Commanded By The French Duke

Chapter Two

The only problem, as far as Guilhem could gather, seemed to be a diminutive nun dressed in what looked like a grey baggy sack and holding a large sword which he suspected did not belong to her. The substantial blade dwarfed her neat frame, semi-precious stones winking dully at the leather-bound helm. The maid stood at the apex of a packhorse bridge, legs planted wide, a laden ox-cart tilting precariously behind her; at intervals she would swish the sword from left to right in a vaguely threatening manner. From what he could work out, not one soldier had made any attempt to overthrow her; instead, they stood in a miserable group on the river bank, helmets off, horses plucking in desultory manner at the spindly grass. Why were they holding back? Surely it was a simple matter to take her down?

‘What is going on here?’ Edward said, dismounting swiftly, reddish-blond brows held together in a deep frown.

‘Er...well, this...this lay sister...’ one of the soldiers began to explain, clutching at his hand. The other men collected around him, shuffling their feet, nodding encouragement to their companion.

‘Are you bleeding?’ Edward demanded roughly, snatching at the man’s hand and opening the stubby fingers. Blood trickled slowly from a deep cut across the soldier’s palm.

The soldier flushed to the roots of his hair. ‘She did it.’ He nodded in the direction of the bridge.

Edward glared at him, pale blue eyes narrowing to slits. ‘She did it? Are you trying to tell me that a nun attacked you? God in Heaven, call yourself knights?’

‘Look at her, sire. She’s giving us the evil eye, muttering godforsaken words at us. Words of the Devil. We tried to make her move the cart, but she slashed at my hand and took my sword! Then she raised her cross and...and put a curse on us! I swear, it’s the truth, sire. We daren’t touch her.’

‘What utter nonsense,’ Edward shot back. ‘Let me deal with this.’

‘Allow me,’ Guilhem said, stalling Edward’s forward step with a burly arm across his friend’s chest. Shoving his helmet towards a soldier, he pushed back his chainmail hood so it settled in loose folds across his shoulders. ‘It wouldn’t do to have the King’s son cut down by a woman.’

‘As if!’ Edward snorted. But he stopped, sweeping his arm out with mock courtesy. ‘However, I have no wish to be cursed, either. Be my guest.’

* * *

The knight who walked towards her was tall, a red woollen surcoat covering his muscled torso and broad shoulders. Despite his height, he carried his body with graceful athleticism, like an animal: powerful, self-assured. Beneath his surcoat, glittering chainmail covered his massive arms, but, in contrast to the other soldiers, he wore no plate armour on his shins. Instead, calf-length leather boots and woollen trousers covered his long legs. His head was bare, chainmail hood pushed back to reveal a thatch of burnished hair, more dark blond than brown, strands thick and wayward, framing a lean, tanned face, prominent cheekbones dusted with sunburn.

Alinor licked her lips rapidly, desperate for a drink of water, for something to calm her, to quell the rising tide of fear that filled her chest, that channelled her breathing into short, quick gasps. Her wrists were weak, fatigued from holding up the cumbersome sword. Her left arm ached, the scar pinching painfully. Where had he come from? Suddenly the short, rotund soldier who had first accosted her seemed infinitely preferable to this approaching barbarian! Everything about him frightened her: those fierce, glinting eyes of midnight blue; his stern mouth set in a grim, intimidating line and that imposing height—all made her innards quail, leap with terrified anticipation. Her heart fluttered incoherently. Have courage, she told herself. You’ve managed to hold them off so far, you can do it again. This is not your grain in the cart and the nuns need the income from it in order to survive. If you let it go now, they will have nothing.

The knight had reached the head of the oxen.

Blood thrummed in her ears. ‘Go away!’ she stuttered out, waving the sword threateningly in the direction of his chest. The heavily embroidered gold lions danced before her eyes. ‘Olim erat urbs magna, nomine altum est!’ The Latin speech poured out of her, nonsensical.

To her utter surprise, the knight laughed, his wide mouth breaking into a smile. Small lines crinkled at the side of his eyes. ‘Your curses don’t scare me, Sister. I don’t believe in God, or the Devil either. We have no intention of hurting you; we merely want to cross the bridge, but you seem to be blocking it.’

‘The wheel is broken,’ Alinor explained. Her voice juddered out, high-pitched. ‘Your men know that already! And that one over there...’ she jabbed the sword point in the direction of the first soldier who had come across to her ‘...started cutting at the sacks, spilling the grain, pouring it into the river!’

Guilhem stuck his thumbs into his sword belt. The supple leather around his slim hips emphasised the bunched muscle in his thighs. He frowned, blue eyes sweeping across the damaged sacks behind her. A lock of burnished hair fell across his brow, blond tips grazing his tanned forehead. ‘And for that I can only apologise,’ he replied. ‘The man overstepped the mark, but I think he has paid the price; you’ve cut him quite badly.’

‘He deserved it!’ A vivid colour flushed Alinor’s cheeks. ‘I thought he was going to help me and then...to waste the grain like that!’

Her eyes were truly the most astonishing colour, Guilhem thought. The wimple wrapped around the perfect oval of her face seemed only to enhance the clear, brilliant green of the irises, glowing like huge emeralds, translucent glass. His heart lurched suddenly, unexpectedly.

‘Just give me the sword, Sister,’ he demanded gruffly, annoyed at the unwelcome nudge in his groin. A nun, for God’s sake! What had got into him? She was nothing to look at: short, no doubt with a vast mountain of flesh beneath that unbecoming gown and a shaved head under that head-covering. A bride of Christ, married to Our Lord. Untouchable. He should know better.

‘Never!’ Alinor hissed out. ‘Why should I trust you...or them—’ she nodded mockingly over at Edward’s men ‘—to do the right thing? Your reputation, or should I say, your notoriety, precedes you! Everyone knows what Prince Edward is like! He’s a devil and a rogue, and that goes for all who serve him, as well! I’m staying here and I’m not moving until my friend comes back with help to mend the wheel.’

Irritation burned through him at her rudeness. ‘Be careful, maid.’ His voice lowered in warning. ‘Your accusations are treacherous and based on ignorance; you would do well to remember who you’re dealing with, lay sister or not. Edward does not take kindly to those who defy him...’ his sparkling eyes roamed over her ‘...and neither do I.’

Alinor reeled back in fright as he lunged forward, wrenching the sword helm easily from her and lobbing it back along the bridge with a clatter. The blade spun away, sliding across the flat cobbles. ‘No...o...o!’ she protested weakly, senses spinning; for one sickening moment, she thought she might faint. Quickly, she wound her fingers into the oxen’s leather harness, thinking to stay close to the cart that way.

‘Forgive me, Sister,’ the knight said, but there was no forgiveness in his tone. ‘But if you refuse to move, then I will have to move you.’

Roped, muscular arms looped tightly around her waist; she gasped out, a mixture of terror and outrage, fingers snarling in desperation around the harness. But to no avail. He plucked her up with ease, lifting her so high that her feet flailed above the ground. Under the sheer force of the movement, her grip loosened on the harness, fingers flailing in the air as he slammed her against his solid frame to carry her away.

The jolting impact of the man’s body against her own sent shock waves coursing through her; her face was on a level with his, his chest hard up against her soft breasts, her hips bouncing intimately against his muscle-bound thighs. A wild, hectic colour flooded her pale skin; she wanted to die in shame. Never, never, had she been so close to a man before!

‘You let me go! This instant!’ she demanded, fury and humiliation shunting aside her fear. Battering small fists down on the top of his shoulders, she wriggled violently in his fearsome grip, wanting him to drop her, kicking at his shins and stubbing her toes against the inflexible muscle. ‘Put me down! I’ll make you pay for this!’ Beneath his tunic, the tiny links that made up his mail coat poked into her raging fists.

He chuckled, a throaty sound rippling upwards from his chest. ‘You make a lot of threats for someone supposedly from the house of God. And for a woman.’

Bashing furiously at his shoulders, Alinor failed to hear him. ‘Let me go,’ she shrieked again, ‘let me go!’ Sanity fled, as if snapped away in a sharp breeze. She would do anything to extricate herself from his punishing grip. Instinct drove her, the instinct to survive. Leaning forward, she sunk her teeth into the soft, downy lobe of his ear, senses poised for the smallest release of his arms so she could wriggle away.

It didn’t come.

‘Why, you little...!’ Guilhem roared at her, outraged, his brawny arms still clamped around her, muscles like iron rivets against the small of her back. ‘You bit me!’ His eyes flared across her white, fearful face.

Her confidence shrivelled; convinced he would release her after she had bit him, she had given no thought to the consequences. Why had she not been meek and mild, subservient? How foolish she had been! What would they do to her, a single maid in a group of royalist soldiers? My God, it didn’t bear thinking about! A shriek rose up on an engulfing tide of fear, a high-pitched screeching welling in her chest, bursting out from her mouth in incoherent splutters, gathering strength; her mind blanked completely, washed through, crumpling into a vast wasteland of utter terror.

Her screams, shrill and anguished, made his ears hurt. Wincing, Guilhem reached the riverbank with the struggling bundle in his arms. He wanted to assure the maid that everything would be fine, that they had no intention of hurting her, and that all they wanted to do was be on their way, but he knew his words would make no impression. Given the noise the nun was making, she simply wouldn’t hear him.

‘Sweet Jesu! Will you stop that caterwauling?’ Edward said as he strode towards the pair of them. ‘I’ve had enough of this!’

The blow came out of nowhere, a large fist slamming into the side of Alinor’s cheek.

The maid’s body reeled sideways at the violent impact, limp in Guilhem’s arms, unconscious. Her head lolled forward on to his shoulder, linen veil fanning out across his surcoat. He didn’t even have time to step back, to pull her away from Edward’s damaging swing, the full force of his blow. ‘I’m sorry,’ Edward said, staring with dismay at the senseless maid in Guilhem’s arms, ‘but that infernal screeching was crawling under my skin; it made me mad.’

‘Really?’ Guilhem replied, his tone constrained, dry. He adjusted his arms so that the girl’s body was more evenly balanced against him. God, when would Edward learn to control his temper? He swung her legs up towards his chest, so that she lay secure against him, her weight light, surprisingly delicate. Her voluminous gown concealed a trim figure, a slender indent of waist. The curve of her hip nudged against his forearm. ‘It was completely unnecessary. To hit a woman, Edward, and not only a woman, a lay sister!’

‘I know, I know,’ Edward said, pale eyes immediately contrite. ‘I wasn’t thinking.’

Guilhem’s eyes lowered, scowling at the mass of purple bruising on the woman’s cheekbone. Blood trickled down towards her wimple, staining the white cloth, blooming steadily across the fabric like a blossoming flower. Her eyes were closed, long velvet lashes fanning her cheeks. But her breath puffed against his jawline, warm and regular. Thank God. Ignoring Edward, he carried her over into the shade of a beech tree and laid her down, carefully, on the ground.

He walked over to help the other soldiers unload the grain sacks, stacking them neatly at the side of the bridge. Unhitching the oxen, they led the animals over to the trees, securing their reins to the lower branches. Watched by Edward, grim and unsmiling on his horse, they managed to half-drag, half-carry the ailing cart from the bridge, depositing it safely on the river bank.

‘What I can’t understand is, what was the stupid chit doing on her own?’ Edward said suddenly, exasperated, trying to mitigate his guilt, as if he were less likely to hit a woman if she had a man with her. ‘I mean, what woman travels alone, these days? It’s unheard of. Foolish. Stupid.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Guilhem said. ‘But apparently she told the soldiers she had sent her man to fetch help with the broken axle.’ He flicked his gaze over to the spreading beech tree, at the prone, motionless figure, the stark white face.

‘My mother would tear a strip off me if she found out that I’d hit a woman,’ Edward said, his narrow mouth turning down ruefully.

‘I doubt it,’ Guilhem replied. ‘The Queen adores you and well you know it. She would blame the girl for bringing it upon herself.’

Edward threw him a curious lopsided smile. ‘Well, her behaviour was completely out of order...’

‘It was certainly...unusual,’ Guilhem replied. Most women would have run away at the first sight of the soldiers, rather than guarding the cart with its mediocre haul of grain. She had been horribly frightened, but had held her ground, hitting out like a cornered animal. Admiration threaded through him, a grudging praise; although she had been foolish, it had taken a great deal of courage to do what she had done.

‘Anyway...’ Edward adjusted his leather gauntlets around his wrists ‘...let’s move; we’ve wasted enough time in this godforsaken place. Let’s rideto Knighton. To the palace.’ He looked around the clearing, satisfied that the other soldiers were mounting up. ‘Where’s your horse?’

‘I’ll catch you up,’ Guilhem said bluntly.

‘Wh-what? Please don’t tell me you intend to shilly-shally around a common nun? Her manservant will be back in a moment!’

Guilhem patted the neck of Edward’s horse, rubbing his calloused thumb against the soft pelt. ‘I want to make sure she’s all right.’

‘An attack of conscience, Guilhem? What’s the matter, feeling guilty on my behalf?’

Guilhem shrugged his shoulders. ‘No, merely concerned.’ The feeling of guilt was nothing new to him, hanging constantly from his shoulders like a grey shroud. ‘She’s vulnerable lying there like that, unconscious; any woman would be.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, leave her! Get on your horse and come with me’

‘I’ll follow on.’

Edward’s mouth drooped with disappointment. ‘You’ve gone soft, Guilhem,’ he said bitterly. ‘Ever since that day at Fremont—’

Guilhem shook his head, a swift, decisive moment, stopping Edward’s speech. He had no wish to be reminded of that awful day. Remorse lurched through his heart. The burning castle. That child...

Edward eyed his friend’s stony expression. ‘Don’t let it affect you so, Guilhem. You paid the price.’

‘I set the fire that killed him,’ Guilhem replied tonelessly. A child’s life lost through his thoughtless actions. ‘I’ll follow on.’

Edward slumped in the saddle. Hazy shadows cast by the beech trees dappled his skin, sunburnt and freckled. Guilhem was indispensable, his best commander. But he had no authority over him: Guilhem was not a knight in Edward’s pay, he was a rich man in his own right, a man who chose to ride by the Prince’s side from a sense of loyalty, of friendship. Because Edward had helped him. Saved him.

‘Oh, if you insist,’ Edward said finally, resigned. Raising his arm, he gave the order for his soldiers to mount up and follow him. Kicking his heels into the destrier’s flanks, he rode away, clattering across the flat square stones of the bridge, horse’s tail swishing in his wake.

* * *

The sun had moved behind the clouds again. Beneath the tree the light was dim, streaked in shadow. Ducking his head beneath the low swaying branches, Guilhem crouched beside the girl’s prone figure, pillowed in a mass of spent beech leaves, her gown billowing out from a girdled waist, the cloth sinking down around her limbs to display the rounded curve of her hips, slender thighs. Leather boots poked out from a rickety hemline. And hanging from her belt, a dagger, carried in a leather scabbard! Surprising, for a lay sister to carry a blade; he thought they believed that prayers and the Cross would protect them in all circumstances. Obviously, this one had other ideas.

He knelt in down in the spongy ground, shins sinking into the mess of decaying coppery vegetation. A single leaf, burnt orange, fluttered down from above, landing on the coarse cloth covering her midriff, the concave hollow of her stomach. His nails dug into his palms, resisting the urge to brush it away.

‘Come on,’ he said brusquely, stroking the side of her cheek. His breath hitched at the silky sensation spiralling upwards through his blood. Her skin was like goose down, delicate, milk-white, a single freckle above her top lip. His big body hulked over her fragile frame, awkward, graceless, like some giant about to devour its prey. Most of his life had been spent bawling at soldiers, training them to fight, to battle harder, faster, longer. He’d been fighting for so long, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent in the company of a woman, had forgotten how to treat them. ‘Come on!’ he repeated, more loudly this time. Moving closer, his knees snaring her skirts, he seized her shoulders, shaking her gently. Her head rolled back against the leaves; she moaned softly.

Her eyes opened slowly.

* * *

At first, Alinor’s vision was hazy, clouded; above her head, a trembling latticework of leaves, yellow, brindled, scuffing gently in the breeze. Where was she? Why was she lying here? Damp seeped upwards from the ground, soaking through the thin fabric of her gown. She wriggled her shoulders, trying to reduce the uncomfortable feeling. Her cheek ached incessantly; she examined the smarting skin with tentative fingers.

‘No,’ a gruff voice said, ‘leave it.’ Firm, decisive fingers pushed away her hand.

Alinor’s stomach lurched in recognition. Oh, God, not him again! The man knelt above her, face tough and brutal, slanted grooves carving down from his cheeks to the square angularity of his jaw. Fear whispered through her veins. She pushed her hands down into the ground, trying to push back from him. ‘You, go away!’ she stuttered out. His knees pinned her skirts; she was trapped. ‘Get away from me, you...you barbarian!’

To her surprise, he laughed. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’ His voice was low, melodious, curling through her veins like velvet smoke.

‘You hit me!’ she spat out weakly, eyes flaring with accusation.

‘Not me,’ he replied calmly. ‘The Prince. You wouldn’t stop screaming.’

‘And that makes it all right, does it?’ she flung at him, her tone brittle. ‘To hit a woman because she’s making too much noise?’ Anxiety knotted her heart; she wished she had the strength to leap up, to push the man away.

‘I don’t agree with what he did...’ the man hulked over her like a huge bear, shining chainmail wrinkling across his shoulders ‘...but you must admit, your behaviour was extreme, and discourteous. It’s customary to defer to royalty, to show respect, but you, you showed anything but!’ His eyes pierced her, twilight blue, intense and predatory.

‘I had to protect the grain,’ she mumbled. The rounded bulk of his knees brushed against her midriff, hot through the thin stuff of her dress. Too close! What was she thinking of, lying sprawled out beneath him, like some wanton? Vulnerability surged through her, her pulse fluttering insanely. ‘I need to sit up,’ she muttered. ‘And you’re on my skirts!’

He looked down to the point where his knees trapped the fabric of her gown, mouth twitching with humour at the nun’s temerity, her constant spurning of any help from him. Surely she should be pleased that he had stayed? Ignoring her, he clamped strong fingers around her elbow.

‘I can do it myself!’ she hissed at him, jerking irritably at his hold. But to no avail. He released her when she was sitting upright. Her vision wobbled dangerously, but she compelled herself to concentrate on the details in front of her: his horse, the bridge, the oxen waiting patiently.

‘What have you done with my grain?’ Raising her knees, she planted her boots flat on to the ground, scrabbling to stand, fighting the bubbling sickness in her stomach. ‘If you’ve done anything, you’ll...oh!’ Collapsing back, she clutched at her mouth. ‘I don’t...’

‘Take it easy,’ Guilhem said, pressing down on her shoulder. ‘Your grain is safe, stacked by the side of the bridge.’ In contrast to the maid’s hostile behaviour, her collarbone was fragile, bird-like against his palm. He had a sudden urge to unwind the cumbersome fabric of her veil, her wimple, and trace the line of bone into the dip of her throat. He frowned, rising swiftly and strode over to his horse, extracting a leather water bottle from the saddlebags.

‘Here.’ Pulling the cork stopper as he walked back, he held the bottle out to Alinor.

Reaching upwards, she was shocked to see that her hand was shaking. Inadvertently, her fingertips jogged against his wrist, muscled and sinewy, and she snatched her hand away, horrified at the flare of sensation arcing straight to the pit of her belly. Hell’s teeth, the Prince must have really punched her hard to make feel so strange!

‘Take it!’ he insisted, gruffly. ‘Stop acting as if I’m about to poison you!’

She glared at the firm, tanned fingers holding the bottle out to her, then reached up to grab the flagon quickly, to avoid all touch. He raised his eyebrows at her desperate movement, but said nothing. She took a sip, relishing the cool water slipping down her throat, quelling the unstable feeling of nausea in her belly.

‘Thank you,’ she said, giving the bottle back. Tilting her head on one side, the fawn linen of her veil draping across one shoulder, she swept the empty clearing with a wide-eyed, luminous glance. ‘Where have all the soldiers gone?’ And him, she wanted to add. Prince Edward, the thug who had punched her.

‘They carried on.’ The knight stood over her, his expression stern, implacable, long legs planted wide, arms crossed over his chest. His calf-leather boots were scuffed, well worn. The woollen trousers that clung to his knees and the lower half of his thighs emphasised the bulky, contoured muscle of his legs. Pinioned beneath his blue gaze, Alinor drew a deep shuddery breath. She hated the way his sheer size made her feel self-conscious, her outer layers peeled away: a quaking shadow of her former self.

‘Then why didn’t you go with them?’ She switched her eyes away from him abruptly, a flag of colour staining her cheeks, annoyed at her reaction. Having lived with the unwanted advances of her stepbrother in the last few years, not to mention the harsh callousness of her father for all of her life, she prided herself on being able to ignore or dismiss most men. They were dispensable, as was this man. She frowned intently at a silver-backed beetle crawling slowly across the coppery leaves on the ground.