Chapter 11
O ver a week had passed since they’d made love, and it bothered Evan that Maggie still hadn’t given him an answer. He wanted to be with her, but somehow it didn’t seem as if she wanted to be with him.
Evan pushed the food back and forth atop his trencher, confused and frustrated by this situation. Ever since they’d made love, it seemed as if Maggie had been doing her best to avoid him. She’d been spending most of her time up in the ladies’ solar with Eleanor and Martine. He’d heard that she even offered to watch Martine’s newborn twins because she loved the babies so much. The women even ate meals in Martine’s chamber instead of joining the men in the great hall, keeping to themselves and making Evan feel totally ignored.
“Evan, if you’re not going to eat that duck, I’ll take it,” said Daegel from next to him atop the dais.
“What?” He looked up and saw Daegel’s eyes devouring his share of the food. “Sure, take it. I’m not hungry.” He slid his trencher over to his cousin. Then he looked below the salt once more, hoping to spot Maggie but she wasn’t there and neither was little Emma. Charles was there though, never one to miss a meal. He’d been getting along wonderfully with the servants and other boys his age. His confidence had seemed to grow lately since he’d been spending so much time in town with Alan as the man’s new apprentice. The boy couldn’t stop talking about his job, and showing locks and keys he’d brought home to all of his new friends.
“Where’s Maggie?” asked Daegel, using his spoon to scrape all of Evan’s food onto his own trencher. “I haven’t seen much of her lately.”
“Neither have I,” he answered with a sigh.
“What’s the matter? Did you two have a spat?” Daegel took a big bite of food and then picked up his cup to drink.
“Nay. Just the opposite, actually. We made love out by the brook.”
Daegel spit a stream of wine through the air. “You did what?”
“You heard me.” Evan picked up his goblet to drink.
“Well, Cousin, you must not have been any good at bedding her, since she won’t talk to you anymore.”
“Shut up,” snarled Evan. “You don’t know what you say. We are both mad about each other.”
“Mmmm hmmm.” Daegel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took another drink. “So, did you tell her this?”
“I did. And she returned the feelings.”
“And?” Daegel’s thick brows arched.
“And what?” Evan raised his palms in the air in surrender.
“Did you say … anything else to her regarding the way you feel?”
“Yes. I asked her to stay at Saltwood Castle with me. Forever. But she still hasn’t given me her answer and it is driving me mad. I don’t know what to do.” Evan took another drink of wine.
“That’s odd. You told the commoner you want to marry her, and she has yet to give you her answer?”
Now it was Evan’s turn to spit a stream of wine through the air. “Marry her?” he asked. “Who said anything about that? Nay, of course I didn’t ask her to marry me. Why would I?”
“Well, if you two are crazy about each other, it seems the next step would be marriage.”
Evan felt in his heart that Maggie was truly the one he wanted to make his wife, but something inside made him hesitate to ask her. He wasn’t sure if it stemmed from the fact that he still wasn’t sure she had feelings for him like he did for her, or if it was something entirely different. Like already being betrothed.
“Daegel, if I must remind you, I’m betrothed and supposed to be marrying a noblewoman. That creates a little problem.”
“Oh. So you’re going to stick with that as your excuse?”
“What does that mean?” Evan saw a kitchen maid carrying a tray of sweets and he waved her over. “Leave the tray,” he told the girl, picking up a hand tart and taking a bite. Mayhap he could drown his sorrows eating baked goods, which were his favorite thing to eat.
“Consider this,” said Daegel. “Mayhap the reason she didn’t answer yet is because she is waiting for you to actually come out and ask her to marry you.”
“I can’t do that. Not until I break off my betrothal first. You know that.” Evan downed the tart and picked up a piece of seed cake next, taking a big bite.
“Do you really intend to break off the agreement of your betrothal before your father returns?”
“I’ll have to, I guess,” said Evan with a shrug, taking another swig of wine. “Father said my betrothed will arrive with her father before he returns, so I will have to handle it. Actually, I’m surprised they haven’t arrived by now.”
“You really plan on telling your betrothed to her face that you won’t marry her?”
“Yes. That is what I really intend to do.” He picked up his goblet for another drink.
“Sir Evan,” said his uncle, Brother Ruford, standing at the front of the table from the floor, looking up at them. “I have someone I would like you to meet.”
“Not now, Brother Ruford,” griped Evan, wanting to be left alone to think.
“I’m afraid this can’t wait, my lord.” The monk moved closer to the dais and leaned in to speak. “You see, your betrothed and her father have arrived, and they are waiting to meet you out in the courtyard.”
Needless to say, once again, Evan involuntarily spit wine through the air.
“It’s been so long already and you still haven’t named your twins?” asked Maggie, holding her daughter on her lap while Emma held the newborn baby girl. That was hard for Maggie to comprehend, since she’d been thinking of names for her children someday ever since she was a child.
They were in Lady Martine’s bedchamber, along with the nursemaid and Lady Eleanor. Today, Eleanor had her six-month-old daughter, Elizabeth, in the room with them. Elizabeth was on her lap with her doll. The little girl squirmed, seeming to want to be put down. Lady Martine was in a chair holding her new son.
“Nay, that’s not true. We’ve finally decided,” said Martine. “Since David had to go back to Steepleton this morning to tend to the tavern, we agreed on a decision before he left.”
“Well? What are their names?” asked Maggie. “I cannot wait to hear them.”
Martine coddled the little boy, making baby sounds to him. “We decided that each of our babies are going to be named after one of our parents. We used his mother’s name. Our daughter is Greta, since I didn’t like the name Elrod, which was the name of David’s father.”
“Oh, I like the name, Greta,” said Maggie, smiling at the baby on her lap. “Hello, cute little Greta.”
“Greta is my baby,” said Emma, possessively hugging the child to her.
Eleanor and Martine laughed.
“No, Emma, she is not yours. Her mama is Lady Martine,” Maggie reminded her. “What did you name your son, Lady Martine?”
“Well, since we needed a boy’s name and my father’s name is Madoc and David didn’t want to name our son that, we decided to look to other family members instead.”
“She couldn’t name him after our grandfather, since Evan is already named after him,” spoke up Lady Eleanor.
“Are you sure you don’t want to call him Elrod?” asked Maggie. “After all, that is an E name, and this family seems to have lots of those.”
“Nay, I think I’ll save that E name for when Eleanor has a son,” said Martine with a smile. “After all, it is her family that has all the E’s, not mine. We named our son William, after my father’s brother.”
“William. Such a noble name,” said Maggie. “I love it.”
“Me too,” agreed Eleanor. “But I want to tell you, Martine, that you might get your wish faster than you think regarding me taking that E name for my child.” Eleanor smiled, mischief dancing in her eyes.
“Eleanor, I’m confused,” answered Martine. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Oh, I know what that means,” Maggie said, feeling excited for the woman. “You are pregnant again, aren’t you, Lady Eleanor?”
“Yes. I think so.” Eleanor blushed, giving her daughter a squeeze. “Little Elizabeth might be having a brother or sister soon.”
“I knew it!” said Maggie. “I could tell by your glow lately.”
“Really?” Eleanor made a silly face. “I don’t even know for sure yet if I am truly with child, but I have missed my courses two months in a row, so I am guessing it to be true. I haven’t told Connor yet. I wanted to be sure first.”
“Oh, Eleanor, congratulations.” Martine was thrilled, the same as Maggie. “You have to promise me you’ll make Maggie your midwife. She is wonderful and you shouldn’t go with anyone else.”
“Well, I suppose I will if Maggie plans on staying here at Saltwood Castle.”
“Are you staying?” asked Martine. “Please say yes. We need you.”
“I’m not sure yet,” said Maggie, looking down at Emma and the baby. “Sir Evan has asked me to stay on for good, but I haven’t given him an answer yet.”
“Why not?” asked Martine, blinking in confusion.
“Emma, do you want to play with Elizabeth?” asked Maggie, not wanting to discuss this with her daughter listening.
“I’ll take the baby.” The nursemaid walked over and scooped up little Greta.
“Yes. I want to play with Elizabeth’s doll.” Emma didn’t have a doll of her own. Since they moved so often and Maggie always had so much on her mind, she’d completely neglected the little girl’s needs. Maggie realized now that she should have gotten her daughter a doll long ago. Emma loved babies and loved pretending she had her own. Yes, she needed to get Emma a doll soon.
“Elizabeth is young yet, so you need to be gentle with her, Emma,” Maggie reminded the little girl, putting her down on the floor.
“Come on, Elizabeth.” Emma ran over and held out her arms. Eleanor put her daughter and the doll on the floor. Elizabeth, not yet able to walk, crawled toward her. The children played, not paying any attention to the adults.
“Now, tell us the real reason why you didn’t take up Evan on his offer,” said Martine, obviously knowing too well that Maggie wasn’t telling them everything.
“Yes,” said Eleanor, moving closer to talk with the women. “Did he do something . . . inappropriate with you? My brother can tend to be a real cur sometimes.”
“Well … I suppose most people would think making love in the outdoors is inappropriate, but I rather liked it,” Maggie answered with a wide smile.
Eleanor’s jaw dropped but Martine squealed.
“Oh, Maggie, I think you might be joining our family soon,” said Martine. “Don’t you, Eleanor?”
“Well, as much as I’d like Maggie to be part of our family, you are forgetting that Evan is betrothed to a noblewoman who should be arriving here any day now,” Eleanor pointed out.
“I didn’t forget.” Maggie stood up, suddenly feeling very hot. “That is why I didn’t answer him. I don’t think I’ll be able to accept seeing Evan with another woman. Would you mind if I opened the window? I am very warm.”
“Go ahead,” said Martine. “So, Evan didn’t ask you to marry him? Really?”
“Nay,” said Maggie, walking over to the window. “He told me he wasn’t going to marry his betrothed, but he never mentioned wanting me to be his wife instead.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Eleanor. “I’m sure it will all work out. After all, his betrothed isn’t here yet, so mayhap the girl’s father has changed his mind about letting her marry Evan. She will probably never even show up.”
Maggie pulled open the shutter and peered down into the courtyard. Evan and Daegel were with Brother Ruford, and they were greeting a man and a woman who had just arrived in a wagon pulled by a horse. “I think you’re wrong, Eleanor, because it looks to me like they have just arrived.”
“Oh, no!” Martine got up and hurried over to the window.
“I wonder who she is?” asked Eleanor. “Father left in such a hurry that he never told us.” She got up to join them as well.
“Doesn’t Evan know who he’s marrying?” asked Martine.
“I don’t think so,” said Maggie. “He didn’t seem to even know her name.”
“Eleanor, didn’t your father say that Brother Ruford had all the information?” Martine peered out the window.
“Yes.” Eleanor looked out as well. “But Evan probably never even asked our uncle about it, knowing him. My brother tends to wait until the last minute, or at least until he is forced to do something, before he actually goes ahead and does it.”
Maggie was curious and stretched her neck to see if the girl was pretty or not, but the girl’s back was toward them. Evan took his betrothed’s hand and kissed it, which bothered Maggie immensely. She heard the girl laugh, and something about the sound of her voice made Maggie sick to her stomach, but she didn’t know why. She had an odd feeling that the girl and her father seemed familiar, but without actually seeing their faces she had no reason to feel this way.
“I can’t see her face,” said Martine.
“Well, mayhap we should go down there and welcome them then,” suggested Eleanor. “We’ll get a good look that way.”
“Oh, yes, I agree,” said Martine, as the two noblewomen started for the door. “Are you coming, too, Maggie?”
“Oh, I’m not sure that would be proper.” As curious as Maggie was about Evan’s betrothed, she realized she was a commoner and had no right being around the nobles.
“Hell with proper, you will join us,” said Eleanor, waving her hand carelessly through the air. This surprised Maggie and almost made her laugh. She was starting to like Eleanor more and more every day. “I know you are just as curious as to whom Evan is marrying as we are, so let’s go.”
“I agree,” said Martine. “You are coming with us and we won’t hear another word about it.”
“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” Maggie headed for the door.
“Mama, I want to come with you.” Emma ran over, and Maggie scooped her up into her arms.
“I’ll watch Elizabeth and put the twins down for a nap,” the nursemaid called out to them as they left the room.
“I want to ride with Sir Evan on his horse again,” whined Emma. “I like him. Can he be my father?”
Maggie found herself dumbstruck, realizing now that even though the little girl had been playing, she had also been listening to their entire conversation. “Emma, it would be best if you didn’t ask questions like that,” scolded Maggie.
“Why not?” asked the little girl. “Is it because Sir Evan is going to marry someone else? I wish he would marry you, Mama.”
“So do I,” Maggie mumbled to herself, kissing her daughter on her head. She followed Eleanor and Martine down the corridor and out to the courtyard, the knot in her stomach twisting harder, making her feel as if she should have stayed back in the bedchamber, after all.