lovely lavender dress beneath, which, in spite of all of the travel it had seen, was wearing very well. It also hugged her figure quite deliciously which reminded Maximus why they had come to the chamber to begin with. He had something to accomplish and not a lot of time with which to do it. As he lay the cloak on one of the beds, he spoke.
“I am afraid there is no tactful way to approach this subject, so I hope you will not be upset if I simply come out with it,” he said as he turned to her. “Since I am leaving for London very shortly, there is the matter of consummating our marriage. We must do this so your father cannot ever separate us and if we do not consummate it now, I do not know when we will be able to. Therefore, it must be done before I leave Oxford. I wish I could take all of the time in the world with this, Courtly, and not rush it or make it seem so… cold… but the fact is that it must be done now. I am sorry if that seems uncaring.”
Courtly wasn’t upset by the realities of marriage. In fact, she was rather curious about the entire process. She was also a woman not given to ridiculous fears and had already shown her mettle for bravery. Therefore, she simply nodded her head as she sat down on the bed behind her.
“I understand,” she said. “You needn’t apologize. But I will admit that I know very little about what to do. My name may be Courtly Love, but the truth is that I am a virgin in every sense of the word. The first time a man kissed me was when you did it yesterday. Of course, I know the mechanics of mating. That is to say I know what is supposed to happen and what the results are, as Lady d’Umfraville made sure to educate her wards on such things, but beyond that… I will have to depend on you to tell me what to do.”
Maximus was rather relieved that she was looking at the situation so calmly, but on the other hand, he wasn’t surprised.Courtly had proven herself to be calm and resourceful since he first met her, something he was very much coming to appreciate about his new wife. The fact that she wasn’t a hysterical female spoke volumes to him. He sat down on the bed beside her and began removing his boots.
