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Authors: Lindsay Townsend

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Knight and the Witch 02 - A Summer Bewitchment (17 page)

BOOK: Knight and the Witch 02 - A Summer Bewitchment
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Magnus wondered if they were reaching the girl.
It might have been wiser to lie, tell her Tancred was waiting for her in the town
. But what then? She would want to see the lad at once and then they would need to lie again, more and more.
Elfrida is right. Honesty is the only way. These girls have already been deceived by Silvester.

Rowena pointed to Elfrida, then him. Elfrida held up her hand, showed off her wedding ring. Rowena raised her eyebrows. “But you are—”

Do not call Elfrida a peasant!
Sick of these Percivals and Giffords, Magnus stormed across the street. “Elfrida is my lady wife,” he said, through gritted teeth. “We came to find you and the other girls, to restore you to your kindred.”

“Magnus,” said Elfrida warningly.

“We cannot give you any proof, demoiselle, only that Tancred is about this high and this sturdy, has fair hair and an older brother who likes relics. Your Lady Astrid and Father Jerome set us on this chase. If you have any complaint, speak to them.”

“Magnus, please,” Elfrida beseeched, but he had not finished yet.

“We should move,” he said. Surely they must be spotted soon. He looked about to scoop both up, one under each arm, and bear them off. Clearly sensing his intent, Elfrida shook her head.

Throughout his rant Rowena had stood her ground, looking up at him through long, silken eyelashes. She smiled now and said, in perfect English, “She is too young to wear a black veil.”

She laughed at his surprise. “You are so like my father’s knight. I could goad him into marvelous indiscretions.”

Before Magnus could react, Rowena addressed Elfrida. “I remember you from my dreams. I knew you would help me.”

Elfrida smiled and held out her hands. When Rowena clasped them she walked with the girl to Silvester’s house, halting with her back to a wall timber. Magnus joined them, relieved to be away from the middle of the street.

So far so good? he wondered, but he could not say, not yet.

 

 

For one so young, the girl had remarkable self-possession, Elfrida decided.
Rowena is placid, not volatile, but I sense she will do little she does not truly want to.
So why had she remained with Silvester?
Time to find out.

First, she rested her fingertips lightly against the door and detected nothing behind it but sleepers. She mimed this to Magnus, then turned to Rowena. “Is Silvester here with you?” she asked softly.

“Yes.”

“What time does he rise?”

“We danced for him last night. Usually he sleeps late after that, him and the others.” Rowena glanced at the ewers she had left beside the well. “I never sleep so long, so Silvester said I might go out and fetch water for everyone. He is pleased when I do.”

“You like to please him?”

Rowena smiled. “If it does not harm me, or others, I like to please everyone. Why not? Is that not how a Christian lady should act?”

She strives to be gracious, Elfrida thought, struck by how this young woman knew her own worth.
She is kind and Christian, but Rowena will not work against her own advantage.

“Why have you stayed with him?” Elfrida hesitated, then said, “Is it because you love him?”

Rowena shrugged. “Where else would I go? So many of the townsfolk love and help him. They would give me back to him in a heartbeat if I tried to escape.”

Elfrida said nothing. Coloring slightly, Rowena said, “My fifth cousin, Silvester Percival, he is not a sinful man.”

Elfrida forced herself to smile, though this whole matter was dark.
A cousin. She is a Gifford and this Silvester Percival is a distant cousin. No wonder Tancred was concerned about consanguinity. These two families are tightly linked.

“My kinsman brought me here by a feint but he has not treated me badly since. The other maids and I are content for the moment.”

The words were brave but Elfrida sensed a certain loss, especially in the final, gloomy, “for the moment.”
Did Rowena hope for more from Silvester, once she realized he was not going to deliver her to Tancred? Maybe for a while she did, but she knows better now.

“For the moment,” she agreed. “Will he marry all of you? If he chooses you as his wife, will they be his mistresses?”

Rowena sighed. Peeping into her still face, Elfrida glimpsed resignation and patience, disappointment and discouragement, but no real anger or grief. No real shock, either.
Why should I be surprised? This is a nobleman’s daughter. Young as she is, Rowena is practical about betrothal and marriage.

The girl’s next words confirmed this. “It is true. Silvester does speak a great deal of love, knightly love. He gave us rings and says we are his wives.”

Wives.
Heart-sick at the idea, Elfrida suppressed a shudder. Beside her she heard Magnus curse softly in Arabic. At her back she sensed the sleepers in the house.
We cannot linger here too long, though. Time passes.

“You share his bed?” Elfrida said steadily, fighting down an inner sickness. She felt herself sway and stars blinked in front of her eyes—tiny flashes of sheer, blessed relief—when Rowena answered easily, “Not yet. Not until after the midsummer.”

An ancient festival and bridal time. Silvester wants to cloak his sin in a summer fragrance but he is still evil, a despoiler.

“The mother be thanked!” grunted Magnus alongside her, but Elfrida pressed her foot down sharply on his. Rowena was still talking.

“We wear the gowns he has made for us and we call him lord. But he never mentions marriage, real marriage when we are of age, at the church door, with a priest. As you say, how can he marry us all?”

“And you wish to be married,” Elfrida said, “as I am to Magnus.”

“Yes, I do.” Rowena considered this with unblinking eyes. “I love God and the church, but I freely agreed to be betrothed to Tancred. When I am old enough, I want a family and a home of my own. I know Tancred likes me a lot. He can be unkind and rude but I can manage him.”

Of that I have no doubt.

Magnus cleared his throat. “Why not come with us, Rowena? We can take you away from here and no one will stop me.”

No. No one would dare
.

“You can be your own mistress. You do not have to do anything, choose anyone for a while, unless it pleases you.”

Bless you, husband!

Rowena tugged at her left ear, a rare sign of disquiet. “But Tancred—”

“You do not have to choose right now. Tancred will wait for you, believe me. He brought your horse with him for you to ride.”

Speaking, Magnus smiled so warmly that Elfrida felt pierced by a tiny elf dart of jealousy. Telling herself to be ashamed, she schooled her face, glad when Magnus offered Rowena his arm, glad when Rowena took it
. She does not fear him. I am pleased for Magnus’s sake that she does not fear him.
And Rowena was beautiful. Even Elfrida was not immune to the girl’s charm.

Rowena finally smiled again and asked, in a young, more child-like way, “You say Tancred brought my horse?”

“Your pony, Apple,” Elfrida confirmed. “They are both safe at our manor.”

Rowena clasped her hands together, her poise shattering in a flood of excited chatter. “My little horse! It will be so good to see Apple again! I have missed him so much.” She flushed, as if that girlish confession was too revealing, and added quickly, to Magnus, “Are your horses very big? I love high horses, too.”

“Come and see,” Magnus said, tipping Elfrida a wink.

Rowena took a step forward, then stopped. “But the others…”

Her selfless generosity, so unlike the mean spiritedness of the rest of her kin, touched Elfrida deeply. “We shall not leave them, either. Walk with me,” she said quickly, aware, as doubtless Magnus was aware, that the sun was boiling up the heaven and the town was rapidly stirring. “Magnus, we can go back to the widower’s,” she said.

“Aye, he will be glad to see you, especially if you make him breakfast.” Magnus clasped her shoulder. “Hurry along. I shall catch you up.” He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“Magnus?” Rowena was tugging on her ear.

“I shall accompany you and Elfrida. Then you stay with the old man. His name is Alfric and he is a carpenter, like Jesus.” He kissed Rowena gently on the cheek. “Elfrida and I will return here and bring the other maids to you at Alfric’s, I promise. We shall not take long.”

Rowena glanced at Elfrida, who reassured her. “It is the safest way, believe me, Rowena, for you and the girls.”

Elfrida smiled as she spoke, though she was thinking hard.
We cannot take too long or someone may suspect us and get word to Silvester or to some of his sympathetic townsfolk to detain us. We have to return to Norton Mayfield soon, as well, or we shall have more trouble there. Does Rowena know her parents and brothers are dead? If she does not, when should she be told? Not yet.

Rowena’s next question interrupted her hasty thoughts. “You will not hurt Silvester?”

“No,” said Elfrida confidentially. “I vow I will not hurt him.”

I speak true, she thought, as she drew Rowena away and Magnus stalked behind them, protecting their backs.
I do not seek to injure Silvester. I intend to destroy him.

Chapter 20

Alfric was still snoring upstairs when Magnus guided Rowena into the carpenter’s cottage. Elfrida had raced ahead and had built up the fire. Now she was scouring out a pot to make porridge for all of them.

“The gold I have already left for him will cover that and our breakfasts,” Magnus said steadily, when his wife shot him a keen glance after finding Alfric’s store of oats.

Elfrida nodded and pointed to a twig broom standing by the shuttered window. “Will you sweep the floor for me, please?” she asked Rowena. As the girl set nimbly to that task she beckoned to him. “Could you break sticks for me?”

Breaking sticks for the fire gave them the excuse to work closely together and talk. “How do we fetch the rest of the girls out of Silvester’s?” Elfrida whispered to Magnus. “By fire?”

“Too risky,” Magnus said at once. “We might set half the thatch ablaze while they are still sleeping—and they sleep forever, due to the smoke.”

“Some threat of violence? Do not look at me that way, Magnus. I know it is desperate, but we do not have men or time for any kind of siege. It would need to be a pretend, false threat.”

“Real or false, they will bar the doors and hide.”

“I could tempt them out,” Elfrida began, considering charms she might use, but Magnus put his hand over hers.

“We both know what will work right well, and faster,” he said quietly. “A face at their window. A hideous, leering face. A bestial monster, threatening to break in.”

Elfrida stared at the fire, feeling Magnus’s sadness in her own frame. “It did not work for Rowena,” she said, after a space, wanting to defend him against his own plan.

“And how many are like her?”

Still she argued. “And Silvester? He must be out of the way.”

“Or even my good looks will not work to drive the girls outside? Agreed, elfling, that is another problem.” In his frustration, he snapped a branch one-handed with a loud crack and Rowena glanced up from her sweeping.

My height, my size, thought Elfrida, and spoke. “Will you change gowns with me, Rowena?”

Magnus glowered and she added quickly, “If he sees me as Rowena, wandering off, he will surely step out of his house to retrieve her.”

Suddenly Rowena stopped sweeping and pointed to the rafters. Above them, Alfric was peering down from the loft, his sleep-flattened gray hair fluffed out like a dandelion.

“Good morrow!” Magnus called up. “We shall have a breakfast made soon, if it please you. Will you join us?”

He broke several more sticks at once and said bluntly to Elfrida, as if all discussion were over, “Neither you nor Rowena are setting foot out of this house.”

 

 

Naturally there was no more argument, which meant that naturally Elfrida swapped gowns with Rowena after breakfast. The girl did so without complaint, merely stating that she would not wear the black veil.

“Quite right, child, it is too old for you,” said Alfric. He was busy carving a spoon for Rowena, having accepted her appearance at his house without question or curiosity. He took no part in the discussion that followed, indeed he appeared oblivious to it, merely delighted that he had company.

One good thing out of this blasted morning.
Magnus watched Elfrida pin Rowena’s veil onto her hair, carefully covering her red tresses.
If Peter were here with me, we could clear out Silvester’s house by ourselves. Peter is handsome and the lasses would follow him for sure.

Why had he not waited for Peter? Oh yes, had he waited for Peter, Tancred would be here with them as well, cluttering up the place, eating all of Alfric’s stores and wanting to leave now that Rowena was safe.

“The midsummer solstice is in less than a week,” Elfrida reminded him quietly, though he needed no reminders. He watched her turn on the spot and check that her hair was still covered.

BOOK: Knight and the Witch 02 - A Summer Bewitchment
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