Page 11 of The Daughters of Avalon
Chapter
Five
Elspeth shook herself free of her strange languor. “I… I wasn’t… sleeping,” she lied. But how odd—how imprudent—to sleep in a stranger’s arms! The last thing she wanted was for him to think she would be so compliant as to allow him to do aught that he willed.
“You weren’t?” he asked, and his smile returned, because Elspeth heard the note of good humor in his voice. So, too, did her ire.
“I ask only because I thought I heard you snore.”
“Nay, my lord. I. Do.Not.Snore.”
He leaned forward—scandalously close—challenging her. “But how can ye know you don’t snore when you’re sleeping? Are ye perchance a seer?”
The warmth of his breath—sweet for a man—tickled the back of Elspeth’s neck and she lifted her shoulder, shrugging him away. Of course, she was. But she didn’t need sight to know whether she snored, although perhaps she should say yes just to see what he would say. “I would notknow if I were sleeping, but I was not sleeping.”
Elspeth realized he must be teasing her, but she wasn’t in the mood, and the farther she traveled from Wales, the more shefretted about her sisters. And nevertheless, it wasn’t as though she wasn’t grateful; she was. It was more that now that she was out of immediate danger, she didn’t know what to do or where to go. She couldn’t very well ask him to put her off right here, could she? Where would she go? She tried to consider possibilities but couldn’t think with him whispering at her ear. “Only humor me,” he suggested. “How can yeknowfor sure?”
Elspeth huffed a sigh, shrugging him away, again. “Because. If I snored—if I ever snored—my sisters would have told me so.”
That answer seemed to mollify him for a second, and then he asked, “Sisters? From the priory?”
“Aye.”
“Nuns?”
“Nay.”
“Aha,” he said now, but did she imagine a note of relief? Silence for a moment, and then he proposed, “So, tell me, Elspeth… how manysistershave you?”
The way he spoke her name, so gently, gave Elspeth a quiver, and no matter, she didn’t wish to tell him anything more than she must. “Four,” she said, because he asked.
“Living?”
“Aye.”
“And where are they now?”
“Precisely where we are not,” Elspeth returned, and this, once more, inspired a low rumble of laughter from her reluctant champion.
Ye gods, his mirth was unshakable.
As a matter of fact, she’d already acknowledged that she’d left four sisters at the priory. She didn’t feel particularly compelled to repeat herself. If he couldn’t properly hear, he should clean out his ears. By the cauldron! Was it possible that all Scots could be so annoying?
For most of her years at court, the Scot’s king’s son had teased her mercilessly. It was only after being warned about the possibility of incurring Morwen’s wrath that he’d ever deigned to stop. It was unthinkable now thatthatman should be made the Earl of Northumberland—particularly so, since Elspeth wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust him. Much like Stephen’s son Eustace, he was a petty tyrant with an eye for his father’s laurels. As far as she was concerned, with the likes of Eustace so close to her father’s throne, England was descending into darkness. And the most infuriating thing of all was this: David of Scotia had once knelt before her sister Matilda. He swore his love and fealty while her father watched, and now he and all his barons paid homage to Stephen instead of Matilda. So, then, did he, or did he not, support Matilda?
And what about this Scotsman at her back? How could he support Stephen, when her sister was the rightful claimant to the throne?
Be nice to him, Elspeth.You need him.
The voice was fainter now, and Elspeth couldn’t, in truth, be certain it belonged to Rhiannon. It could well be her own voice of reason. Because it was true; she did need him.
For love of the Goddess, she didn’t wantto need this man, but she did. And nevertheless, she knew so little about him, save that he mustn’t be lowborn. Her first clue was the ring on his finger—the one on his left hand that by now had slipped to her thigh. She’d allowed it to remain there, if only to study the ring. Casting her gaze down again, examining the signet, she studied the golden two-headed falcon and read the maxim:Altium, citius, fortius. But she couldn’t recall whose standard it could be. She had been gone from court so long now that she didn’t know anything about Stephen’s new barons. There were hundreds of them, all building adulterine castels her father would have smashed with his fist.
Lulled once more by the lazy trot of his horse, Elspeth found herself leaning back against his sturdy form, and mostly because he didn’t protest, she relaxed. After all, it was going to be a long, long journey to wherever they were going.
North,he’d said.
How far north was north?
