Lord Liar Part 19

"Anything:' She meant it. " Lord Ranulf. " Lady Vivienne began.

Ranulf suddenly let out his breath.

"Oh, very well, though I must truly be mad to even consider such a thing.

But hear me"-- he raised his voice, for Aldyth was laughing and crying at once and had clasped her arms around his knees fervently " --this is only a temporary solution, Aldyth. It will last only until I can journey home and put the fear of G.o.d--or my sword--into this Turold you've so foolishly gotten betrothed to. I'll warrant there are enough silver marks in my coffers to cause him to abandon his dream of revenge soon enough. "

"Oh, thank you, Ranulf, you won't be sorry, I swear it. I'll be an excellent page, just as good as Warin" -- "By G.o.d's toenails, one hopes you can do better than that," he drawled, the languid, fey lord suddenly taking the place of the serious, impa.s.sioned Ranulf that had been standing there a moment before.

"The pup eats more than Urse here, and pays no more attention to the proper care of my garments than would a flea--just look, I pray you, at the rent in this cloak..." He bent to show her an insignificant tear in the russet fabric.

"I'll mend it, my lord, so that you need never know it was there!"

she promised him.

"Hmm, perhaps this will work out very well," he drawled consideringiy.

"I will have Warin concentrate on the care of my horse, while your focus can be on my wardrobe. The garments a man wears are so important at court..."

"Yes, my lord."

He fingered a few strands of her shorn hair and clucked disapprovingly.

"You will start growing this out imraediately.

"Tis shorter than mine."

"Yes, my lord." How she wished she knew a magic spell so that she could comply immediately. She was ashamed at how she must look to him, like a starved sparrow. He removed his hand.

"The hour grows late, Urse, show Aldyth where she may find bedding to make up her pallet next to Warin's." He turned to Lady Vivienne.

"And now, my lady, let me walk you to your chamber and collect on that loving promise you made earlier in the hall," he said, his tone velvet and seductive.

And utterly fake, Aldyth knew, even if Lady Vivienne had not managed to wink at her behind Ranulf's back as he led her to the door. Wherever Ranulf slept tonight, it would not be in Lady Vivienne's bed.

ChaI er Ten Ranulf had known as soon as he had said the words that he was making a mistake. He should not allow his unconquered love for Aldyth to cloud his judgment and allow her to stay with him.

Prior to her coming, he had thought he had damped down, if not extinguished entirely, the smoldering flames of his unwise pa.s.sion, but as soon as he had recognized the green eyes staring defiantly at him from beneath that ridiculous cropped hair, he had known it was not so. He loved her still. He always would. His task, infinitely mor ditqcult now that she slept under the same roof as he did and ate the bread he provided, was not to let her know.

In a week's time, her presence had become the source of his greatest joy and his sorest torment. Just to see Aldyth making herself busy about his quarters--setting all to rights, fetching food from the kitchens for him when he had not had time to eat properly, mending his garments, for all the world like some freedman's honest wife--made him ache.

When he had come upon her yesterday, placing fresh sheets upon his bed, it had been all he could do not to sweep her into his arms, lay her down on the fresh linens and make her his own.

He had had to turn immediately and leave the room. How much was a flesh-and-blood man supposed to endure?

At least in the evenings there were others about, sometimes Lady Vivienne, and always Urse and Warin. But Aldyth's little brother had a way of smiling at him and Aldyth--just as if they were one happy family! That made Ranulf cross. The silly young boy! Did he think all problems were solved because Aldyth was here? G.o.d's toenails, it was a fool's paradise!

He stared at her now as she sat making use of the morning light coming through the window to add a decorative band of embroidery to one of his hunting tunics. If anyone admired it, he would pa.s.s the work off as that of his mistress, Lady Vivienne, of course.

Hearing Aldyth swear softly as her thread broke, he smiled to himself. As he watched, knowing she was concentrating and unaware of his gaze, she pushed a strand of chestnut hair away from her face and narrowed her eyes with the effort of rethreading the bone needle. He wished he had not made his disparaging remarks about her short hair. In truth, once Lady Vivienne had trimmed it a little, the style no longer looked like a serf's hacked-off locks. It gave her a uniquely ga mine look, and the wisps of hair curling about her slender nape made him feel strangely protective. Perhaps, as long as she insisted port living with him in this disguise, he had better encourage her to continue to appear a slender wall As a "boy" she could go anywhere in this licentious court with reasonable safety. Once her hair had grown back a little, though, it would be all too obvious she was no lad.

When he was not there, anyone might desire to spoil her innocence. The clanging of one metal goblet against another interrupted his thoughts.

"My lord! Will you please attend to what I'm saying?"

Lady Vivienne said in exasperation. He 109 realized she had been speaking for several moments and had purposely banged the goblets together to gain his attention. "I'm sorry, Lady Vivienne. I fear I was woolgathering.

You were saying. ? "

He saw her follow the line of his gaze, and when her eyes fell at last upon Aldyth, she began to smile.

"Indeed," she murmured.

d.a.m.n the woman! Her smile said she had some idea how his loins burned and thought it was amusing!

"I'm listening now," he snapped.

"Stop grinning like the court fool and tell me what you came to say."

But his testiness did nothing to dim her suppressed merriment.

"I.

said, Lord Cross-m-a-Baited-Bear, that I chanced to pa.s.s his grace the king as he was going to the hall and he said he desired an audience with you as soon as you could attend him. "

"He did? Good!" Anything to escape his supposed mis- tress's knowing eyes and smirking smile.

"Aldyth, I'll see you later," he remembered to add before slamming the door.

"Is your new page settling in all right?" inquired the king genially, looking up from his contemplation of a map of Normandy spread out on the table before him, its curling parchment corners anch.o.r.ed with a pot of ink, a flagon of ale, a greasy leg of capon and a wedge of cheese. "Yes, your grace,"

Ranulf replied, uneasy that the king had noted the addition of

"Edward" to his household. Rufus's pages tended to be of the fair, delicate sort, like his current squire, Perfin of Petersfield, who lounged next to the king now. Ranulf hoped the king had enough young men competing for his favor that he didn't covet his va.s.sal's new page.

"Very good, very good. Perhaps you'll choose to take him with you across the Channel when you go," Rufus said, grinning at Ranulf's evident surprise.

"Across the Channel?" Ranulf repeated.

"Yes. I've decided to have you pay a visit to the court of Normandy, to check on what my elder brother Duke Robert is about. I've heard rumors of plots. The older Norman families weren't pleased that my father gave the kingdom to me, you know. They'd be happy to see Robert with it all-- the throne of England and the Duchy of Normandy--because they can control him.

It may have to be a prolonged visit, but you'll enjoy a Christmas court in Rouen, won't you? Go and fell him you and I have had a falling-out--you know the sort of thing he'll fall for--and loiter about Rouen. See what information you can sniff out. Who's sleeping with whom, so to speak," Rufus concluded with a sn.i.g.g.e.r.

Ranulf nodded, pretending to be intrigued with the role of traitor he was being ordered to a.s.sume.

"How soon do you wish me to leave, your grace?" he asked, his mind racing ahead. It was a G.o.dsend. He would inform Aldyth she was not going, of course. Though it might take some doing, he could arrange for her to stay somewhere safe, even if it meant placing her back with the clerks in the chapel royal. Before he left he could begin the process, through his church contacts, of canceling Aldyth's betrothal contract. But the advantage of being sent away right now was that with the Channel between himself and Aldyth, at least for a time, he could somehow find the strength to give her up. He could not ask her to wait for him for G.o.d knew how long.

"You're ... you're going to Normandy? Without me?" she said an hour later as they took the midday meal in Ranulf's 111 outer chamber. Her lower lip quivered and she looked away, but not before he had seen tears well up in the jade eyes. "Of course without you. It's too dangerous to even consider.

There are even more scoundrels and Scapegraces about Duke Robert's court, and the road from the coast is rife with brigands. "