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Lady Isobel's Champion
Carol Townend
HIS LADY IN WAITING In her long years at the convent, waiting for her betrothed, Lady Isobel de Turenne has built the Comte d’Aveyron into a fantasy – a man who will rescue, protect and love her… But when the Comte finally returns to claim his bride Isobel finds instead a man of contradictions – one who masks dark secrets with desire.Wary of a man’s touch, but desperate to grasp her new freedom, Isobel must decide if it’s solely duty forcing the Comte to marry or whether he is truly her longed-for champion.Knights of Champagne Three swordsmen for three ladies
How could he?
For years Isobel had lived for some sign of attention from this man. Any sign would have done—a letter sent to the convent in Conques, perhaps… even a simple message. He had done nothing.
And now he had the impudence to wait until they were in a smoky inn to kiss her. In a whorehouse, to be precise. He was kissing her as a pretence, the devil. He didn’t want her. Her pulse thudded. She liked his kiss.
When a large hand crept to her cheek, cradling it in its palm, making tiny caressing circles with its fingertips, pleasure shot along every nerve. She bit back a moan. It was fortunate that his hand hid her face from onlookers. She felt hot and confused. He doesn’t want to do this. He doesn’t know me. In the years she had lived in the south he had not shown the slightest interest in her welfare. I am just another trophy to him. I am a prize. Lucien is marrying me for my inheritance.
And then his mouth was on hers again and her thoughts were scattered.
Duty, Honour, Truth, Valour
The tenets of the Knights of Champagne will be sorely tested in this exciting new Medieval series by Carol Townend.
The pounding of hooves, the cold snap of air, a knight’s colours flying high across the roaring crowd—nothing rivals a tourney. The chance to prove his worth is at the beating heart of any knight.
And tournaments bring other dangers too. Scoundrels, thieves, murderers and worse are all drawn towards a town bursting with deep pockets, flowing wine and wanton women.
Only these three knights stand in their way. But what of the women who stand beside them?
Find out in
Carol Townend’s
Knights of Champagne
Three Swordsmen for Three Ladies
About the Author
CAROL TOWNEND has been making up stories since she was a child. Whenever she comes across a tumbledown building, be it castle or cottage, she can’t help conjuring up the lives of the people who once lived there. Her Yorkshire forebears were friendly with the Brontë sisters. Perhaps their influence lingers…
Carol’s love of ancient and medieval history took her to London University, where she read History, and her first novel (published by Mills & Boon
) won the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Award. Currently she lives near Kew Gardens, with her husband and daughter. Visit her website at www.caroltownend.co.uk
Previous novels by the same author:
THE NOVICE BRIDE
AN HONOURABLE ROGUE
HIS CAPTIVE LADY
RUNAWAY LADY, CONQUERING LORD
HER BANISHED LORD
BOUND TO THE BARBARIAN* (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAINED TO THE BARBARIAN* (#litres_trial_promo)
BETROTHED TO THE BARBARIAN* (#litres_trial_promo)
* (#litres_trial_promo)Palace Brides trilogy
Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks?
Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk
Lady Isobel’s Champion
Carol Townend
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
AUTHOR NOTE
Arthurian myths and legends have been popular for hundreds of years. Dashing knights worship beautiful ladies, fight for honour—and sometimes lose honour! Some of the earliest versions of these stories were written in the twelfth century by an influential poet called Chrétien de Troyes. Troyes was the walled city in the county of Champagne where Chrétien lived and worked. His patron, Countess Marie of Champagne, was a princess—daughter of King Louis of France, and the legendary Eleanor of Aquitaine. Countess Marie’s splendid artistic court in Troyes rivalled Queen Eleanor’s in Poitiers.
The books in my Knights of Champagne mini-series are not an attempt to rework the Arthurian myths and legends. They are original romances set around the Troyes court. I wanted to tell the stories of some of the lords and ladies who might have inspired Chrétien—and I was keen to give the women a more active role, since Chrétien’s ladies tend to be too passive for today’s reader.
Apart from a brief glimpse of Count Henry and Countess Marie, my characters are all fictional. I have used the layout of the medieval city to create my Troyes, but these books are first and foremost fictional.
DEDICATION
To Karen, with love
Chapter One
October 1173—in the east tower of Ravenshold, in the County of Champagne
With the tip of his dagger, Lucien Vernon, Comte d’Aveyron, prodded what looked suspiciously like a dead sparrow. ‘Is that what I think it is?’ He grimaced as he surveyed a table littered with leavings. There was a handful of tiny bones; any number of butterflies’ wings in a clay pot; and a mortar holding a gnarled fragment of bark that Lucien was pretty certain would never be seen in either kitchen or infirmary. The pestle was chipped, and the surface of the table was lost beneath a dusting of dead flies, leaf mast, beech nuts and acorns.
‘Dried bat?’ his friend Sir Raoul de Courtney suggested. ‘Or perhaps a toad?’ Raoul was examining a stoppered glass jar filled with cloudy liquid, his expression finely balanced between intense curiosity and disgust. Daylight was squeezing past a frill of cobwebs hanging in the lancet window. Holding the jar to the light, Raoul eyed the contents. ‘Mon Dieu!’ He dropped the jar on to the table with a thump that sent up a haze of dust. His lip curled, disgust had won out over curiosity. ‘Holy hell, Luc, haven’t you seen enough? Let’s get out of here.’
Lucien scrubbed at his face, fingers lingering for a moment on the ragged scar on his left temple. The scar was throbbing, as it had been since he had learned of Morwenna’s untimely death, as it always did when he thought of her. ‘My apologies, Raoul, I thought I might find something here, some explanation as to why Morwenna died. Did I tell you I had to bribe Father Thomas before he would permit her to be buried in the graveyard?’
Raoul shook his head, his eyes were sympathetic. ‘I heard that rumours of witchcraft were doing the rounds. Who started them this time, any idea?’
‘No. I had hoped to find answers here but …’ Lucien shook his head. A wave of regret swept through him—if only things could have turned out differently. He hadn’t seen Morwenna in what—two years?—and now she was gone. Guilt clawed his insides; regret was bitter in his mouth. He jerked his head at the table. ‘Despite all you see here, she was no witch.’
‘I know that.’
‘She was just … she was obsessed.’ Lucien dragged in air. The place smelt musty. It smelt of death. It was as though time had stopped at the top of the east tower—everything was frozen at the point of dissolution. ‘Morwenna wasn’t obsessed in the early days …’
‘She was beautiful then?’
‘A goddess. Raoul, if you could have seen her before we married …’
‘I know you don’t hold with witchcraft, Luc, but it strikes me she bewitched you.’
Lucien’s laugh was curt. ‘I was fifteen.’ He stared at the glass jar on the table and grimaced. ‘Many young men are bewitched at that age. You, I seem to recall—’
Raoul held up his hand. ‘Point taken. There’s no need to drag my past into this.’ He eyed a mouldering heap of chestnuts and shuddered. ‘For God’s sake, you’ll learn nothing here. My advice to you is to burn everything in this room. It wouldn’t do for Lady Isobel to see it.’
‘There’s no rush,’ Lucien said. ‘Lady Isobel’s not due for another month.’
‘Ah, Luc … about that …’ Raoul’s nostrils flared. ‘Never mind, I’ll tell you outside.’
‘My priorities are the hall and bedchambers,’ Lucien said, reviewing all that needed to be done before his betrothed arrived. ‘Then there are the stables …’
‘Don’t forget the kitchens,’ Raoul put in. ‘Let’s go, the air in here is fetid. Burn all this, that’s what I say.’
Lucien shook his head. ‘Not until I have reassured myself that Morwenna’s death was no accident.’
‘It was an accident, Arthur was clear on that. Luc, it might be better if you accept that sometimes there are no answers. Search through this tower all you like, but you’ll find nothing more substantial than Morwenna’s dreams.’ Raoul reached for the door latch. ‘As you say, there’s plenty to get your teeth into elsewhere.’
Lucien nodded, Raoul was in the right. His betrothed, Lady Isobel of Turenne, would be here within the month, and Ravenshold wasn’t fit for a beggar, never mind its future mistress. The armoury and tack room needed restocking; the Great Hall needed scouring from rafters to floor; the stables were infested with rats; the kitchen garden had run to seed; the orchard needed pruning … Lucien hadn’t got as far as the cellars. He shuddered to think what else he would find. Chaos and neglect were everywhere. Domestic duties had not ranked highly among Morwenna’s priorities.
Lucien took a last look round the tower room. His dead wife had called it her workroom. Plaster was peeling from the walls; there was a pile of debris under the table; a broken stool; a curl of yellowing parchment …
‘This is not a happy place.’ Lucien pulled the door shut with a decisive click. ‘Morwenna certainly held on to her dreams. It’s a pity they didn’t extend beyond this chamber.’ It’s a pity they weren’t based on reality.
Raoul was in full retreat, hurrying down the twisting stairs that led to the bailey. After a moment, his voice floated up. ‘Let’s take a turn along the curtain wall, Luc. I need fresh air.’
‘Amen to that, but I’ve yet to inspect the kitchen and cellar.’
‘Check your wine stocks later.’
In the bailey, Lucien was met with a dazzle of autumn sun, and he took a deep, cleansing breath. A momentary diversion would be a relief after the atmosphere of sadness in the tower. Unfortunately the autumn sun revealed more neglect outside. There were cracks in the water troughs. Drifts of leaves in every corner. In the forecourt there were ruts in an area he would swear had been paved on his last visit.
Raoul was talking to Sergeant Gregor up on the walkway, and Lucien climbed the steps to join them. From the top, most of Lucien’s Champagne holdings were visible. He let his eyes slide past the church and village, moving over the tidy vineyards and neat fields beyond. What a blessing that he had given Morwenna no influence beyond the castle. The contrast between the air of desolation within the walls and the orderliness without was marked. In the fields, the crops had recently been harvested and sheep were grazing on the stubble. The grapes had been gathered from the vines.
Rooks were flying round a nearby stand of trees. In the distance, he caught the tell-tale gleam of the sun bouncing off a helmet. A small party of horsemen was approaching on the road from Troyes. It was probably a merchant come in the hope of selling his wares. Resting a shoulder against the cold stone of a merlon, Lucien nodded at Sergeant Gregor as he saluted and returned to his post. Raoul looked very serious. Too serious. Lucien folded his arms and lifted a brow. ‘You’ve something to say?’
Raoul hesitated.
‘Don’t tell me, the smith couldn’t mend your helmet and you want to borrow one of mine for the tournament?’
‘No, that’s not it.’
His stance was guarded enough to give Lucien a prickling of concern. ‘Raoul?’
‘Sergeant Gregor has just confirmed some news from Troyes.’
‘Oh?’
‘She’s here, Luc.’
Lucien felt himself go still. ‘She? Who?’
‘Lady Isobel of Turenne. Your betrothed.’
In a heartbeat, Lucien was back in the shadowy cool of the Abbey at Conques. He was a lad of fifteen, and he was shaking in his boots at the enormity of the lie his father was forcing him to tell. Lady Isobel de Turenne had been eleven, as he recalled. Lucien had been so ashamed, so guilty, that he had barely looked at her. She had been slim. A child. And he had been forced to swear a sacred oath to marry her, an oath he had never been sure he would be able to keep.
‘Isobel? In Troyes?’ He shoved his hand through hair that was as black as night. ‘What the devil do you mean? She’s not expected until next month.’
‘She rode into town last eve,’ Raoul murmured. ‘It’s my guess she’ll want to see you as soon as she may.’
Lucien swore under his breath. No! This was the last thing he wanted. He wasn’t ready to greet his betrothed—Ravenshold simply wasn’t fit to be seen. He gestured at the leaf-strewn bailey; at the hall and towers that were all but lost behind great swags of ivy. The jingling of bits and the clopping of hoofs told him that the merchant and his party had almost reached the gatehouse. ‘She can’t come here, look at the place.’
‘That’s up to you, of course. But I thought you should know that Lady Isobel and her party have taken lodgings in the Abbey de Notre-Dame-aux-Nonnains.’
Lucien stared at his friend, knots pulling at his guts. ‘Blast the woman, she’s far too early.’
Raoul gave him a puzzled look. ‘You sent for her after Morwenna’s death. What difference can a month make?’
‘I made it plain when I wrote to Viscount Gautier that Ravenshold would not be ready to accommodate his daughter until Advent at the earliest.’
‘I suspect it’s more than Ravenshold that’s not ready,’ Raoul said softly.
Lucien narrowed his eyes. ‘And what might that mean?’
‘Luc, you did your duty by Morwenna and that is in the past. You deserve better, you deserve a marriage that will give you sons and daughters. You are my friend, I want to see you happy.’
‘You—an unmarried man—equate marriage with happiness? On what basis?’
Raoul gripped his shoulder. ‘You did what you could for Morwenna. Mon Dieu, you did more than anyone else would have done. Go to Troyes, and go today. Meet Lady Isobel and you will see she is not another Morwenna. Far from it, Lady Isobel has grown into a lovely young woman.’
Lucien frowned. ‘How would you know?’
‘I met her last year at the Abbey in Conques. It was before her mother died. They were there to honour St Foye.’
‘You’ve never mentioned this before.’
‘What was the point? I knew you’d never abandon Morwenna.’
Lucien’s thoughts were churning. He did need heirs and despite Raoul’s doubts, he knew himself to be ready for his second marriage. Although he would be the first to admit that he had hoped for more time. Isobel would likely expect an explanation for the length of their betrothal. Nine years! He hadn’t yet thought of a tactful way to explain it. If he told her the truth he would feel as though he were betraying Morwenna. ‘Love is out of the question, of course,’ he said, thinking aloud. Love had betrayed Lucien before, he wasn’t about to let that happen again. ‘I will marry the girl, since my father wished it. I will honour our betrothal agreement, and she will give me heirs. That is as far as it will go.’
‘My guess is she’ll want to see you today,’ Raoul said, watching him.
‘Today? Lord, Morwenna is scarcely in her grave.’
‘It is not too soon.’
