A Dangerous Love (10 page)

They will protect you from any harm. On the morrow we’ll be bringing from hiding what we rescued, and then you will be able to determine what you are going to need for the hall.”

“Bedsteads, for one thing,” Adair said wryly.

Albert chuckled as he left them. “Good night, my lady. Elsbeth.”

“Come and eat, my precious,” Elsbeth said, drawing Adair to the high board. “The women from the village have brought food, and it is still hot.” She beckoned to Adair, and seated her in one of the two high-backed chairs at the board. Then she served her a rabbit stew, ladling it into a bread trencher. She poured some cider from an earthenware pitcher into the silver cup.

“Sit down,” Adair said, gesturing Elsbeth to the seat beside her.

“It isn’t meet that I sit at the high board,” Elsbeth replied.

“It’s only the two of us,” Adair answered.

“Nonetheless, we will observe the proprieties, my lady. You are the Countess of Stanton, and this is your seat. I’ll eat later.”

“This was my mother’s cup,” Adair noted as she looked at the silver vessel before her on the table.

“Where on earth did it come from?”

“Our people rescued what wasn’t looted, burned, or stolen. They hid them away until the day a Radcliffe returned to Stanton,” Elsbeth explained.

Adair felt the tears welling up in her eyes. “It is good to be home,” she said.

Within a short time Stanton Hall began to come to life again. The furnishings from the upper floors had been all destroyed in the fire, but the local craftsmen began fashioning new beds, tables, chests, and chairs to replace them. Elsbeth discovered that the chamber deep in the cellars of the hall where Jane Radcliffe had kept fabric in cedar chests still held its contents. Curtains and hangings for the bedchambers were now sewn from the fabric. The cloth had not mildewed because it had been protected by the cedar.

Much of the contents of the kitchens were still intact.

New furniture was built for the hall. The wooden shutters for all the windows were replaced. Jane Radcliffe had not liked rushes on the floor of her hall. She had brought with her as part of her dower portion two carpets that had been woven in Arabia. The carpets, however, were gone, as were the tapestries from the walls.

Adair set Albert to finding her mother’s loom if it still existed, and when it could not be found a new loom was built for her. She found the proper wools and threads to weave new tapestries in a cedar trunk in the same room that had held the materials.

Each day a few items belonging to Stanton Hall found their way back to the hall. Adair had offered positions in her service to any in the village who would serve her. Albert chose those young men who could be trained as men at arms, and put them in the custody of his cousin, who was known as Dark Walter. It was rumored that Dark Walter had Moorish blood in him, but how that had come about no one knew for certain, not even Dark Walter. Elsbeth would run the household with Albert. Together they chose a cook and others for the kitchens, and several little maidservants to help keep the hall clean. As the feast of Christ’s Mass drew near and the hall was decorated with green branches and holly, Stanton appeared almost back to normal.

Adair organized two hunts, and together with the villagers they managed to slay three roe deer and a young boar. The meat was butchered and hung in the cold pantry. Adair gave one of the deer to the village. She permitted one day a month for the hunting of rabbit and game birds, as well as fishing twice a month. The grain that had been harvested in late summer and autumn was stored in a single granary at the castle. Each family was given two measures a month, which the miller ground into flour for bread. Apples and pears had been harvested and stored, with carrots and onions.

Elsbeth had coaxed Jane Radcliffe’s herb garden, which grew in the shelter of a kitchen wall, back into existence with judicious pruning and generous helpings of ma-nure. It would produce until a hard frost sent it into a winter’s rest. A smaller garden of kitchen herbs still flourished by the kitchen door: rosemary, parsley, sage, thyme, shallots, and leeks.

Adair spent the late autumn making candles for the house, and soap. She sent to a cooper in another village to come and make her a bathtub of hard oak. The cooper returned to his own village to tell others that the young Countess of Stanton had returned to her hall, and that Stanton had come to life again. The cooper’s master, old Lord Humphrey Lynbridge, was interested to learn this fact. He had had his eyes on Stanton lands, and had hoped to eventually gain them for his family.

“Has she a husband?” Lord Humphrey asked the 
cooper.

“Don’t know, my lord, but the only man with any authority that I could see was her majordomo, Albert. And I didn’t hear the maidservants gossiping about any master.” The cooper shuffled his feet nervously.

“Go on about your business,” his master said, waving him away.

“What are you thinking, Grandfather?” Robert Lynbridge asked. He was his grandfather’s heir, as his father was dead.

“If the girl is unwed we could make a match with your brother. If you were not married I might make the match for you, and the Radcliffe lands would be ours.

But if your brother gets them ’tis almost as good.”

“How old can the girl be, grandfather? Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen? I do not see her guardians, whoever they might have been, allowing her to come back to Stanton alone. There has to be a husband,” Robert Lynbridge said. “Besides, Andrew feels no need to wed.

Why should he?”

“Because I say so,” the old man snapped. “I want the Radcliffe lands. Do you want them falling into the hands of strangers, Rob?” He glared at his eldest grandson, his blue eyes sharp and clearly filled with annoyance.

“If you would have it then you would have it,” Robert Lynbridge said mildly. He knew better than to argue with his grandfather. The white-haired old man was a fierce fighter. “But I think first we should determine if the girl is wed or pledged.”

“It matters not,” the old lord said. “If she is wed, the husband can meet with an accident. If she is not, there is nothing wrong with a little bride stealing, laddie.”

Robert Lynbridge laughed aloud. His pretty wife, Allis, sitting by his side, just shook her head wearily. “Let us begin at the beginning, my lord,” Rob suggested. The only advantage he had—any of them had—over

Humphrey Lynbridge was that the old man was virtually crippled in his final years. It was difficult for him to get about. Not impossible, just very hard. “I will ride over to Stanton Hall before the winter sets in, and take Andrew with me. We’ll get a good look at the girl and learn what we need to know about her and about her situation.”

“Good! Good!” his grandfather said. “Praise God you are a sensible man, Rob, and not stubborn like your brother.”

“He’s just like you,” Robert Lynbridge said with a laugh. “Exactly like you, if the truth be told, my lord.”

“
Merde!
” the old man protested. “He is nothing like me.”

“Who is nothing like you?” Andrew Lynbridge had come into the hall. Unlike his older brother, who was of medium height with light blue eyes and brown-blond hair, Andrew was tall with coal black hair, and gray eyes with tiny flecks of gold in them. He looked more like his Scots mother, while Rob resembled their father’s family.

“You!” his grandfather snapped.

“We look nothing alike,” Andrew agreed.

“In temperament,” Rob explained, “you and Grandsire are much alike.”

Andrew Lynbridge grinned wickedly. Like his elder sibling he knew when to back away from an argument with his grandfather.

“Grandsire is planning to marry you off,” Rob said mischievously.

“Bloody hell he is! I’ll pick my own wife when I wed,” 
Andrew said.

“The Radcliffe wench is back from wherever she was sheltered after the hall was attacked. Damn fool John Radcliffe, flying York’s banner in the face of all.”

“Yet York rules England,” Andrew murmured softly.

“I heard that, my lad. Aye, they rule, and we have peace at last. But that’s not the point. I’ve always wanted the Radcliffe lands. Their cattle meadows are the finest about, but of course they have no cattle now.

Scots got them all,” the old man said.

“I seem to recall a few strayed in our direction,” Andrew baited his grandfather.

The old man cackled. “Perhaps they did. Perhaps they did,” he admitted. “Well, the Radcliffe girl is back. She’ll need a husband. Rob has a wife, and I have to say Allis has done well by him. Twin lads, and her belly is full again. We might wait to see if she dies in this next childbirth, but I think not. Allis has always been a strong, healthy lass.”

“Grandsire!” Robert Lynbridge looked outraged.

“Thank you very much, my lord,” Allis Lynbridge said dryly from her place by the fire, where she had been both sewing and listening.

Lord Humphrey ignored them both, continuing on with his train of thought. “So it’s up to you, Andrew, to woo and win the Radcliffe lass. Then her lands will be ours.”

“If I were of a mind to wed, and if I wed this girl, the lands would be mine,” Andrew Lynbridge said quietly.

“But I am not of a mind to wed some horse-faced heiress right now, Grandsire. And I repeat, when I marry, I will chose my own bride.”

“Bosh, lad! All cats look alike in the dark,” Lord Humphrey said. “Besides, who says she is ugly? Have you seen her? Her mother was a beauty. Besides, it’s past time you took a wife. You’re nearer to thirty than you are to twenty,” his grandfather said.

“Nay, I have not seen the girl, and I am twenty-eight,” 
was Andrew’s answer.

“Then what is to prevent you and your brother from riding over to Stanton Hall tomorrow and paying our respects to the girl? ’Tis but a half day’s ride. Soon the snows will come, and there will be no opportunity for you until spring. Once word gets out that this wench is home again all the Nevilles and the Percys will come calling in an attempt to win her and grab her lands. Why should they have all the wealth hereabouts?” the old man grumbled irritably. “Lancaster’s toadies, most of them.”

Andrew Lynbridge laughed. “Very well, old man, if it will make you happy we shall ride to Stanton Hall and see the girl.”

The following morning Robert and Andrew Lyn-

bridge rode from their home and directed their horses in the direction of Stanton. It was the last day of November, and they had attended early Mass celebrating Andrew’s name day. The air was crisp, but there was no wind. A weak sun shone down on the barren hillsides.

“I suppose you think I should marry too,” Andrew said to his older sibling.

“There will always be bed and board for you at Hillview Court, little brother,” Robert said. “But don’t you want your own home, and a forever woman? You have never been a man to be beholden to any, even your family. I thought when you returned from fighting in the service of the Duke of Gloucester that you would settle down, but you have not. The Radcliffe girl might be the answer for you. Our families would be near one another, and you would have your own lands. I would hope you will marry eventually. Sooner or later some angry father will come to Hillview demanding you wed with his big-bellied daughter and accept your responsibilities.”

Andrew Lynbridge chuckled. “I’ve kept my activities to the other side of the border, brother,” he said. “And none know my surname.”

“I have heard it said you are called Amorous Andrew,” Robert replied with a grin. Then he grew serious.

“Don’t get caught and forced to the altar by some farmer’s lass. At least since you must wed, marry to your advantage, and our family’s.”

“Not for love?” Andrew teased Robert.

“Love may come, as it has with Allis and me. Her parents are noble, and while she was the youngest of fourteen she came with a good dower portion: a herd of twenty-four healthy heifers, and a young bull. But I will say I liked her from the start, and she showed her respect for me immediately. She is a dutiful wife,” Robert said.

“She is a sweet woman, but too dull for my taste,” Andrew remarked.

“Sweet and dull is a comfort to a man when he has more important matters to attend to on a daily basis,”

Robert replied. “Grandsire sits in the hall and barks orders, but the responsibility of Hillview is mine, and has been for close to ten years.”

“Nonetheless, I would need a woman with more spice to her than your good Allis,” his brother remarked. “I want a woman who sets me afire with just a look.”

“You’re thinking with your cock and not your head,” 
Robert said, grinning.

Andrew laughed again. “Aye, perhaps I am. Is that Stanton Hall?” He pointed.

“Aye,” Robert answered. “It doesn’t look as if it was touched by disaster at all.”

The two brothers rode down the hillside into the sheltered valley where Stanton Hall stood. The fallow fields were well cared-for, Robert noted as they came. The village was neat, the cottage roofs well thatched, the cottages themselves freshly whitewashed. There was a small church at one end of the village and a mill at the other, but it did look deserted. The two brothers followed the road to the hall, and guided their horses into the courtyard of the great stone house. Stableboys ran out to take their horses. The door to the house opened to reveal a stocky man who stood blocking their entry.

“Welcome to Stanton, sirs,” he said. “I am Albert, my lady’s majordomo. Do you have business with her?” He was polite, but he did not move.

“I am Robert Lynbridge, heir to Lord Humphrey, and this is my brother, Andrew. We have come to pay our respects and those of our grandfather to the lady of the hall.”

A smile now creased Albert’s face, and he stepped aside to usher them into the house. “My lady is in the great hall,” he said. “If you will but wait here, good sirs, I will tell her you are here.” He hurried off.

“House seems to have survived the raid nicely,” Andrew noted.

“Duke Richard came and made repairs,” Robert informed him.

“What is his interest in her, I wonder?” Andrew said.

“Good sirs, if you will come this way.” Albert had returned. “My lady is ready to greet you.” Turning, he led 
them into the great hall of Stanton, where Adair stood waiting to receive her visitors.