Chapter Eleven #2
It was the perfect lead-in to a subject Robin had intended to bring up all night. As he hoped, Christopher seemed interested in discussing it.
“Where?” he asked.
“South,” Robin said. “From Cirencester.”
Christopher frowned. “Fairford?”
“The same.”
“What trouble?”
Robin sighed sharply, an act that conveyed great displeasure.
“You know how the man has made his money,” he said.
“He and his family. They are bred from pirates and thieves, so they tend to steal and raid. Riggs Fairford is no different from his ancestors. The king tolerates him because he pays a great deal in taxes, so he’ll do nothing about him. ”
“Is he becoming that much of a problem?”
Robin nodded. “A little,” he said. “Though his activity comes and goes. Mayhap the next time he raids my border, a little show of force from my daughter’s new husband might discourage them from more action.”
Christopher pondered that. “Possibly,” he said. “I do not know much about Fairford. I’ve never had any real contact with him.”
“A viper,” Robin said with mock disgust. “As I said… I am glad for our strong alliance, my lord. I am glad for Roi.”
Christopher believed him. Robin had to refrain from patting himself on the back because Christopher seemed very much in agreement and understanding.
That would make what he had to do just a little bit easier.
And a little more believable.
The time would soon come.
*
“My father and your father seemed to be having a pleasant conversation,” Diara said. “My father is in a surprisingly good mood.”
Roi had just broken away from the group of drunken singers posing as his brothers and nephews.
He had returned to the dais and claimed his seat next to the bride, taking her hand as he collected a chalice of what he thought was wine.
What he discovered was that it was very watery wine.
He took two big gulps before holding up the cup and looking at it strangely.
“What is this?” he asked.
Diara grinned. “I had the servants bring watered wine,” she said. “I thought it might slake your thirst better. Did I do wrong?”
He looked at her, trying to scowl, but he kept breaking out in a grin. “You did not do this to slake my thirst,” he accused lightly. “You think I am becoming too drunk.”
She bit her lip to keep from laughing. “How dare you say such things,” she said, pretending to be indignant. “I did not. And I do not want you drunk when we retire for the evening.”
He broke out in laughter, pulling her against him and kissing her on the cheek. “You devious cat,” he said. “I should have watched my cup. And I will never be too drunk, I promise. Don’t you believe me?”
“Should I?”
“You should,” he insisted. “I would never lie to you, angel. You do believe that, don’t you?”
She smiled at him, stroking his cheek. “Of course I do,” she said. “There is no question.”
He smiled in return, kissing her on the cheek again. “Then may I please have wine with no water in it?”
She laughed softly and nodded, and he released her long enough to summon a servant and procure a big cup of rich red wine. He took a big swallow, eyeing his father and Robin across the table, huddled in conversation.
“And as for our fathers,” he said, “it looks much better between them than it did the last time I saw them together. I am pleased that your father is behaving himself.”
Diara couldn’t disagree. “As am I,” she said, looking around the table and noting Roi’s daughters directly across from them.
They were sitting next to Iris, seemingly playing a game with her using pieces of bread on the tabletop.
“I do not know if you realize this, but I’ve never had a conversation with Adalia.
She seems to have been busy with her cousins during her stay here. Is she a shy lass?”
Roi looked over at his two living children.
“Verily,” he said. “That is why she likes to spend her time minding the children. She is very good with them, but she has always been quite shy with people she does not know. Coming to know her will take a little longer than it will with Dorian, who seems to love you already. But when I look at them, sitting there like that… it’s a little strange for me. ”
“Why?”
“Because they look so much like Odette.”
Diara looked at him. “Then she must have been very pretty,” she said. She hesitated briefly before continuing. “What was she like?”
He met her gaze. “She was quiet and obedient,” he said. “She had some of Adalia’s shyness. Truthfully, she was a gentle creature. I never heard her raise her voice or become angry. And she was devoted to the children.”
“Then she was a good wife,” Diara said. “Is it difficult for you to speak of her?”
He shook his head. “It used to be,” he said. “Not any longer. That part of my life is in the past, and I am looking forward to the future.”
He meant with her, and she smiled at him. “As am I,” she said. “Mayhap it isn’t the best place to ask about Odette, but you have never spoken of her, and Beckett did not tell me much, either. But he did say that she died in childbirth.”
“She did,” Roi said. “With Dorian. And I haven’t spoken of her because it is painful. It is simply because there hasn’t been any opportunity to do so. We are only coming to know one another, and I did not want to bring my dead wife into the conversation. It did not seem right.”
Diara understood. “And here I am, asking about her on our wedding day,” she said, giggling when he grinned.
“Mayhap not the most appropriate conversation, but in a sense, it is. I think that she would want you to be happy, wouldn’t she?
And I see no issue with keeping her spirit alive, especially for your daughters. ”
He leaned over and kissed her again. “A very wise and sensible view,” he said. “I am coming very much to appreciate that about you, angel. To be so generous to the woman who preceded you is wise and magnanimous, indeed.”
Her eyes glimmered. “As long as you do not compare me to her, I will embrace her memory because she is part of you and part of your children,” she said.
“But I imagine it might be difficult, in the beginning, for you not to compare us. She is the only other wife you have had. Unless there are others I do not know of.”
Her message was serious, but she said it in such a way that he did not take offense. He wouldn’t have, anyway, because he completely understood what she was saying.
“There are no other wives, unless I was drunk at the time and do not recall,” he said, jesting.
But he quickly sobered. “I will tell you this now so there is no doubt—I would never compare you to Odette. The two of you are a world apart. She was gentle and quiet, and you are vivacious and have fire in your spirit. My mother even commented on it, and I told her that I loved that about you. I think Odette would laugh at me because I’ve found a woman whose determination and spirit can match my own. ”
Diara pinched his chin gently. “And that is a good thing, is it not?” she said. “But why would she laugh?”
He snorted. “Because she knows that, deep down, I fear a woman who is stronger than I am,” he said. “She knows I will acquiesce to you in all things. But know that it does not concern me at all. I welcome it.”
He swooped in to kiss her again, but someone was tugging on his sleeve, and he looked over his shoulder to see Dorian and Adalia standing next to him.
“Papa?” Dorian said, rubbing her eyes. “I’m sleepy. Grandmother told me to ask permission to go to bed.”
It was getting late. Roi shifted his chair, turning in the direction of his daughters, and Dorian slipped past him, straight into Diara’s lap.
Though there were only six years between them, Dorian clearly felt comfortable with Diara as either a mother figure or an older sister figure.
Sitting on Diara’s lap, she put her arms around the woman and laid her head on her shoulder.
It was something that touched Roi deeply.
“If you want to go to sleep, you cannot sleep on Diara,” he said, watching Dorian grin. “But I agree with you. I like her, too.”
Dorian smiled up at Diara, who put her hand on the child’s head in a motherly fashion. Meanwhile, Roi turned to Adalia, his eldest daughter who looked very much like Odette. She was petite, with dark hair and dark eyes, and a fragile-looking face. Roi reached out and took her hand.
“And you, my lady?” he said. “Are you sleepy, too?”
Adalia nodded, but she kept turning her attention to the room, now stuffed with soldiers and knights as the wedding celebration continued. Then she looked down the table to where Christopher and Robin were seated, and beyond them sat a couple of men she didn’t recognize.
“Aye,” she said in a squeaky voice. “A little. But I was wondering something.”
“What?”
She discreetly pointed down the table. “Who are those men on the other side of Taid?” she said, referring to Christopher using the Welsh name for grandfather that the de Lohr children sometimes used. “Are they knights?”
Both Roi and Diara looked down the table. It was Diara who spoke. “Those are my father’s knights,” she said, returning her attention to Adalia. “They have served Cheltenham for many years.”
Adalia nodded, but it was clear that she was shy when it came to Diara. Everything Roi had said about her was becoming obvious.
“Oh,” she said timidly.
It seemed that the conversation was ending right there because she couldn’t bring herself to ask more questions. But then she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Diara noticed that Roi was trying not to smile.
“I do not know,” he told her. “I do not know the man.”
Adalia whispered again into his ear. Roi listened before shrugging.
“You will have to ask Diara,” he said. “She would know.”
Both Roi and Adalia looked at Diara, but Adalia was looking at her with genuine fear. Seeing that the young woman evidently had a question, Diara smiled at her.
“What may I tell you, Adalia?” she said. “I am happy to tell you what I know.”