Candace C. Bowen - A Knight Series 01 (4 page)

To the sound of returning footsteps, he retreated to the shadows with a
smile. At last, he would have his answers.

Descending the steps, he heard panic in the woman’s voice as she
whispered anxiously, “I tell you Master Warin, she refused to even look at me.
When Rolfe did not recognize Eddiva, she snatched him up, taking to the woods
with naught but the moon to guide her.”

Swinging his cloak around his shoulders, Warin spotted Fulke as he
stepped into the light.
   

Warin placed a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder as she inhaled
sharply. “I apologize if we disturbed you, my liege.”

“What seems to be the trouble, lad?”
 

“With your permission, Hylda cares for my sister and has summoned me to
stop her.”

Suspicion narrowed Fulke’s brows. “Stop her from doing what, exactly?”

Hylda blurted, “My mistress brought a small boy with a fever to the
stream.
 
She has him in the water, your
lordship.”
 
Her eyes sparkled with tears
in the dim light.
 
“The water is nigh to
freezing.
 
Please let master Warin come,
he is the only one that can make her see reason.”

By the Saints, Fulke swore to himself. The lad’s sister must be daft.

Without pausing for his cloak, he headed for the door.
 
“Lead me to my horse.”

Hylda reached the base of the hill on foot by the time he and Warin
rode from the stables.
 

A sense of urgency gripped him as he rode slightly behind Warin.
 
The woods, dense with ancient yew and lofty
oaks ran at the base of the hill for as far as the eye could see.
 
Even by the light of the full moon, it was
dark by the tree line where Hylda waited.
   

Catching her breath, she called, “We must make haste, Master Warin.”

Reaching for Fulke’s reins, he secured both horses to a tree bough. His
breath steaming in the cold night air, he called over his shoulder, “Stay close
my liege, the woods are thick until closer to the stream.”

Picking through the heavy underbrush, Fulke followed Warin into the
near blackness, holding aside branches to keep them from snapping back at Hylda
as they made their way forward.

“We are almost there, my liege,” Warin called from somewhere up ahead.

Stumbling onward, the dark gradually gave way to moonlight spilling
across a small copse with a wide stream cutting through it.

Reaching the banked slope, Fulke stood mesmerized by the scene before
him.
 
In the light of the moon, Warin’s
sister stood waist-high in the freezing water.
 
Clad only in a thin linen chemise, she lovingly cradled a small child in
her arms.
 
Rocking him, she smoothed the
boy’s wet hair from his brow with a trembling hand.
 
With her sodden chemise clinging like a
second skin, her entire body shivered from the cold.
 

Fulke had never before witnessed such a selfless act.

Warin dashed down the bank into the water as Fulke crashed back into
the moment finding his voice. “Zounds mistress, come away,” he shouted.

About to follow Warin, Hylda’s faint words stopped him. “My mistress
cannot hear you, your lordship.”

Stumbling away from the edge of the bank, he swung around to face her.
“What did you say?”

“Mistress Reina cannot hear you.
 
She lost her hearing as a wee babe, your lordship.”

Fulke focused on the couple in the frigid water.
 
Their mouths moved as if they quarreled, yet
he could not hear a single word being spoken.

“Tell me how this is possible,” he breathed.

“She can understand what is being said by following lips.
 
Master Warin began showing her from the
moment he could speak,” Hylda replied proudly.
 

He stood transfixed a few moments longer.
 
Seeing Reina refuse to leave the water, he
slid down the bank and into the water.

Surprise registered on Reina’s face as he splashed his way towards her
and her eyes widened in alarm the moment she recognized him.

Reaching her side, Fulke gently lifted Rolfe from her arms.
 
Passing him to Warin, he said. “Take him to
his mother.”
 

“Aye my liege.” Holding Rolfe high against his chest, Warin waded for
the shore.
    

Facing Reina, Fulke paid no heed to the frigid water soaking him.

Before she could even cross her arms in modesty, he swept her up in his
arms.
 
Holding her close against him, he
turned for the bank.

His leather boots slipping in the mud, he struggled to scale the steep
incline.
 
Entering the darkness of the
trees, he protected Reina the best he could from the thick foliage.
 
Calling ahead to Warin, “Make haste lad, your
sister is nigh to freezing.”
 

Cradled in his arms, he felt Reina tremble uncontrollably.
 
Hazarding a peek down, he saw her eyes
briefly focus on him, before drifting closed.
 
Praying they were not too late, he inhaled sharply when she went limp,
her head rolling back against his arm.

Struggling with their burdens through the thick underbrush, Fulke
shouted to Hylda, “Stoke the fire in the boy's hut.”
 

Without a word or glimpse back, she hiked up her kirtle to take flight.

Fulke followed her departure as she crashed through the thick bracken,
before he lost her to the darkness.

He sprinted past Warin once they cleared the trees to the hut he had
seen Reina enter earlier in the day.
 
Bending low through the portal, he rushed inside.

Having stoked the fire, Hylda gathered blankets, alongside another
woman.
 

As Warin entered, the woman hastened to lead him to a small pallet
beside the hearth. “I shall take him, Master Warin.”
 
Gathering the boy in her arms, she stripped
off his sodden clothes before bundling him in blankets.

Fulke brought Reina to the opposite side of the now blazing hearth,
laying her down on the thin straw pallet set beside it.
 
Forsaking modesty, he knelt beside her to
grasp the hem of her chemise. Ripping it down the middle, he flung it aside as
he snatched a blanket from Hylda to cover her pale, trembling form.
 
Lifting a delicate foot, he began to chafe
warmth into her frozen toes.

He briefly looked up when Hylda knelt beside him. “See to her fingers
and pray it is not too late to save them.”

Catching Hylda’s eye as he began to caress life into Reina’s frozen
calves, he managed a wry smile. “I assure you, I am not taking liberties with
your mistress.”

“I know very well the difference between a lustful eye and a healing
one.
 
I place Reina’s life above any
modesty she would cleave to, your lordship.”

Fulke gazed at Reina as he massaged color back into her frozen
limbs.
 
With high-sculpted cheekbones,
small pert nose and full pouting lips, he found her to be the most beautiful
woman he had ever seen.

“You said she lost her voice as a babe.
 
What happened to her?”

Finished with Reina’s hands, Hylda began to unbraid her wet hair.
 
“I fear it is not a happy tale, your
lordship.
 
However, if you wish to hear
it, I feel it owed to you after your assist this night.”

“Go on,” Fulke dipped his head.

“Sir Everard and Lady Malina doted on her,” she began softly.
 
“A more contented family, none could
name.
 
She was such a small lass,” she
smiled at the recollection, “more bright eyes, than bodily form.
 
The day of the tragedy, Reina had taken her
first steps.
 
I had never before seen
them so happy.”
 
She smoothed a wayward
curl from Reina’s brow lost in thought.
 
“That eve found Reina gravely ill with a fever.
 
When it spiked, we brought her to the stream
in an attempt to cool her heated skin.
 
It was late spring and not nearly as cold as it is now. The sickness
passed through the village, striking down my Lady Malina as well. Still, she
tended Reina for two straight days without rest.
 
On the third day, Reina’s fever broke.
 
By that time, my lady had become too weak to
fight off the illness.”
 
Tears fell
freely from Hylda’s eyes.
 
“Sir Everard
sent for the priest to shrive her, yet my lady had passed before he arrived.”

“And then what happened?”
 
Fulke
pressed.

Hylda glanced over at Warin as he stacked wood beside the hearth. He
gave her a sorrowful nod as she continued. “After it became known the illness
had taken Mistress Reina’s hearing, Sir Everard all but shunned her.”
 
Hylda broke down sobbing.

She did not have to finish the story.
 
Fulke spent most of his life dealing with men like Sir Everard.
 
The nobility did not accept the weak or
infirm.

He caught his breath at the sensations that rippled through him as he
lightly caressed the side of Reina’s face with his fingertips.
 
He was not the only one to have suffered
immense loss. In a matter of days, Reina had lost her mother, her father’s
acceptance and her hearing.
 
Thrown into
a world of silence, she rose above adversity to become the determined woman
before him.

He reached over to clasp Hylda’s shoulder. “Your mistress is fortunate
to have you.”

* * * *

Reina opened her eyes, disoriented and aching all over.
 
Taking in her surroundings, she found Hylda
sobbing beside her. Struggling to rise, she drew in a breath as a large, warm
hand came to rest on her bare shoulder, gently restraining her.
 
A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold
ran through her as she quickly realized she was bare beneath the thin woolen
blanket.
 
Sinking back down, she followed
the hand up the muscular arm to its owner. Her eyes widened as she met Baron
Erlegh’s concerned gaze.
 

Stunned by his presence, she focused on the words flowing from his
chiseled lips. “Are you faring better, Mistress Reina?”

Slowly nodding, she found herself unable to look away from him. Warin
broke into her reverie by squeezing her hand.
 
“You are far too reckless, Reina,” he chided.

“Please tell me Rolfe’s fever has broken.”
 

 
“Be at ease, his skin is cool to
the touch.”
 
Shaking his head, he
grinned. “In this instance, I cannot very well take you to task for your
stubbornness.”

“I told you it would work,”
she
replied smugly. Feeling the heat of Fulke’s intense gaze, she asked,
“Why did you bring his lordship, Warin? Father is sure to be displeased
with you.”

Warin deflated at the mention of their father. “I had no choice.
 
Besides, father is displeased with everything
I do.”

“Perhaps his lordship will not speak of it,”
she ventured.

Warin briefly glanced to where Fulke sat in amazed silence, watching
them.
 
“I believe that to be so.
 
He is the finest man I have ever met.”

She squeezed his hand.
 
“It pleases me that you think so highly of him.
 
Still, I will not have you blamed for
something of my doing, Warin.”

“It shall not come to that, Reina.
 
We will return to the keep before anyone wakes.
 
If need be, I shall ask his lordship for his
discretion.”

Risking a quick peek, she blushed to see Fulke’s regard settled on her.
Feeling warm all over, she turned back to Warin.
 
“I believe him to be taken
aback.”