Page 20 of One Knight
“You’d marry me like this? As I am? Windblown and mussed from the journey?”
“You look beautiful, my lady, and I would prefer we not delay.”
His compliment caught Elisande off guard.
“I do?”
Sir Henry nodded.
With a smile, she looked to Brother Benedict. “Is it possible?”
The monk’s lips turned upward. “As the holy scripture says, with God, all things are possible. Come into the courtyard at least. Leave your sword.”
“Sir Geoffrey, leave your sword to stand witness. The rest of you, stay here. Armed and ready.”
“Yes, sir,” they replied as he unbuckled his sword belt and handed it to Diggory.
Then Sir Henry offered his arm to her.
And with nearly three days of travel dust upon her, Elisande married a knight in full armor while standing in the priory’s courtyard as Hilda played with a doll at her feet.
For someone who had never expected to have a wedding at all, it was oddly perfect.
CHAPTER 9
“Make camp outside the walls. The girl and the Saxon will stay within,” Henry told his men as soon as he left his bride in the courtyard.
Nothing had changed but the words spoken by a man of God and the vows they had made, and yet, to Henry, everything had changed.
The Lady Elisande belonged to him now. She was his wife. His.
“Congratulations!”
“Hear, hear!” his men said, lifting their swords into the air.
“Thank you.”
“We will take care of everything—have no doubt,” Sir Geoffrey said from behind him. “You should rejoin your bride.”
“We ride at dawn.”
Geoffrey nodded. “What of the girl and the cart?”
“They remain. We will collect her after she hashad time to recover from the journey and can handle a second one.”
“And the Saxon?”
“He can return from whence he came.”
“And your lady?”
“What of her?”
“Does she not need rest?”
“She can rest behind the safety of the manor walls with us protecting her.”
“We’re leaving so soon? Without Hilda?” Elisande asked from the priory gate.
