Chapter Thirteen #2
He laughed again, quietly. “You will once you see the excitement of it,” he said.
“In fact, I must go and prepare for my bout now. The innkeeper said your room is the first one at the top of the stairs, so I will stand here and watch you go inside. You are not to leave that room until I return for you and you are not to open your door to anyone save the innkeeper or his wife. Is that clear?”
Annavieve nodded. “It is,” she said, her expression softening as she gazed at him. “Where will you go now?”
He could see the warmth in her expression and it was difficult not to reach out and pull her against him.
He was looking forward to the coming night and the time they would share together, more than he’d ever looked forward to anything in his life.
Now that he knew how she felt about him, all he wanted to do was shower her with affection.
The floodgates were opening and everything was starting to pour forth.
“As I said, back to Salisbury’s camp,” he told her, his voice quieter now. “Have no fear, my lady, I shall return for you in time for the mass competition. It is important to me to have you in the stands. You will greatly inspire me.”
Annavieve blushed sweetly. “I am honored,” she murmured. “I have never inspired anyone before.”
Kevin took a step closer to her but dare not touch her, fearful of witnesses. “Tonight I will show you just how much you have inspired me,” he said softly. “Know that my thoughts are only of you. Go upstairs, now. Eat and rest. I will be back in an hour or two.”
Annavieve nodded obediently and turned for the steps. But she paused, just a moment, to look to him one last time.
“Until I see you again,” she whispered, “I will miss you.”
She was gone before he could reply, running up the stairs to the very first door. He stood there and watched as she knocked on it and Magda, the old nurse, threw the door open and practically yanked her inside. The door slammed and he could hear the bolt being thrown.
With a smile on his face, Kevin left the inn and headed back towards the encampment on the edge of town, thinking giddy thoughts about Annavieve the entire way back. He had no idea that he’d left her with perhaps the greatest threat against him, and now against her, lurking in the shadows.
The dark French knight had heard everything.
*
“Magda, quiet!” Annavieve begged. “I am fine! I am not injured and everything is fine!”
The old nurse was nearly hysterical as she clung to her charge, a young lady whom she’d not seen in over a day. Having never been separated from Annavieve since birth, the old woman had taken the separation hard. She’d hardly slept the night before, fearful and distressed.
“Thee is finally here,” the woman said, hugging her. “Thee is well!”
Annavieve had to grin at her nurse. She hugged the woman tightly and then tried to push her off. “I am,” she assured her. Quickly, she tried to distract her. “Look at all of these trunks, Magda. They belong to me. Come and see what I have now!”
The room was lined with the trunks that men had brought up from the wagon. The old woman wiped her tears away, laboring to compose herself, as Annavieve went to the very first trunk she came across and threw back the bolt. Lifting the old, heavy lid, she proudly pointed to the contents.”
“Look!” she told Magda. “All of these fine things belong to me now. I have twelve new dresses!”
Magda was distracted from her emotional upheaval as she peered at the garments with great interest. Annavieve threw open the remaining trunks, including the small jewel box, to proudly display her acquisitions.
The old woman began pulling out the neatly packed garments, gasping when she saw the beauty of them.
Annavieve pulled a lovely yellow and blue scarf out of one of the boxes and went to Magda, wrapping it around her shoulders.
“This is for you,” she said, smiling as the old woman inspected the scarf with delight. “I have five scarves. I want you to have this one.”
Magda was overwhelmed. “Where did thee get all of this?” she wanted to know. “And what has happened since the night at the king’s table? I have not seen thee since then, my sweet Anna. What has happened?”
Annavieve thought on that question. She trusted Magda with her life and knew the old women would never repeat what she had been told.
Besides, she couldn’t keep the truth from the old women, especially when Kevin showed up that night and expected to have access to her.
She didn’t want Magda and Kevin to start throwing punches at one another when Magda denied the man.
The old bird was very protective and very determined.
Annavieve sighed faintly and sat down on the well-stuffed mattress.
“So much has happened,” she said softly. “I do not even know where to start. But I suppose I should start from the beginning – you undoubtedly saw how resistant the duke was to marriage.”
It was a statement, not a question. Magda nodded seriously. “I did,” she replied. “He does not want a wife, Anna.”
Annavieve nodded, her mood somber. “I know,” she said. “In fact, he does not want a wife so much that he refused to consummate our marriage.”
Magda’s eyes flew open wide with shock. “Say it is not so!” she gasped. “What did he do to thee? Was he terrible? Did he hurt thee?”
Annavieve shook her head, tugging on Magda’s arm and forcing the woman to sit beside her. “He did not touch me,” she said. “Magda, you must never repeat what I am about to tell you. It is shocking and I have been sworn to secrecy. Do you understand?”
Magda nodded solemnly. “Of course, sweet Anna,” she said. “What happened?”
Annavieve took a deep breath. “Because my husband did not want to consummate the marriage, he ordered his knight to do it for him,” she said, watching Magda cover her mouth in shock. “He ordered Sir Kevin to consummate the marriage and beget me with child.”
Magda gasped in horror. “How could he do that?” she cried. “He is thy husband! Yet he orders another to do his duty?”
Annavieve nodded, holding the woman’s hands tightly.
“I do not know my husband and do not know his mind,” she said.
“All I know is that he ordered Sir Kevin to consummate the marriage and he did. You will not judge Sir Kevin, Magda… he did as he was ordered to do, as did I. He was bound to comply. He had no choice.”
Magda was back to weeping again. “My poor Anna,” she wept. “How could thy husband be so cruel?”
Annavieve tried to calm the woman down. “No one must know,” she reiterated to her.
“It would greatly shame me as well as shame the duke. As I said, I do not know why he ordered Sir Kevin to consummate the marriage, but I will confess that it was not unpleasant. Sir Kevin was quite kind and he has proven himself to be attentive, considerate, and very generous. In fact, I… I am very fond of him.”
Magda looked at her, stricken. “Fond of him?”
“I love him.”
Magda’s mouth flew open. “Madness!” she cried. “Thou cannot love the man! He is not thy husband!”
Annavieve patted her hands, holding them tight.
“I realize that,” she said. “But I cannot help how I feel. You will not judge me, Magda. The situation is beyond my control and for the first time in my life, I feel love. I am walking on clouds because of it. Sir Kevin is a remarkable man and you will not judge him, either. If you should be angry at anyone, it should be the duke. He is a vile, spoiled creature. What he did was unspeakable. But, if it makes any sense, I… I am not sorry it happened this way. I have discovered what it feels like to love a man because of it.”
Magda wasn’t sure what more to say. She was sick with apprehension and sorrow over what had transpired for her young charge. A husband who didn’t want her and a knight who had her heart… it was all so very complicated. Magda’s head was swimming.
“God have mercy,” the old woman finally murmured. “Will thou tell the king? He is responsible for this.”
Annavieve shook her head. “I will not,” she said firmly. “It would have terrible consequences should he know. You promised not to tell anyone and I will hold you to that. But for now, when Sir Kevin comes to my door, you must let him in. He is ordered to tend me and I am ordered to let him.”
Magda was sickened by the entire circumstance.
Rising from the bed, she wandered over to the door, pondering the situation and struggling to digest it.
Her young charge was closer than a daughter to her and to hear what the child was facing brought tears to her eyes.
She could not help Annavieve and she knew it.
Distraught, helpless, she was lingering by the door in anguished silence when someone knocked on it.
Before Annavieve could caution her, Magda opened the door.
A big man with shoulder-length dark hair, dirty, stood in the doorway.
Magda opened her mouth to ask him his business but he shoved the door open, so hard that it swung back and hit Magda, sending the woman staggering.
As Annavieve leapt up to keep Magda from falling, the man barged into the room, slammed the door shut, and bolted it.
Terrified, Magda and Annavieve backed up against the wall near the window that overlooked the kitchen yard behind the inn.
Annavieve was clutching the old nurse, trying to force the woman to get behind her, but Magda wouldn’t budge.
She had been protecting Annavieve her entire life and wasn’t about to relinquish her duty.
She tried to push Annavieve back behind her.
“What do you want?” Annavieve demanded of the man. “Who are you?”
His dark gaze was riveted to her. “Qui est Hage pour vous?”
Annavieve was frightened and tried not to show it. She answered him in French. “He is my husband’s knight,” she said. “If he catches you here, he will kill you.”
The dark French knight laughed softly, without humor. “I hope he comes,” he said. “But it is my understanding he will not be back for some time. He is due to compete in the mass competition this afternoon, is he not?”
Annavieve was growing more terrified by the moment, fed by the fact that this man seemed to know that she was, for the moment, unprotected. Her eyes darted about in a panic, looking for a weapon, but there was nothing close at hand. Her gaze moved back to the intruder.
“Get out of here,” she hissed. “Get out and I will not tell anyone you were here. Get out now!”
The dark Frenchman shook his head. “Alas, I will not, madam,” he said with feigned regret. “I want something I believe you can provide me.”
She looked at him, horrified. “What?”
“Hage.”
Annavieve was not only terrified, she was confused. “I have no idea what you mean,” she said. “I told you to get out of here. If you do not leave immediately, I will scream my head off and everyone will come running. I can promise you that you will be severely punished.”
The dark French knight laughed again. Then, swiftly, he pushed forward and grabbed at her, but Magda was in the way.
As Annavieve screamed in surprise, Magda threw both hands up and into the man’s face.
Temporarily blinded by Magda’s fat fingers, he staggered back and tripped, falling over one of the trunks.
Magda, seeing that the man was down, shoved Annavieve towards the door.
“Run!” the old woman roared. “Bring help!”
Annavieve was so startled and fearful that she simply did as she was told, thinking Magda would be running out right behind her.
As Annavieve bolted past the bed, she noticed the jewel chest, open, on the edge of the bedframe and she grabbed the box as she ran out.
If the man was there to rob her, then she certainly would not make it easy for him.
Racing down the steps and into the common room, she began screaming for help, attracting attention, and the innkeeper came rushing out from the kitchen to see what the commotion was about.
Annavieve pointed up the steps and the innkeeper, along with a burly male kitchen helper, raced up the stairs to see what was happening.
Meanwhile, Annavieve ran out of the front door and straight into four Dorset soldiers who were milling about outside, supposedly protecting the duke’s property at the inn, ironic considering they certainly hadn’t protected her very well.
Annavieve screamed at them and they all rushed inside as well.
With the box of jewels clutched firmly in her hand, Annavieve stood in the entry to the inn, watching soldiers and the innkeeper at the top of the stairs.
It was then that she saw, very clearly, that two soldiers were dragging Magda from the room by the arms, and there was no mistaking the blood on the old woman’s breast.
The chaos in the inn went from bad to worse when Annavieve raced back up the stairs, screaming at the bloody sight.