Page 104 of Peregrine's Call
“It’s one thing to marry below one’s class, and the generous dowry Lord de Vere offered does make up for your birth. But to have a wife of a lower station and impure as well? Intolerable.”
So this was what Pierce had been so smug about before, when she captured him following his final escape attempt. He took revenge on Robin by suggesting that he slept with her, thus destroying any chance she had for an advantageous marriage.
“Pierce is a liar. He lies as much as he breathes.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, partly from anger, but also from the knowledge that she could no longer prove her virginity if it came to a test. Shewasimpure in the eyes of nearly everyone who cared about such things. And to say she lost her virginity to Octavian instead of Pierce would not improve her position in the least.
Geoffrey looked her over with disdain. “A lady’s reputation is her most important asset.”
“More than a dowry?” Cecily asked drily.
“More than a dowry, more than an alliance. I will not suffer the indignity of gossip. I will not be called a cuckold or a fool.”
“I’ll call you worse than that,” Robin said. “Or did you forget how you kept trying to get me alone during those hunts earlier this autumn, how you wanted a kiss and then more?”
Cecily’s eyes narrowed. “What is this?”
“It happened on more than one occasion, my lady,” Robin explained. “Geoffrey would ride after me and when no one else could see us, he tried to kiss me. I let him because I thought it was just his clumsy way of courting me. But when he wanted more than a kiss, when he tried to grope me, when he tried to lift my skirts, I left him. I rode off to find the others.”
“You never told me that,” Cecily said, her face ashen.
“I was supposed to marry him,” Robin said, feeling ashamed, and then angry thatsheshould feel shame for it. “I didn’t think anyone would care if he took liberties.”
“It was very…restrained of you to not hurt him when he tried,” Alric said. “I’m surprised you didn’t draw blood.”
“I was supposed to marry him,” Robin repeated. In fact, that was the only reason she’d avoided drawing her knife on Geoffrey Ballard the last time he had tried to take advantage of her. A proper lady did not threaten her betrothed’s life.
Cecily sighed, looking at Geoffrey in disappointment. She said to Robin, “Well, I wish you’d told me, but I’m proud of you for refusing him.”
“I refused him,” Robin said, “precisely because I do not give in to men who think of women as playthings.”I just gave in to the one man whose every word I believed, until it was too late.
Geoffrey sneered. “Yet you travel for weeks on end in the company of strange men and still expect to be thought a clean and wholesome lady? I’m not stupid. I know a slut when I see one.”
Alric pushed himself up from the chair, clearly ready to challenge Geoffrey to combat based on his insult.
“Don’t!” Robin shouted at Alric. “Please don’t challenge him. I wouldn’t marry this man if he begged me to, but I don’t want to have any role in his death. And if you fought him, he’d die before he got in a single parry.”
“As you wish,” Alric said, still looking enraged. He turned to Ballard, his expression barely controlled. He bit off every word as he spoke. “We thank you for your visit, my lord. But it is clear that our interests do not align. Naturally, everyone at Cleobury will do their upmost to see that you can depart without delay. You must wish for the comfort of your own home. And we will speak no more of a marriage.”
“Lord de Vere will…” Ballard began.
“Lord de Vere will agree with me,” Alric declared. “Because we both want what is best for Robin. Now go. I won’t ask again.”
Geoffrey bowed stiffly to Alric, ignored Cecily and Robin completely, and then stormed out of the hall.
After a long moment, when Robin thought he might chase Geoffrey down out of principle, Alric slowly sank back down in the chair. “Well. That seems to be the end of that.”
“My dear,” Cecily said, squeezing Robin’s hand. “I am so sorry.”
Robin let out a huge breath, the tension draining out of her with Geoffrey’s departure. “For what? I didn’t want to marry him anyway, and now we know what a stubborn, small-minded man he is.”
“He seemed so attentive at first when he took you hawking and riding….” She trailed off.
“The attention to Robin happened because he was currying favor with de Vere,” Alric said shortly. “Robin was an afterthought to him, if that. We won’t make that mistake again.”
“There won’t be anagain,” Robin said. “You heard him, and you know what he’ll do. He’ll spread his version of the story throughout the whole shire, and he’s a man, so he’ll be listened to. Thanks to Pierce’s words, my reputation is destroyed, and I am to blame for it.”
Cecily frowned, clearly trying to set the situation to rights. “This whole business has been unpleasant, and Robin must want to rest. I’ll walk her to her chamber.”
Upstairs, Robin wanted nothing more than to curl up and shut out the world, but Cecily still wanted to discuss the matter. She sat with Robin on the edge of the bed.
