Chapter Six
“Are you well after that awful incident today? You seemed so terribly angry about it.”
Clark looked up to see Summer standing at the entrance of the stable.
He was tending to his stallion, the big gray beast who would rather be a pet than a warhorse.
It was true that he was still agitated about the incident with Autumn and the madman, and perhaps he was cleaning out the hooves of his horse harder than he should have been, but that all ended when he saw Summer standing in the doorway.
That ethereal beauty always had an effect on him.
“I was,” he said, forcing a smile. “But I am not any longer. Simply seeing you has the ability to calm all of my troubles.”
Summer returned his smile as she entered the stable. It was dark and somewhat quiet, with servants moving about but not nearby. Still, they were close enough that Summer didn’t move any closer to Clark than she already was.
She’d learned to keep a proper distance where there was a possibility they might be seen.
“I have never in my life witnessed anything like that,” Summer said softly. “Have you ever heard of a man simply stealing a woman in front of everyone?”
Clark sighed faintly, shaking his head. “Never,” he said. “That is a first for me. How is Autumn faring?”
“Shaken, but uninjured. I think my mother is taking it harder than Autumn is.”
“Lady Ashington is a woman of deep feeling.”
Summer nodded, inching a little closer to him. “And you, my love?” she whispered. “You are a man of deep feeling, also. How are you feeling after everything?”
His expression reflected the warmth in his heart for her, this young woman he’d watched grow up who, upon the eve of her seventeenth year, declared her love for him.
He’d spent months trying to fight her off, reminding her repeatedly that he was more than twice her age.
He was too old for her, he’d insisted, and she needed a husband of the appropriate age, but Summer was unconvinced.
Sweet, slightly silly, but utterly divine Summer was in love with her father’s captain and as much as Clark, an unmarried career knight, had tried to resist her, he’d eventually succumbed.
She was his angel and he was madly in love with her, something neither her father nor mother knew.
The truth was that Clark was waiting until Wynter at least married until he offered for Summer, who had just turned eighteen years old.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could wait. He also wasn’t sure just how the Earl of Ashington would take his interest in his daughter.
Theirs was a clandestine, and careful, relationship.
For now.
“I am perfectly fine,” he murmured after a moment. “I have told you time and time again not to worry about me and most especially not in a situation like the one that happened to your sister. Do you think I cannot handle such a thing?”
Summer laughed softly. “Of course you can, my love,” she said softly. “You are a man of many talents and great strengths. But I also heard you yelling at Wynter. None of that was her fault, you know.”
His smile faded. “Nay, none of it was her fault,” he said. “I did not scold her about that.”
“About her and Spring leaving last night?”
“You know about that, do you?”
Summer nodded. “I heard them hissing at each other when they were supposed to be sleeping,” she said.
“I heard Spring force Wynter to go with her. Honestly, Clark, it is not Wynter’s fault.
It is Spring’s fault for being so desperate for male attention.
She would do anything for a man to notice her. ”
Clark grunted unhappily. “One of these days, she is going to get the wrong kind of attention and it will cost her,” he said. Then his eyes narrow. “She does not ever demand that you go with her on these foolish escapades, does she?”
Summer fought off a smile. “Would it trouble you if she did?”
“I will kill any man who looks at you.”
She knew he was serious and it did her heart good.
Looking around to make sure no one was watching them, or would even notice them, she slipped back into the shadows of the stall and motioned for Clark to follow.
He did and by the time he reached her in the corner, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her for a sweet kiss.
Clark responded passionately, holding her tightly against him.
Warm and delicious, he relished the feel of her body against his.
Such a sweet, stolen moment.
“God,” he gasped, pulling away and hugging her tightly. “I do not know how much longer I can wait, sweetling. Every day that I cannot touch you freely or call you my own is like torture.”
Summer’s hands were in his blond hair, running her fingers through it.
The moments when they embraced were few and far between, so she savored the feel of him down to the texture of his hair.
She found herself smelling the strands, smelling the leather from the helms. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself a few moments to bask in it, fortifying her tender heart.
“I’ve heard Mama and Papa speaking,” she whispered. “Papa wants to marry Wynter to Brian de Luci, so we may not have to wait much longer. I know de Luci is keen on her.”
“And Spring is keen on him,” Clark mumbled.
Summer sighed, pulling away to look at him.
“He is not keen on her,” she said. “I feel a good deal of pity for Spring. It goes back to what I was saying earlier. She is so desperate for a man to notice her that she’ll do almost anything for that attention.
I am not entirely certain Papa will agree to our betrothal if Wynter is married and Spring is not.
Do you suppose we can find a husband for her? ”
Clark frowned. “Who?”
Summer shrugged. “You do not know of any eligible men who would like to be married to the second daughter of an earl?” she said. “What about Etienne or Dirk? They are not married.”
Clark eyed her. “And they have never shown the slightest bit of interest in Spring,” he said. “I think any man we find for her will have to be someone who does not know of Ashington and who has never seen her dance.”
He rolled his eyes at the mere thought and Summer struggled not to laugh. “Then we will have to find a young man who is desperate to marry an heiress,” she said. “Spring has an excellent dowry. We all do.”
Clark shook his head. “Forget about a young man,” he said.
“We will have to find a kindly old knight who is half blind and tolerant of a foolish young woman. We may also have to consider that Spring may never marry, which will cause problems for you and Autumn. Propriety and custom dictates that the daughters are married off in order of age and if she does not marry…”
Summer knew what he was going to say. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have this discussion regularly.
“If she does not marry, then you must ask Papa for my hand, anyway,” she said.
“If he does not agree, then we shall marry regardless and flee to Scotland. They are always looking for seasoned knights in Scotland.”
Clark had heard that before. He loved Summer with all of his being and he was fully prepared to leave the life he knew and run away with her, but he really wondered if she was.
She was young and had mostly grown out of her foolishness, that sweet silliness she was so capable of, and there was an underlying maturity to her these days.
But leaving her family was something he truly wasn’t sure she was prepared for.
As much as he loved her, he didn’t want a miserable wife on his hands.
“Well,” he said, sighing heavily. “I suppose the only thing for me to do is find a husband for Spring unless I want to grow old alone and you end up at the nunnery.”
“You would let me go to a nunnery?”
“Of course I would. I would pay them handsomely to take such a foolish woman off my hands.”
He was jesting and she grinned. “I would marry a farmer before I would let you commit me to a nunnery.”
His eyes glimmered with mirth. “We shall see,” he said. “Meanwhile, give me a kiss and go back in the house before they come looking for you. I will see you at sup.”
Dutifully, she kissed him, but he wasn’t satisfied with a sweet peck and he grabbed her, lustily feasting on her tender mouth.
Summer clung to him, allowing him to do whatever he wished to do, which in times past had meant his hands wandering up her skirts or into her bodice.
But she hardly cared; on more than one occasion, she’d loosened the ties and allowed his hands the freedom to roam in intimate places. But that was as far as he would go.
Clark loved her enough not to compromise her.
But he wasn’t sure how long that resolve was going to last.
With a final kiss, he swatted her gently on the behind, turned her around, and pushed her out of the stall by the shoulders.
Summer turned to him, giving him a saucy wink before heading out of the stables.
From his position in the stall, he could see her as she headed across the kitchen yard towards the manse.
His smile faded.
Nay, he wasn’t sure how long he could wait at all.
Time, for them both, was growing short.
*
“I am very sorry to hear about what happened to Autumn,” Sedelia said seriously.
“Truly, it is quite distressing. The priests sent for the local sheriff when your soldiers brought them the body to bury and the sheriff says that the man who was killed was quite mad. He’s been known to try and take children as well.
But he also happens to be the son of a prominent man. ”
It was early afternoon on a most trying day.
Maryann had a throbbing headache as Autumn slept upstairs, having been given a sleeping draught by Sedelia after being told of Autumn’s horrible adventure on the street of the merchants.
But Maryann couldn’t sleep; she was overwrought in dealing with the situation.