Page 99 of While Angels Slept
Tevin nodded in agreement before Cantia was even finished speaking. He whole-heartedly agreed. Kissing her hands reverently, and then her lips, he stood up and carefully pulled her up with him.
“I will see her now,” he said, wiping his nose one last time as if to wipe away any emotion that was lingering. But he paused a moment,looking at Cantia with warmth in his eyes. “Thank you for being disobedient, sweetheart. I know your intentions were good. I… I think hearing this information from you was much better than if I heard it from Louisa. I am not entirely sure how well I would have received it. But coming from you… you gave me strength. I am grateful.”
She smiled sweetly at him, accepting his tender kiss before he quit the room and shut the door softly behind him. Cantia’s smile faded as she listened to his bootfalls fade down the stairs, thinking of the moment that lay ahead for him as he confronted the woman who humiliated and betrayed him, more than he could have ever imagined.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Tevin stared hardat the woman, trying to see the young girl he had known so long ago. With the terrible aging and the progression of her disease, she looked like an old woman and she was only a little over thirty years of age. Life had been difficult for her, indeed.
Louisa regarded her husband, a very big man who had only grown more handsome over the years. She was quite astonished, actually. She had expected him to show up at some point, given her conversation with Lady Cantia, and she was prepared for his hatred and rage. Or, so she thought.
But Tevin did nothing more than stare at her for several moments, wondering how to start the conversation, when he finally gave up and simply shook his head.
“Long ago, I had imagined this moment and what I would say to you when the time came,” he said. “Now that the moment is upon me, I do not know where to start. I suppose I could say that the only reason you are here is because I love another woman. You are here because of her and her alone.”
Louisa had a difficult time understanding him, for she’d not spoken Middle English for quite some time. It was a confusing language.
“Me pardonner que mon anglais n’est pas très bon,” she said softly.
Forgive that my English is not very good.Tevin took the hint, as he was fluent in three different languages. In this time of travel and trade, it was necessary. Additionally, if one had borrowed troops, it was necessary to be able to command them in a language they could understand. He shifted to French.
“You are here because of Lady Cantia,” he said. “Do you comprehend?”
“Aye.”
“I understand you had a conversation with her earlier.”
“I did.”
“She told me what you said about everything, including Arabel,” he moved closer to the bed, his dark eyes intense. “Is this true?”
Louisa gazed up at the enormous knight, a man who was showing great restraint with his emotions. She could tell that he was struggling simply by his expression. Because she was so ill, she had no fear of the man. Death was coming for her, anyway. Tevin du Reims could not do anything more to her in that regard.
“I wish it was not,” she said softly. “You were kind to me, my lord, but I was too young and foolish to realize it. All I knew was that I loved a man not my husband, and I wanted to be with him. I was, and I became pregnant. If your lady told you everything, then you also know that I fled because I was afraid you would discover the child was not yours and you would kill me for it. Perhaps you intend to now. But I go to God with a clear conscience.”
Tevin listened to her quiet explanation, digesting it, before sighing heavily. Then, he shrugged.
“I cannot ask why you did it, because I know,” he said. “I cannot pretend that I am hurt by your betrayal, because I am not. I was humiliated, that is true, but only as a man whose wife leaves him for another man. There was no personal emotion involved. You left Arabel with me and that was all I cared about. Even as I look at you now, the only emotions I feel are those pertaining to Arabel.”
“I understand.”
“What happened to the knight? The one you said is her true father?”
Louisa drew in a breath, coughing slightly when her chest roweled. Tevin stood well back as the woman covered her cough with a vinegar soaked cloth.
“He left me for another woman,” she finally rasped. “I was seventeen years old. My father disowned me so I had no choice but to dowhat I could to survive.”
“You are a prostitute.”
Louisa simply nodded, closing her weary eyes. “Certainly not as I had planned for my life to happen,” she said, opening her eyes and fixing on him. “I heard a few years ago that Arabel’s father had been killed in a tavern fight. I also heard he had fathered several other children with different women. I suppose, in hindsight, I did not fall in love with a man of good character. But I was young… I did not know any better.”
Tevin simply nodded. In truth, he had heard everything he wanted to hear and there was not much more to say. But he wanted to make one thing very clear.
“Arabel has asked to meet you and I have agreed,” he said, his voice low. “Let me make it clear that you are not to tell her of your past indiscretions or of her true parentage. She does not need to know these things. Tell her of your family history, or of other meaningless things, but do not upset her with things she does not need to know. Do you comprehend?”
Louisa nodded weakly, but there was uncertainty to it. “She will want to know why I left,” she said. “What would you have me tell her?”
Tevin averted his gaze, thinking on what his daughter knew of her mother’s abandonment. “She believes you left because she was born crippled,” he said quietly. “Perhaps… perhaps you should allow her to believe that and simply tell her that you are sorry for it.”
