Chapter 2
Two
The wee hours of the morn found Emily alone in her bower with her sister as they finished packing Emily’s things. Disbelief still filled her—at long last, and for the first time in her life, she was leaving home.
“I can’t believe you’ll be gone in just a few hours,” Joanne whispered, her voice filled with tears.
“Nor I. I know I should be afraid, but—”
“You’re excited.” Joanne gave her a tenuous smile. “I would be, too. Imagine leaving this place for an entire year. I know how much you’ve always wanted to.”
Emily nodded, her heart pounding at the thought. It was true. While she loved her father, she wanted her own life. “I fear I lacked the courage you had to make father allow me to marry.”
Joanne’s face became a mask of horror. “Nay, I would not wish my experience on you. I daresay I thought father would kill Niles and me after he found us.”
“But at least it got you the husband you wanted.”
Joanne reached out and touched her hand. “I know father is difficult. But it is only his love for us that makes him so protective.”
“Loves us so that we are treated like the birds in his mews. Forever kept locked in a cage, without hope of freedom.”
Joanne squeezed her hand. “He is a harsh, unyielding man, but his heart is good. You can’t fault him for that.”
Emily cocked an eyebrow at her sister’s words. “This from the woman who railed against him just months ago when he refused Niles’ offer for your hand?”
Joanne smiled sheepishly. “You are right. I hated him then, for I knew if Niles got away, there would be no other man to offer for me. I am long past a marriageable age.”
“And I am fast passing it myself. How many men would have a bride at a score-and-two years?”
“Not many,” Joanne agreed.
“Aye, not many.”
They sat in silence for several minutes while they finished packing her last trunk. Emily allowed her thoughts to drift.
All her life she’d had but one dream—to have her own keep and lands. Her father’s adamant refusal to see her wed had long vexed her. But for the coming year, she would be out of her father’s direct control and if she–
Joanne gave her a cold, suspicious stare. “What are thinking?”
Emily blinked at the intrusion on her thoughts. “What?” she repeated.
Joanne tsked. “By the look on your face, I would say ‘tis not something you should have been thinking.”
“Meaning?”
“I know that look, Em. ‘Tis the same one you had just before you locked poor Godfried in the garderobe.”
“He deserved it,” she said defensively, even though she took pride in the memory of the deed.
Her cousin, Godfried, had only been in residence a sennight when they had declared war on one another.
She’d never cared for him, and to have him fostered at her home where he had been free to mock her at will. ..
Well, his two-hour stint in the garderobe had taught him well she wasn’t one to be picked on with immunity. He’d treated her much more kindly and respectfully from that day forward.
“‘Tis also the same look you had just before you set father’s prized gyrfalcon free.”
Now that had not turned out so well. No older than five, she still swore she could feel the sting of her father’s hand across her backside. He’d not been happy when he learned she had felt sorry for his caged falcon and set it loose.
“Every time I have seen that look upon your face, mischief always followed. I can only shudder at what it heralds this time.”
Emily dismissed Joanne’s words with a wave of her hand. “Perhaps it heralds a way to have what I’ve always wanted.”
Joanne frowned. “How is that?”
“Do you think Lord Draven as evil as father claims?”
Joanne looked askance at her. “What are you thinking?” she asked again.
Emily shrugged. “I was thinking that Lord Draven might be the rose I’ve been seeking.”
“Oh, sister, please I beg you. Do not think that which I know you are thinking. You’ve heard the stories same as I. They say he killed his own father, just for pleasure.”
“But you said yourself that father is a harsh man with a kind heart.”
“Harsh, aye, but I’ve heard the earl of Ravenswood is mad. You’ve heard such tales yourself. That he is a demon who never sleeps. They say the devil himself has cleared a spot to the right hand of his throne in expectation of the day Lord Draven will join him.”
Emily felt her body deflate as she considered it further. “Nay, you are right. ‘Tis a foolish idea. I shall spend a year with a madman, then return here to finish out my life in solitary company.”
A single tear fled down her cheek.
Joanne reached out and brushed the tear away. “Don’t cry, Em. Someday your rose will come for you on the back of his white charger. He’ll face father’s wrath and triumph, then take you away from here just as Niles is doing with me.”
“I want my own life,” she whispered. “It’s so unfair!”
Joanne pulled her into a tight hug. “I know, little sister. I wish I could spend the year in your place. But the time will pass and I promise when it does, I shall beg father to let you come stay with. Then you shall have your freedom.”
Emily nodded as she hugged her sister tightly. “I hope so. But tell me, do you honestly think father will wait out the year?”
Joanne froze, then let go of her. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
They sat in silence for several minutes, until Emily heard footsteps shuffling outside. “I will kill him, if it is the last thing I do! I shall gouge out his eyes and grind them to dust. No man shall have my Em. No man. Ever!”
She cringed at the sound of her father’s voice through her door as he made his way to the garderobe.
Closing her eyes, Emily realized how futile it would be to hope her father would wait out the year.
There was no way under heaven he would ever leave her in the clutches of his enemy with nothing more than that man’s oath to secure her welfare.
He loved her too much and trusted Lord Draven too little.
They locked concerned gazes.
“What are we to do?” Joanne asked fearfully.
“I will have to find some way to get Lord Draven to marry me before father attacks him.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I have to.”
“But Emily-”
“But nothing, Joanne. If father attacks, he’ll lose everything. Including your dowry and his life.”
Joanne covered her mouth with her hand as the full horror dawned on her. “We’ll be outcasts,” she whispered. “Niles will cast me aside without my dower lands.”
“Aye, and we’ll have no one to shelter us. Already the king hates father for what he did under King Stephen’s reign. I should think he’d like nothing better than to see us all out on our ears.”
“Oh Lord, Emily. This is too frightening to contemplate. You can’t marry a madman.”
“What choice have I?” It’d be the only way to save her family.
Joanne shook her head. “There must be another way. Besides, why would Lord Draven want you?”
Emily dropped her jaw, offended to her very core at her sister’s words.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Joanne said quickly as she folded Emily’s under-kirtle.
“But you know what father says of him. The man has never married and to my knowledge no woman has ever caught his eye. It does bear mentioning that he may not be bent to feminine company, that he prefers other men.”
Emily shook her head. “Nay, I don’t think so. Not from the look he gave me this afternoon.”
“And you’re the daughter of his enemy,” Joanne continued. “Not to mention that if Lord Draven touches you, the king will have his head for it.”
Emily considered it for a moment. “Do you believe the king would kill him for touching me?”
“Why should I doubt it? Henry is a man of his word.”
“Perhaps, but would he dare take the life of one of his champions over a mere dalliance? Father betrayed him far worse than that, and the king did nothing more than fine him, and confiscate part of his holdings. Do you not think Lord Draven could petition the king for my hand and be forgiven?”
“The king did more to father than just a little fine and confiscation, Em.” Joanne sat back on her heels as she thought the matter over. “I don’t know if the king would forgive him. ‘Tis possible, perhaps.”
Emily could think of no other way to save her family.
If her father marched on Lord Draven, they’d all pay for it.
“What choice do we have? You know as well as I that father is no match for Lord Draven. Why else would he have petitioned the king when Lord Draven attacked instead of marching against him?”
“But Em, do you understand the full impact of what you’re thinking? Lord Draven is an enemy to father. To the father who has sworn he’ll never allow you to marry and leave him.”
“Aye, I understand. But the last think I want is for father to die because of me.”
“And if Lord Draven wants no wife?”
“Then I shall make him want one.”
Joanne gave a short laugh. “You are so very stubborn. I pity Lord Draven for having to contend with you. But promise me one thing?”
“Aye?”
“If you see he is cruel, then I beg you rethink this scheme. I know how much you want out of here, but the last thing I would have is you married to a man who beats you. Better I should be thrown to the streets of London to sell my body, than see you sacrificed to a monster.”
Emily hugged her tightly. “I promise.”
Dawn came all too soon to Emily who met it with a mixture of tiredness, hidden tears, and excitement for the unknown. She entered the great hall where her father waited still awake. Drunk, but awake.
Never had she seen him look more exhausted and it was the first time in her life she had seen him in his cups. At this moment, his face bore all the traces of a man who had lived a warrior’s hard life.