Page 7 of One Knight
CHAPTER 4
Elisande couldn’t believe the words he had spoken. As he turned away, her reply burst out. “You must be jesting. You can’t possibly mean?—”
“To marry you myself? Indeed, I do, my lady.”
“But—”
“I see no impediment. Unless you are already wed?”
The lie formed in Elisande’s throat, but she could not make it pass her lips. “No. But I am … old.”
His gaze made a frank appraisal of every inch of her. “You seem youthful enough to me, Lady Elisande.”
“But I planned to take vows,” she protested.This cannot be happening. This is not part of the plan.
He closed the distance between them once more. “And you shall take vows before God. To wed me.”
Elisande’s heart hammered against her ribs. “I don’t know you.”
A ghost of a smile passed his lips. “You will. Fear not, my lady, you have the rest of your life to get to know mevery well. Make ready. This day ends with you as my bride.”
She swallowed as he bowed before her. He spun on his heel, armor clanking together as he crossed to the door and shut it behind him. And once again, Elisande slid to the floor.
His bride?
In all her frantic hurry to protect Hilda, it hadneveroccurred to Elisande that she could find herself wed to a Norman knight. Slain by one had seemed much more likely. But wed?Never.
A bride of Christ was one thing. The bride of a Norman knight was quite another.
She stared at the upended mattress, disheveled bedcovers, and bed hangings that lay upon them.
Would he, in only hours, expect her to share it with him?
Elisande knew the way of men and women despite never having a husband. One couldn’t avoid such knowledge in a small manor such as this. But as a maid beyond marrying age, she had never expected to know of such things firsthand.
She had not been ignorant of the way Alger had looked at her. She knew he wanted to marry her. But as the youngest son of a less powerful baron, he had no means of keeping a wife of his own, especially the sister of Baron Auldwyn. The fact that she would never marry had not botheredElisande. Actually, she found it rather comforting, knowing that Alger would never ask for her hand. And after the years passed and her brother turned down all other offers for her so as not to lose his child’s caretaker, her fate had seemed sealed. Now, she was too old to be considered a candidate for marriage by any other man. But apparently not for this one knight.
Elisande found herself moving toward the mattress and hefting it with all her strength to set it to rights. As she repaired the bed to something that could be slept in, she could not help but wonder what it would be like to share it with Sir Henry de Vere.
She expected fear to rise within her. But it did not. She found him handsome, if anything. Not that she would ever admit that to him.Perhaps if he had treated her otherwise, she would have found a way to escape already. But instead, as she smoothed the blanket across the bed, all she felt was curiosity. Her face heated.
These are not the thoughts of a lady … at least not the thoughts of the lady I was before this day.
She had never had such thoughts about Alger.Ever.
When the Normans had come, she had known that life as she knew it was over. Now, it seemed an entirely new life was opening up before her. The life of a wife of a Norman knight.
Elisande sat on the bed and took a deep breath as another thought occurred to her.
He will not hurt Hilda. And her people are also safe.
Her sacrifice had proven wise and worthwhile.
As she let out her breath, she thought,At least that went according to plan.
Everything else … well, that remained to be seen.
CHAPTER 5
