Chapter Two
It was dawn on the second day of Cortez’s visit to Corfe Castle.
He had originally come to collect his bride; now it had turned into a standoff.
When Diamantha had left the solar yesterday afternoon, she had retreated to her bower and locked the door.
Nothing anyone could do or say could coerce or convince her to open it.
Cortez had been up all night trying to determine the best course of action.
As the sun rose in the eastern sky, Cortez found himself wandering the grounds of the mighty castle.
His men were camped in the lower bailey, a massive thing that was well removed from the upper bailey and keep.
The lower bailey was separated from the upper by an enormous gatehouse and drawbridge, cut into the steep hillside upon which Corfe resided.
The day dawned lovely and clear in spite of the rain that had fallen during the night.
There was no chill in the air, even at this early hour, and it promised to be a brilliant day.
Cortez stood in the upper bailey facing west, gazing out over the rolling green hills of Dorset and contemplating his next move.
He truly could not fathom the woman’s resistance.
Any well-bred lady would have been thrilled at the opportunity for another husband willing to marry her, especially given that she had already been married and had a young child.
Cortez simply didn’t understand the reluctance.
Or perhaps it was that he was simply over-eager.
Cortez had distantly known Lady Edlington for years, as she had been a friend of his wife’s.
The most prevalent memory of her was that she was clearly the most beautiful woman in the county, if not the whole of England.
She had pale skin, pink cheeks, shiny reddish-brown hair and the most amazing eyes he had ever seen.
Robert Edlington had been mad for the woman, proud and honored to have been her husband.
When Rob had been dying of the nasty chest wound and had asked Cortez to take care of his wife, all Cortez could think of was the woman of unearthly beauty.
When he saw her for the first time in several years the night before, he was struck not only by the fact that she had gotten more beautiful, but by her delicious body outlined in the dark blue damask.
He hadn’t remembered that part. Everything he saw pleased him immensely.
But she wanted nothing to do with him. He had been widowed three years and she had been widowed three months.
She’d not yet come to terms with what he was already accustomed to.
He knew he should give her time but he also knew he was unwilling to wait.
He wanted her now and he wanted to return to Sherborne.
He knew that once she came to know him, she would no longer be resistant, but they could not come to know each other if she locked herself away.
He grunted with frustration, shifting on his big legs, when he caught a glimpse of something beside him.
Looking to his left, he noticed a very small girl standing next to him.
She was an astonishingly beautiful child, gazing up at him with bright blue eyes and long honey-colored hair.
It took Cortez a moment to realize he was gazing into Rob Edlington’s face.
The little girl was his spitting image. Slightly startled, not to mention curious, Cortez smiled faintly.
“Greetings,” he said.
The little girl gazed innocently up at him. “Greetings,” she repeated.
“Who are you?”
“Sophie Amalia Teodora Edlington,” she spit out the long name with a charming lisp in her speech. “Who are you?”
Cortez’s smile grew. “My name is Cortez.” He looked around to see if there was a nurse around. Seeing no one, he peered at her. “Are you alone?”
She nodded, holding up a poppet made of rags. “This is Rosie.”
Cortez pretended to greet the doll. “My lady,” he refocused on Sophie. “Did you come outside by yourself?”
Sophie cuddled the doll. “Aye.”
“Where is your nurse?”
She shrugged disinterestedly. “I have a pony,” she announced. “Would you like to see him?”
Cortez gazed down at her, feeling his heart warm to the child. She was absolutely adorable. “Mayhap later. You should go back inside where it is safe.”
She reached out and took his hand, tugging. He couldn’t help but follow as she began to pull him across the small upper bailey.
“My pony’s name is General,” she told him as they headed for the gatehouse that led into the lower bailey. “He came from France. My grandfather bought him for me.”
The ground sloped sharply towards the rocky and uneven path of the gatehouse.
More than once Sophie nearly slipped but managed to keep her footing with Cortez’s substantial help.
Cortez followed her, or was rather pulled, to the gatehouse where several Edlington soldiers were stationed.
They watched curiously as little Lady Sophie pulled the large figure of Cortez de Bretagne through the gatehouse and onto the drawbridge that covered the gap between the upper and lower baileys.
One of the soldiers came forward as the pair passed through.
“Is there a problem, my lord?” he asked, his gaze moving between them.
Cortez lifted his free hand helplessly as Sophie tugged. “I fear I’ve been abducted.”
“Shall I send for her mother?”
Cortez looked at the man, an inkling of an idea coming to him. The more he thought on it, the more he settled on the thought. “Aye,” he said slowly. “Send for her mother. Tell her that de Bretagne and her daughter are in the lower bailey and await her.”
The soldier nodded swiftly and went on the run.
Meanwhile, Sophie had pulled him down into the lower bailey where one hundred of the king’s troops were housed, men that served de Bretagne.
The stables were lodged against the eastern wall and Sophie took Cortez in that direction.
He passed his men along the way, smiling wanly at the collection of confused and amused faces.
It was a rather comical sight but no one would dare laugh.
Their large and powerful liege was being led around by a toddler, and going quite willingly.
As Cortez followed Sophie through a muddy patch, he was joined by a senior sergeant.
“Am I to assume you are being taken against your will, my lord?” Sergeant Peter Merlin was an older man with a calm, wise manner about him and had served de Bretagne for four years. He nodded his head in Sophie’s direction. “The young lady has you well in hand.”
Cortez wriggled his dark eyebrows. “She is cutting the circulation off in my fingers,” he said in a low voice. “She is determined to show me her pony.”
“Ah,” Merlin lifted his eyebrows in understanding.
Sophie looked up at the tall, pale, red-haired sergeant that had joined them. “Do you want to see my pony, too?” she asked.
Merlin grinned. “It would be my pleasure, my lady.”
Pleased, Sophie now had two people willing to view her pony. As the sun rose, so did the temperature and the horse flies were out in force. The smell of the stables grew stronger. Cortez leaned in Merlin’s direction and lowered his tone as they passed into the shadow of the wall.
“Send my knights to me and prepare the men to leave,” he said. “If all works as it should, we should be heading home within the hour.”
“But I must see a pony, my lord.”
“As soon as you see the damnable thing, be gone.”
“Aye, my lord.”
Neither man said another word as they entered the stable yards.
Sophie confidently pulled Cortez towards the stalls on the north end of the stable.
Cortez could see a couple of small gray palfreys and in one of the stalls, a small black and white pony.
Sophie let go of his hand long enough to unlatch the stall door and shove it open as much as her little hands would allow.
“See?” she turned to the men proudly. “This is General.”
Cortez smiled faintly as he leaned up against the open stall door, gazing down at the fat pony. The pony was eating its morning meal, crunching the grain and nuzzling Sophie with dusty lips. She rubbed the pony’s velvety nose, laughing loudly when his big lips nibbled at her.
“He is a fine animal,” Cortez said, eyeing Merlin. The man received the silent message and quit the stables as Cortez continued. “Did you give him his name?”
Sophie nodded; she was no more than a toddler but very bright. She spoke quite well for such a young child. “My Dada calls me Little General. So I named him General.” She looked up at him with those great blue eyes. “Do you know my Dada?”
Cortez nodded slowly. “I did.”
She cocked her head thoughtfully and Cortez could literally see the thoughts rolling through her young mind. “He’s been gone a long time,” she said sadly. “Do you know where he is? My mother says he is away. She does not know where.”
Cortez’s smile faded as he stared down at the little girl.
He began to see how Lady Edlington’s grief had spilled over onto her child, unable or unwilling to tell the little girl the truth of her father’s absence.
Initially, Cortez felt some irritation about that, but then he simply felt pity.
It was obvious that the child missed her father.
At that moment, something inside Cortez began to feel the slightest bit of concern and protectiveness over the girl.
His own child, had she lived, would have been the same age.
It occurred to him that when he married Lady Edlington, he would gain the child he had lost. The realization brought an oddly pleasurable moment.
He gazed down at her over the top of the stall. “Your father is far away, little one,” he said softly. “He has gone to a place where we cannot go.”
She stopped petting the pony and walked towards him across the crunchy rushes on the bottom of the stall. “Why not?” she wanted to know. “I want to go where my father is.”