Page 28 of Rogue Knight
Sir Geoffroi laid Magnus on the pallet and she closed the door behind the men as the twins came bounding down the stairs.
“’Tis Sir Geoffroi,” said Finna.
“The one who carried me home?” Ottar asked, his gaze taking in the tall mail-clad men. Emma had explained to the boy that it was Sir Geoffroi who had brought him home from the clearing and that the knight was a most unusual Norman.
“’Tis him,” said Finna. “He is one of the Bastard’s knights. He told me so himself.”
Sir Alain covered a cough with his hand.
“Finna!” exclaimed Emma. She had forgotten to tell Finna not to use that name for the Norman king even if it was truth.
Sir Geoffroi chuckled. “Hello, Ottar, Finna.” Pointing to Alain, he said, “This is my friend, Sir Alain. I do not think you met him Finna but he was with me when we brought Ottar home.”
Finna nodded shyly.
“What happened to Magnus?” inquired Ottar as he stared at the blood-soaked bandage on the hound’s leg.
“He caught his leg in a snare,” said Sir Geoffroi. Rubbing his lower back, he remarked, “That beast is no light thing.”
“Yea,” Emma admitted, kneeling next to the dog, “he’s full grown now and large even for an Irish hound.”
Magnus’ tail thumped the ground as his mistress stroked him and the children came to watch.
Emma liked how Sir Geoffroi was with the twins, more tender than she would have expected a hardened knight to be. And he had carried her beloved hound back to her. He might be a Norman but she was now thrice in his debt. How could she be so ungracious as to not welcome him into her home?
“Sit,” she said from where she knelt next to Magnus, gesturing to a bench by the hearth. She sent Sigga, who had come into the room, for some mead. To the knights, she said, “You must stay and share some mead.”
Sir Geoffroi cast a glance at his companion who nodded. “Aye, we will gladly stay.”
Emma shrugged. Normans were in her home again. And for some reason their presence this time did not disturb her. Thank God her father was on his way to Denmark. He would never have accepted the fact there were French knights who did not live to rape and kill.
***
Geoff drank deeply of the sweet honey wine Emma’s servant had brought him, warming his body in front of the hearth fire. The French did not prefer the drink but they had served it at Talisand a few times.
Mathieu returned from seeing to the horses and joined them.
The hound looked up at him from where he lay on the pallet with his sad, dark eyes, apparently content with Emma’s attention as she lovingly removed the cloth around his leg and inspected the wound.
Magnus whimpered.
Emma gasped. “The cut is deep.”
The twins leaned over the hound’s leg. “Will he be all right?” Ottar asked.
“It has not cut into the bone,” she assured the lad. “If I can stop the bleeding, and the wound does not fester, he will heal.”
Geoff did not envy the hound the nasty gash but he did envy the attention it was getting from the fair, young widow. Seeing how skillfully she cleaned and dressed the wound, he was reminded of how she had tended Ottar. “You seem to know what you are about.”
Not looking up from where she worked on the dog’s leg, she replied, “I have tended a man’s wounds more than once.”
He was curious to know what man she had tended. The one with the large feet? Or, mayhap her husband. But he did not ask. “Your hound is a strong one,” he remarked, watching her plait catch the light of the fire, turning it golden. The thick braid flowed down the back of her dark blue gown as she bent over her hound. He imagined her flaxen hair coming unraveled as he took her in his arms and kissed her. His body responded, his loins swelling with desire. Shaking off his wandering thoughts, he reminded himself that despite his attraction to her, she was a proud Northumbrian woman. And, at the moment, they were sitting in her home, surrounded by her family.
When Emma finished tending the hound, the twins took her place on either side of the beast, and began stroking its fur. Magnus laid his head in Finna’s lap and closed his eyes.
Emma came to sit beside Geoff, which pleased him greatly. Alain sat on his other side and Mathieu next to Alain. Her eyes fixed on the twins and the hound, she said, “Thank you again for bringing him home. I was not sure I could find him.”
He could not have explained it if asked, but Geoff felt very protective of her even though she was not his to protect, even though she harbored hatred for his king. “I would not have you wandering through the forest in search of the beast. ’Twould not be safe, especially this late in the day.”
