Claire Delacroix (25 page)

“Have you meat for your board this night?”

“Venison stew, my lord.” This he said boldly, as if asserting his right to hunt deer. He had no such right, for it was one granted to the nobility alone - but only a nobleman could demand compense for the crime.

Perhaps this was why the man would seek Gawain’s favor, to ensure that no penalty was demanded.

“It is said my wife makes the finest in all of Aberfinnan. And my stable has a loft filled with sweet straw. The structure is newly completed this very year and free of vermin.”

Gawain, typically, was indifferent to minor crimes wrought against some absent or distant overlord. “Two coins it will be then,” he cried gaily. “And a third in the morn if my boy and I awaken unaccosted. You will not find my coin if you try to steal from me in the night - instead you will find my blade in your back. Are we understood?”

The man stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. “You will find my blade in your back, my lord, if my daughters suffer a visit from you this night. Are we understood?” The villagers took a discrete step away from the man, their eyes wide at his boldness. Indeed, I was shocked that he would make such a demand openly.

“Are they beautiful?” Gawain demanded.

The man straightened. “As fair as a May morn.”

“Then they may be the sole asset you own. Keep them as safe from others as you would from me.” Gawain dismounted and winked at me, as if in warning though I could not guess what he would say. “And you need have no fear of my desires, my good man, for I ensure that my appetites will be met when I travel abroad.”

And he grinned as he slapped me on the buttocks. I flushed scarlet, knowing full well that those before us thought me to be a boy.

The villagers were shocked and fascinated, no less that this visiting nobleman indulged himself with boys than that he openly admitted as much. The whispers began immediately, and I knew that I did not imagine that our host kept his distance as he took the horse’s reins.

“It is splendidly sensible, you must admit,” Gawain confided to our would-be host, as if he would talk more about his preferences.

Our host was disinclined to do so. “Of course, my lord.” The man bowed and strode away, leaving me fuming beside Gawain.

“In this, you go too far…” I began hotly if beneath my breath.

Gawain waved away my objection, then leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. “And how else would I ensure that none glimpsed your gender this night? How else would I ensure that we had no curious parties visiting our lodgings in the night? I have flashed coin and I am thief enough to know that there are more of my own kind in every corner of every land.”

“I see,” I said primly, disliking that his tactic showed a measure of good sense.

“You will follow the steed and see it brushed down, like the dutiful squire that you are,” Gawain continued softly, granting my ear a friendly cuff. “I shall take my meal with the family and bring yours to you, the better that you not be detected.”

I was irked that he had matters well in hand, and that my part was so neatly consigned to the less amusing tasks that had to be done. I knew he was right and this only annoyed me further. A cup of ale and a bowl of stew before a warm fire would have suited me far better than brushing down a horse while my belly growled.

“I would suggest you do not defy me,” Gawain said in a voice as smooth as fine silk. I met his gaze and found it piercingly green. He arched a fair brow, his expression making him look devilish indeed. “That murder that stains my blade? It was my own accomplice, in fact the boy who ensured that I escaped public execution. I could not have managed that escape alone, but he came to my aid most cunningly.”

“But…”

Gawain’s eyes narrowed. “Sadly, he was caught while we fled.”

I stared up at him, holding his gaze and fearing what he would say.

“And as a reward for his devoted loyalty to me, I abandoned him.” Gawain’s gaze never swerved from mine and I knew he told me the truth. “The villagers were a bloodthirsty crowd and one denied a hanging by my escape. I am certain Michel did not survive the day.”

“You did not go back for him?” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “You did not try to save him?”

Gawain smiled a chilly smile. “I saved my own hide instead. Indeed, I never looked back. There is honesty for you. There is the measure of the man with whom you have been allied. Do not forget this truth.”

With that, he released my elbow and left me standing outside the village walls. He hailed our host and merrily made his way into that man’s abode, noisily proclaiming the beauty of the man’s daughters.

My heart sank with every step he took. I had been warned and I knew it well.

* * *

XIII

When Gawain came to the stable, the light had faded almost to naught, though I could see his silhouette. He paused on the threshold, then made his way across the stables with care. He stroked the horse and spoke to it, then peered up at the loft. “Are you there?”

“Have you drunk all the ale so soon as that?”

Gawain chuckled, untroubled by my tone, and climbed nimbly to the loft. He bowed low. “I bring an offering of peace, if the lady will hear of it,” he teased.

“It had best be a fine offering,” I said with a hauteur I did not quite feel. Indeed, my pulse already quickened at his proximity, though I knew I should heed his own warning.

“Venison stew, bread and, remarkably, a cup of ale for your very own.”

I fell upon the fare like a hungry wolf, unable to feign disdain before the prospect of a hot meal. The settling of food in my belly spread a heat that dissolved much of my resentment.

Gawain peeled off his clothes in turn, looking about himself as I ate. “This is not so barbaric as I feared.”

“Was that why you lingered in our host’s abode, to ensure your comfort?”

He raised his brows, then settled beside me. “To allay their suspicions, more like.”

“By drinking their ale?”

“By spreading sufficient coin that they will feel no urge to gossip to strangers about us. It can make an alliance out of naught, the spending of coin.”

“How much do you have?”

Gawain dug in his purse, as if concerned with that very matter. “Enough to see us to Ravensmuir, at least. And there, our ways shall part forevermore.”

It was Ravensmuir that had been my destination all those months ago, Ravensmuir where it was reputed I could find the stolen relic that I sought. I had looked but once upon its forbidding facade and known that my mission would be a failure.

But the Fates had smiled and I had spied a golden-haired man riding south, riding with all haste away from Ravensmuir with a bundle beneath his arm. I had gambled on his identity and his burden, despite the years lost, and astonishingly, I had won the wager.

Or had I? I studied his shadowed features, this man who could be both tender and callous, and knew that my wager had brought me far more than I had expected.

“You will return to Sicily,” I guessed.

Gawain nodded once. “My brother Merlyn can aid you in your petition to the king. His is an honorable soul - indeed, it could be said that all the good traits in our family would claimed by Merlyn afore I was conceived. You can trust Merlyn.” He seemed untroubled by this, but I knew enough to suspect otherwise. He was too composed, his expression too carefully neutral.

“I thought he had killed your sire. That is the rumor.”

Gawain shrugged, his manner yet cool. “Beyond that, Merlyn is honorable. As you are neither my father nor any soul associated with him, you should be safe at Ravensmuir.”

“And you?”

He smiled tightly. “I shall leave, as you guessed.”

I thought again of his earlier warning as to his foul character and wondered. I ate in silence, unable to believe that Gawain was as wicked as he would like me to think, but knowing all the same that we were not destined to be together.

Oblivious to my musing, Gawain completed his inventory of the coins. Amber glinted between the folds of leather and I swallowed my mouthful of stew.

“May I have the crucifix?”

Gawain flicked a bright gaze my way. “It would be safer here, for the moment.” He secured it in his purse once again, then stretched out beside me.

“But I would like to have it in my own grasp.”

“Fear not, I will return it to you at Ravensmuir.” I near spilled the ale when he pressed a kiss to my shoulder, his eyes gleaming with devilry. “You have my most solemn pledge, Evangeline.”

I regarded him, not knowing what to make of his playful mood. “You think me foolish to have a care for my family’s heirlooms and traditions.”

Gawain sobered. “I think you care more for what others have insisted you should desire than for what you might desire yourself.”

“It is the responsibility of any laird’s child to ensure that his legacy continues…”

“What of your father’s own failures? What of the deterioration of Inverfyre’s fortunes, of your father’s choice to lie to his people?”

“Do not malign my father!”

“I note only that the legacy he granted to you was a damaged one, that the fault of Inverfyre’s state is not yours alone.”

I straightened. “I have a duty…”

“To those who are dead and rotted, to those who have demanded too much of you.” Gawain laid a fingertip across my lips when I would have argued with him. His gaze was solemn. “Perhaps I am too selfish, but you are not selfish enough. What do you desire, Evangeline? What do you wish, if you could pursue any path you chose, if you were unburdened by responsibilities and duties?”

“I am not so unburdened.”

“If you were.”

I looked away, fearing that he had glimpsed my unwelcome urge to journey far, that he had spied my rebellious urge to forget Inverfyre. “It is a foolish question. I am so burdened and always will be. I have no right to desire any path other than the one demanded of me by my birthright.”

How odd that my voice did not resonate with the conviction it once had carried.

Gawain laid a hand upon my shoulder. “Your chance is here, Evangeline. Your opportunity has come to make what you will of your days.”

I bit my tongue and looked to my hands. Gawain was wrong, though part of me yearned to agree with him. I knew my duties, I knew that nothing would have halted my forebear Magnus Armstrong from achieving his dream and thus nothing should halt me. I knew that I must exhaust every possibility before abandoning Inverfyre to the MacLaren clan, even if I must die in the attempt.

I could not persuade a man like Gawain Lammergeier of the necessity of such a course, so I said no more.

Gawain spoke lightly then, as if he knew he had pressed too much. “I must admit, Evangeline, that I did linger at our host’s board for longer than there was need to do so.”

I glanced at him, wondering what jest he played now. “Indeed?”

“Indeed.” Gawain grinned, mischief personified, and pulled off his tabard, leaving his hair rumpled. “The man told no lie. His daughters were gorgeous creatures, all long hair and sweet faces and breasts!” He shook his head as if marveling anew, then cupped his hands before himself. “Breasts as round and ripe as….as pomegranates!” He winked at me. “Which reminds me - do I not deserve a reward for saving you from drowning?”

I cast the wooden bowl at him. “Cur!”

Gawain laughed. “Why not frolic abed until we make Ravensmuir, that we might better remember each other’s charms?”

“There is no need.”

“What if you have not yet conceived that child?”

“I have!”

“Let us be certain.” He whispered something that made my ears burn. I could not imagine what ailed him, for he had never been so coarse of speech in my presence. Perhaps he showed his true nature finally. Perhaps I should be glad to know the ruffian he was.

I retreated across the loft. I was vexed with Gawain and did not trouble to hide it. “We both know that we have used each other for our own ends and no more. Let us be done with the lie of that. You do not need to couple with me to sate my pride.”

Gawain’s gaze flickered, and I wondered then if I had responded precisely as he had intended. He took his cloak without another word and bedded down on the far side of the loft. It was not long until I heard his breathing slow, though I lay awake, yearning for what I had denied myself.

The reckless side of me could have had the upper hand for one last time this night, for the demure and proper Evangeline would reign for the rest of my days and nights.

But it was too late.

Indeed, I could not help but wonder whether Gawain had contrived to annoy me to ensure that we did not meet abed.

But then, he would only have done as much if he had a care for something other than his own satisfaction, and I knew that was not the case. No, he was a knave and a scoundrel, as I had known from the outset, and he was simply confident enough in my presence to believe that I accepted him as he was.

I wished belatedly that he had not shared this view with me, that we could have parted with my illusion of his character intact, then reminded myself that I had been the one to request his honesty.