The Wife Test Read Free Page B

number had grown all morning. This was the fourth tavern he had cleaned out, and from the tightness of Hugh’s broad shoulders and big fists, it appeared he was on the verge of mayhem.
    “Should have been
two
hundred. This is the last tavern?”
    “I believe so.” Graham looked around the small but bustling village. “Amazing that there should be so many taverns in so small a berg.”
    “Every hut and hovel becomes a tavern when there are soldiers nearby,” Hugh said with disgust, striking off for their camp at the edge of the village.
    “This waiting is hard on the men.” Graham fell in beside him and watched him peel his fists open and stretch his cramped fingers.
    “Three bloody long days,” Hugh said, lengthening his stride and setting his heels down harder as irritation overtook him again. “What the devil is taking them so long?”
    Graham shrugged. “They’re women.”
    “They’re not women, they’re
nuns.
And what’s so hard about packing up a few maids and shipping them off?”
    “They’re not just maids, they’re
brides.
And brides travel with
stuff.”
    Hugh stopped in the rutted path and glowered down at him.
    “And you would know this because … ?”
    “I was wedded once.”
    “What?” Hugh frowned and searched Graham’s broad, pleasant face.
    “It’s true. I was wedded early on … at seventeen … to an heiress who was all of thirteen. She came with enough stuff to fill Windsor Castle.”
    “But you’re not married now. What happened to her?”
    “She died in a fever that swept through the shire.” The knight’s face took on an odd, wistful cast. “She was a sweet thing. Cheerful. Biddable. Pleasant.”
    “So it was you who got the
one,”
Hugh said, continuing on.
    Graham sighed and followed.
    “Women aren’t so bad.”
    “Yes, they are. They’re a plague upon mankind. Fickle, flighty, irrational, undisciplined, faithless … carnality embodied … smoldering heaps of ensnaring desire …”
    “Sweet Jehoshaphat, have you been translating Saint Augustine again?” It was Graham’s turn to look disgusted. “I wish the king would keep you out of that monastery library.”
    “And I wish he’d let me
stay
there. Instead he sends me charging off at the head of a column of randy, home-starved soldiers to haul back a clutch of nubile, marriageable young temptresses—”
    “Who have been raised in a nunnery,” Graham inserted.
    “Where all of their true urges and inclinations have been suppressed.”
    Graham brightened visibly. “You think so? You think they’ll be ripe and eager for the plucking?” He grinned. “God, I hope so! If any of them have red hair, I want to be first in line!”
    “Not you, too.” Hugh gave his friend a shove, but had to work to avoid a smile. “I’ll have enough trouble with the rest of these drooling idiots.”
    “Not drooling. Just anxious to be home.” Graham canted a look at him as they reached the tents. “Aren’t you the least bit curious about these maidens?”
    Hugh paused in the midst of settling on a folding bench in front of his tent and looked up with a faintly wicked smile.
    “Have you ever
seen
the Duke of Avalon?”
    “No.”
    “Well, I have. And if these females are any of
his
seed, they’ll be nothing to look at, believe me.”
    Graham seemed a bit deflated. “Still … even plain as burlap, a woman who is willing can be worth a lot to a man who is wanting.”
    If that was meant to be reassuring, it missed the mark by a mile.
    “In any case,” the goodly Graham continued with a shrug, “it’s a measure of the king’s trust in you that he would send you on such a mission.”
    Hugh thought about that for a moment, remembering the twinkle in Edward’s eye and the snickering in the great hall when he was charged with the responsibility of retrieving the Duke of Avalon’s daughters from a French convent. Edward trusted him? Edward was
taunting
him. His jaw flexed in annoyance. Sending him on such an errand