Chapter Three
God’s Bones, she’s a beauty.
That was the first thing Addax thought when he laid eyes upon Lady Emmeline de Witt.
Standing outside of the brightly painted de Grey carriage, he assumed it had to be the woman he was looking for, but even as he drew closer to her and could see her features, he was pleasantly surprised.
Maximilian had made it sound as if Lady de Witt was an old and dried-up hag, but this lady was no hag.
Far from it.
In fact, the more he looked at her, the more beautiful she became.
She wasn’t a very young woman, to be sure.
She had seen more than twenty years easily.
If he had to guess, he would say around twenty and five or more, but it wasn’t because she looked old.
It was simply because she was a beautiful young woman who had grown into herself.
She had an ageless beauty that could only be achieved with maturity.
She had dark blonde hair, beautifully dressed, and eyes that were a pale shade of brown with a hint of red.
They were truly stunning. But given the traveling he’d done in his life, he’d seen women adorned with cosmetics, and he could see that she wore cosmetics on her lips and eyes, which made her look like a goddess.
He suspected Maximilian might change his mind about marriage after he met her.
After procuring two meat pies, or coffins, that were filled with gravy and meat, and then purchasing two big cups of ale cut with fruit juice, he found a place for he and the lady to sit at a table under the branches of a big yew tree.
Other people were sitting there, enjoying their food from various vendors, as a man wandered through the tables trying to sell necklaces made from shells from the beaches of Berwick.
When he came near Addax, he was chased away as Addax sat down to a feast.
While Addax used his hands and teeth to sheer off big bites of the coffin, Emmeline wasn’t quite so unmannerly about it.
When Addax realized that she wasn’t going to simply shove it into her mouth like he was, he quickly went to find her a wooden spoon, which she was grateful for.
That made it easier, and neater, for her to eat, and she indulged heartily as Addax plowed through the rest of his coffin.
“Has your trip been pleasant so far, my lady?” he asked simply to make conversation.
She nodded as she swallowed the bite in her mouth. “The weather has been good,” she answered. “There has been no trouble.”
She didn’t seem inclined to say more, so Addax took the lead in the conversation. “Max mentioned that your husband was Ernest de Witt,” he said. “Though I did not know him, please accept my condolences on his passing.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
“Were you married a long time?”
It was a question he already knew the answer to, but he was simply trying to keep the conversation going out of politeness. Emmeline nodded to his question.
“Ten years,” she said. “Our home is Alston Castle.”
“In the Pennines, I am told?”
“Aye, my lord.”
“Where were you born?”
She put another bite in her mouth, chewing a moment before answering. “Exelby Castle,” she said. “Do you know of it?”
“I’ve heard of it.”
“My father is Mortimer de Geld, Lord Leeming,” she said. “Now, may I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Where were you born?”
He looked at her, grinning. “What makes you think I was not born in London or Liverpool or even Edinburgh?”
“Were you?”
“Nay.”
She smiled in return, displaying those big dimples. “If you do not wish to tell me, you do not have to,” she said. “I was simply curious.”
“I was born in a land very far away.”
“Yet you make your life in England?”
“I do.”
“And do you like it here?”
He nodded. “Very much,” he said. “I have been here for many years and have made excellent friends. My brother is here with me, also.”
She had stopped eating, simply listening to him and the accent in his speech. He had a deep voice and an articulate way of speaking. “I’ve not heard anyone speak like you,” she said. “It is very melodic.”
He guffawed. “I’ve never had anyone tell me that,” he said, popping the last few crumbs of the coffin into his mouth. “I was born in a land of great deserts and great mountains and a great river. It would take you years to travel to it because it is so far away.”
Emmeline’s eyes reflected her fascination at the description. “How marvelous,” she said. “What language do they speak there?”
“It has a few names,” he said. “Zatan or Urdu. It is the language of my land.”
“Do you remember how to speak it?”
He chuckled. “Of course,” he said. “Because of the travels I did when I was younger, I learned to speak other languages, too. When living in a distant land, like I am in England, it is important to speak the language of the country out of respect. And in my case, it is also because no one here speaks Zatan.”
From her expression, it was clear that she was fascinated by his background. “I’ve never met anyone who was from anywhere other than England.”
“There is a very big world beyond England’s borders.”
“You have given me a glimpse of that,” she said. “Thank you for telling me. Mayhap you will tell me more sometime, if it is not inconvenient.”
He smiled at her, appreciating her genuine curiosity at his origins.
He had learned to be careful when telling people where he was from, because he’d had varied reactions over the years.
Some thought he was lying about it, some thought he was beneath them because he wasn’t born in England, but some—like the lady—were genuinely interested without prejudice.
At least, he didn’t sense any, but there had been times when prejudice against his origins had been obvious.
He was pleased that it didn’t seem to bother the lady.
“I am certain it will not be inconvenient,” he said. “But you must make sure that Max does not mind. He is to be your husband, after all.”
Her brow furrowed slightly. “He would not wish for me to speak with you?”
Addax shook his head. “I did not mean it like that,” he said. “I simply meant that I am certain he will want you to himself now that you have arrived. I do not wish to impose on his time. I suspect the two of you have much to discuss.”
Emmeline understood. She was about to say so when the sound of a distant horn caught her attention. It caught Addax’s, too, because he was on his feet before the horn finished sounding.
“Come, my lady,” he said. “The bout is about to begin, and you do not want to miss it.”
Emmeline bolted to her feet, taking a last big gulp of the watered ale before quickly rushing to Addax’s side.
“Nay, I do not,” she said. “You are very kind to be my escort, my lord. I realize that Sir Maximilian asked you to assume the role, but you are still kind to do it. You could have refused.”
Addax cocked a dark eyebrow as he extended his elbow to her. “No one refuses Max,” he muttered. “You will learn that, my lady. You will learn.”
He seemed to be jesting for the most part, but there was some seriousness to it. Since Emmeline didn’t know Maximilian, she felt some trepidation at his comment, but she didn’t say anything. They were headed to the tournament field, and soon enough, she would see the man she was soon to marry.
You will learn, he’d said.
She had a suspicion that she was about to.
*
Maximilian had just spent ten minutes listening to his father shout at him.
“You knew when you came here that I was competing in the tournament,” he shouted in return.
“You did not ask if this would be convenient for me. You simply came and expected me to be available to cater to your every whim. Well, I cannot. I will not. I am preparing for my bout, so we can fight about this later.”
He was bustling about, adjusting armor and his stirrups, as his father followed along behind him.
“You could not even greet us?” he scolded. “Instead, we are met by Addax? I like the man, but that was a shameful thing to do to your future wife.”
Maximilian whirled on his father, his features tense with anger. “Go into the lists and watch my bout,” he said, jabbing a finger toward the arena. “Go and watch. We will speak when I am finished.”
Claudius was furious. He moved closer to his son and lowered his voice so Maximilian’s men wouldn’t hear him.
“When you are finished, we are going straight to the nearest church, and you will marry Lady de Witt,” he muttered.
“I am tired of waiting for you to do your duty, so you will do it now so that I may witness it. I’ve come all this way on a journey my physic advised me against taking, but I am here and you will marry. Do you understand me?”
Maximilian almost brushed him off, but something his father said caught his attention. “Your physic advised you not to come?” he said. “Why?”
Claudius was still angry and perhaps not as restrained as he should have been.
“Something I am certain you will care nothing about,” he said.
“But if you are curious, then I will tell you that the physic believes I am suffering from a weakness of the heart. I would like to see you wed before I die.”
Maximilian looked at his father with an expression close to concern, but he couldn’t quite manage it. After a moment, he shook his head.
“You once told me when I was younger than you had an ailment that was going to kill you, so I should behave well to honor you,” he said.
“Do you remember telling me that? Then I came back from fostering because you said that you had been poisoned and were on your deathbed. I spent a month sitting beside your bed while you recovered from bad food.”
Claudius lost some of his rage, but not all of it.
He had a flair for the dramatics that Maximilian was well aware of, but he would not acknowledge that.
“All things that were true at the time,” he said quietly.
“I sincerely believed that I was dying. But my heart… It is weakening, Max, whether or not you choose to believe it.”