Chapter Twenty-Six #3
Michaelmas was upon them and the streets were lined with decorations and happy people.
Old snow congregated in the gutters and stank with the sewage, but Dustin was feeling much better with her outing.
In fact, she actually felt like shopping, much to Deborah’s delight.
Christopher would have bought the bloody White Tower for her if she wished it, anything to raise her spirits.
David led them all to a delightful bakery on the outskirts of town.
All seven of them entered the small, warm establishment and Dustin proceeded to eat two sticky buns, two chunks of hot bread with apple butter, plus a slice of dark bread with butter, nutmeg and honey.
The more she would eat, the more the fat baker would feed her.
Since she was so full, Dustin and Deborah wholeheartedly agreed to visit the popular dressmaker on the other side of the Thames.
Christopher wasn’t thrilled about taking a ferry across the frozen river, but agreed to keep her happy.
They proceeded to the river’s edge and he wrapped her in his arms to keep her warm as they waited for the river boat.
“Now that you are drunk on bread and sweets, you intend to spend all of my money?” he teased her.
She nodded firmly. “All of yours, and all of David’s, and all of Edward’s, and…”
Edward shook his head. “I will have my own wife for that soon enough. Leave me out of this.”
“But your wife is only three years old, Edward,” Dustin said. “I must prepare you for what is to come.”
He snorted. “By the time I marry her, I will probably die of heart failure the first time she spends an extravagant amount.”
They laughed and joked as they waited, but Deborah seemed distracted. Finally, she turned to her eldest brother.
“Where is Marcus?” she asked.
“At Windsor,” he replied, careful of what he said. “The last I saw, he was working with a group of squires in the jousting field.”
“Why didn’t he come?” Deborah asked.
Dustin’s mood sank again, but she said nothing. Christopher felt her press closer against him. “Because I did not tell him we were going into town,” he told his sister. “He’s very busy, Deborah.”
Deborah sighed a regretful, pretty sigh and looked over her shoulder again as if expecting Marcus to ride up any moment.
The trip to the dressmaker’s had been an expensive one for Christopher.
Dustin had purchased one surcoat that the woman had ready-made, a surcoat a noblewoman had ordered and neglected to pay for, and ordered two more for herself and for Deborah.
Christopher not only found himself paying for his wife, but for his sister.
“When are you going to find yourself a husband?” he asked Deborah with feigned irritation. “You are an expensive habit.”
She grinned coyly. “No one has asked for my hand yet, my lord.”
“Hmm,” he eyed her critically. “I believe I will have to sell you off to the highest bidder to recoup my losses.”
“I doubt there would be anyone who would pay such a price for me,” she said.
“Aye, there is,” Dustin said, knowing Deborah meant Marcus but not wishing to go into it any further. “We simply have to find him.”
Deborah blushed prettily. “I have a suggestion.”
Christopher wasn’t oblivious to what his sister was inferring; he’d known she had her eye on Marcus for months but Deborah was too much of a lady to broach the subject.
Her latest words had him eyeing her warily, fearful of Dustin’s reaction if Deborah’s suggestion was going to be Marcus.
He decided it was best all around to simply skirt the subject.
“You will forgive me if I do not ask for your suggestion,” he said. “It is my duty to find you a husband and I plan to select the wealthiest old man I can find so you can spend your days tending his gout, wiping his dribble, and turning all of his coffers over to me. How does that sound?”
As he’d hoped, the women were properly distracted. Dustin burst out into laughter while Deborah, grinning, was mortified.
“You would not dare do that, would you?” she asked fearfully.
He cocked a stern eyebrow. “If you keep costing me so much money, I will have no choice.”
Deborah looked worried, eyeing the bundled dress she held. “Then you can return the dress and get your money back. I do not want to be a burden.”
He wasn’t about to return the dress. He pinched her chin lightly. “You are not a burden,” he told her, “but it is more than likely that you fear I really will select a fat old husband for you who lies in bed and farts all night long.”
Dustin giggled loudly and even Deborah was smiling. “Like David does?” she asked innocently.
David, having stayed out of the conversation to this point, heard her insult. “What is this?” he said, outraged. “Who told you such lies?”
“They are not lies,” Edward said from his other side. “I have seen it for myself. A fearsome and pungent talent you have, David.”
David slugged Edward, who nearly toppled off his charger. It set the stage for laughing ladies and insults being slung all around the entire ride back to the castle.