Chapter Seven #8
“She is intelligent, yet simple,” she said quietly. “She loves her flowers, her animals, and her keep. She was most distressed when her father turned it, and her, over to you. She thought she and her mother were getting along quite nicely by themselves.”
“The keep was in disrepair,” he remarked faintly.
“Because Lady Mary refused to do anything until Sir Arthur returned from the quest,” Rebecca told him. “She believed it was his keep and she had no right to touch it.”
“Ah,” he nodded in understanding. “A wise woman. Continue.”
Rebecca complied. “Dustin has never been ambitious. She would rather tend her animals and garden than go to court. She simply doesn’t care for material things, which is why I am surprised she is wearing these fine dresses. She has shunned such things up until now.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “Yet she is not a fine and delicate woman, as flowers and animals would suggest.”
Rebecca grinned. “She can fight like a man and climb a tree like a cat, and she is not afraid to dirty her hands with hard work,” she said.
“Yet she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and she reeks with feminine sensuality, which I suspect you already know. Does she puzzle you overmuch, my lord?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Overmuch indeed,” he said, shaking his head and mounting his destrier. He paused to gaze at the woman, his expression grateful. “Thank you, mistress, for everything. And I trust you will keep our conversation confidential.”
“Of course, my lord,” Rebecca agreed, stepping back as he reined his huge animal around. “And… my lord?”
He paused a moment. “What is it?”
Rebecca smiled impishly. “I approve of you spanking her. She needs it.”
He cracked a smile and slapped his visor down. “More than she gets.”
Rebecca laughed as she watched the man ride off, thinking that her friend Dustin was a very lucky woman, indeed. Gaze lingering on the big knight as he headed off towards the castle, she went back into her hut.
*
Two pairs of eyes watched Christopher de Lohr ride off toward Lioncross, leaving the home of the pretty little red-headed wench.
A lover, of course. She would be the first step in the quest to destroy de Lohr, as Sir Ralph had ordered.
When he had returned to London, he had left a few men behind to spy, to linger, and to begin the no doubt long and arduous process of destroying the Defender of the Realm.
It had taken nearly two days for the spies to decide where to begin, and the redhead was as good a start as any. Finally, they had their opportunity.
“His whore,” one man mumbled.
His comrade, dirty and covered with oozing scabs that itched, nodded his scruffy head.
“Ralph told us to look for a link, and there she is,” he replied. “We will start with her.”
“Do we kill her?” the other man asked.
The oily man’s gaze lingered on the neat little hut in the distance. “Ralph wanted insight and answers to the baron,” he said. “We will get our answers, then we will kill her so she cannot tell what we have done.”
The short, fat man nodded, making sure his dagger was concealed beneath his tunic. Together, they made their way to the hut in the near distance with nothing other than murder and blood on their mind. They had their orders and they had a plan. It would start here.
In the name of the prince and with the goal of destroying the king, the annihilation of Christopher de Lohr commenced.
*
The evening meal at Lioncross consisted of roast beef, Christopher’s favorite meal. He had missed it dreadfully in the Holy Land and found goat to be a very poor substitute. His mouth fairly watered as he dug into a huge knuckle of succulent, stringy beef.
He didn’t expect Dustin to join him. He had found her later in the afternoon tending an overgrown flower patch, at least that was what he had called it, but Dustin had stiffly informed him that it was a garden her mother had planted.
He had been extremely annoyed to find Jeffrey with her, standing silently as she cut and pruned and pulled.
He was not surprised to see that Jeffrey’s hostility had returned full-bore, undoubtedly due to the wench-bedding rumors.
Much to his disgust, he found he couldn’t be too angry at the man’s attitude. In fact, he didn’t really blame him.
His wife did not seem particularly interested in his presence even though he tried to strike up a conversation.
Several times, in fact. After the fourth or fifth attempt, he lost count, stopped trying, and excused himself.
He should have ordered Jeffrey to leave as well, but the situation was tense enough as it was and he didn’t want to make things worse.
As he went about his business, he set Anthony to watch the two of them at a discreet distance.
He had nearly devoured his meal and was waving the serving wench to bring him more when his eyes suddenly caught a vision at the top of the stairs.
His gaze trailed upward and he stopped in mid-chew, surprised and pleased to see his wife descending the stairs, dressed in one of the new surcoats he had retrieved that day.
He had left the surcoats in her room, half expecting to never see them again, and pleased that he had been wrong.
He and the other knights rose as she approached. “I am pleased that you have decided to join us, Lady de Lohr,” he said graciously, kicking David out of the chair immediately to his left and pulling it out for her. “Please, sit.”
Without a word, Dustin accepted the chair and sat. Two serving women attended her with food and drink, and the knights sat.
Christopher could not take his eyes off her.
She was wearing a striking sapphire blue that complemented her eyes and complexion beautifully.
Her hair, long and straight and silky, was free down her back, and he spent so much time looking at her that it took him a moment to realize she had yet to look at him.
He was puzzled with her behavior. He had been sure that everything had been said between them that morning and that they were stronger for it, but he was forced to admit that mayhap he was wrong. She was brooding and quiet and he hated to admit that it concerned him.
“The beef is delicious,” he remarked as she chewed.
Dustin swallowed, nodding. He watched her drink from her cup and take another bite, still not speaking. He respected her silence and returned to his food.
“I have never been this close to Wales,” Edward piped up from across the table. “Tell me, my lady, when does winter set in?”
Dustin’s haunting gray eyes turned to him. “Soon, my lord,” she said. “By late October we will have snow, and will most likely last through February or March. Being so close to the mountains, our weather is always more severe.”
“Snow,” David sighed. “It has been three long years since I have seen it. There were days in the scorching heat I would dream of it.”
Dustin looked at her brother-in-law. “The cook gathers great bowlfuls and pours fruit juice or honey on it for a treat.”
David smiled at her. “I am looking forward to it.”
Dustin grinned back. “As do I, but father said I would freeze to death eating flavored snow when it was all we could do to keep the great room a little above freezing itself.”
Christopher watched his brother and wife smile at each other and felt a peculiar twinge deep in his chest. But he said nothing, knowing wisely that he would spoil the mood.
“I hear you have a cat, my lady,” Leeton said, sitting opposite her.
“Aye, my lord, a big fat stripped cat,” she nodded. “His name is Caesar because he rules this house and hold.”
Leeton nodded. “I have seen him, skulking about. Not a particularly friendly animal.”
“He is,” she looked directly at Christopher, he thought, accusingly. “He is quite fond of the baron.
Christopher snorted into his goblet. “Ask me not why, for I do not know. He has taken a liking to me and I am at a loss to explain it.”
“They say predators think alike, Chris,” Edward said dryly.
Christopher nodded, the joke at his expense. “Which is why you and I get along so well.”
The banter from that point on was light and amusing, although Dustin and Christopher never directly addressed one another. She spent most of her time listening and feeling her mood lighten, and it wasn’t long before she seemed to pull out of her mood.
Dustin had indeed been brooding, although she truly didn’t know why.
She only knew that ever since Christopher had kissed her, she had been confused and disoriented.
She had liked it and she had been willing to submit to him without a fight, and that had frightened her.
Why had she relented so easily? What was the power the man had over her with just a simple touch?
She didn’t understand what her body was telling her.
The safest thing, she decided, until she could figure out her mind, was to stay a safe distance away from him. It wasn’t that she was angry with him, but the feelings he awakened within her scared her and her fear kept her aloof.