The Iron Knight (The De Russe Legacy Book 3) (23 page)

Juno’s features stiffened. “He is a rude knight,” she said. “He does not seem to understand what is expected of me here at Spelthorne. He is supposed to obey my commands just as he would obey Lord Tytherington, but he would not do it. I will make sure Lord Tytherington knows.”

Emmaline didn’t want Colton to be punished but she also didn’t want to let on that she had a full-blown obsession with the man. She wasn’t sure how Juno or Aricia would take it, especially now that Juno was wishing hate upon the knight. It might make her hated, too, and she didn’t want to ruin this new friendship so soon. Colton wasn’t anything to her and she wasn’t anything to him, so she wasn’t willing to jeopardize her budding relationship with Juno. Quietly, she cleared her throat.

“Until you are married to Sir Lucien, I do not believe his knights have to obey your commands,” she said hesitantly. “But Sir Colton was just doing as he’d been commanded. He would be in for a great deal of trouble if he let you back into the hall when Sir Lucien told him to take you away from it. Moreover, why would you want to go back in there where there was all of that blood? I thought it made you ill.”

Juno looked at her with uncertainty, realizing that she was probably correct for the most part. “It does,” she said. “But I still should have been there. Instead, your mother had to tend my father’s injury. It should have been me.”

Emmaline shook her head, baffled. “But you said it makes you ill to see blood!”

Juno was ashamed. “I know,” she said. “But… well, Lord Tytherington will think me foolish and weak now. Those are not good qualities in a wife.”

Emmaline waved her off. “He more than likely does not even care,” she said, although she really wasn’t certain. Her gaze lingered on Juno for a moment because the girl seemed so torn and nervous. “Do… do you
really
want to marry him, Juno?”

Juno looked at her, sharply, showing that it was a tremendously invasive question. But she quickly backed off, returning to her ashamed and subdued demeanor. “He is a great man,” she said. “It would be an honor for any woman to be his wife.”

It was a practiced answer, as if she had rehearsed it. As if someone had
made
her rehearse it. Emmaline looked at Aricia, who gazed back at her with some doubt. There was definitely doubt in the girl’s eyes.

“You can tell her the truth,” Aricia said to her cousin, quietly. “She will not tell anyone.”

Emmaline shook her head, looking to Juno. “Of course I will not tell anyone,” she insisted. “You do not wish to marry him?”

Juno sighed heavily, looking at her hands. “Well….”

“
Tell
her,” Aricia pushed.

Juno didn’t say anything. She continued to stare at her hands. Finally, it was Aricia who spoke because Juno seemed unable to.

“It is no reflection against Lord Tytherington, but my cousin does not wish to marry him,” she said quietly.

Emmaline looked at Aricia, most curious about her statement. “But why?”

Aricia’s blue eyes softened. “Because she loves a young knight who served her father,” she said sadly. “He is a good man from a good family but they are not wealthy. They do not have connections. My uncle knows this, which is why he pushed so hard for the betrothal between Lord Tytherington and Juno. He cares not for her feelings. He only wants to make a wealthy marriage for his daughter.”

Emmaline was greatly disturbed by the story. She looked at Juno again. “Is this true?” she asked. “You love another man?”

Juno nodded faintly. “When my father found out, he dismissed Reid from his service,” she said quietly, tears forming in her eyes. “My brother was kind enough to send him to friends of his, the House of Wellesbourne, but the fact remains that… that….”

She turned red in the face and Emmaline looked at her, very puzzled. “What
is
it?”

Aricia couldn’t stand it any longer. “She is pregnant with Reid’s child,” she hissed. “My uncle knows this. That is why he is pushing this marriage – he wants Lord Tytherington to marry her quickly so he will believe the child to be his.”

Emmaline gasped, a hand flying to her mouth in shock. “Sweet Mary!” she gasped. “Is
that
why he wants you to marry Sir Lucien?”

Juno nodded, a stray tear falling from her face and onto her lap. “The betrothal with Lord Tytherington was already in the process, months ago,” she said. “The more I told my father that I did not wish to marry anyone other than Reid, the more adamant he became that I must marry well. Reid’s family is honorable but modest, you see, and my father does not want that. You see… we have lost most of our wealth, too. My father sees a marriage with Sir Lucien as a way to gain financial resources.”

Emmaline was still horribly shocked at the truth. “Then he only wants it for the money!”

“Aye.”

“But… but the pregnancy?”

Juno lifted her head, looking at Emmaline without a shred of regret. “Reid and I love one another deeply,” she said. “I thought the fact that we have consummated that love would force my father to abandon his quest to find me a wealthy husband, but it did not. It only pushed him into demanding such a thing immediately. He wants Lord Tytherington to believe the child is his.”

Emmaline couldn’t possibly feel worse for her new friend as she did now. It was a horrible, heartbreaking story, not only for Juno but for Lucien as well. Holderness was trying to trick the man into raising a child that was not his.

“Your pregnancy cannot be very far along,” she said. “You do not have a rounded belly.”

Juno shook her head. “A month or mayhap a little more, at the most,” she said. “It is still very early.”

“And it was very difficult traveling all of these miles here to Spelthorne,” Aricia said, her sympathetic gaze on her cousin. “She has not been feeling well at all but my uncle has no care for her. It does not matter to him if she is ill or not.”

Emmaline was overwhelmed with horror and sorrow for the situation. “Your brother came here with you, did he not?” she asked. “Does he know of your condition?”

Juno nodded. “He does.”

“And he sides with your father?”

“Nay, he does not. But, like me, he has little choice in the matter. Laurent has been very kind and considerate to me.”

Emmaline was truly saddened by everything. Reaching out, she grasped Juno’s hand because she didn’t know what else to say. It seemed that they were all caught up in the game of marriage betrothals and politics, one way or another – her mother with du Ponte and Juno with Lucien. As the three ladies sat on the bed, pondering the devastating situation, there was a soft knock on the chamber door. Aricia went to answer it.

Sophina stood in the doorway, smiling pleasantly at the young ladies inside, and the girls seemed to sit up and take notice. They didn’t want to appear as if they had been in deep conversation with something quite shocking.

“Good eve, ladies,” Sophina said. Her gaze moved to Emmaline. “I came to find you, young miss. It is time to retire for the night. Bid your friends a fair evening now. We will see them on the morrow.”

Juno lowered her head and wiped quickly at her eyes as Emmaline went to greet her mother. If her mother happened to see Juno weeping, she didn’t want the woman asking questions, so she said the first thing that came to mind.

“Did you really spank Sir Lucien’s daughter?” she asked.

Sophina’s smile vanished. “Who told you such things?”

Emmaline gave her a mother a wry expression. “I
heard
you,” she said. “Did Sir Lucien give you permission to spank her for striking the earl?”

Sophina gave her daughter a long look, reaching out to grasp her hand. “That is none of your affair,” she said. “Come along, Em. Bid your friends a good sleep.”

Emmaline would not be dragged away so easily. Before Juno’s revelation, she had been waiting to see her mother or, more specifically, for her mother to see to Aricia. She hadn’t forgotten about their conversation earlier where Aricia had showed her the terrible state of her skin. All thoughts of pregnancies and forced marriages aside, she pulled her mother into the chamber.

“Wait,” she said. “Mama, I have been telling Lady Aricia what a great healer you are. Can you spare a few moments before we retire? It is important.”

Sophina wasn’t as patient as she normally was. She was weary from an extraordinarily eventful day and having just come from her battle with Susanna, she was weary. She wanted to go to sleep. But the soft plea from her daughter naturally had her complying. She was never one to refuse help to anyone, no matter how exhausted she was.

“Of course,” she said steadily, looking to the young woman with the veil across her face. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Aricia stood there, twisting her hands nervously, and didn’t say a word. Truthfully, she was embarrassed and unsure. Emmaline stepped in to take charge when she saw that Aricia couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

“Aricia has a skin condition, Mama,” she said as she led her mother over to the girl. “She said that the Thruxton physic tried to help her but that it made it worse. That is why she wears these beautiful veils, to hide her skin. Can you look at it to see if you can help her?”

Sophina was the least bit curious now. Her gaze on Aricia was calm and reassuring. “Will you remove your veil so that I may look, my lady?” she asked politely.

Aricia was horribly embarrassed. No one but Juno had really seen her face as of late, so to show it to women she had just met, no matter how kind they were, rattled her. She was so very uncomfortable. But she liked Emmaline and she liked what she knew of Emmaline’s mother. Having no real older female figure in her life, it was easy to latch on to someone respectable and kind. Still, it was difficult to lower her guard, so with the greatest hesitation, she reached up to unfasten one end of the veil. Carefully, she lowered it, averting her gaze as she did so. She didn’t want to see the disgust in their eyes when they looked at her skin.

But there was no disgust to be had, only great curiosity in the best sense of the word. It was curious concern as Sophina got her first look at Aricia’s angry skin. The young woman’s forehead was filled with red bumps but her entire face, both cheeks, chin, and neck, were literally full of terrible red lumps, rashes, and pustules. She was very pale-featured, very plain, with a long jaw and a dimpled chin. Sophina peered closely at it for a brief moment before motioning towards the bed.

“Sit,” she commanded softly. “I must get a closer look. Em, will you and Lady Juno please bring candles? I will need light.”

Emmaline and Juno scattered, hunting down tapers in the small chamber. Juno collected a tall bank of tapers that was near the table in the room while Emmaline took the taper next to the bed. They brought them over, leaning the tapers near so they shone brightly in Aricia’s face.

Meanwhile, Sophina was getting a very close look at Aricia’s jaw and chin and something occurred to her – the girl had a beard. In fact, she had a beard all the way under her chin and down her skinny neck. It wasn’t thick, but it was definitely a beard that had been covered up by the veil so it wouldn’t have been noticeable at all. But the more Sophina looked at it, the more the obvious occurred to her.

Aricia wasn’t a girl at all.

Her neck had a bulge in the middle of it, the same bulge that men had once they went from being a boy to a man, and Sophina glanced at Aricia’s long, firm fingers. They were a man’s fingers. It was very puzzling and rather astonishing revelation, but Sophina wasn’t apt to say anything about it.

If Aricia wanted to pretend to be a girl, there must be a reason behind it – fear, sickness, or even a preference. Perhaps she simply liked the way girls dressed. In any case, it wasn’t Sophina’s business. She’d lived long enough to know that there were many different kinds of people in the world. Aricia had proven herself to be a very kind and generous person, so what she wanted to do with her life, or more correctly his life, was of no concern to Sophina. The world was full of wonderful and unusual people.

“May I see your chest?” she asked gently. “I would like to see how much of your skin is affected, if I may.”

Reluctantly, Aricia pulled back the top of her surcoat, showing the top portion of her chest and all of her shoulders. Sophina checked her neck and back, noticing more red bumps but not nearly as bad as what was on her face. But as she inspected, it was becoming abundantly clear that Aricia was male – a patch of faint, white hair on her chest and then more patches of fine hair on her back. She had no breasts at all and her build, as Sophina was looking at her from the rear, was sinewy and very slender. Unlike most girls, who at least had some feminine lines to their body, Aricia had none.

Still, Sophina said nothing. She went back to inspecting Aricia’s face, focusing on the task at hand and not her suspicions. She thought that she could, indeed, help her.

“My mother was a healer,” she told Aricia. “When I was younger, my skin would flare just a little and my mother would have me eat fish if it was available, accompanied by apple cider vinegar. I know it sounds strange, but she said that we must make sure our insides are working well and that would help the outside. For my skin, she would make a mask of honey and cinnamon to ease the redness and then she would also make a potion from honey and clotted milk to wash my face. It helped a great deal. I will ask Sir Lucien if I may procure these ingredients for you and you must cleanse your face every morning with honey and cinnamon, and then every night with honey and clotted milk. Once you have done that, then you will rinse your face with vinegar made from apples. Are you willing to do this?”

Aricia nodded eagerly. “And you think it can help?”

Sophina nodded. “I believe it might,” she said. “But watch what you eat, as well. Fish and fowl are preferable to beef and mutton. Try to eat green vegetables. No cheese. See if that helps make a change in your skin. By my mother’s advice, those things helped me, so it is worth a try.”

Aricia was awed by Sophina’s suggestions, her face glowing with gratitude. She nearly broke down in tears. “The physic at Thruxton told me that it was sin that caused my skin issue,” she said. “He also said it was bad humors in my body. He even bled me a few times but it did not help. It simply made me ill. He said… he said that God was punishing me.”