Page 77 of The Unwilling Bride
“As you’ll stay by Lord Merrick?” she asked softly. “So that he knows he has a trusted friend nearby, too?”
As if against his will, his gaze fastened on her full, soft lips. He leaned toward her, then remembered who they were, and where, and drew back as if she had the plague. “I won’t leave Tregellas until Merrick has a trustworthy garrison commander. Now I give you good day, my lady.”
With that, he headed for the armory, getting away from Lady Beatrice and her big blue eyes as quickly he could.
Before he again forgot that he was Merrick’s trusted friend, and she was sweet and pure.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
OVER A FORTNIGHT HAD PASSED by the time Constance stood beside her husband on the dais in the great hall and watched Lord Osgoode saunter toward them. He was not a small man, but tall and broad, with iron-gray hair and a wide and smiling face. His clothes, like his accoutrements, were colorful and expensive, as befitted a man of great wealth and influence at court.
Merrick was not nearly so finely dressed, although he wore his best clothes: a rich, black-and-gold brocade tunic that she’d made for him in the first happy days of their marriage, a white linen shirt laced at the neck, fine woolen breeches and polished black boots.
She wore a gown of emerald cendal, embroidered heavily at the neck and down the long cuffs. Beatrice, who seemed like a shadow of herself these days, had pleaded an aching head and begged to be excused. Ranulf was leading a patrol at the north end of the estate.
“Greetings, my lord,” Merrick said as the nobleman reached the dais. “Welcome to Tregellas. Please sit and take your ease.”
Lord Osgoode smiled expansively, so that his eyeswere nearly invisible in his fleshy face. “I thank you, my lord.” He turned to Constance. “And this would be your bride, I assume?”
“I am, indeed. You must forgive my husband his lapse of manners. We are but newly wedded, my lord, and I think he sometimes forgets me.”
“If I had such a wife as you, my lady, I would be unable to put her from my mind for even a moment,” Lord Osgoode replied with the smooth flattery of a courtier.
The vein in Merrick’s temple started to throb.
Ignoring her husband, Constance gestured at a high-backed chair near the hearth. “Please, do tell us how the earl is faring.”
“He’s very well,” Lord Osgoode replied as he sat on the cushioned seat. “And very pleased by this marriage, as well as the reports he’s received of your rule, my lord.”
Merrick’s eyes narrowed a little. “Reports?” he queried as he, too, sat on a chair facing their guest.
“Naturally the earl’s concerned about his vassals and how they’re managing their estates. He’s been in communication with your uncle, and yours, too, my lady. They’ve both spoken very highly of your management, my lord.”
“I’m pleased I meet with their approval.”
Lord Osgoode chuckled and reached for the wine proffered by Demelza. “Come, man, surely you’re clever enough to realize that even if the earl of Cornwall is not in Cornwall, he keeps himself apprised of what transpires here. He would be a lax overlord otherwise.”
Merrick inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“But let’s not speak of politics when there’s a lovely woman with us,” Lord Osgoode said, smiling at Constance.
She didn’t want the conversation to lapse into mere meaningless gossip. “I’m always happy to hear the news from court.”
“Alas, I’ve not been paying attention to the latest fashions,” Lord Osgoode said with a chuckle. “I haven’t taken stock of what fabrics are in favor, and which are not, or how veils and wimples are being worn this year.”
Constance clenched her teeth and reminded herself that most men thought as Lord Osgoode did.
“That’s not what my wife meant,” Merrick said. “She’s well aware of the tensions at court. Anything of note you wish to say to me, you may say in her presence.”
This was so unexpected, Constance started, then tried to act as if that was perfectly normal.
Lord Osgoode frowned. “But she’s a woman.”
Merrick’s expression didn’t alter by so much as the lift of an eyebrow. “I’m well aware of that, my lord.”
“Women do not understand the business of men.”
“This one does.”
