Chapter One #2
Ian shook his head in disgust, moving to the lancet window.
Unlatching the latticed grate, his gaze wandered over the brightly colored grounds below, inspecting the visitors that had begun arriving yesterday.
Many more were expected during the course of the morn, for the tournament was scheduled to begin after the nooning meal.
“She still hasn’t recovered from the old man’s death, you know,” he said quietly, watching the du Bonne standards whip about in the brisk wind.
“You were not here when he died last winter, hunched over his books in the solar. Father swore he’d never seen a more dedicated servant.
But Summer viewed him more as the grandfather she never knew, not the aged steward with a blind eye. ”
Lance fumbled with one of the soft woolen gloves, remembering the servant that Summer had been so fond of.
He had been a man who had treated her with dignity and respect, ignoring her flaw because he had shared a similar affliction.
The beautiful young maiden and the gnarled old man had shared a strong attachment and his death had hurt her deeply.
“Summer says she is going to name her firstborn son after the old steward,” Lance said after a pensive pause, still toying with the glove. “God help her husband with a son by the name of Sir Kermit.”
Ian snorted, his smile returning. “Little Kermy. How touching.” Unwilling to linger on the thoughts of his baby sister and her flaw, he refocused on the day at hand.
“Would you hurry? I can see more guests on the horizon and whether or not you are the center of the celebration, I doubt they will be willing to wait for your lazy hide.”
Annoyance making a return, Lance scowled at his older brother. “I would have been ready this minute had my chamber not been so completely out of order. With all of the servants we have to cook and serve and clean, how can such a thing be possible?”
“It’s possible because you are a complete pig,” Ian said frankly, laughing when his brother shook his fist threateningly. As Lance opened his mouth to refute his brother’s assessment, a polished, familiar figure appeared in the doorway. The last of the du Bonne brothers had arrived.
“What’s so humorous?” Stephan du Bonne moved into the chamber with the grace of a cat, tossing his youngest brother the long-anticipated tunic.
“God’s Beard, Lance, aren’t you finished dressing?
The men-at-arms have already formed escorts and are awaiting our presence to lead them in guiding our guests. ”
Ian snorted with amusement as Lance glowered. “I’ll be ready shortly,” Lance snapped without force, slugging his giggling middle brother in the arm when the man refused to silence himself. “I was waiting for my tunic.”
Stephan cocked an eyebrow; devilishly handsome with pale green eyes and beautiful reddish-blond hair, he was considered the most comely of the three brothers. He also possessed charm that had caused many a woman to swoon.
“It was finished last night,” Stephan said, moving to shove Ian away from the window so he could cast his own experienced gaze over the grounds.
“Had you not been so drunk, you would have heard Genisa when she offered to bring it to your chamber. As it was, I attempted to deliver it to you after you retired but my knocking could not be heard over the grunts of pleasure coming from within the chamber.”
Ian laughed loudly as Lance scowled and turned away, laying the brilliant tunic on the jumbled bed. “I am sure that I wasn’t the only one filling my chamber with the sounds of pleasure,” he said sarcastically. “And speaking of Genisa, where is my delicious sister-in-law?”
Stephan was moving for the armor against the wall; the squires were nearly finished and the time was past to commence dressing his slothful brother. “Where else? She and Summer have perched themselves on the battlements to watch the influx of guests. It should be quite a spectacle.”
Ian’s humor faded somewhat as he moved to help his older brother with Lance’s protection. “Do you think it wise to allow Summer to mingle with the guests without one of us as her escort?”
“Genisa is with her. Summer will not come to any harm or embarrassment with my wife by her side. Moreover, Genisa prattles so that even if Summer attempted to speak, she would be unable to get a word in.”
Stephan sounded confident; but, then again, he always sounded confident.
Ian and Lance trusted him. With thoughts of Summer and Genisa and the state of Lance’s slothful nature shoved aside, the three brothers prepared for the day with a good deal of mounting vigor.
The excitement in the air was a palpable thing.
*
“Do you see the Lady Isobel?”
The Lady Genisa Rilaux du Bonne jabbed a slender finger to the green and silver party that had recently passed under the portcullis and into the bailey.
Hidden behind the thick walls of the battlements, Genisa and her sister-in-law had been observing the invasion of guests since the early morn.
Nearing noon already, the last stragglers were arriving and the bustle of Chaldon was chaotic.
But the chaos had yet to reach the parapet above the bailey, high on the defending walls of the old Norman fortress. The two giddy young ladies had spent a wonderful morning inspecting the guests from their private haven when they should have very well been tending to the masses.
“There, Summer – see?” Genisa poked her tapered finger into the air once more. “Good Heavens, look how fat she has become! Why, I remember when she was the fairest maiden in the shire. Thank Goodness that marriage hasn’t turned me into a cow as it has apparently done to poor Isobel.”
“You are the f-fairest maiden in the shire, Genisa,” Summer du Bonne’s soft golden eyes were riveted to the rotund woman below. “My brother surely would not have m-married you if you had been second best.”
Genisa smiled, a toothy, lovely grin that had captivated Stephan’s arrogant heart.
She was indeed a beautiful woman, flashy and blond and finely sculpted.
She had been pursued by nearly every eligible knight in the province, and sometimes even the ineligible ones.
But the knight managing to capture her heart had been none other than the illustrious Sir Stephan du Bonne, a knight who had amassed a small fortune and a certain degree of fame by way of the tournament circuit.
One eve in Stephan’s arms had been enough to convince her.
Her gaze was upon him even now as he spoke kindly to the Lady Isobel and her portly husband. Stephan had ridden escort from nearly a half mile out, his powerful frame unmistakable atop his chestnut charger. Even after two years of marriage, Genisa’s heart still fluttered wildly at the sight of him.
“Where do you s-suppose Ian and Lance are?” Summer burst into her sister-in-law’s thoughts.
Genisa tore her gaze away from her husband’s imposing form to glance disinterestedly about the surrounding area.
“I do not know,” she said truthfully. “They escorted the last party in, the both of them. I can hardly imagine that they would simply disappear when they know all of the guests have not yet arrived.”
Summer snorted delicately, her full lips curving into a magnificent smile. “Knowing Ian, they have indeed disappeared. They are p-probably planning to wreak some sort of mischief upon the festivities.”
“But this is Lance’s celebration. Why would he jeopardize his own party?”
“Who can say?” Summer tossed her exquisite mane of honey-blond hair over one shoulder, stroking the ends absently. “Ever since Lance returned home, it has b-been the same story. Ian leads and Lance follows.”
Genisa’s gaze focused on her sister-in-law now that Stephan had vanished from view.
Staring at the woman’s exquisite profile, she thought back to the previous subject of conversation; she knew for certain that she was not the fairest maiden in the shire.
From the moment she laid eyes upon her future husband’s sister, she knew that she had been living in a fantasy world where she alone was the most beautiful object of worship in all of Dorset. There was another of greater glory.
Genisa learned that the du Bonnes had been harboring a great secret within the stone bosom of Chaldon Castle.
The secret of a woman so beautiful, so magnificent, that she was kept sequestered from the outside world of mortals unworthy to gaze upon such loveliness.
Her beauty was as fragile as porcelain; long, silken hair the color of honey and a sweet oval face with big, beautiful eyes of an amber-golden color.
Delicately arched brows hovered over the thick-lashed gems as defined cheekbones tapered to a delicate chin and delectable mouth.
In truth, Summer du Bonne was a treasure that remained hidden from the world.
Although Genisa had not lived that far from Chaldon, as her wealthy merchant father had owned a manse in Swanage, she had never once heard mention of a du Bonne daughter in possession of such unearthly beauty and was angered into a jealous fit by the unwelcome surprise.
But that was until she attempted to speak with Stephan’s young sister; then she became aware of the reasoning behind the careful shielding of the Lady Summer du Bonne.
They did not hide Summer to horde her beauty – they hid her because she stuttered.
It wasn’t every time; mostly words that began with the letter B or F.
But it was pronounced when she did it. Stephan and Ian and Lance tried to protect their baby sister from the reactions of a cruel world and Genisa labored to do the same.
She, too, took up the fight to protect Summer.
Her thoughts moved away from her sister-in-law and back to the bailey below, now thinking of her husband’s two younger brothers and their tendency for foolery. She responded belatedly to Summer’s assertion.