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She arched delicate black brows. “I do mean just that.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed, shaking his head. “I do suppose I could have been more considerate of your feelings, but I didn’t think you’d mind. After all, you had done nothing but complain about going up to the castle with me, as it was.” He lifted an apologetic hand. “I can but say I am most sorry for having offended you.”
Feeling that she had made him suffer quite enough, Elizabeth grinned. Stephen was really very good to her, and she did believe he had thought she would be happy to be gone from the castle. He could have no idea that she had become so easily enamored with his friend. She inclined her head. “You are forgiven. And if you like, I will go through your chests and throw everything about as it was before.”
He chuckled wryly. “Nay, help me no more. I knew where things were then. You could not put them back where they belong, did you try.”
She rose and poured him a cup of wine, then held it forth as a peace offering.
Stephen took the cup.
It was a long moment before Elizabeth got around to the next order of business. But get around to it she did. “Did you enjoy your evening?”
He grinned. “Aye, that I did.”
“And Lord Warwicke? He enjoyed the evening, as well?”
Stephen frowned. “I suppose. We caught up on many years. I had not seen him since we were both boys of fourteen.”
Ah, she thought. That might explain why Stephen had failed to mention the other man. “And has he changed a great deal from when you were younger? You recognized him readily enough, after so long a time. And he you.”
“You are right. I did recognize him, but as I think on it, it is not really so very surprising. Even though he is a man now, rather than a boy, his eyes are the same. One doesn’t forget those walnut-brown eyes so easily, they are most uncommon. And we were rather close as fosterlings. Both of us trained with the earl of Norwich, and shared a room for the year Raynor was there. He left upon his father’s death, when he was but fourteen.”
“He has been a baron since the age of fourteen. 'Tis a great responsibility,” she remarked thoughtfully.
Stephen cast her an assessing glance before he went on. “What you say is true. But what have you, Beth? What concern is it of yours?”
She looked toward the fire, hardly feeling its heat on her already flaming cheeks. “I am but curious because you never mentioned him before now. Please go on. Tell me all you know of him.”
Stephen’s expression told her that he was not wholly content with her answer, but he did continue. “He spoke little of his family. I do believe that he loved his father, but I felt there was some bad blood between them. Of his mother I know nothing. He seemed reluctant to mention her at all. I do know that she died some few years after Raynor inherited.”
'Tis most odd, Elizabeth thought as he took a sip of his wine. With a pang, she recalled the deaths of her own parents by plague. She and her brothers often spoke of them, even now. They had been a close-knit family. It had been hard to lose them both so quickly, but she felt her father would not have been happy without his beloved wife.
Perhaps Lord Warwicke was one who did not wish to share his personal life with others. That he was something of a mystery simply made him all the more interesting to Elizabeth. He only needed the right person to confide in. Not that Elizabeth would allow herself to think that she could be that someone. She refused to go that far in her imaginings.
“What is he like now?” she queried softly. “Is he noble and kind and true?”
Stephen watched her intently. “We spoke of general matters, Beth. Many years have passed since we knew each other well but if he is anything like he was as a boy, Raynor is a decent sort. Neither saint nor devil, just a man. He was more open as a boy, but then, life has a way of changing people, does it not?” Stephen stopped, obviously tired of pretending he didn’t see her too-avid interest. “Have you taken a fancy to Raynor?” He laughed. “That’s a tangle, when you could have half the men in England, did you but want them. You don’t even know the man, in fact barely spoke to him.”
“I...” She scowled, her delicate brows meeting over her slender nose. Then she shrugged, deciding to just come out with the truth. There was no sense in prevaricating with Stephen, he knew her too well. “He is quite fascinating, don’t you think?”
“Well, I couldn’t really comment from a woman’s point of view, but I'll be content that you might think so. But hear me, Beth, you’d best set your sights elsewhere. From what he said tonight, I got the impression that Raynor is in no hurry to wed. He told me his personal life has been more than complicated of late. Raynor has a bastard child by a noblewoman, though that is a tragic story in itself.” He went on to tell her of why Raynor was at court and what he had told Stephen about his child, Willow. He concluded by saying, “Though I do like him, you will stay clear of Warwicke, Beth. It would not be right for you to set your sights upon him. Though he meant to wed the child’s mother, the fact is, he did not.”
Elizabeth listened to all this with complete fascination. Many men tarried with serving women as a matter of course, but to get a gentle woman with child and then not marry her? That was another matter.
Yet Stephen had said circumstances had kept them from marrying. And hadn’t Lord Warwicke come to court to claim the child? Wasn’t that the act of a truly honorable man?
Far from discouraging her, Stephen’s remarks made her even more determined to know Raynor better. She had thought, simply by looking at him, that he was not a man to live by the rules of others. His long hair, his arrogant walk, the cool indifference in his eyes, set Lord Warwicke apart on first sight.
She smiled at her brother with not-inconsiderable charm. “I want you to invite him here to sup.”
Stephen stared at her. “I have already done so. But had I known then what I do now, I would not have. As I said, you must set your sights elsewhere, Elizabeth. Mayhap I will send a note and cancel.”
Sapphire eyes widened in horror. “You will not! When is he to come?”
Looking as if the reply were being forced from him, Stephen said, “On the morrow.”
“On the morrow!” Elizabeth rose in flurry of velvet skirts. “How could you give me so little time to prepare?”
His expression relaxed in relief. “I will simply go to him and explain that he can’t...”
She appeared not to hear him. “You must excuse me while I go speak with Olwyn. We will need every moment to prepare a proper meal. We will need fresh pastries and bread. And I shall certainly call in the butcher to kill a pig in the morning. We cannot feed Lord Warwicke salted pork.”
She passed through the doorway with a gentle sway of her slender hips, leaving Stephen staring after her. He knew he should be concerned for his sister, but the only sympathy he felt within him was directed toward Raynor Warwicke. Stephen would himself be here to see to Elizabeth’s well-being.
Raynor had no one to protect him from Elizabeth.
Besides Raynor had said he was returning to Warwicke on the day after the morrow. How much trouble could Elizabeth get herself into in one day?
* * *
The next afternoon found Elizabeth and Olwyn standing in Elizabeth’s bedchamber, looking at the array of gowns they had laid out on the high, wide bed.
“I think the red,” Olwyn said at last, tucking a stray lock of streaky blonde hair into her kerchief. Her gray eyes studied the scarlet cotehardie, with its embroidery of gold.
“Aye.” Elizabeth nodded. “It is my favorite, but I just wondered if the blue...or the saffron...” She turned to run her gaze over the nearest of the three trunks that stood open, their colorful contents spilling over the sides. “I did wear the other red yesterday.”
Tilting her head to one side, Olwyn frowned. “Nay, the red will do very nicely. Men never remember what you wore the previous day. Only that you looked well.”
Elizabeth grinned. Red was her favorite color. “Then that’s that. And I think I'll wear the new gold underdress.”
Olwyn eyed her mistress with surprise, then uncertainty. “But, Elizabeth, I thought you were going to have me loosen it. You told me yourself that it was too tight for common decency.” The slender blond woman went to the chest beneath the unshuttered window and took out a tunic of fine black samite. “I had thought you might want this one.”
Elizabeth blushed, but tried to hide it as she picked up and began to fold the blue cotehardie. “I have rethought the matter. 'Tis not so very tight.”
She would not have Olwyn know why she had changed her mind about the gown. The older woman seemed to think she must still look after Elizabeth as closely as when she had first come to them. But she was no longer thirteen, and would not be treated as such. Elizabeth hoped that if she made an attempt to be even slightly alluring, Lord Warwicke might find it harder to ignore her this night.
For the most part, her beauty meant little to her. It was not something she had earned or achieved by her own hand. It was something God had seen fit to gift her with, and until yesterday she accepted it as such.
But for this once she found herself thinking of her attributes in a different way. She would make Lord Warwicke take notice of her. He was a man, after all, and if all Stephen had said was true, Raynor was not completely immune to the fairer sex. Why couldn’t he at least pause long enough to notice that Elizabeth was a woman? She didn’t think that was so very much to ask.
When Olwyn continued to watch her with speculation, Elizabeth could not control the further rush of color in her creamy cheeks.
“What are you about, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth gave up trying to dissemble. Olwyn knew her better than anyone, and there was no use trying to hide anything from her.
She put the blue gown back on the bed and turned to smooth back the heavy amber velvet bed hangings with a sigh. “I do not know. I can’t explain what has come over me. I just saw this man for the first time yesterday, and I can’t stop thinking about him. And the worst part of it is that he barely seemed to notice me.” She dismissed that one moment of awareness, for it could have been nothing so much as wishful thinking on her part.
“Ah, Beth...” Olwyn put her hands to her slender hips as she sank down on the edge of the one chair in the room. “I should have known it would be this way. All these years the men have been after you like hounds after a bitch, and you don’t even look at them. And now one comes along who ignores you, and you lose your foolish head.”
The sound of booted feet on the stairs saved Elizabeth from making a reply. The footsteps came across the solar and halted outside her bedchamber. There was a scratching at the door. “Beth.”
“Come,” Elizabeth called out, recognizing her brother’s voice.
Stephen entered, and she looked at him with curiosity, as he was dressed for traveling, in a dark woolen cloak that was held together at the shoulder by a heavy silver brooch that bore the Clayburn emblem of a griffin rampant. “You are going somewhere?” she asked.
He seemed less than eager to speak. “Yes,” came the reply.
“You must needs hurry, as Warwicke will be here within hours.”
“Well, you see, that is going to be a problem.” Stephen looked at the floor. Then he raised his eyes and shrugged. “I am away to deliver a message for the king.”
Elizabeth knew a growing unease. “How long will you be gone?”
“Several hours.”
Disappointment flooded her. “Several hours. Stephen, how could you? You know how I have been planning this. Everything is in readiness.”
“It cannot be helped. We will simply ask Lord Warwicke to come at some other time.”
“When?”
He hesitated and Elizabeth frowned. “When, brother mine?”
“I know not. Raynor must return to his estates on the morrow.” He wouldn’t look at Elizabeth. Obviously he had hoped to avoid having to tell her they were leaving so soon.
She placed her hands on her hips, glaring her anger. “Do you mean that this is it? I shall not see him again?”
Stephen smiled encouragingly. “Mayhap he will come to London again in the future.”
“You know he will not.” She couldn’t seem to breathe past the unexplainable ache in her chest. It was as if something dear to her had died aborning. “All these years you have not seen him because Warwicke only chose to come to court when he was summoned. What chance is there that he will return before another ten years has come and gone? I shall be an old woman.”
He eyed her sternly. “Now, Beth, don’t carry on so. I told you that Warwicke is not for you. I but live up to my responsibilities in protecting you. Besides, I have no choice in whether I stay or go. The king does require me to see to my duty.”
She subsided then. What Stephen said was true. He must needs fulfill his duty to the crown. But she had wanted so badly to see Warwicke again. Not that she was under any illusions about what would happen between them. Elizabeth had hoped for no more than to make him take note of her as a desirable woman, nothing else. Stephen really had no need to warn her away again.
It seemed particularly unfair that Raynor could not come simply because Stephen would be late.
Then an idea came to her. She looked at her brother with an expression of cool reason. “Why can Warwicke not come here anyway? He has been invited. It would be rude to ask him to stay away now.”
But Stephen began to shake his head before she had even finished. “Nay, Beth, ’twould not serve. The man cannot come here and spend the evening with you unchaperoned.”
She faced him squarely. “It would not be the whole evening. I could simply entertain Lord Warwicke until your return. By your own mouth, he is friend to you. Can you not trust me to spend a few short hours in his presence?”
He scowled, his dark brows meeting over his straight nose. “'Tis not so simple, madame, as well you know. I am not blind. You have an interest in him that goes beyond any I've seen you show before. You as much as admitted it last eve.”
“But, Stephen—” She stamped her foot. “I am not a child to be ordered about. I am a woman full grown, with my own funds to support me. I have no need to be commanded by you.”
He stopped her with a raised hand. “What you say is true.” He looked into her eyes, and when he spoke again, his tone was reasoning. “But, Beth, I am your brother. In all conscience, I must not allow you to do anything that would be of harm to you. Please, I say again, the answer can only be nay. It is for your own good. You cannot be alone with him.” He paused for a long moment, obviously torn. She knew it was very difficult for her brother to deny her anything. Finally he shrugged. “There is one way, and one way only.”
“Yes?” she answered eagerly.
“We will ask Raynor to come at a later time. That way there can be no hint of impropriety. I'll write a note to explain the matter to him.”
Elizabeth rushed to her chest and removed a piece of parchment and a quill, which she handed to her brother. Quickly Stephen scratched out his message. “You will send this around to him at Windsor, please.” He held the missive toward his sister.
Elizabeth took the parchment between two fingers. She gave Stephen a sweet smile. “Thank you, brother.”
“I will see you ere long.” Stephen told her, with obvious relief at having the matter settled to both their benefits. “And now, I must be off. I go with two of the king’s own guard, and they wait for me in the lane outside.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek, then turned and dashed from the house.
When he had gone, Elizabeth stood there, the note to Raynor Warwicke in her hand. This was not what she had hoped for. If Warwicke was leaving in the morning, he would as like not stay for long now. Elizabeth sighed, her gaze lingering on the sheet of parchment. As she looked at it, she began to experience thoughts of mutiny. Why should she do as Stephen told her? He was only her brother, not her master.
What harm would it do for Warwicke to spend an hour or two in her sole company?
He was a knight and a nobleman. Surely there could be no harm in serving him a meal and speaking with him. She looked toward her companion, who had said nothing during her conversation with her brother. Olwyn was watching her with a frown, as if she knew what Elizabeth was thinking and liked it not.
Elizabeth tilted her chin. “You will be close by.”
“Nay,” she answered. “As your brother said, it will not serve.” Olwyn held out her hand. “I shall have that sent around to Lord Warwicke for you.”
Putting the missive behind her back, Elizabeth smiled. “I think not,” she said.
They argued for some time. But in the end, the message did not go out, though Olwyn never stopped frowning and muttering dire utterances about the consequences of behaving foolishly.
Chapter Three
Raynor rode his charger through the narrow tracks that passed for streets just as the sun was beginning to set. Its early-spring light gilded the castle walls above and behind him, as if to give testament to King Edward’s belief that Windsor was somehow special. Having been born there, the king had a deep fondness for his home, and believed that King Arthur of old had once housed his knights of the Round Table on this very site. Looking back over his shoulder, Raynor studied the castle with appraising eyes. Four massive stone towers ran the length of the immense wall at equal intervals where it rested on the hill behind him. Nothing was visible of the magnificent round tower, begun by Henry II and finished by Edward, save the king’s flag, which fluttered golden in the gentle breeze.
Edward’s Windsor was awe-inspiring.
Raynor would certainly give him that. But it seemed as if a great deal had been spent on the castle to beautify it, as well as add to its strength. To Raynor’s way of thinking, England had already been drained dry by the war in France. There had been no money for the luxuries apparent in the spacious and well-appointed rooms of the round tower.
At least with King John now ransomed, Edward would have a source of income besides the backs of his own subjects. Knowing his opinion of the sovereign was not held by most of his fellow noblemen didn’t change Raynor’s thinking. Necessities came before comforts. It was one of the things Raynor had learned watching his father squander everything he had for his mother’s whims.
Lips tight, Raynor gripped the reins more securely in his hands and turned his thoughts to the present. Thinking of his father always brought on feelings of resentment and anger. But those emotions were also mixed with love and pity. If only Robert Warwicke had not been so weak. He shook his head to clear it. It would be best to center his mind on the coming meal with Stephen Clayburn and his sister.
Raynor didn’t know why he had accepted the invitation to sup. Mayhap because seeing Stephen again had reminded him of what he was like at fourteen. Then it had seemed as if he had any number of bright possibilities before him. On being fostered to the earl of Norwich, he had suddenly discovered that there were men who lived by the rules set out in tales of chivalry. Raynor had believed that he, too, might become one of those men. He might someday meet some fair maiden who would return his love with all faith and honor. But his father’s death had called him home to his mother and her daily attempts to control his every thought or action. He was determined to never put himself in the position of having to battle a woman for autonomy again.
As he rode into the heart of the village, Raynor slowed his mount with a pull on the reins. He studied his route, carefully following the directions Stephen had laid out for him.
The town was much like the village at home in Warwicke, only larger. Narrow daub-and-wattle houses sat at odd angles on irregular-size lots. On these bits of property, tenants kept their animals, which were mostly chickens, pigs and sheep. But there was an occasional cow, expensive to keep but producing a great deal of valuable manure. Plump children played in the doorways, barely glancing up at the passing knight. Living in Windsor, they saw many finer-dressed folk than Raynor, in his serviceable brown tunic, russet cotehardie and dark hose.
Urging his charger around the last turn through the maze of hard-packed dirt tracks, Raynor looked up to see a two-story whitewashed house that stood out among the others because of its size and the cleanliness of its yard. There were no animals roaming about, and no pile of manure graced the small strip of grass in front of the low, narrow door that stood open to admit the last of the sunlight.
Now that he was here, he knew a moment’s hesitation. Mayhap it was a mistake to come. He didn’t know Stephen anymore. He raked the heavy hair back from his forehead as he told himself that neither did Stephen know him. He had treated Raynor with warmth yesterday because he remembered the boy. It wasn’t likely that he would be so forthcoming, did he know the man.
