The Bride Thief

“Have you an ache, my lady?”

Isabelle dropped her hand to gaze at Lady Rosaleen, who stood before her with her young son, Lord Farron, tucked firmly in one arm.

“Oh, nay,” Isabelle replied foolishly. “I was only… thinking.”

“Ah,” said Lady Rosaleen, seating herself in the chair beside Isabelle’s. “I must have looked very similar whenever I used to think of Hugh, before we were wed. We had an exhausting courtship. But that seems to be the way the Baldwin men carry out such things. Sir Alexander held his wife prisoner for many weeks before marrying her to gain her dowered lands, Hugh forced me to labor as a servant at his estate for three months before we were wed, and Justin kidnapped you.” Lady Rosaleen laughed. “Poor Willem is the only brother among them who managed to be a gentleman, and he was finally ensnared in marriage to a lady who decided she wanted him for a husband. And a good thing it was, else he’d never have married at all.”

Isabelle laughed, too. “Justin has told me some of these stories before. I think I have been the lucky one, after all that you and Lady Lillis went through.”

“Aye, s’truth,” Lady Rosaleen agreed. “Justin has ever been the most considerate of the men, certainly when it comes to women.”

“Father Hugo seemed very kind,” Isabelle noted.

At this, Rosaleen shook her head. “Hugo, like his twin brother, loves women. All women, regardless of age or condition. I’ve seen those two charm young girls and elderly grandmothers with but a smile, the rogues. I’ll never understand how Hugo has managed to stay in the Church all these years. He’s worse than Hugh, at times.”

Remembering the warm, appreciative gaze that Father Hugo had eyed her with at the monastery, Isabelle had to agree.

“Are you still worrying, my dear, over why Justin wed you?” Lady Rosaleen asked.

Isabelle’s smile died, and she lowered her eyes. “Aye,” she whispered. “I know I should not care so much, for I can give him what he wants of me. I have just been thinking of how I miss working with my uncle’s accounts. ‘Twill be good to have some to work on again soon.”

“You have not known Justin long, as I have,” Lady Rosaleen said gently, “but if you had, you would be reassured, and would know that it is not wealth he wants you for. I have never seen him look at another woman the way he looks at you, with such tenderness and affection. And I have never seen him so content, either, despite his current anger with my husband.”

Isabelle lifted her head. “He has seemed angered with Sir Hugh. Is it because of me that they quarrel?”

“Not you, nay, but with matters that may have concerned you at one time. I do not think any man would like to be commanded to wed, do you?”

With a thoughtful frown, Isabelle replied, “He did not seem displeased to wed Evelyn until she and my uncle were so foolish as to give him insult. But for that, he would have married her.”

“Would he?” Lady Rosaleen asked. “I do not know if that is true. But let us speak of the matter no more, for I’ve no desire to test how red you can go.” She laughed lightly when Isabelle reddened even further. “My dear, if you have missed working with numbers, would you like to entertain yourself with some of my accounts? I should be exceedingly glad to let you work with any or all of them, I vow, for although I enjoy working them, as well, I’ve not much time to do so since this little one was born.” She smiled lovingly at her sleeping son. “Robert, the steward, once suggested that I give Farron over to the care of a nurse, and Hugh nearly took a whip to him, but he spoke the truth. With Kathryn and Harry just babies yet, and Galen so active—” at this, she uttered a long sigh “—I’ve not much time left for Siere, as I used to. ’Tis a blessing Hugh is so willing to lend me aid.”

“Robert does not care to take over the task?”

“Oh, aye, he does, just as he wishes to take over every task, God bless his efficient soul, but he has enough to do in keeping Hugh out of trouble, I fear. ‘Twould be unjust to make him do the accounting, as well. I suppose I should let him hire a treasurer, but I’ve always had the keeping of my own accounts and have never desired assistance until now. Any help that you might be ready to give, dear Isabelle…”

“Oh, aye, my lady,” Isabelle said at once. “I should be most glad to repay your kindness to me in any way that I can.”

The countess of Siere smiled warmly. “Then go to the working chamber that I share with my husband, and see what may be done with the accounts. Stay for as long as you are happy, and when the work grows tiresome, put it away. You have my permission to work there as often as it pleases you, save when my husband is there. I know he would welcome your company, i’ faith, but his language is so unchristian at times that I’d never expose you, or any gentlelady, to it.”

It was, for Isabelle, a boon too good to believe. She nearly dropped her needlework as she quickly stood.

“Thank you, my lady,” she said gratefully. “Is there anything urgent that needs tending, in particular?”

“The rents are far behind,” Lady Rosaleen said thoughtfully, “as are the livestock accounts. Don’t touch the household books, however, for Robert does keep those, and most jealously.”

“Will you please tell Justin where I am if he should come looking for me?”

Lady Rosaleen nodded and smiled. “I’ll tell him. Do not worry on it.”

“Robert,” said Sir Hugh as he walked into his working chamber, carrying his sleeping daughter in his arms. “Well met. Lady Kate had the audacity to fall asleep while being admired in the village. Can you imagine such a thing?”

Setting down the pen with which he’d been writing, the steward rose from his table. “Good day, my lord,” he said, adding, when Justin, holding one of his nephews by the hand, followed his brother into the room, “And also to you, my lord, Sir Justin. May I hope you have at last come to discuss important matters?”

“No, you may not,” the earl said affably. “We’ve come to have a friendly, brotherly chat—”

“Oh, have we?” Justin asked with bemusement.

“We have,” his brother assured him. “And we won’t require a legate, as I’m certain we’ll not resort to violence. If we do, we won’t need witnesses, either. Be pleased to take Katy and Harry to their nurses, Robert.”

Gazing at the small bundle in his master’s arms, Robert gave a disdainful sniff. “Really, my lord. You cannot mean it. And we must discuss these matters.” He picked up several pieces of parchment from the table. “The duke demands a reply, as does Sir Alexander, and Sir Myles is threatening to be very disagreeable if he doesn’t have some satisfaction soon.”

“Sir Myles,” said Justin, “may take himself to Hades. I would be happy to aid him in the task.”

“Justin…” Hugh said in a warning tone. Then, with a sigh, went on, “Very well. We’ll discuss matters. Now please take Katy and Harry to their nurses.” He didn’t wait for a reply, but set his sleeping child in his steward’s unready hands.

“But, my lord!” Robert sputtered indignantly.

“She’s only a babe,” the earl chided, carefully arranging his daughter’s head against Robert’s shoulder. “What grave harm could she visit upon you?” With tender affection, he bent to kiss the child’s forehead, then straightened and looked his steward directly in the eye. “Never say you’re ashamed to be seen carrying my children, Robert?”

The insult hit its intended course, and Robert’s nose lifted sharply. “I will never understand your strange sense of humor, my lord,” he said, “and I was not aware that my duties included being a children’s maid.” He gave an imperious humph and took young Harry’s hand. “Come along, Lord Harold.” As he walked out the door, he called back, “If you don’t have replies ready for me to send this evening, I’ll stand outside your bedchamber door all night.”

Justin shook his head as Hugh closed the door.

“Alexander would never put up with such familiarity in a servant, you know.”

Hugh chuckled and went to pour wine from a nearby decanter. “Alexander can afford to be stiff-necked. If it weren’t for Robert, I’d have been committed to an asylum long ago. Will you have wine?”

Justin gave his brother a considering look. “Perhaps. How long is our ‘friendly, brotherly chat’ to last?”

The earl of Siere filled a goblet for his brother and handed it to him.

“That all depends on you, I think. You might as well say what you’ve been wanting to these past many days. I’ve considered beating it out of you, but somehow the idea of trying to explain that to Rosaleen doesn’t appeal.”

Justin, smiling grimly, only shook his head again.

“God save me,” Sir Hugh said. “I suppose I’ll have the headache when this is done. Very well, then I’ll say it.” Placing his goblet on a low table, he lazily settled his long body into a comfortable chair. “You’re angry with me for meddling in your life.”

“Angry?” Justin repeated.

“Oh, all right.” The earl waved a hand about. “You’re furious. I don’t think we have to bicker about it. Despite your present feelings toward me, I am not a fool.”

Justin’s expression darkened. “I’m not in the mood for your careless manners, Hugh. If you’re going to be amusing, I’ll leave.”

“Oh, Justin,” Hugh said with a groan. “You make everything so difficult, and ever have. You were somber even as a boy, always skulking about the hallways at Gyer like a silent shadow. You haven’t changed overmuch since those days.”

“I had good reason to be as I was,” Justin told him, sitting in the chair opposite his brother’s. “I had Candis to protect from Father, and when he was gone, from Alexander’s lack of care and from your and Hugo’s dangerous ways. Before Lillis came, Castle Gyer was not a pleasant place for small children, certainly not for our young sister. Or have you forgotten?”

Hugh shifted uncomfortably beneath his brother’s steady gaze. “Nay, of course I’ve not. I realize full well what life was like for you and Candis then, and have long since accepted my own part in what you both suffered. Perhaps, in some misguided way, I’ve tried too much to take care of you now to make some sort of… recompense.”

“Recompense?” Justin repeated with disbelief. “You force me to wed as a way of making recompense?”

“As a way of keeping you from harm, aye,” Hugh admitted. “Alex wanted me to find you a bride in the hopes that a wife might settle you down and keep you out of trouble, and I thought—having heard of what transpired at Briarstone with the duke’s advisor—well, I thought, perhaps, that he might be right.”

“I’ve told you what happened at Briarstone,” Justin said tightly. “Chris told you what happened.”

“Yes, well. Ahem.” The earl cleared his throat. “How was I to know that the fellow had been trying to rape one of the women there? He said you’d taken a sword to him because he wouldn’t pay for his pleasures, not that you’d taken a sword to him because he deserved to be gelded. And before you tell me that I should have taken the trouble to ask you about the matter first, I’ll remind you that it wouldn’t have done any good. Alexander wanted you wed, and would have used any reason to accomplish the goal. You know what he is.”

“You’re an earl now, Hugh, and no longer a mere soldier for the king. You outrank Alexander.”

“Ha! As if that has anything to do with it.” Hugh took up his goblet and drank deeply. Wiping his mouth with his fingers, he said, “I should like to see you try to stand against anything that our eldest brother decided upon. It’s about as simple a thing as hacking a stone’ mountain to bits with a dull blade. And I’ll tell you truly that I thought the idea had merit.”

“Did you?” Justin asked in a low tone. “Because you think I needed to ‘settle’?”

“Because I don’t want you to keep on as you have been, aimless and solitary. You’ve nearly made yourself into a hermit at Talwar, save those few times when you visited Chris at Briarstone. I realize that what you went through with Lady Alicia was painful—”

“You,” Justin said as he abruptly stood, “of all people, should know better than to mention her name to me.” He stalked toward the fire, restless, angry. “God save me,” he muttered, running his hands through his hair. “Was ever a man so cursed as this in his family?” He fell still, staring at the flames in the hearth. “I was content with my life. It was not my intention to wed.”

“Justin,” Hugh said gently, standing to join his brother by the fire. “I would never bring you harm apurpose. If I have done so by my deeds, then I pray you will forgive me. I would undo matters if I could, but you are the only one who can do that.”

Justin lifted his head sharply. “Undo matters?”

Hugh nodded. “Sir Myles wants Lady Isabelle back. Indeed, he has gone to Duke Humphrey and demanded her return.”

“Sir Myles may rot in Hell.”

“And so he may,” Hugh agreed readily. “I believe you’ve made your feelings more than clear about that, but unless you mean to slay him and end up being tried for the crime, that doesn’t answer the problem. He wants your marriage to Lady Isabelle annulled, and has said that if she is returned to him, he will yet allow you to marry his daughter, Lady Evelyn.”

The face Justin made told Hugh everything that he needed to know about the desirability of marrying Lady Evelyn. “Ah,” he said. “I see. Ugly, is she?”

“Nay, she is quite beautiful. Extraordinarily beautiful.”

Hugh looked at him curiously. “But you did not want her?”

His gaze held upon the fire, Justin shook his head. “Not after I saw Isabelle.”

“So it wasn’t simply to punish Sir Myles? Or Alexander and me?”

Justin’s smile tightened with keen unpleasantness. “Oh, yes, it was that, too. I wish you could have seen the look on your face when I told you who I had taken for my bride. Not the wellborn beauty you’d so carefully chosen, but the ignoble daughter of traitors.” He laughed. “’Twas worth all the trouble you put me through in London, I vow. I only wish Alexander could have been here, so that I might have seen his horror, as well. A precious Baldwin wedded to such a one. S’truth, I would have given Talwar away to see his face.”

“Justin,” the earl of Siere said in a calm voice, “if you’re saying that you married that delightful creature simply to make a jest of her, I am going to beat you senseless. And then I’m going to personally return Lady Isabelle to her uncle.”

“You may beat me, or attempt to, if you like,” Justin said with equal calm. “I would verily enjoy breaking a few of your bones at just this moment. But you will not take Isabelle anywhere. Not unless you kill me, first.”

The two men stared at each other before Hugh finally pulled away, walking back to his goblet of wine, which he picked up. “I’m relieved, brother, to know that you’re not quite such a fool as you sounded for a moment. Although how any man who saw Lady Isabelle could be, I don’t understand. She’s stunning enough, by the rood. That hair. And those eyes…” His drifting voice finished the thought. “Hardly the sort of female one would want to get rid of. Which makes me wonder why you’ve not yet made certain of your rights to her.”

Justin stiffened. “She is my wife,” he said.

The earl uttered a short laugh. “She is your bride. She is not yet your wife. You are singularly unable to lie, Justin, so please don’t weary yourself with trying to make excuses. I know what it is to be married to the woman you desire above all others, and separate bedchambers aren’t part of such a relationship. But heed me well. Unless you make Lady Isabelle your wife soon, Sir Myles will have every reason he needs to take her back. There is nothing that Alexander or I will be able to do to legally stop him.”

“You must find a way,” Justin said. “I took Isabelle by force to make her my wife. I will not also force her to share my bed until she is ready to do so.”

Hugh turned to face him. “Then you chance losing her.”

Justin’s expression hardened. “I cannot make a woman accept me against her will. When Alicia did not wish to…wed me…I…” He was embarrassed by the pain he heard in his own voice, and fell silent.

“You let her run, God’s feet,” Hugh finished for him, fingering his goblet consideringly. “It was not well done, I vow. Of either of you.”

“I am not like you, Hugh. If Isabelle will come to me, it must be of her own accord.”

“Then for all your brave words, brother, you may lose her. I’m not ashamed to admit that I bedded Rosaleen while I had the chance, before she could think long enough to say me nay. After that she was mine, just as I wanted, and no man could take her from me. If you wish to keep your Isabelle, then I advise you do the same.”

“I’ll keep Isabelle,” Justin assured him. “Never doubt it. But if you want the matter to be legal, you must be the one to make certain of it. Unless you wish me to kill Sir Myles?”

“Stubborn lad,” Hugh said wearily. “Nay, I do not want you felling noblemen to keep your good lady. And, as Alexander and I are the ones who decided to meddle in your life, I suppose ‘tis only fair that we do what we can to lend you aid.”

“Now we are at last in complete agreement.”

“You needn’t beat me over the head about it. I’ve spent the past month sleeping, eating and breathing guilt. Rosaleen’s made certain of it.”

“I must thank her, then,” Justin said impassively. “Now that we have an understanding regarding Robert’s ‘important matters,’ I will tell you that Isabelle and I will leave on the morrow. I have been away from Talwar too long, already, and Chris must get back to Briarstone, as well.”

“I’ll do what I can regarding Sir Myles and the duke—” Hugh began.

“Nay, you do what you must,” Justin corrected bluntly.

“Aye, aye, whatever I must, whatever Alexander must. Don’t worry o’er the matter. Only tell me what you want me to say to Sir Myles. He wants to know what you intend.”

Justin smiled again, baring his teeth this time. “Tell him that I intend to have everything from him that is rightfully Isabelle’s and her brother’s, everything that belonged to their parents, save the lands and titles, for Isabelle must be content with what I can give her in that regard, and Senet must make his own way when the time comes. Tell him that I will have Senet beneath my care before another fortnight has passed, and that he will not interfere in my collecting the boy from Sir Howton, unless he wishes to play quintain for my next bout of jousting practice.”

“Justin, Justin,” the earl said chidingly. “Such violence.”

Placing his hands on the back of a chair, Justin leaned forward slightly, his eyes intent on his brother’s face. “Tell Sir Myles that he will not try to contact Isabelle for any reason. I shall keep her well and busy, and if he misses the use of her particular skills, he may bethink himself that I am the one who will rightfully enjoy the benefit of them, i’ faith, of all that Isabelle has to offer. Tell him that I wish him luck in finding a suitable husband for his lovely daughter, Lady Evelyn.”

The earl made a tsking sound. “’Tis clear that you do not even know what you want with the girl, whether she will be your wife or your revenge.”

“For now, she is both.”

“Don’t be a fool, Justin. You will only bring misery down upon your own head. Leave revenge aside. Forgive Alex and me for loving you well enough to meddle where we should not, and forgive Sir Myles for being a greedy fool. If you want happiness for yourself and your good lady, heed me.”

“You are my brother, Hugh, and for that I owe you love. You are the earl of Siere, and for that I owe you respect. But you are not my liege, and I do not owe you my obedience. Isabelle and I will be happy because I will make it so. As for the other…you need not fear. I’ve no desire to make a feast of revenge. Not a feast, nay. Only a delicacy, which I will enjoy until the moment it begins to make me weary.”

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