Page 26 of While Angels Slept
“Is all well, my lord?” he asked Tevin, though his eyes were on Cantia. He knew Lady Penden and knew of her recent loss. At the moment,it rather looked like she was being supported.
“Indeed it is,” Tevin answered, faking his composure.
The priest looked as if he didn’t believe him. “But I heard.…”
“You heard nothing unusual,” Tevin assured him in his deep voice. He looked at Simon, standing a few feet away. “Give the priest a donation on Brac Penden’s behalf. We wish a mass said for him.”
Simon dug into the change purse he carried, producing a few coins for the priest. The pudgy man accepted them graciously. “A pleasure, my lord.”
As the priest turned away to prepare for the mass, Tevin wriggled his eyebrows at the group. “I would suggest we conduct our business quickly and leave before we wreak any more havoc.”
“Keep him away from the candles,” Cantia muttered to Val.
Val nodded in agreement, biting her lip to fight off the giggles as Tevin cast her a threatening look. Cantia, too, struggled to compose herself. It was difficult to look at Tevin, however, and not break into laughter. So she kept her gaze forward, moving for the pedestal of holy water that was near the western wall. Dipping her fingers in it, she made the sign of the cross across her body and murmured a prayer. She wasn’t sure if she should pray for Brac, or for herself for having allowed such a carnal display with Tevin in the cathedral. It was wicked and she knew it. But at the moment, she almost didn’t care. She had felt more alive in his arms, more vital, than she had in quite some time. It wasn’t wrong to want to feel alive when she’d suffered through so much death.
As she knelt in preparation for the rosary, she could feel Tevin’s dark eyes upon her. He wasn’t kneeling in prayer as she was, but was rather standing behind her respectfully. When she should be praying, all she could think of was the blaze he had ignited within her the moment he had touched her. The memory of those massive arms, the pure passion of his kiss, caused her heart to start racing all over again. She forgot about the prayers. With her eyes closed, she imagined their kiss over and over again in her mind.
Tevin, too, was having a good deal of trouble concentrating. Hestood there, staring at the back of her luscious head, wondering just how long he was going to spend in Purgatory for ravaging the new widow. He’d never felt more evil and he was not, by nature, an evil man. But he knew that, whatever the cost to his soul, his brief encounter with her had been worth the price. He could never have imagined anything sweeter. His eyes trailed from her head to her torso, studying the curve of her waist and the gentle flare of her hips through her emerald surcoat. She had a delicious figure. He’d noticed it from the first. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts of her that he barely felt the first tap from Simon. But he felt the second stronger one.
He looked at his knight, who was pointing at the entrance to the cathedral. Several Winterton men stood in the doorway, waiting for their lord’s attention. Tevin left the ladies on their knees, moving to the entrance accompanied by Simon, John and Myles.
“What is it?” he asked his men.
The first soldier, an older man who had seen service with Tevin’s father, spoke. “A missive, my lord,” he handed him the cylinder of yellowed vellum. “It came a short time ago.”
Tevin cocked a dark brow, noting the seal. “It’s from East Anglia,” he said in a low voice.
He moved outside the cathedral with his men in tow. Several kept watch around them while Tevin broke the seal of the missive and unrolled it. Very carefully scripted letters met his gaze as he read the contents. Simon, though he couldn’t read, looked over his shoulder while Myles, who could read, read slowly of the first few words. But Tevin was finished before he was and rolled the vellum up quickly.
“We must return to Rochester immediately,” he said to his knights. “Get the men moving. I shall gather the ladies.”
“What does the missive say, my lord?” Simon asked.
Tevin’s jaw ticked. “Not here. Send John back to Rochester immediately to summon the rest of my knights. I would speak with everyone upon my return.”
Simon moved to carry out his liege’s orders, readying the soldierswho had accompanied them and bringing about the wagon that had carried the ladies. John mounted his big brown destrier and took off in the direction of the castle. Tevin went back inside where the ladies were still kneeling. He moved to them swiftly.
“I am truly sorry, Lady Penden,” he said quietly, “but we must return immediately.”
Startled, she looked up into his dark eyes and saw hardness to them. Something was amiss, though she could not imagine what. Somehow it frightened her. Without a word, she followed him from the cathedral and to the wagon waiting outside. Tevin helped Val in first, being careful of her ribs, but when it came to Cantia, his enormous hands encircled her waist and he gently lifted her into the cab. His hands lingered a moment and she smiled faintly at him. He winked in response. And then he was gone.
*
“De Gael ison his way to Rochester. It would seem that the man has had a change of loyalties.”
Clustered in the musty solar of Rochester Castle, Tevin made the grim announcement. While the knights of his corps remained quiet and calm, Myles eyebrows lifted dramatically.
“Change of loyalties?” de Lohr repeated. “What does that mean?”
Tevin had been through this before with his cousin. The man was an opportunist and a scoundrel. He’d already betrayed Stephen of Blois some time back, pretending to support the man when what he really wanted was to confiscate some of his English holdings. Now it would appear he was doing the same thing to Matilda.
“It means precisely that,” Tevin said steadily. When de Lohr looked flustered, he continued. “These are lawless times, de Lohr. England has no true monarch. Anarchy has been reigning for thirteen years now, ever since Henry passed away and declared Matilda his heir. While she hides in France, the nobles of the country have basically created their own dark worlds in which to govern and murder. Geoffrey is nodifferent, though he is more clever than most. He supported Stephen for a time until he betrayed the man and stole some of his holdings. Now he betrays Matilda by claiming the fiefdom from Dartford to Canterbury in the name of Stephen.”
Myles was beside himself. “And you accept this?”
Tevin lifted an eyebrow. “He is my liege as well as my cousin. I have little choice in the matter.”
There was more passion in Myles than was healthy. “So you change your own loyalties at the whim of your cousin?” he growled. “You now support the same faction that killed Brac Penden. Now you side with the enemy.”
