The White Lord of Wellesbourne (31 page)

The Street of the Jewelers wasn’t
a particularly large place. It was, in fact, rather small. Situated in the
heart of an avenue surrounded by plaster and thatched-roof row houses, it was
full of people and stalls. Some merchants seemed to work out of their shops,
but still others had lean-to’s up against the walls. And, oddly enough, it did
not smell. The dirt avenue was swept and relatively clean.

Matthew lowered Alixandrea gently
to the ground.  As she stood there and gaped at the bustling site, he
dismounted behind her and handed the reins over to the nearest man-at-arms. 
Over to their left, Mark dismounted his steed, rather testily, and opened the
carriage door for his wife. That was as far as he went to help her. She had to
climb out of the cab herself.

If Matthew noticed his brother’s
behavior, he did not let on. He took his wife’s elbow and began to guide her
towards the stalls.

“Now,” he said. “What will it be?
A gold ring? A silver ring?”

Alixandrea was so excited that
she could barely contain it. “I am not sure. I will have to see some examples
and make a selection. “

The first shop they came to was a
dim, crowded place that smelled of odd incense. An old man with a strange cap
on his head was there to show them his selection of fine jewelry. There were
red stones, white stones, green stones, and stones that had many colors in
them.  Matthew and Alixandrea inspected the rows of fine rings in his carrying
case.

“Here is a gold band,” Matthew
had to remove his gauntlet so that he could pick up the jewelry. “It is rather
nice.”

She glanced at it. “Too plain.”

He lifted his eyebrows and put it
back.  As he was sifting through some of the others, she held up a silver ring
set with several diamonds.  It was a slender, pretty band and she slid it
easily on her slender, pretty finger.

“This one,” she announced,
holding it up for all to see.

Matthew looked at it; it was a
lovely, glittery ring. “Are you sure? There are many other shops. Perhaps we
should look some more before making a decision.”

She shook her head. “Nay,” she
said. “I like this one.”

He wasn’t going to argue with
her. If she liked it, she liked it. “Do you want to look at anything else?
Necklaces, perhaps?”

She took her eyes off the wedding
ring long enough to glance at the other items the old man had.  She veered off
course and ended up back at the rings. Matthew watched her pluck a thick silver
band from the collection.  She looked up at him.

“Do you like it?” she asked
timidly.

He lifted an eyebrow. “It is too
big for you.”

“I meant for you.”

After a brief moment of
realization, he snorted and removed his other gauntlet.  He held up his left
hand to her.

“Put it on.”

Grinning shyly, she shoved the
ring onto his enormous finger.  He held his hand up, looking at it, acquainting
himself with the feel of it. “It is as if it was made for me,” he announced. “A
perfect fit.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.” He kissed her, taking
another look at her ring. “And this one is as flawless and delicate and
beautiful as you are.”

She smiled modestly; his
compliments were coming to mean a great deal to her whereas once, she was
suspicious of them.  Matthew put his arm around her.

“Now you must pick out something
else, otherwise I will feel very foolish,” he said.

“Why?’

“Because we have only been here a
matter of minutes and you have already made your selection. Caroline and Mark
will think I have forced you into a quick decision simply to be done with it.”

“We cannot let them think that,”
she leaned against him, gazing up into his strong face. “By all means, let us
visit other stalls.”

Matthew paid for the rings and
they emerged back onto the avenue with their new-found adornment.  As
Alixandrea excitedly showed Caroline, Mark went over to his brother and peered
at his ringed finger. He lifted an eyebrow and shook his head.

“Why did you let her talk you
into that?” he snorted.

Matthew was not oblivious to how
his brother felt about Alixandrea. It had been increasingly apparent since their
father’s accident, even though she had clearly been exonerated of any wrongful
actions.  Though Mark had mostly kept his opinions to himself, there were times
when the truth broke through.  Yet his behavior did not seem isolated simply to
Alixandrea; he had been increasingly hostile to his wife as well.  The more the
wives were around, the more unhappy Mark seemed to be. Matthew knew his brother
well enough to know why.

“I am proud to wear this,” he
told his brother. “I you had any sense, you would wear one, too.”

Mark looked at him as if he’d
lost his mind. “Why?”

Matthew lowered his voice.
“Because you are married and I would ask, for the duration of this trip, that
you at least act as if you are. I do not want to hear tale of your
indiscretions with your wife in residence with you.”

Mark’s dark eyes cooled. “My
activities are of no concern to you and you have always respected that. I would
ask that you continue to do so.”

“Not with Caroline present. What
you do when she is at Wellesbourne and you are out and about is your business.
But while she is here with you, I would expect you to honor your vows to her. 
If nothing else, to preserve the woman’s dignity. She has tolerated far too
much of your roving ways and has never said a word.  The least you could do is
show her a measure of respect while we are in London.”

Mark did not back down. “You may
give the orders on the battlefield or within the family, but when it comes to
my marriage, I draw the line. You will not order me about in my own marriage.”

“I will say no more,” Matthew
growled. “But I will tell you this; if Caroline comes to me in tears because of
your lack of discretion, you will hear from me and it will not be pleasant.”

Mark shook his head. “You have
been married two weeks and you think to lecture me? You are the last person
that I would take marital advice from.”

“My marriage seems to be starting
far better than yours did.”

“Give it time. You have had a
woman or two in your bed during your visits to London.”

“Not while I was married.”

Mark suddenly jabbed an angry
finger in Alixandrea’s direction. “By the law, if not by the law of God, You
have been married to that woman for ten years and I know for a fact that you
have bedded many a wench during that time. In fact, you cavorted quite seriously
with Mena for a solid year without regard to your betrothal. So think not,
brother, to lecture me on the sanctity of marriage when you smashed yours into
the dirt for many long years and did so happily. Your self-righteousness makes
me sick.”

Alixandrea and Caroline, by now,
were listening. With Mark’s raised voice and Matthew’s body language, it had
not been difficult to hear or see what was going on. Alixandrea took the full
brunt of Mark’s last sentence, vicious and stormy as it was. He may as well have
physically struck her; it would have done far less damage.

 Alixandrea’s gaze traveled
between her husband and Mark before silently, with dignity, making her way back
over to the carriage that sat parked along the edge of the avenue.  Without a
hind glance, she climbed inside and closed the door. With tears in her eyes,
Caroline followed.

Matthew stood there a moment
before closing his eyes, sickened by what his wife had heard, knowing the
heated words had devastated her.  He could not muster the strength to become
angry with his brother; Mark had said nothing that was untrue.

Wiping a weary, remorseful hand
over his face, he followed his wife’s path back to the carriage.  Looking in
the cab window, he could see Alixandrea seated with her head hanging down.  He
could not see her face, but he could only imagine her expression.

“Alixandrea,” he said quietly.
“Mark was angry with me. He spoke… out of turn. If I could take back his words,
I would surely do so simply to ease your heart.”

Her slender shoulders shrugged.
“It is of little matter.”

It wasn’t of little matter and
the both knew it. “I am truly sorry if your feelings were hurt,” he said. “Had
I known he was going to explode at me, I would have stopped him before his
words could reach your ears.”

Her head came up and he was
struck by the pain in her bronze eyes.  He tore his gaze away from her long
enough to look at Caroline.

“Will you leave us a moment?”

Caroline obediently climbed out
of the cab. Matthew helped her to the street. He then climbed in to the
carriage, causing the thing to lurch dangerously under his weight.  He was far
too big to be in it. But he wasn’t about to leave Alixandrea like this.

“Nothing he said was a surprise
to you,” he sat across from her, gazing into her pale, sorrowful face. “I
cannot change the past, much as I would like to. But it was wrong of Mark to
throw it in your face like that. He’s angry with me, and because of it, he is
trying to get back at me by hurting you.”

She inhaled a long, deep breath. 
Her eyes moved to her new ring and she toyed with it, absently. “So her name
was Mena.”

“Aye.”

“So now the reason has a name.”

He sighed. “I told you that the
reason no longer exists. I meant it.”

“Were you in love with her?”

“I thought so at the time.”

At least he was being honest. She
could not fault him that. “Did you want to marry her?” she asked.

He lifted an eyebrow
thoughtfully. “Strangely enough, not particularly. I thought that I was too
young to marry. I did not want to marry anyone.”

“Especially me.”

“Especially you.”

A tense hush fell over them, each
lost to their own thoughts.  Matthew was praying she would forgive the distress
and Alixandrea was struggling to do so.

“We’ve known such joy over the
past few days, Matt,” she said softly. “I suppose I would like to think that we
have both waited all of our lives for this time. I know I did. But I am also
well aware that you did not. Hearing her name spoken… it was a bit of a shock.
It somehow made her more human, not just a faceless, nameless ghost from the
past.”

He leaned forward, elbows resting
on his knees. “I have said it before and I will say it again. I was a fool. 
Mark was right; I treated our betrothal horribly. I disrespected all that it
should have stood for. I did not want to marry you and it was my own personal
rebellion to live loosely before the bonds of matrimony could tie me down.” He
reached out, gently taking her hands and holding them tightly. “But do you know
what? I was wrong. I was so wrong that I cannot even begin to comprehend what a
complete idiot I was.  Though the past cannot be erased, I will make you this
promise for the future; I swear on my oath as a knight that I will never stray,
that I will never disrespect you, that I will always be kind to you, and that I
will love you for the rest of my life as deeply as any man has ever loved a
woman.”

Tears suddenly spilled over in
her eyes as if a bucket had been dumped. They literally coursed down her
cheeks. Matthew moved to sit beside her, taking her in to his arms and ignoring
the extremely rocking of the carriage.  He held her close, his lips against her
forehead as she wept softly against him.

“No tears, love,” he murmured.
“We have much happiness ahead of us. I swear that I will do my best to always
give you joy.”

She looked up at him, her cheeks
wet, and he pulled his thumbs across her face to dry the tears.  “You do give
me joy,” she whispered. “And I will love you, too, until I die.”

 He smiled faintly at her, warmed
by her words, warmed by the moment between them. Whatever feelings had been
developing between them had now come full circle, anchoring deep into their
hearts, never to be cut loose.  He did not care what his brother thought; he
adored the woman and would be plain about it. His grin broadened.

“I do love you,” he murmured.

“I love you, too.”

He laughed softly before kissing
her, so deeply that she had to pull away from him so that she could take a
breath.  He continued to kiss her, every part of her face and flesh that his
lips could come into contact with.

“I will tell you this every day,
so you had better become used to it,” he murmured.

Her hands were on his face, his
neck, as he forcefully kissed her. “It will never become tiresome, I assure
you. Tell me with every breath you take and I shall be glad to hear it.”

“Then do not let Mark, or anyone
else, remind you of my horrid past. It is of no matter. All that matters is
that I am your husband now and I worship you.”

She nodded, overwhelmed by his
attention, and he finally pulled away. He sat a moment, gazing at her.

“Do you know that I have never
seen such a sweet face?’ he asked with a twinkle in his eye.