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The Bought Bride
Juliet Landon
NORMAN KNIGHT…ENGLISH LADY CONQUEST, REVENGE AND…PASSIONLady Rhoese of York was an undoubted prize. A wealthy landowner, she would fill the king's coffers well if one of his knights were to marry her.Judhael de Brionne accepted the challenge. Desiring her land, the army captain was prepared to take Rhoese as part of the deal. After all, she was beautiful enough–albeit highly resentful–and surely he would be able to warm his ice-cold bride, given time….
She was to be married at the King’s discretion.
Rhoese was vulnerable, exquisitely beautiful, tempestuous, yet with a hint of fear, and not quite as ice-cold as she would like people to think.
Until now, Jude had only toyed with thoughts of marriage. The possibility of taking an Englishwoman to his bed permanently had never been more than a passing thought during his eight years in England. Until now.
This one presented more than a challenge….
Praise for Juliet Landon
The Knight’s Conquest
“A feisty heroine, heroic knight, an entertaining battle of wills and plenty of colorful history flavor this tale, making it a delightful one-night read.”
—Romantic Times
The Bought Bride
Juliet Landon
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Chapter One
Michaelmas, September 29th, 1088—York
A sneaking cold wind whipped the light woollen shawl off Rhoese’s head to reveal a rippling helmet of auburn hair the colour of ripe chestnuts. She snatched the scarf and tied it briskly around her shoulders, trapping the two heavy plaits that reached to her waist. A halo of spiralling tendrils fluttered around her face. ‘One cart of timber from Gilbert of Newthorpe,’ she called to the scribbling clerk at her side. ‘Mark that down, Brother Alaric. Two cows worth twenty pence each from Robert, brother of Thorkil.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said the cleric. ‘Not too fast, my lady, if you please.’ With Robert’s goad to prod them, the cows were not inclined to wait in order.
‘Be quick, man. Master Ralph is here with his corn payment.’
Bundles of thatch, baskets of salted fish, live hens and fresh eggs, sesters of honey and rounds of cheese, sacks of malt and grain were carried into the fenced compound at Toft Green and accounted for by Lady Rhoese, her bailiff and her clerk. It was Michaelmas, a time for the payment of dues in her first year as a landowner in her own right. Men had been coming since early morning to hand over their shillings and pence as rent for ploughland, croft and meadow, for two mills and two town dwellings, all noted down on rolls of parchment that buckled beneath the cleric’s quill. Over his head, the canvas shelter began to flap and rattle with the first squall of rain.
‘How many more, m’lady?’ he said, throwing the quill down and taking another one from behind his ear.
Rhoese held back the wayward wisps of hair with one hand and strained her eyes towards the great stone archway where Micklegate passed through York’s city wall. The light was already fading and soon the gate would be closed for the night, though there were still stragglers who had walked all day to bring what they owed. A cart passed through, rattling and jolting behind two oxen, loaded high with sheep fleeces, and a party of riders surged behind, impatient and obviously in high spirits.
‘Who’s coming, Bran?’ she called to her bailiff at the gate.
‘They’re Normans, m’lady,’ he replied, frowning.
‘Close the gate after the cart. Quick,’ she ordered. Instinctively, she took a step backwards under the cover of the canvas shelter. The steady stream of wagons and animals passing along the track towards her demesne had attracted some heed, and several of the riders had stopped to watch the distant scene of organised chaos, their attention caught by bellowing steers and bleating ewes. Rhoese’s guess that the Norman party were huntsmen returning from a day’s sport would not be far wrong, with a spot of harmless trouble-making already in their minds. Damned Norman upstarts.
It was this unease, born of past experience, that kept her wary of what was happening beyond the stockade that surrounded her large compound, so that when two of the horsemen came as far as the gates to watch more closely, she backed even further into the shadowy recesses of the shelter. Since the last king’s great national survey of two years ago, the estates that she had inherited from her mother had gone largely unchallenged since, at the time, she was still living at home, the rents and dues from her estate merely augmenting those of her late father, a king’s thegn and wealthy merchant of York. Now, she was on her own, a target for property-seeking Normans, and vulnerable. One of the many risks of becoming independent.
Lowering her voice, she continued dictating to the cleric whilst trying to ignore the two inquisitive riders until some mysterious unseen force made her turn and look. One of them was watching the scene in the yard, but the other watched her, and only her. He was tall in the saddle and powerfully built, that much she could tell in one glance, not a man she had seen before in York, nor one she could have forgotten easily. His dark hair ruffled like thick silk in the stiff autumn breeze, and his eyes looked across at her like level daggers beneath straight black brows.
He saw her start, and beckoned to her, a signal she quickly decided that a servant would not ignore. Pretence was the answer. ‘My lord?’ she called, walking unhurriedly towards him. A sheep scuttled across, stopping her halfway.
‘Where’s your master?’ he called. His voice was abrupt and deep, used to command and to obedience, taking it for granted that she could speak French.
She shrugged. ‘Away, sir,’ she replied.
‘And your mistress? Where’s she?’
‘Away too.’
‘So who’s in charge here?’
Again she shrugged. ‘All of us. We’re trusted.’
‘Your name, girl?’
She took a deep breath, ready to lie. But the bailiff was not happy about the number of fleeces in the cart, and his loud query was meant directly for her. ‘Lady Rhoese,’ he called. ‘This load’s two short.’
A howl went up from the carter. ‘There ain’t, m’lady. They’re all there. Honest.’
The horseman dismounted and threw his reins to the man by his side, and Rhoese saw that he would be intent on an explanation. The deceit was already over, and she had not enjoyed even this short-lived attempt at subservience.
Defiantly, she faced him as he came towards her through the gate. ‘My name,’ she said, crisply, ‘is Lady Rhoese of York, daughter of the late Lord Gamal of York, and granddaughter of a former sheriff. Is that enough for you, or would you like me to quote my entire pedigree? I can, if you wish it, but I’m rather occupied, as you see.’
Lazily, he strode forward as if her defiance meant nothing to him, his hair lifting off his forehead like a thatch in a gale. ‘I’m sure you could. So why the deception, I wonder? Is that your way?’
‘Oh, with Normans, sir, I use any wiles I can devise to keep their noses out of my affairs.’
‘You appear to have strong opinions about Normans, my lady. What have they done to deserve it, I wonder?’
For some unaccountable reason, she felt her heart hammering and squeezing her breath from her lungs, further irritating her after she had sworn never again to be affected by a man. This man was standing within her compound as if he owned it, his great legs planted like trees, his hands splayed over slim hips where a gold-buckled belt sat low on a linen tunic with bands of blue and gold. Expensive attire. Unwillingly, she noticed his muscular neck, shoulders and chest like a wrestler, and she found herself doing what she knew men did when they looked at her, peeling him down to his skin to see what lay there. She realised she was blushing, and the smile in his eyes told her that he knew why.
‘As for that, sir,’ she said, lifting her chin, ‘if you don’t know the answer, then it’s clear you’ve not been in England long. It would take at least a week to tell you what damage you and your kind have done to us in the last twenty-two years. Fortunately, we still have our dignity and our language left. Those are two things you’ll never remove, thank heaven.’ She looked around for her bailiff and called to him in English. ‘Bran! Get this overweening lout from under my feet, will you?’ To the Norman, she spoke again in French. ‘As you see, sir, I’m too busy for small talk. Another day, perhaps. Pray excuse me.’
As she spoke, however, even her show of hostility was not enough to blind her to each detail of his face, the faint shadow round the strongly angled jaw, the firm wide line of the mouth, the dent in the chin and the long straight line of the nose. His high cheeks had already caught the shine of the rain, and the eyes that had been no more than dark slits were now widening at her brave animosity, deep brown, dark-lashed and unnervingly bold. She flinched, suddenly and inexplicably uncertain of herself, her eyes sliding reluctantly away to avoid reaching any more liberal conclusions about his remarkably good looks. A bitter voice breathed in her ear: he would be no different from the rest, Norman or English.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I can see you have much to do. Are you the owner of this demesne or is your husband joint owner?’
‘You ask too many questions, sir. And your friend is waiting.’
Her attempts to dislodge him made him smile. ‘Hmm.’ He grinned. ‘Another time then, lady. Perhaps you’ll be at the ceremony tomorrow, eh? As a tenant of the king, you’ll surely be there with your donation?’
His probing irritated her. ‘Oh, who knows how much curiosity value we English landowners have these days? We’re a dying breed. Why not show ourselves while we still have the chance? Is that what you mean? Good day, sir.’
He found no ready answer to that, but nodded curtly and strode away through the gate with a word to the bailiff who held it for him. Without another glance, he was back in the saddle and away at a canter, while Rhoese struggled to drag her mind unwillingly back to the pandemonium in the yard and to breathe past the uncomfortable knot of fear in her throat.
There was no doubt at all that she had overdone the antagonism for no reason except that he was a Norman. Or was there another reason, something too recent to be excused or explained? Something to do with men in general, those unreliable, feckless, self-seeking creatures? For the last ten months she had been reassessing her need of them, and now no other feelings remained except contempt and a wish for vengeance. Cold, hard, sweet revenge. Submission and humility she reserved only for special occasions when nothing else would do, having discovered to her cost how severely they were undervalued.
The cleric had stopped writing and was clearing away his tools before the rain spoiled his script. A bundle of rolls bounced about in the wind. ‘Who was that, my lady?’ he said, sticking his quills back into his hair.
‘I’ve no idea,’ she said. ‘He’ll not be back.’
Brother Alaric, the lady’s chaplain as well as her accounts clerk, was not a gambling man, but even he felt tempted to put some pence on the return of that admirer before the next sunset.
The two riders had passed the crofts of Toft Green before one of them smiled and glanced at his stony-faced companion. ‘You should see your expression,’ he grinned. ‘It’s a picture.’
‘All right. So tell me. Who is she?’
‘That, my fine friend, is one of York’s two remaining women landowners, and I cannot tell you of a single male who doesn’t long to get his hands on it. Yes—’ he laughed ‘—her and the property. Snapped your head off, did she? Well, she would. She’s been here in this corner of the city for the last ten months, since her father died, and she doesn’t let a man within a yard-length of her. Except her chaplain, of course. And her brother.’
‘Well, there could be several reasons for that. She’s the loveliest thing I’ve ever seen, Ranulf. Those great dark eyes spitting fire. That body.’ He sucked in his breath, recalling the thick auburn hair, the full mouth, the skin moist with rain that ought to have told him she was a lady, even without the usual head-covering. She was the stuff of men’s dreams and fantasies. ‘She tells me her father was Gamal. Who was Gamal, exactly?’
‘A king’s thegn. One of the last here in York. A wealthy merchant. Disappeared at sea last winter. Traded in furs and walrus ivory, mostly. His wharf is alongside the river by the bridge. Big warehouses and several ships.’
‘The business is still going, then?’
‘Yes, the trading was taken over by his assistant, a strapping young clever-dick called Warin. Not only the trading, either.’
‘Oh? What else?’
‘The widow. He moved into Lord Gamal’s house and settled in with the second wife. A shrew. Danish. Didn’t take her long to accept a bit of comfort. But the daughter, Lady Rhoese, moved out and set up on her own. Took her father’s death hard, apparently, and doesn’t want any more to do with the stepmother.’
‘Or the stepmother’s lover, who presumably gets his hands on more than the widow?’
‘Exactly. There may have been something between him and the daughter. We’re not sure.’
‘We?’
‘The court. The laugh is, Jude, that she believes that by keeping quiet and out of the way she’ll be quite safe.’
‘From what?’
‘Norman attention. Marriage, and the usual property take-over. It’s the only legal way a man can get at her estate, unless she sells it to him, of course, although plenty of women lost theirs illegally, as you know. But the idea of a woman holding an estate in her own name is ridiculous when she’s supposed to be rendering knight-service to the king for it. She’ll have to lose it eventually.’ The young man named Ranulf wiped the drips of rain off the end of his nose and looked down sadly at his soaking green woollen tunic. Even for the hunt, he liked to do his best to earn the nickname ‘Flambard’. Flamboyant was what he had always been, and even as the king’s chaplain there would be no sombre clothing for him at a court known for its extravagant dress.
‘So the king knows about her, does he?’
‘Most certainly he does. Since he saw that survey his late father did two years ago, he knows exactly who’s got what, where it is, how much it’s worth and how much revenue he can expect from it. He’s got her estate earmarked for whoever will pay him most to get their hands on it. Better start saving up if you want to put in a bid.’
‘Then he’ll marry her off?’
‘Just like that, whether she likes it or not. And she won’t.’
‘So she’ll lose everything.’
‘Everything.’ He pointed to a tall wooden fort on a mound beyond the thatched rooftops. ‘Over there, see? That’s one of the castles, and over there—’ his hand swung further to the left ‘—is the big castle. King William the Bastard had to dam the River Fosse to make the moat for it. The city people were not too happy about that.’ He laughed, thinking of the flooded houses and orchards.
But Jude was more interested in Lady Rhoese of York than in the two castles, which he had already seen on his way into the city. ‘Tell me more about her,’ he said.
The smile widened. ‘I can tell you that we took bets.’
‘On what?’
‘On how long it would take you to win her.’
Jude’s eyebrow lifted at that. ‘I see. And how long d’ye think we’ll have before the king returns to London? Do I have days, or will it be weeks?’
Ranulf patted his horse’s wet neck. ‘Well, we’ve got the St Mary’s Abbey ceremony tomorrow, and then the king will want to go hunting again.’
‘When does the king not want to go hunting?’ Jude murmured.
‘And I expect that two or three days later we shall return to London. That doesn’t give you much time, does it?’
‘Indecent haste, in the circumstances.’
‘Think you can do it?’
‘I intend to try. But I’ll want to know more than you’ve told me.’
‘Then you’d better know that the king has begun proceedings—’ he glanced behind him, lowering his voice ‘—to confiscate her late father’s estate.’ As keeper of the king’s seal, the young Ranulf Flambard was in a better position than most to know that.
Their manner became suddenly serious. ‘Now that,’ said Jude, ‘is not funny, is it?’
‘No, it certainly isn’t.’
