Her Banished Lord

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‘Hugh, was Louise all right?’

‘Perfectly, thank you. Gil is looking after her.’

So tall. And when the sunlight gilds the tips of his hair, he really does look like Lucifer. Her eyes fell on the fraying sleeves of his grey tunic. A beautiful, albeit rather shabby Lucifer…

‘I should not really be speaking to you, my brother will disapprove.’ Aude softened her words with a smile.

She really did not understand it, but truly it was impossible not to smile when Hugh looked down at her like that. His eyes were soft and unguarded, as they had been before his banishment. His mouth had gone up at the corner, exactly as it used to when laughter between them was but a breath away. Aude was beginning to think that one could not help but smile whenever Hugh did. His coldness when she had first seen him on that barge that morning had been particularly distressing.

Hugh Duclair seemed to have a strange effect on her these days. She felt fluttery when he was close by, most unlike her usual calm self. It had not always been so; when they were younger there was only ease between them. Aude had liked him then and she liked him still. Except…well, there was that inauspicious encounter early this morning. She had heartily disliked him when he had taken it upon himself to remove her baggage from the other barge!

Hugh lifted a brow. ‘Wise man, your brother.’

His voice was dry. Deep. Surely it had not always been as deep? And his mouth—when had that begun to fascinate her? Hugh had a full lower lip which hinted at a sensual nature; his upper lip had a slight dip in the centre. On his cheeks there was the slight shadow of an incipient beard. Heavens! Why ever was she examining Hugh like this? A kiss. What would his kiss be like? It was an extraordinarily compelling thought, it would not be pushed to one side. She would enjoy Hugh’s kiss…

Jerking her gaze away, Aude stared at a tree past Hugh’s shoulder, painfully conscious that her eyes wanted to linger on his face, to study that nose, so strong and straight, to memorise the exact curve of those high cheekbones. Her eyes wanted to learn his features in a way that was new to her. It was extremely unsettling, not unpleasant exactly, but deeply unsettling.

Fond though Aude had been of Martin, she had never felt the slightest inclination to learn his features; her eyes had not wanted to linger on him. This reaction to Hugh Duclair was baffling. It must be because she was so worried about him. The future of a man with a day to get out of the Duchy and only a small purse between him and penury could only be bleak. Fortunately, Hugh did not appear to have noticed either her interest or her confusion.

Some swallows were diving low over the river. As they swooped up past the white cliffs on the opposite bank, Aude forced herself to concentrate on the patterns they were tracing in the air.

‘I would not want you to court your brother’s displeasure on my account, particularly when he is in the right,’ Hugh said softly.

Slowly, as though he were fighting himself, he touched her hand. Tingles raced up her arm.

‘Take care, Aude. The river has taken a bite out of the path here, you and Edwige must watch your step.’

Sure enough, a section of the bank had broken away.

Hugh flashed a grin at her, revealing strong white teeth. ‘Wouldn’t want you falling in twice in a day. Aude, my banishment is not effective till midnight, so I think you may safely allow me to escort you one last time. In any case, there is no one else about.’ He offered her his arm. ‘Edouard need never know. If you manage to remain silent, you may truthfully tell him that you only spoke to me when absolutely necessary.’

Chapter Four

Hugh lifted an eyebrow, daring her to follow his lead.

If you manage to remain silent.

The wretch, he was needling her!

‘There must be more of the devil in me than I had thought,’ Aude murmured, laying her fingers on the worn grey sleeve without the slightest hesitation. ‘For this afternoon the thought of disobeying Edouard is most attractive.’

Hugh’s eyes lit up. ‘I am relieved to hear it.’

The path narrowed as they entered the shadowy inlet. Branches brushed Aude’s clothes, clear sunlight became dappled. Aude was conscious of Edwige following a couple of paces behind, listening with avid curiosity to their every word.

‘I am also glad to see you are fully recovered from your…swim earlier,’ he added softly.

‘Yes.’ Like Hugh, Aude responded quietly. It had the effect of making this, a walk by the river in full day, feel oddly clandestine. ‘And your sister—I take it you found her without any difficulty and that she really is fully recovered?’

‘Yes, thank you, Louise is well.’ He glanced pointedly at the river. ‘Aude, why have you chosen to walk this way? Wouldn’t a ride along the inland pathways be more congenial after this morning?’

‘Indeed, but after you tossed my baggage off that ship…’ She scowled at him, caught the tail end of an unrepentant grin, and continued. ‘I took your advice, Hugh, and found another.’ She gestured at the barge moored to its post in the riverbank. Leaves rustled overhead.

They stared at the barge.

Something flickered in Hugh’s eyes and he looked sharply away. ‘I am sorry about that, Aude.’ His voice had an odd inflection to it.

‘Don’t give it a thought. In truth you did me a favour, for the wave did not penetrate the inlet. This ship and my baggage are quite safe.’

Blue-grey eyes travelled the length of the ship, from the snarling wolf carved on the swooping prow, to the finial on its rounded stern. They were more than a little troubled. ‘It is small for a river barge,’ he commented.

‘It is one of the smallest, but my travelling chests are safe.’

A sun-burned hand came to rest on hers. ‘I am glad my advice meant you didn’t lose anything.’ He gave her an intent look. ‘Did you intend to go to Honfleur?’

‘I still do intend it, Hugh.’

‘I see.’ He cleared his throat.

Whatever was the matter with him? Aude might not have seen much of Hugh lately, but she knew him well enough to be certain that something she had said had given him pause. What on earth could it be? His lips were curved, yet she would swear he was concealing something.

Their eyes met. Aude’s thoughts became tangled; Hugh had a way of looking at her that disordered her mind. His gaze skimmed over her—brow, eyes, cheeks, lips, nose…she could feel it as one might feel a caress. Yet his expression remained shadowed as he turned his attention back to the barge. It was impossible to shake off the impression that something she had said worried him.

She must be mistaken. Naturally Hugh was troubled, he was weighed down with so many problems it was a miracle he remained standing. That pensive look had to be connected to his banishment. Yet the thought remained, Hugh was unhappy about her desire to go to Honfleur. Why on earth should that be?

‘Aude, didn’t Edouard send your baggage back to the lodge?’

‘Yes, but afterwards I recalled you mentioning this boat, so I had everything carted here.’

‘Does Edouard know that you have no intention of abandoning your plans?’

Aude’s chin inched up. It was no business of Hugh’s what she had told her brother, but perhaps that explained his change of mood. Her disobedience disturbed him. This was the eleventh century and women were meant to be obedient. Women were little more than chattels and men did not allow their chattels to display wills of their own.

Which was the very reason she was so eager to reach Alfold.

At Alfold, which Count Richard had gifted wholly to her, she would be her own mistress. For the first time in her life, she would only have herself to answer to.

‘I am not one of my brother’s men that I must rush to obey his every whim.’

Hugh removed his hand from hers. Aude felt a distinct pang; she liked it when he touched her. It had felt as though he was her particular friend, that he was concerned for her and would stand by her if he could. Which, given his disgrace, was utterly absurd.

‘You had best go aboard,’ he was saying. ‘To make quite certain nothing is lost.’

Ever the courtier, even when being hounded from the Duchy, Hugh handed her politely up the gangplank and on to the deck. High in an overhanging willow, a blackbird was singing.

The ship’s master had left a boy on board to act as a guard, he was dozing in the shifting shadows on a couple of empty grain sacks. Hearing their footfall, the boy leaped to his feet and rushed into speech.

‘Lady Aude! I…I didn’t hear you. There is no need for concern; as you see, the wave didn’t get us.’

Hugh nodded pleasantly at him. Several packing cases were roped into place, but Hugh didn’t recognise any of them as being the ones he had unloaded from the other barge back in port. ‘All accounted for, Aude?’

‘Yes.’

Really, Hugh thought, running his gaze over the crowded deck, there will scarcely be space to breathewhen this ship is full. ‘Are you taking horses, Aude? It will be very cramped. And what about an escort—you are taking an escort, I assume?’ Lord, it looked as though he was going to have to repeat his actions of this morning, and unload her baggage from this barge too. There will be hell to pay when she finds out. It struck him that he had yet to see Aude truly angry. The thought of Aude in a fury was unexpectedly tantalising. And extremely distracting. It stirred his blood—in truth, the thought of Aude in a fury stirred him in places that had no place stirring when he was planning to steal her place on this barge.

For a moment Hugh could barely think. He found himself fighting the urge to pull Aude into his arms, to tug that veil from her head and press his lips into the curve of her neck. Suddenly Aude was temptation incarnate. Bemused, he gazed at her mouth. He wanted to taste it while she was smiling; he wanted to taste it while she was angry. When she learns what I have done, will her eyes spark with a fire to match that glorious hair? Now that—he bit back a smile—would surely be worth seeing…

‘An escort?’ Aude put her nose in the air. Hugh’s questions struck her as impertinent. ‘I have thought of that, thank you.’ She went over to the larger of her new, painted trunks and nudged it with her foot. It seemed secure.

Conflicting thoughts tugged at her. She was conscious of an impulse to trust him, to open her heart to him, but that would be folly indeed. Men usually stuck together, so the less she told Hugh, the better. He and Edouard might not be acknowledging each other in public, but she had seen the looks they had exchanged this morning. Hugh’s banishment had not extinguished their friendship.

Yet the impulse to confide in Hugh remained powerful. Aude had long nursed a fondness for Hugh Duclair, and had thought that if ever there was a man she might trust, it would be him. Yes, men generally stuck together and while she had a fondness for this one, he was—unfortunately—not in the least bit malleable.

These days Hugh’s looks…really, he had become terrifyingly attractive. Those wide shoulders, that thick sun-kissed hair that betrayed his Viking blood-lines, that careless manner, that easy confidence. He seemed to draw her to him; the same thing had happened last spring. She wanted to reach out, to touch, to stroke…

Sinful, sensual thoughts.

But being with Hugh did not simply put sinful thoughts into Aude’s head, other thoughts were also taking shape. Strange half-formed longings for a world in which there were men who formed genuine friendships with women. What an extraordinary idea—of course it was possible for men to form friendships with women! Ladies might be considered chattels by their menfolk, but that did not prevent friendships from developing between men and women, as she herself knew. Her betrothal to Martin might have been made for political reasons; none the less Martin had adored her. Even though at times—here, a shockingly disloyal thought startled a frown out of her—Martin had seemed somewhat distant…

Was Hugh fond of her? In the past Aude had had her hopes. And then, without warning, the past rushed back at her and the tumultuous events of 1066 were sharp in her mind. Painfully sharp. Aude nibbled her finger. She did not understand it, but in some way Hugh Duclair’s impending banishment made the events of 1066 seem even more poignant…

It had been a fateful year. It was not only the year that Duke William took the English crown, it was also the year that Aude’s father, Sir Hamon, had died.

With her grandfather in exile and the family lands confiscated, her father had been a landless knight like Sir Olivier. Sir Hamon had longed to inherit Crèvecoeur and Corbeil, but with his father’s lands held under stewardship for the King, he had never lived to see that hope fulfilled.

Poor Father. Tears pricked at the back of Aude’s eyes.

In 1066, the Duchy had been buzzing like a hornet’s nest; talk of war had been on everyone’s lips. Her father had resolved to go to the seaport of Dives where he would enlist with the invasion force. He had been full of optimism concerning his future.

‘Mark my words, Aude,’ Sir Hamon had said as she had ridden up with him to a bustling inn near the Dives shipyard where Duke William’s fleet was being built. ‘This venture of the Duke’s will be the making of our family.’

Blinking firmly, Aude dismissed the memory. It only made her sad. That night near the Dives shipyard had been the night her father had died, killed not while fighting gloriously for his Duke, but in a squalid tavern brawl.

She had been thirteen years old.

Aude shot Hugh a sidelong glance. Sweet Mother, let Hugh forget me as I was at the time. The shame of it! For in 1066, Aude had been serving her impoverished father as his squire, and when Hugh and Edouard had arrived to join the mustering troops they had found her clad in boy’s clothing—a short tunic and cross-gartered hose. Her cheeks warmed as she remembered. She had only been thirteen, of course, but…

‘Aude?’ Gently Hugh removed her finger from her mouth.

‘Mmm?’

‘Is something wrong?’

‘No. No, not at all.’

In truth, far from appearing shocked at the sight of her, Hugh had been kindness itself in Dives. He had taken the trouble to endorse her childish wish to become Countess of Beaumont, even going so far as to encourage Edouard to arrange for her betrothal to Count Martin. Hugh had not mentioned her clothing, but she had sensed his disapproval.

Had what happened that year affected the way Hugh thought of her?

Aude’s pulse jumped. It could be her imagination, but it seemed to her that the liking she and Hugh had always felt for each other might be changing. Another surreptitious glance revealed him to be studying her, running his gaze up and down her body.

Her pulse began to do more than jump, it began to race.

Did Hugh like her looks now she had grown into a woman? Another brief glance confirmed that he did. Hugh Duclair was drawn to her. Some of the worry had left his expression, his eyes were watching her warmly. The careful way that he had handed her into this barge told her that he respected her, while his gaze told her that he liked her looks. For her part, Aude liked him, far better than Sir Olivier, for example. And as for Hugh’s form…She sighed. The image of that lithe, half-naked body tossing her belongings about the docks was only too easy to recall.

It was a pity Hugh was leaving under such a cloud, she could do with a friend who liked her for herself, and even though her brother had forbidden her to speak to him, she yearned for his friendship. This man attracted her in many ways. She stole another look at him. Wide shoulders, strong limbs, upright posture…

Hugh was noble by birth and noble in his bearing and nothing, not even banishment, would take that away from him. Perhaps it would not take him long to prove he was innocent of the charges against him.

She felt adrift. She must be realistic. There were many reasons why Hugh was out of bounds to her and, given his banishment, it was impossible that their childish friendship would survive, never mind grow. From midnight tonight he should not even be in the Duchy. Anyone caught helping him after then would be in serious trouble.

After midnight, anyone associating with Hugh Duclair could be brought to court to answer charges of aiding and abetting a traitor. At best they risked disgrace, at worst, execution. Aude’s relationship with Hugh might have been a bright thread running through her life, but she must resign herself to the loss of it. Much as she might wish otherwise, their childish friendship was over.

She would never kiss him.

Holding down a sigh, she moved to the ship’s handrail. ‘You will stay out of Normandy?’ Knowing Hugh, he would fight like a demon for his reinstatement. ‘I don’t want you to get yourself killed; if you come back to the Duchy, your fate will be uncertain.’

‘I will do what I must. As well as clearing my name, there is a matter of some family silver which has gone missing. And in order to regain my lands I will have to take the kiss of peace from King William in person.’ His mouth twisted. ‘Given that our Duke has been neglecting his Norman territories in favour of his English kingdom, I may have to travel to England for that.’