Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Ines chose that moment to show her mother a white puppy and tell her that she wanted it very badly. She had to have it. “Mummy, please!” Rebecca watched Catalina with her young daughter, seeing how gentle she was with her. That made her increasingly curious about the woman.
Perhaps she wasn’t as bad as Rebecca had made her out to be.
“Your wedding yesterday,” she said hesitantly. “Were you happy with it? What I mean to ask is if it was something that made you happy. Most girls dream about their wedding, but yours happened very quickly.”
Now they’d ventured onto the subject of the wedding and Catalina wondered where this was leading. She hoped that she wasn’t about to be lambasted for her marriage to Essien, so she braced herself.
“My first marriage took place in Hereford’s cathedral,” she said.
“It was big and bright. My father invited everyone he’d ever met, I think.
It was a massive celebration for a marriage that was not worthy of such a thing.
But yesterday’s mass was much more peaceful and intimate with so many of Essien’s friends.
And your family was there. It made it so very special. ”
Rebecca was listening. She might have been spoiled and headstrong, but she was intuitive. “What became of your first husband?”
“He died,” Catalina said. “He was traveling to France to help his brother in a war and the ship caught on fire.”
“Oh,” Rebecca said, sorry she’d asked. “Do you not mourn him?”
Catalina shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “Not ever.”
“You said your marriage was not worthy of the big mass?”
Catalina’s gaze moved to her daughters, now up and chasing the puppies around the stable. “It was not,” she said. “But it gave me the two greatest gifts I could ever receive. Therefore, I do not regret it. But it was nothing special. Not every marriage is.”
“And your marriage to Essien is?”
Catalina was careful in her reply. “I do believe it is special,” she said.
“Sometimes, you meet someone whose heart speaks to yours. I’ve heard it happen to others, but never to me.
But I think… I think Essien’s heart speaks to mine and mine speaks to his.
But it has to come naturally. You cannot force something like that.
You have to find that one person in this world that feels the same way about you that you feel for them, and that is a rare thing.
When it happens easily, it is the most special thing in the world, I think. ”
Rebecca pondered that. She, too, was watching the little girls play as the puppy in her arms fell asleep.
She had finally come to the conclusion that Catalina wasn’t the monster she’d built her up to be.
She was just a woman who had married Essien, and so much of what Jonathan had said to her made sense.
There had been no crime committed against her by Catalina.
The woman had been forced into the marriage just as Essien had been, but she seemed to be content with it.
Happy, even.
“I do wish you good fortune, my lady,” Rebecca said. “I know that I was upset about it, but the truth… the truth is that Essien never belonged to me. But now he belongs to you and I wish you well. I truly do.”
Catalina smiled at her. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.
“I promise that I will take good care of him. You needn’t worry because I will make sure he is happy, always.
And I promise you that, someday, you will meet someone whose heart speaks to yours.
You’ll know it right away and it will make every heartache you’ve ever experienced fade away. You won’t even remember them anymore.”
Rebecca smiled reluctantly. She was feeling quite ashamed for her behavior now.
She’d started to say something when movement behind Catalina caught her attention.
She could see someone wrapped in cloaks coming down the ladder from the loft, stumbling through the hay on the ground at the base of the ladder, before heading in her direction.
Catalina caught Rebecca’s expression and turned to see a tall, skinny figure swathed in cloaks and scarves coming near.
The girls were far enough away, playing with puppies, that they didn’t even see the figure, but Catalina and Rebecca did.
Catalina stood up first, followed by Rebecca, as the figure came close.
They were preparing to defend themselves.
“I am sorry to interrupt,” the figure said, mouth muffled by the fabric around his face. “Might I have some water? If you can tell me where the well is, I can draw it myself.”
He sounded sickly and pathetic. Both of them could see how badly he was trembling and how weak he was.
The cloaks he wore, and there were layers of them, were dirty and tattered and they could smell him from where they stood.
The only thing they could see of him were his eyes, and the skin around them was scarred and red.
As both women stared at him, something occurred to Catalina.
He is wrapped up in a cloak and something around his head, covering up everything but his eyes.
That was what Lance had said about the mysterious man who had given him the cross. Therefore, Catalina knew instantly who it was and her heart surged into her throat.
My God… He’d found her.
Somehow, he’d found her.
“Who are you?” Rebecca demanded, cutting into Catalina’s train of thought. “What are you doing here?”
It was an aggressive question, and Catalina hoped it wouldn’t set the man off.
She had no way of knowing if he had violent tendencies, so she did the only thing she could do—she tried to ease the situation.
Her daughters were here and she needed to protect them from someone who might be out to harm them all. She had no way of knowing.
Carefully, she proceeded.
“This is a man in need, Lady Rebecca,” she said calmly. She took a step toward the man, indicating for him to sit on an old stool amongst the straw on the ground. “Sit down. We’ll bring you some water. Have you eaten? Do you wish for some food also?”
The man didn’t seem too apt to sit down in the stool that Catalina was indicating. “I do not wish to be trouble,” he said. “But I will take any sustenance you might have. Even oats for the pigs will suffice.”
He didn’t sound violent. In fact, he sounded quite weak and pathetic, so Catalina turned to Rebecca.
“We must help this poor man,” she said quietly. “Will you look around and see what the stable boys have left behind? Sometimes they have wine and bread around should they become hungry. Look around and see what you can find, please.”
Rebecca nodded, though she was still on her guard.
Nonetheless, she turned around and began to hunt for anything the stable hands might have had stashed away.
Catalina was right—often, those who worked in the stables kept food around for themselves.
Working the stables could mean long, difficult hours.
Adabella and Ines, seeing that Rebecca was looking for something, joined in the hunt, and the puppies followed.
“We will find you something,” Catalina said to the man. “Are you traveling somewhere?”
He did sit down, then, and through his cloak, Catalina could see that his legs were no bigger than bird’s legs.
“Nay, my lady,” he said. “I have reached my destination, I think.”
“Do you have a name?”
“Al, my lady.”
“Where are you from, Al?”
He paused. “I do not know,” he said. “I have come to Lioncross in the hope that someone here can tell me that.”
Catalina watched him. She could see the outline of his face through the scarf and she could see that he had no nose.
At least, there was nothing there where a nose would be.
The very eyes that she’d told Essien she would recognize if, in fact, the man was Alfred were quite weary.
She could see that in everything about him—bone weariness.
Despair.
Given she knew why he was here, there was no reason to drag out the situation by playing games. She simply didn’t have the time. Reaching into her purse at her side, she pulled forth the old, twisted cross.
She held it up between them.
“Did you give this to a knight and ask him to seek Lord Eckington?” she asked. “Was that you?”
When the man realized what she was holding, his eyes widened in shock and perhaps also fear.
He backed away from it as if the object radiated fire, directed at him.
There was an aversion there, something to be feared.
But after a moment, he seemed to calm a little, his gaze never leaving that small, twisted object.
“Why do you have it?” he finally asked.
“Please answer me,” she said. “I will not be angry. Did you give this to a knight?”
He hesitated before nodding, once. Catalina looked at the small golden cross with the carnelian stones. After a moment, she smiled, but it was nearly a grimace.
There were a lot of memories in that little cross.
“I remember when I gave it to Alfred,” she said. “I wished him well and he departed.”
The man’s gaze lingered on her for a moment, flickering and fearful. “Who are you?”
“Lord Eckington’s daughter.”
“Catalina?”
“Aye.”
It was the lady herself. He hadn’t known her on sight, but here she was, standing in front of him.
What a beautiful woman she was and, somehow, more memories of Alfred speaking about his wife came back to him.
He’d spoken of her beauty. But Rebecca came around the corner and interrupted the moment as she brought a napkin that had bread and some kind of jerky in it, as well as a pitcher with some very stale wine.
“Here,” she said, handing the items to Catalina. “This is all I could find.”
Catalina took the food, handing it over to the man, who stood up quickly and extended a hand that had three fingers burned to the nubs. He took the food, turning his back on her as he moved his scarf aside and began wolfing down the bread.
“I am sorry,” he said, mouth full as he tried to keep them from seeing his face. “I have not eaten in some time. I am very sorry.”