Castle of the Heart Read Free Page B

to
make the choice she knew she must make. But she understood from her
husband’s words on parchment that Isabel’s desire had come to pass
and Selene would wed Thomas of Afoncaer shortly after Christmas.
Now that it was definite, Aloise’s hesitation disappeared.
    She dismissed the chaplain and went to seek
the one person she could depend upon to render her the faithful
service that would banish, or at least alleviate, her lingering
fears. Aloise found her hard at work in the castle kitchen, lending
aid to the temperamental cook by supervising the lesser kitchen
help as, in preparation for the midday meal, they turned meat upon
spits or chopped vegetables for stews. Aloise watched her fondly, a
tall girl with a well-rounded figure swathed in a long apron, and
with a wealth of curling, dark brown hair shot through with red
lights when she bent over into the fire’s glow.
    Aloise sighed. Her foster daughter had proven
well worth taking in and nurturing. Aloise hated to send her away,
indeed would miss her far more than she would miss Selene, but it
must be done. She could see no other way.
    “Arianna.”
    The girl turned, her golden skin flushed from
the heat of the cooking fires.
    “My lady.” The wide, laughing mouth deflected
one’s attention from a nose that was just a little too long and
hawk-like for a feminine face. Her beautiful wide-set grey eyes,
her best feature, were fringed with thick, dark lashes. Nothing
about her individual features fitted the ideal of female
loveliness, yet the impression Arianna gave was of strong, exotic
beauty, lit by humor and quick intelligence.
    Aloise beckoned to the girl, who left her
post by the spit and followed the castle’s mistress into a small
pantry off one side of the busy kitchen. The servants, seeing their
lady conferring with Arianna, thought nothing of it and went about
their work, leaving the two in privacy.
    “A message has come from Sir Valaire,” Aloise
said. “The marriage is agreed to, the contracts drawn up.”
    “Does Selene know?”
    “Not yet. I want you to come with me when I
tell her.”
    “My lady, she has seemed content these last
weeks. Lady Isabel has spent much time with her, and has apparently
turned her mind toward Thomas of Afoncaer. I doubt Selene will be
overly distressed, or even the least bit surprised, by this
news.”
    “Arianna, I, too, have thought much of Thomas
of Afoncaer. And of Lord Guy. I cannot let Selene go to Afoncaer
unattended.”
    “But she will not, my lady. There will be
servants, waiting women, pages, as large a company as she wishes.
Sir Valaire will be generous with her.”
    “I must speak truly, Arianna,” Lady Aloise
said, using one of her favorite phrases, which Arianna had long ago
noticed was usually followed by words she ought not to speak at
all. But Arianna knew how to keep a confidence. She would repeat
nothing Aloise said to her, and she knew Aloise trusted her
completely.
    “I fear Selene will go to her marriage as a
martyr,” Aloise went on. “She will take as few folk from her
father’s household as she possibly can, and as soon as she is at
Afoncaer she will send all those away. Once she is in a strange
place, with unfamiliar people, who can tell what she might do? She
could bring dishonor upon her father and me. I must try to prevent
that.”
    “Surely her new husband will exert some
control over her.”
    “I hope so. I don’t understand her, Arianna.
I never have. She is such a peculiar girl. I feel her hostility
toward me, I’ve endured her terrible rages, and yet I don’t know
why she behaves as she does. She has been chastised, exhorted by
the chaplain, whipped, prayed over, and nothing helps.”
    “She was content at the convent, my lady.
Perhaps she should have stayed there. She may be better suited to
the cloister than to marriage.”
    “She is too valuable to her father to be
allowed that indulgence. Her marriage to Thomas of Afoncaer will
seal the friendship between Lord Guy