So Great A Love Read Free Page A

health. Eustace has informed me that, like
Lord Pendance, my prospective second husband will require a nurse
in his declining years.”
    “And so you sent for me, saying you wanted me
to attend you at your wedding,” Catherine finished for her when
Margaret paused again. “Now that I am here, you tell me in secret
that you will not be wed.”
    “I cannot do it again,” Margaret said. “I
cannot spend more years as nurse to an elderly man who does not
care for me at all and whose family makes it clear how much they
despise me, just so my father and Eustace can take advantage of my
husband's connections at court and add to their own lands by the
terms of my marriage contract. They promised I would not have to do
it a second time. They have reneged on their promise. In fact, they
deny ever having sworn such an oath to me. That is why I no longer
feel myself bound to obey them, and why I have resolved to thwart
their wishes by escaping.”
    Catherine stared hard at Margaret, as if she
was trying to understand her friend's real reasons, the ones
Margaret could not speak of – the remembered sensation of an old
man's claw-like hands pawing at the body of a terrified
fourteen-year-old girl, of wet, open-mouthed kisses reeking of the
foul stench of rotting teeth. Of course, Lord Pendance had been
unable to change either his physical condition or his age, and
Margaret had never blamed him for what he could not help. Unlike
many husbands, he had not beaten his youthful wife, nor was he ever
deliberately cruel to her. Instead, he had been a hard man in the
true Norman mold, a nobleman who cared more for lands and power
than for any mere woman.
    From her personal experience of her father
and brother and her observations of her late mother's life and of
the pale, sighing girl who was her sister-in-law, Margaret had
expected indifference and lack of consideration from her husband
and thus she was not shocked by it. It was, rather, the half
century difference in their ages that made it impossible for her to
feel anything more than a cool, polite respect for Lord Pendance,
and that made her shrink from his unloving embrace.
    The widowed Margaret was determined never
again to subject herself to the whims of a man, or to endure the
touch of a man's hands on her naked flesh. She longed for the
sanctuary of a safe convent, where such issues could not arise.
    There were also other, far more dangerous
considerations, though Margaret would not at the moment permit
herself to spare a thought for her father's schemes with regard to
King Henry, or the reasons why he was so eager to see her married
to Lord Adhemar, who knew the king well. There wasn't time for
speculation on political matters. She and Catherine had already
enjoyed more uninterrupted conversation than Margaret had dared to
hope for. If she was to reach her chosen convent, Catherine must
agree to Margaret's plan. Spurred by fear and desperation, Margaret
was not above making a veiled threat.
    “Understand me well, Cat,” she said, for the
second time shamelessly employing her friend's affectionate name
from their youth. “I am determined upon the course I will take.
Nothing will deter me from it. I will escape, whether you agree to
help me, or whether I am forced by your refusal to act on my
own.”
    “A noblewoman cannot travel alone,” Catherine
said, displaying some impatience that Margaret should have
considered such a foolish idea. “You will put yourself into great
danger if you try.”
    “Better to face danger, and perhaps the
blessing of a quick death in the winter cold, than to suffer more
years of misery,” Margaret said, knowing as she spoke the words
that they were no less than the truth. She would rather die than
marry Lord Adhemar.
    “Do not say so! Your scheme is risky and your
motives would be considered unacceptable by any man who heard you
state them,” Catherine exclaimed. Tears glittered in her eyes and
her lips trembled. She took a deep breath as if