Desired (64 page)

“Why should I?” she teased, lifting herself then plunging down.

“Because I’m bigger than you,” he gasped.

“Mmmm, so I’ve noticed. Quite majestic, in fact. But you will have to learn to obey me upon occasion.”

“Why should I?” He gave her back her own playful words.

“Because I am older than you!”

Edward began to laugh. He was such a seasoned warrior, he felt old enough to be her sire. Yet she spoke the truth. She was the elder and had bossed him unmercifully when she was ten and he a fledgling nine-year-old. “Mmm, you have improved considerably with age.”

They spent the next two hours deciding who would take precedence in their love play. The final score was three to two in Edward’s favor and, of course, that was exactly the way Joan wanted it. As she lay in his arms, soft with surfeit, she became serious.

“Edward, please don’t tell anyone of your plan to marry me, until we get the dispensation.”

“Sweetheart, I shall not allow anyone to prevent me taking you as my wife, not this time.”

Joan knew the power of kings and queens. “Please, Edward?”

“I shall bow to your wishes. But only because you are older than me, and mayhap wiser in some things,” he added, brushing his lips against her temple.

Because of his age and the destructive effects of the disease he had just barely survived, Warrick was extremely weak. It was a condition he was totally unused to, so Brianna talked with him as she sat painstakingly printing her story and illustrating it with vivid sketches.

He lay propped against a bolster, watching her with his aquamarine eyes.

“I know it must be hard to speak of your son Robert. Indeed, it has been a difficult adjustment for me also, but I would like you to confirm something for me if you would, my lord.”

“Call me Guy. What is it you wish to know?”

“I have given it much thought and my heart tells me that Christian did not kill Robert. It was Prince Edward, wasn’t it?”

Guy de Beauchamp nodded. “Robert conspired to put Lionel on the throne. Christian and Edward exchanged armor because young Randal Grey overheard the plot to kill the heir to the throne in the hastilude. But my son and I gave the king our word that we would remain silent. The king and I have much in common. Cursed by one son, blessed by another.”

“I won’t betray your confidence, Guy. Not even to Christian. I am ashamed to admit it, but at one point I thought Christian murdered his brother so he could inherit your title and castles.”

“His mother and I were legally wed. He would have been my heir, even had Robert lived. Christian doesn’t need my castles. He is a prince in his own right.”

Brianna smiled. “Prince Drakkar.” She savored it on her tongue. “How did you meet your princess?”

His eyes took on a distant look as his mind recalled the past. “My grandfather went on Crusade with Edward the First. We owned much land near Acre. My father made many visits there to administer our active commerce between East and West. By the time I was grown, most of our holdings in the East had been taken back and the Knights Templar of Acre forced underground.

“I went to salvage what I could of our commercial enterprises. I met Sharon at the summer palace of her father, Ottoman. Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea was a magical city of gilded domes and minarets. In my youthful imagination it resembled the Kingdom of Heaven and there I met an angel.

“The attraction was instantaneous. She was exotic as an orchid, imperious too. I gave my heart into her keeping forever. What she saw in me, I’ll never know. Perhaps I was different. A Norman knight stuck out like a sore thumb in Arabia. Being madly in love stole all my reason. She would not yield to me outside of marriage, so being an impetuous fool, I wed her. It was all done in the strictest secrecy. If
we’d been found out, both of us would likely have been put to death.

“I smuggled her aboard my ship late at night and sailed on the morning tide. You can perhaps imagine my loss when I discovered she had left the ship in the night.”

He fell back against his pillows, still bereft after all these years. Brianna knew she must say something to lighten his mood.

She decided to shave him, and as she held the razor to his cheek she laughed softly. “Guy de Beauchamp, you have no idea how afraid I was of you only a year ago.”

His eyes sought and held hers.

“Do you recall when you approached me to marry into the House of Beauchamp?”

Warrick nodded. The golden-haired beauty had taken his breath away.

“I thought you were asking me to become your wife.”

The Mad Hound gave a bark of laughter. A grin slowly spread across his face and his aquamarine eyes glittered like jewels. “And what would your answer have been?”

“It would have been
yes!
” Brianna’s eyes sparkled with mischief. She would not spoil her answer by telling him she was too softhearted to refuse him.

T
he king and Council and Prince Edward came to consult with Warrick about the terms to be set out in the peace treaty between the French and the English. Since his pride would not allow him to receive them while he was in bed, Brianna and Glynis bathed and dressed him in his finest surcoat and helped him to a great carved chair, padded with cordovan leather.

The king and his nobles thrashed out which territories they wanted and which they were willing to concede. They argued back and forth about ransom money and debated the length of time the peace treaty would be in effect. From
an open balcony above, Brianna heard them deciding their future and hers.

The Black Prince was determined to gain sovereignty over as much of southern France as possible. By listening to him, she suspected that he must have sworn a holy vow to restore all the territory that his ancestors, King John and his son, King Henry III, had lost over the last hundred and fifty years.

The single most important issue to the king was that they retain Calais. It had been the hardest won and the king’s pride would not allow him to give it back to the French.

Warrick was most concerned with the size of the ransom. He suggested ten times the amount first mentioned and was adamant against all arguments that the French could not raise such vast amounts. Brianna knew that Warrick was not an avaricious man, but rather, he was practical. He knew the Plantagenets spent money on a lavish scale with no concern if the treasury was rich or penniless. The laws of chivalry, to say nothing of Plantagenet pride, dictated that the King of England entertain the King of France in an extravagant manner, and Warrick wisely decided that the French should more or less pay for it.

Lastly, they discussed the length of the peace treaty. This was the thing that most concerned Brianna. When they decided to sue for a term of seven years, she was overjoyed!

Hawksblood’s absence was taking its toll on Brianna. It was hard to keep hope alive. In her heart of hearts, she knew where he had gone and doubt was beginning to raise its ugly head about his return. How foolish and fanciful she had been to think him immortal. He was a flesh-and-blood man, susceptible to all the dangers of this world … accident, disease … temptation.

Brianna’s hand went protectively to her womb. What if she was carrying Christian’s child, as she now suspected? Should she pray that it was so, or go on her knees to beg that she would not have a fatherless child? Her heart gave her the answer. She fiercely wanted this baby more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. This was the only way that Christian Hawksblood could be immortalized!

Brianna wiped away a tear and smiled. She counted the months on her fingers and concluded that if indeed she was
with child, it would arrive before her next birthday, which fell on July 15.

Brianna played endless games of chess and tables with her recuperating father-in-law. She knew he enjoyed her company immensely, and truth to tell, she enjoyed his too. On the outside, he was tough as boiled owl, but underneath he had a warm and tender heart and Brianna knew he suffered from loneliness. He was reluctant to see her move back to her own house, but all his excuses for keeping her at his side were exhausted now that he had regained his full vigor.

When Brianna arrived home, she discovered that Adele had acquired a tiny kitten. It was a ball of fluff she called Muffie. Gnasher chased it immediately and they all had a good laugh when it turned to spit savagely at the cheeky ferret, who immediately sat back on its haunches to bob up and down in the most amusing fashion.

It had been a long time since the four young women had been able to enjoy each other’s company, so Brianna decided they should dine in the flower-filled garden beside the fountain. It was September and all the bounties of autumn graced their table. Quinces, pears, apricots, plums, and pomegranates sat beside a dish of figs, dates, and nuts.

Glynis licked a sticky date and lamented, “It has been weeks since the army came home. I cannot understand why Lord Christian and Ali have not returned.”

Joan sat with a pin, daintily picking the exotic red seeds from a pomegranate. “They should be home any day. They have only gone to Avignon.” They could see Joan was bursting to tell them something, so they gave her their undivided attention.

“Christian has gone to the Pope to get a dispensation for Prince Edward and me to marry. But please don’t tell anyone. I know there will be many voices raised against us marrying, once the secret is out.”

“Because you are second cousins?” Adele asked.

“No. Queen Philippa thinks me a shameless hussy because I was betrothed to two men at the same time, and now that I’m suddenly a desirable widow, and have a string of suitors falling over themselves in the Banqueting Hall
every night, she thinks me promiscuous. Edward seethes with impatience, but he has promised me that he will keep our secret until we get the dispensation. I’ve told him he has no reason to be jealous. These men are only after my money.”

The other girls laughed at her. There had been, and always would be, considerably more to tempt men than Joan of Kent’s fortune!

“They have had time to go to Avignon and back five times over,” Glynis worried. “Avignon is close to the Mediterranean Port of Marseilles, where it is rumored fifteen thousand have died of the black plague.”

Brianna bit into a ripe plum, pushing back the rising tide of panic that threatened to drown her. When Christian had come to her rescue in her darkest hour, removing all the threatening clouds from her horizon, she felt certain she was done with doubting her Arabian Knight forever. Now, she thought perhaps Fate had a hard lesson in store for her. She was about to be punished for all her sins. Life was life, not a fairy tale! She had married a prince, but the chance that she would live happily ever after was almost nonexistent.

Brianna thought about the book she was making, and came to a poignant decision. She would give it a happy ending, for even if Christian never read it, his child might. “They will return, Glynis, cast all doubt from your heart.”

Adele hoped Brianna’s faith was justified. It seemed most odd that Hawksblood had not chosen to return. A dispensation could take months and common sense dictated that Hawksblood would simply petition the Pope, not wait about for months until it was granted. She too had begun to fear that they might never see Hawksblood and his squire again. Of course, so long as Brianna had hope in her heart, she did not wish to destroy it.

Eventually, Glynis packed away her newly sewn wedding gown along with her hopes. She had done everything to speed Ali’s return, from casting spells to making a sacrifice to an ancient pagan goddess of Wales. Adele began to see a connection between Hawksblood’s absence and the disappearance of Lisette St. Lô. To Adele, it was too much of a coincidence that both were missing at the same time. Brianna
was not blind to the pitying looks she received from everyone, including her friend Joan.

Edward had received a dispatch from Hawksblood informing him that he had delivered the petition for the dispensation and that he would be absent from Bordeaux for some time on his own pressing business. Edward had confided this to Joan, but she was loathe to give such information to Brianna. For what could possibly be more important to Christian de Beauchamp than returning to his wife?

Brianna had received her own dispatch telling her he would be absent for some time. He gave no explanation or details but she was content because he had closed with the words:
Trust in me always
.

The peace treaty was finally drawn up and signed. King Edward abandoned his claim to the throne of France and gave up all the northern territories they had conquered in return for confirmed sovereignty over Angoumois, Bigorre, Gascony, Guienne, Guisnes, Limousin, Poitou, Ponthieu, Rouergue, and Saintonge, which collectively the Plantagenets renamed Aquitaine. It went without saying that King Edward also received Calais. In addition, the French agreed to pay three million gold crowns in six yearly payments as ransom for their king, dauphin, and nobles.

The King of England decided to turn Aquitaine over to Prince Edward along with all power of government in the French provinces. When the prince confided the good news to Joan, she had some good news of her own to impart. They had been playing a game of dalliance in Brianna’s pool, away from the prying eyes of the Royal Court, but Joan wanted to wait until they were in bed before she shared her precious secret with Edward.