Roselynde Read Free

the deep tones did not carry
forward well.
    In fact the Queen would have received confirmation of her own
deductions had she been able to hear the conversation. Sir Simon had opened the
talk with a comment about the large troop the two knights led.
    Sir Andre laughed. "They are not all, Sir Simon. Others are
posted to raise the alarm back at the keep if we should be molested. Such a
prize as my lady is strong bait. I was not all ill pleased when the Queen's
writ came. Now that she is known to be in the King's ward, perhaps my burdens
will be somewhat lighter."
    "Not all ill pleased?" Sir Simon remarked mildly.
"Then you were tempted to deny the royal writ."
    "No. I am not so much a fool as that," Sir Andre replied
promptly. He struggled briefly with a smile at the memory of Alinor's first
fury, and Simon noticed the fleeting change of expression. However, Sir Andre's
voice was very deliberate—purposely deliberate—when he continued. "My
doubts are only for the use the King will make of his ward. I am tied to my
lady by more than my honor. To speak true, I love her dearly, having known her
from a babe. It is not sufficient that we vassals be content with the man
chosen for her. For us, it is needful that she, too, be content."
    "The Queen is very wise," Sir Simon assured the men.
    "No doubt," Sir John put in drily. He had been one of
the barons who fought in Aquitaine. "But queens are constrained by
circumstances."
    There was a pause just a trifle too long, just long enough to draw
Sir Andre's and Sir John's eyes to Sir Simon's face. What they saw there—a
brief consternation quickly schooled into iron-hard determination—was not
reassuring.
    "If the Queen is constrained—" Simon's deep voice was
steady and hard "—then we must also be constrained."
    "Oh," Sir John said easily, "the King's will
through the Queen's mouth must be done—if it be for the good and quiet of the
realm. Only, the Lady Alinor might be a very young widow."
    Sir Simon looked from one face to the other, and his lips twisted.
"You are loyal vassals, indeed."
    "Lady Alinor was the sun and the moon to Lord Rannulf, and we
are all beholden to him," Sir Andre pointed out. "For me, there is
even more in it. We are in some ways tied in blood. My wife was a natural
daughter to Lord Rannulf. It is no claimworthy blood bond, but it is
there."
    Suddenly Sir John laughed. "If you come to know her better,
Sir Simon, you will be of our party in her defense."
    "You have had some work in that direction already,"
Simon said quickly, as if he did not wish to respond to Sir John's remark.
    "That we have!" Sir Andre exclaimed in heartfelt
accents. "Not two weeks after the Earl was dead, I had to close the keep
against the first aspirant to the Lady Alinor's hand and estates. That was
nothing. A younger son with a few ragtag men-at-arms in his tail. But twice we
have had more ado with men of substance."
    "This last time they came out from Lewes," Sir John
commented sourly, "and I had need to bring men posthaste from Mersea to
lift the siege. I was given to understand that the castellan of Lewes Keep
feared the change of overlordships from King Henry to Lord Richard. Believing
he would lose his keep, he put aside his wife and brought the whole force of
the shire upon us in an attempt to take my lady."
    "I do not wonder that you were glad to see the Queen's
writ," Simon said, smiling. "To take her now is profitless, since the
King's word must be had before her marriage is good."
    Sir Andre shrugged, his shield strap creaking as his shoulders
moved. "It will help—if the realm lies quiet. But I for one will continue
to have a care for her. If she be taken and hidden away, wedded and well
bedded, perhaps even got with child, the King might find it easier to take a
fine and give his consent than to undo the knot."
    Sir Simon raised a gauntleted hand and rubbed his nose under the
nosepiece. "You have the right. If she does not marry at once, I do not
envy whoever is made