Chapter Three
Berwick Castle
“She is a beautiful woman,” Ashton said. “Too bad she has the manners of a shrew.”
By candlelight and in the reflection of a polished bronze mirror, Julian was shaving the stubble off his neck, which his hauberk was starting to irritate.
“Who?” he asked.
Ashton had just splashed water all over his face. “Today,” he said, grabbing blindly for a towel. “The woman who told you that you were a poor commander.”
Julian watched his reflection in the mirror as he carefully shaved. “The de la Mere lass?”
“The same.”
They were in one of the many chambers of Berwick Castle, a vast complex of outbuildings, towers, chapels, and halls.
Julian and Ashton were sharing a larger chamber in an apartment block near the southwest tower.
There was some construction going on at the great donjon, which was synonymous with the great gatehouse, but there was also a keep on the northwest side of the castle where Cole and his family resided.
In all, Berwick was a massive and impressive place, and Julian was always properly awed by his brother’s command but at this moment, he wasn’t thinking about Berwick.
He was thinking about a certain young woman who had insulted him.
“I suppose she is pretty enough,” he said after a moment, carefully moving up his throat with a sharp razor. “I didn’t think her manners were horrible.”
Ashton frowned. “She all but condemned your ability as a commander,” he said, agitated as he wiped his face. But he suddenly stopped. “And that’s another thing – speaking of commanders, I swear to you that if de Bourne so much as looks at your sister in a manner I do not like, I will flay the man.”
The change of subject was swift, from one young woman to another, and Julian grinned. “Anteaus de Bourne has as much right to look at Addie as you do,” he said. “Christ, Ash, you’ve known my sister for ten years and you have had your chance. She’s has grown tired of waiting for you.”
Ashton turned his nose up at him. “I’m to inherit Bowes Castle and my father’s titles,” he sniffed. “What does de Bourne have to offer her? Nothing. Nothing but his big muscles. The man is as stupid as a post.”
Julian burst out laughing. “He is more handsome than you are.”
“He is not.”
“Addie thinks so.”
Ashton’s eyes widened. “Did she say so?”
Julian was still chuckling as he rinsed off his razor in the basin. Ashton was quite beauteous with his blond de Royans looks, but it was always fun to poke at the man’s pride.
“She did not,” he said. “But Effie has said so.”
Ashton sneered. “Effie has no bearing on the situation,” he said. “She has a husband, the poor man. She should not be commenting on the comeliness of other men.”
Julian snorted again, drying off his razor. “I like Rod,” he said, referring to Effington’s husband of several years. “And her husband is not a ‘poor man’. He’s skilled and wealthy. Rod de Titouan is a close ally of the Earl of Hereford and Worcester, you know.”
“I know.” Ashton tossed the towel aside. “I like Rod well enough, too, but Effington puts poison in Addie’s ears. Her attitude is always quite different after she visits with her sister.”
Julian glanced at him. “You mean that Effie tells Addie not to wait around for you?”
Ashton wasn’t going to admit to anything.
As Julian had mentioned, he’d known Addington for several years, only becoming interested in her over the last two.
Addington was a beautiful girl, but since the death of her father, she’d stuck to her mother like flies to honey.
She really didn’t entertain suitors and the only reason she entertained Ashton was because he served at Pelinom.
She saw him every day. But she was very much attached to her mother, something the family didn’t really talk about much.
There was an underlying reason for that.
With the loss of Cassian, Addington was the baby of the family and there was something in her that couldn’t seem to leave the nest, not just yet.
She felt that her mother needed her more than a husband would.
Ashton hadn’t pushed, and that worked well in his favor since he wasn’t entirely eager to marry yet, but when Cole’s brother-in-law, Anteaus, started showing interest in Addington last year, Ashton was forced into the position of a dog protecting his bone.
It made for some humorous – and tense – moments at times.
“I do not care what Effington thinks,” Ashton finally said, turning up his nose. “What’s between Addie and me is our business, not hers.”
“It’s going to be Anteaus’ business if you don’t do something about it,” Julian said.
Ashton shrugged, ever defiant. “It would serve Addie right if I married someone else,” he said.
“That woman from earlier today – the de la Mere girl – is quite pretty the more I think on it. And she’ll be here tonight.
Mayhap I should get to know her better and throw a little envy into Addie.
If she sees me paying attention to another woman, mayhap it will drive her into my arms.”
Julian shook his head at the logic. “Or drive her fist into her eye,” he said. “Leave Lady Lista out of your manipulation. I have a feeling she has enough to deal with.”
Ashton looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Did you see her mother and aunt?”
Ashton’s eyebrows lifted in realization. “Oh, that,” he said. “Those two were a pair. Mad, both of them.”
“It seems so.”
“If today was any indication, I have a feeling we are in for an interesting evening.”
Julian tucked his razor away, his thoughts lingering on Lista de la Mere.
Ashton was right – she was quite pretty.
Magnificent, even. He thought on her long, dark hair with some wave to it, her sweetly oval face and pert nose, but most of all, he thought on her eyes.
They were the purest shade he’d ever seen, the greenish-blue of the ocean when the water was clear and cold.
There was something about her that would make any man take a second look at her, including him. But he thought it all rather futile.
A woman like that would never look at a man like him.
A not-unfamiliar sense of disappointment swept him.
Washed and shaved, because Cole’s wife didn’t like dirty, smelly knights at her table, Julian went to the window that overlooked the bailey of Berwick Castle.
It was a vast, open space and he could see the men moving about now that night had fallen, hundreds of torches lighting up the bailey and the night sky.
On the wall walk, he could see men moving about but the mist was starting to roll in from the sea, creating halos around the torches that were staving off the darkness.
“The mist is rolling in,” he said. “It is going to be a cold and damp night.”
Ashton already had his tunic over his head, putting his belt on. “Mayhap Addie will require extra warmth,” he said, strapping a few weapons on his body. Broadswords were also forbidden in Berwick’s hall. “I would not be disinclined to warm her should she ask.”
Julian was still looking out of the window. “You should probably not tell me that,” he said. “I have told you this before – any untoward behavior with my sister will not only incur my wrath, but Cole’s as well. I do not think you can take us both on.”
Ashton lifted his head from where he’d been fumbling with his buckle. “Nor would I want to,” he said. “I did not mean that as a lascivious comment, only as a polite one.”
Julian cast him a long look. “Lies do not become you.”
Ashton snorted. “I am sorry I said anything at all,” he said, throwing up his hands in surrender. “Sometimes I forget to whom I am speaking.”
“You are speaking to Addington’s older brother,” Julian said, noting a party entering from the gatehouse, which had been closed up for the night. “I will be watching you tonight, Ash.”
“You will only see proper behavior, I promise.”
“And stay away from Anteaus.”
Ashton didn’t like that command, so he curled his lip unhappily at Julian and quit the chamber, heading out into the damp evening.
Julian heard the door shut but didn’t pay it any attention because the small party entering the bailey had his focus.
The area was so well lit that it didn’t take him long to see that it was the de la Mere party – six soldiers, a knight, and three women.
They were met by a servant, a man who was in charge of all visitors, and he could see clearly when they were directed to leave their horses and head to the hall.
Perhaps it was a good time for him to head to the hall, too.
It was the nightmare she had feared.
Lista had just spent the past three hours in a tavern down by the river’s edge, a grubby hovel of a place called The Silver Fish where there was a fight every hour, where women lifted their skirts and allowed men to do whatever they wished for a price, and where her mother and aunt could drink cheap wine that went straight to their heads.
An utter and complete nightmare.
After purchasing the brined fish and a few other things they needed from local merchants, the effects of the apothecary’s ingredients had worn off and Meadow and Flora were on the lookout for their next thrill.
They had been in The Silver Fish before and knew the barkeep, a man who always kept them well supplied, so they rushed to the tavern before Lista and Amaury could stop them.
Amaury went so far as to try and remove them but that nearly started a fight when the rough-looking patrons thought the knight was trying to harass the women.
Only Lista’s intervention had prevented a bloodbath as Meadow and Flora went about drinking with the men.
They bought the entire tavern drinks.