Chapter Three #2
Stephen watched her heaving shoulders, feeling badly that he had brought such terrible news.
Truth be told, he had brought her the new garments and other luxuries before she awoke, hoping to soften the blow.
He was not as heartless as she had accused him of being and he didn’t want her to think he was made of stone.
It was no way to start a marriage. Moreover, there was more bad news to come.
“Your father and the rest of your clan were removed from Berwick before dawn,” he reasoned that he might as well tell her all of it so she could grieve for everything all at once.
“They are being escorted to Alnwick Castle where they will be held for trial. Your mother’s body remains here for burial. ”
She wept as if her heart was broken. “You sent my father away?”
Stephen drew in a long, deep breath. “He is the king’s prisoner, my lady. There was nothing else to do with him.”
“Please,” she went to him, her hands folded in front of her in a pleading gesture. “Please bring him back and I swear he will not cause any trouble. My father is old and unwell. I am afraid… afraid that confinement in the vault will only lead to his death. It will surely kill him.”
Stephen was not without sympathy. “I cannot grant your request, lady,” he said softly. “Your father is a prisoner of the king and only the king can make that decision.”
Tears dripped from her chin and onto the cranberry colored wool. “First my brothers, then my mother…,” she was growing increasingly hysterical as she once again turned away from him. “And now my father is gone. My family is destroyed. I have no one left.”
Stephen didn’t know what to say to that. She had every right to be distraught. Not knowing what else to do, he gave her a few moments of crying before reaching out and grasping her elbow gently.
“Come along,” he said softly. “You will feel better after you have eaten.”
She pulled her elbow away from him, although it was not cruelly done. “Nay,” she breathed. “I… I am not hungry. If you do not mind, I simply wish to be left in peace.”
Stephen watched as her small body was wracked with sobs. He was about to insist that she come to the hall and eat, but he thought better of it. The woman needed to deal with her grief in her own way.
He left her without a word, his heart heavy with sorrow for her.
Somehow, between last night and this morning, he was coming to feel a great deal of compassion for the woman.
It was apparent that life had dealt her a bitter blow at a young age, which didn’t seem fair to him.
Certainly, most people had their share of hardships, but she seemed to have more than most.
As he crossed the bailey and headed into the great hall where Edward and Tate were sitting near the blazing hearth, he thought to take Joselyn some food so that she would have something to eat if she became hungry.
Edward and Tate were discussing some future strategy, acknowledging Stephen when he began gathering hunks of cheese and a few apples.
“How is your wife?” Tate asked.
Stephen was picky with his apple selection; he inspected each one closely before deciding. “She is rested but understandably upset over the death of her mother and the departure of her family.”
“Did you give her the garments you bought?”
“I did. She looks marvelous.”
Edward elbowed Tate, grinning. “I told you she was a lovely girl, Stephen,” the king said. “So now you agree with me?”
Stephen looked at the young king. “I never disagreed in the first place,” he replied, tucking the cheese and apples into one hand and hunting for a nice piece of soft bread with the other. “Wait until you see her this morning. She looks like a goddess.”
Tate just grinned and shook his head. “It sounds as if you are not entirely displeased with your marriage, then.”
Stephen shrugged. “Time will tell once we’ve both had a chance to settle into it.”
“Why did she not come down to join us for the meal?” Edward wanted to know. “Is she too worn out from your wedding night?”
Stephen fought off a grin at the crass question.
“I never touched her,” he said honestly.
“When did I have time? From the moment we were married until this very second, I have been mostly away from her seeing to my duties as both husband and garrison commander. If this pace keeps up, we’ll both be old and gray before I have enough time to properly consummate the marriage. ”
Tate wriggled his eyebrows and stroked his chin in a weary gesture. “If I were you, I would make time. You cannot leave her untouched.”
“I know,” Stephen nodded patiently. “I will do my duty as soon as I am able and not a moment sooner. Besides, last night was not the right time. She was… well, understandably distraught.”
Tate thought on the burning woman he had gored, his good humor fading.
“Indeed,” was all he could say. The trio fell silent a moment before Tate spoke again.
“Speaking of wives, I must return soon to mine. I am anxious to see my children. The baby turned four months old yesterday and I have not seen him since he was born.”
Edward shook his head. “How many does that make now? Six children?”
Tate nodded his head; his smile was returning.
“Roman is due to be sent to foster at Kenilworth in September, something that my wife is not particularly thrilled with, but at seven years of age, I have told her that it is time for my oldest son to begin his training,” he scratched his chin again, wearily.
“Cate is almost six and beautiful like her mother, while the twins Alexander and Dylan are nearly five and have the entire castle living in fear of them.”
Edward laughed. “They are hooligans. I can hardly wait to recruit them into my service.”
Tate pursed his lips in agreement, thinking of his aggressive blond-haired twins that were almost as big as their eldest brother.
“Arabella is three and chatters like a magpie, and now baby Dane rounds out the bunch. My wife is going to hunt me down if I do not return home soon to help out with the brood.”
Stephen grinned at the thought of the Lady Elizabetha de Tobins Cartingdon de Lara, known to everyone as Toby, tracking her husband down like a bounty hunter to return him to Forestburn Castle.
Fortunately for Tate, she was very busy with six children and hadn’t the time to break away, but knowing Toby as they did, Stephen would not be surprised if she found a way.
She was, if nothing else, a very determined woman.
“Enough of Lady de Lara,” Edward waved his hands irritably, refocused on Stephen as the man found the right piece of bread. “I want to know about Lady Pembury. Is it really true that she has been living at Jedburgh since eleven years of age?”
Stephen picked up a piece of cloth used to cover the bread and carefully wrapped his wife’s meal in it. “True enough, it would seem,” he replied. “It also seems that the nuns have educated her well. She can even read and write both Latin and French.”
“Truly?” Edward looked surprised. “A woman with an education. Shocking.”
Tate lifted an eyebrow at him. “Elizabetha can read and write.”
Edward made a face as if the entire idea horrified him, thinking of his own young wife who was well versed in most courtly things excluding the ability to read. He liked it better that way. Beside him, Tate rose on his big legs and stretched his muscular body wearily.
“Come along,” he said to Stephen. “After you have fed your wife, I would have you show me the progress on the collapsed walls. I am uncomfortable with our vulnerability at the moment. The Scots may be defeated but they are not dead. I should not like to be caught unaware.”
The two knights left Edward in the hall as they made their way out into the sunshine.
Being July, and near the river, gave the air a heated, sticky quality that made wearing armor increasingly uncomfortable.
Tate rubbed at his neck where his mail grated against his sweaty skin.
To the east, they could hear the buzz of the insects as they lay fat and lazy in the moist river grass.
“So I take it that you did not tell Edward everything I told you last night about Lady Joselyn and her reasons for being at Jedburgh,” Stephen muttered as they crossed the mud.
Tate continued to scratch his neck. “I did not,” he replied. “If you want him to know, then you will tell him. That kind of information will not come from me.”
“Do you plan to interrogate her about the soldier who raped her?” Stephen asked. “You know your men better than I. Perhaps you will recognize someone based on her description.”
Tate nodded. “I will ask her when the time is right,” he said, eyeing Stephen as they neared the keep. “Did you tell her what you did for her mother?”
Stephen cleared his throat softly. “There was nothing I could do for the woman.”
“That’s not what I meant. Did you tell her that you personally built the coffin she lies in, which is why you did not return to her last night?
That is the reason you did not return to consummate the marriage and for no other reason than that.
Moreover, you prayed over the woman for hours. Did you not tell her that, either?”
“I did not.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I did not do those things so she would admire or revere me. I did not do them for glory. I did them because they needed to be done and because it was right that I should do them.”
Tate sighed faintly, slapping Stephen on a big shoulder. “I know,” he said in a low voice. “But she might like to know that her new husband is capable of such compassion. You are an accomplished man with an amazing spirit, Stephen. She might like to know that as well.”
They entered the cold, dark keep. “She will know as time allows,” Stephen replied. “She knows that I brought her the clothing.”
Tate snorted. “Good Lord, man, that’s the least of your generosity,” he fell in behind Stephen as they moved up the narrow stairs. “She should know the character of the man she has married.”