Page 21 of Gambling with the Earl
“I am sure the views are considerable, especially from the tallest tower. Do you go up there?” Otto asked.
It was a decent stab at conversation, but unfortunately Otto had again hit upon the wrong subject. “I do not,” Guy replied. “The tower room was the preserve of my uncle. Though mayhap you are right. I should consider making better use of it.”
Lord Ulric harrumphed, and the room fell into uncomfortable silence. Guy risked a glance at his companions. Beneath his suntanned face and youthful vigour, Otto lookedtired and drawn as he toyed with a cut of meat. He was known throughout the north as a fearless warrior and a wealthy man, with no cares to speak of. But here he sat, clearly beset with worry for the future. And as Lord Ulric twitched with impatience, Guy could see why. The old earl was like a powder keg, likely to explode at any moment.
“We have consumed much wine,” Otto observed, gazing into his drained goblet. “I may have a sore head in the morning.”
Guy smiled in response. “You have no cause to leave early. Please, stay as long as you wish.”
Otto looked serious. “Thank you, but we must ride at dawn. We have been absent from Darkmoor overly long already.”
Lord Ulric harrumphed once more, fixing his son with a steely glare. “You should have thought of that earlier, mayhap when you concocted this foolish plan to spend a night in a draughty castle with no way to pass the time easily.” He picked up his goblet with an unsteady hand and drank deeply.
Was the man drunk, Guy wondered. A flush in his cheeks and a faint slurring of his words indicated as such.
The outer door opened once more and Guy’s heart sank as Kitty reappeared, this time holding a pale earthenware jug. She seemed to keep her gaze deliberately from him as she approached the table, and Guy could think of no good reason to speak up.
“This is more like it.” Lord Ulric sat back in his chair and gestured to Kitty. “Come here, young miss. I grow weary of this meal, but you offer me some diversion and perchance the opportunity to pass a more pleasant evening. Come and sit beside me.”
Kitty placed the wine down on the table and folded her hands demurely in her apron, clearly at a loss as to what to do. Guy’s fingers tightened around the edge of the wooden table as he watched the events unfold, feeling frozen in place.
“Come now,” Lord Ulric urged. “Otto, go find the maid a chair,” he barked at his son.
“Father, you’re embarrassing the girl,” Otto said firmly. “She’s a servant doing her job. Let her be.”
Lord Ulric raised a steely gaze to his son. “If I’m not mistaken, I’m still the Earl of Darkmoor, and you are my son. You will do as I say. The servant will spend the night with me.”
His words pierced Guy’s stupor, and he jumped to his feet, his chair scraping back against the flagstones. Time slowed down as Kitty raised an anguished face to him in a silent plea for help. A plea he had already determined to answer. “That will not do,” he announced, uncaring of Lord Ulric’s flash of anger. “No one will make a claim on Kitty.”
The tension in the room grew palpable as Lord Ulric also rose to his feet. Guy wondered when the earl had last been denied his every wish. Mayhap not for many a year.
“And why is that?” Lord Ulric asked, one hand going to the sword at his hip.
Otto’s eyes flickered between the two of them. Guy knew that his old friend would be cognisant that Lord Ulric had erred, but if he had to make a choice, he would side with his father.
Guy fixed his eyes on Kitty, who was now visibly trembling. Whatever happened, he would not abandon her to the unwanted attentions of Lord Ulric. She was in his employ and deserved his protection. But more than that, the thought of any man touching her caused him inexplicable discomfort.
He could see but one way out of this. Switching his gaze from the pretty wench to the furious old warrior, Guy summoned an insincere bark of laughter. “Why? Because she is mine, Lord Ulric. And I confess, I am possessive over my women.”
Did Kitty flinch, or was it his imagination? Guy couldn’t afford to spare her so much as a glance. His attention was firmlyfixed on Lord Ulric, most especially the hand on the hilt of his sword.
For a second, the old man’s gaze still conveyed his wrath, but then his lips creased into a smile, and he sank back down in his chair, reaching again for his goblet of wine. “Fair enough, my good man,” he allowed. He gave a small chuckle. “You really should have said something earlier.”
“Forsooth, Guy.” Otto also reached to refill his wine, his eyes dancing with a mix of merriment and relief. “What was that you said about not dallying with the servants?”
Guy sat back down in his chair, his knees weak and his stomach still jittery with nerves. “Every rule needs an exception,” he stated, finally looking away from Lord Ulric and raising his eyes to Kitty. Did she know that he acted purely to save her?
“And what an exception.” Lord Ulric raised his glass to the red-faced serving maid still standing by his side.
“You may leave us now, Kitty,” Guy said. Her obvious shame made him almost regret his actions, but then she flashed him the smallest of smiles and he knew she was grateful to him. His relief was almost as great as when Lord Ulric released his sword. Relief which mingled with the buzz of adrenaline and intoxication from the wine. He suddenly needed to be near her. “Hold on,” he ordered, just as she reached the door. With a nod at his amused companions, Guy stood up from the table and crossed the hall to meet her. She smelled of freshly baked bread and something sweeter. A strand of hair had escaped her cap, and Guy had to control his urge to push it back behind her shell-like ear. The poor girl still trembled like a leaf, but he could not put an arm around her shoulders to offer comfort. “Finish up in the kitchen and go straight up to your chamber,” he told her in a low voice that only she could hear. Her green eyes grew wide as saucers as she looked up at him in alarm. He leanedcloser. “Then bolt your door from the inside and allow no one admittance.”
Relief washed over her features, removing the lines of worry and leaving her beautiful once again. “Thank you, my lord,” she whispered.
“You shall always be safe in this castle,” he breathed, unable to prevent his hand brushing lightly against her arm. “For as long as I am Earl of Rossfarne.”
Chapter Seven
Their uninvited guestsleft soon after sunrise. They took with them supplies for the journey, skins of wine and great hunks of freshly-baked bread, but were in too much of a hurry to break their fast at Rossfarne Castle. Kitty stood at the small window in her chamber and watched them leave, the clatter of their horses’ hooves ringing through the dense castle walls.
