Chapter Five #3
“You do not have to tell me any more than you already have,” he said softly.
“I can see that you have been treated horrifically, so you do not need to speak on your past anymore. I will spare you that pain. But just know that I have come to help you, Lady Delaina. Now that you are free of your prison, I will help you do what you wish to do. And I will not expect anything for it. Is that clear?”
She lifted her head, looking at him with those sea-colored eyes. “Nay,” she whispered. “You do not understand. I want to speak of this. No one has ever told me they were interested in my life. You are the only one who has ever shown enough compassion to ask.”
There was a plea in that, a hint of desperation.
The wall of self-protection she’d kept around herself was crumbling, and all Magnus could see was the vulnerability.
Therefore, he slid off the chair and ended up on his buttocks in front of her, both of them sitting in front of the fire, facing one another in the glow of the flames.
“Then tell me,” he muttered. “Tell me everything you wish to tell me. You have suffered terribly, and as a man of honor, when I see suffering, I am inclined to help. But I do not know if I can help you, and that is troubling to me.”
She smiled faintly, reaching out to put a soft hand on his arm.
“You already have,” she said. “Do you not understand that? It all started when Sir Denys called me stupid. No one has ever called me stupid before. But he did it out of concern. I have become so accustomed to men showing a lack of concern toward me that I almost didn’t recognize it. ”
Her hand was searing his flesh like a branding iron. He was afraid to look at it where it touched his skin, afraid he’d see smoke. Smoke and something more. Something more that was causing his heart to race.
He’d never experienced anything like it in his entire life.
“Then tell me how I can help you,” he said.
“Tell me, and if I can do it, I will. But you should know that Hugh Despenser knows of Daventry’s death, and he further knows that you, the Ruby, were in Daventry’s possession.
He has asked me to bring you to him, but I will not do it.
God only knows what he wants to do with you. ”
A ripple of fear crossed her face, but she settled down quickly. She was, if nothing else, a strong woman. She was a survivor. She was also resigned to her lot in life, no matter how much she wanted to be free.
“I am certain he wants to use me to bribe another lord to do his bidding,” she said softly. “But you must not disobey him. He is a powerful man.”
Magnus cocked an eyebrow. “And I know how he came into power,” he said. “I would be doing England a favor if I turned him over to the warlords who hate him, so he will not tangle with me. My loyalty is to Edward, not to Hugh. He knows that.”
“But I still do not wish for you to be punished because of me.”
“No one will punish me,” he said. “I am the one who does the punishing, so no one will touch me. But the fact remains that Despenser knows you are no longer with a lord. That means you must leave London as soon as you can until Despenser forgets about you and moves on. Based on this conversation, the cloister is not a choice any longer?”
Delaina didn’t respond right away. She took her hand off his arm and simply sat there, gaze averted.
“It is not,” she finally said. “But mayhap I should reconsider.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Because I will never marry,” she said.
“Soon, I will be too old to be the Ruby. Men do not want courtesans or mistresses who are too used. I’ve already had five lords.
Let us be honest, my lord—I can speak of freedom and of going to France to earn my own way, but is that really the best choice for me?
I do not know. England is my home, and I do not particularly want to leave it.
If I remain, then what is left for me? If I do not go to the cloister and, eventually, no man will want me, my only alternative would be to return to Margit. ”
So what Cassius and Hugh had told him was true.
Training, or at least some sort of guidance, had come from Margit Barkwith, the London proprietress of the most famous brothel in town.
But hearing she might return to Margit because no lord would want her didn’t sit well with him.
She was a Jewel—she was a woman who should be prized above all others.
He couldn’t imagine her returning to a brothel.
Nay, that didn’t sit well with him at all.
“What about marriage?” he said. “Certainly you would be able to find a husband, as the dowager Countess of Somersby.”
Delaina looked at him then, a weak smile on her lips. “There was no marriage.”
“No one needs to know that.”
She laughed softly. “So I should lie about it?” she said. “Lying about being a countess on top of my unmentionable past would not be a good way to start a marriage. Moreover, I’m far too old.”
He frowned. “I do not believe that,” he said. “How old are you?”
“I have seen twenty and eight summers.”
He was surprised to hear that. She looked ethereal and ageless, not a mark or a line on her exquisite face. “I would have believed you had you told me you had only seen eighteen,” he said. “You are ageless, my lady.”
The smile faded from her face, but it was because she was awed by his words. And touched. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “That is very kind of you.”
“It is the truth,” he said. “And I say that without guile because there is nothing I want from you. I do not resort to flattery. I only speak the truth.”