Secret Thunder Part 8

"Do you need anything?" he asked solicitously. "Something to drink?"

"I need the truth," she said grimly. "Tell me the truth."

"Of course." He tried to sit up, but clenched his teeth and fell back onto the pallet. "The truth about what?"

"Your brother's plans. Has he spoken to you about ending this marriage? Is that why you mentioned annulment?"

Alex's expression sobered. "My brother is not without his faults, but he'd never enter into a marriage under false pretenses. He's an honorable man. Surely you can sense that."

She could. Despite his reputation and his fierce manner, Luke de Perigueux struck her as a man with scruples, the kind of man who wouldn't lower himself to such underhanded scheming. But why, then, was he disinclined to consummate their marriage?

Faithe prided herself on her ability to identify a problem and implement a solution, something she did a dozen times a day as part of her management of Hauekleah. What was this but one more problem to be solved? All that was needed was to a.n.a.lyze the situation dispa.s.sionately and formulate a strategy to deal with it.

She solved problems all the time. She was good at it. She could solve this one.

Alex smiled. "How ridiculous to think Luke would want to end a marriage to someone with a smile like yours. Whatever put the thought in your head?"

Scrambling for a response, she said, "I just thought perhaps he might choose to return to soldiering, once he's gotten a taste of farm life. And then he might pet.i.tion for an annulment, rather than be burdened with Hauekleah."

"I can't see him ever considering Hauekleah a burden," Alex said.

Wait until he's seen how much work goes into farming, Faithe thought with a mental smirk. Sir Luke wanted Hauekleah very much-right now. But, like Thorgeirr, he would likely change his mind once he saw what he'd gotten into.

"Moreover," Alex continued, "annulments can't be had just for the asking. There have to be grounds."

Faithe rose and stirred the fire with a poker. From the corner of her eye she saw Alex regarding her with a speculative expression. She'd said too much; she could almost hear him adding up the pieces.

But when he spoke, all he said was, "Luke means to make Hauekleah his home. He has no intention of returning to soldiering. I will, of course, once I'm recovered enough to handle a broadsword."

"That could take all summer," she said.

"If you're willing to have me underfoot for that long, I think I'd rather enjoy it."

"I'd love to have you, but are you sure you won't be bored here?"

His gaze lit on something out of Faithe's range of vision. She turned to see Lynette-she recognized her by the two braids-corning through the front door with a flask of ale and a bowl of porridge. "Leola told me you were awake," she said as she crossed to Alex and knelt at his side with a coy smile. "Some breakfast will help you get your strength back."

Alex met Faithe's gaze, antic.i.p.ation sparking in his eyes. "Somehow, I don't think boredom will be a problem."

"Master Orrik's coming up the road!" called a red-haired boy from the doorway of Hauekleah Hall. Luke looked up from the bread and watered ale with which he was breaking his fast. "He's got a new cart!" the boy added excitedly.

Luke stood up from the table. "Where is Lady Faithe?" he asked the boy. She'd been absent from the hall when he'd awakened.

"In Middeltun, sire."

"Middeltun? Is that some town near here?"

Alex, propped up in a chair enjoying a shave by one of his twins, chuckled indulgently. "Don't know Hauekleah very well, do you? Middeltun is Faithe's demesne field-as opposed to the village's fields. It's the one she cultivates herself."

"They give their fields names?"

"So it seems." Alex tilted his chin up so that the wench attending to him could sc.r.a.pe the razor over his throat. How he would have laughed if he'd seen Luke wrest that knife out of Lady Faithe's hand two days ago.

The buxom wench took Alex's face between her hands and gently altered the position of his head, cooing praise for his patience. The bondman called Firdolf, breakfasting at the other end of the hall, stared at the girl with great hound-eyes and glowered at Alex. If Luke's brother was aware of the young man's rabid jealousy, he gave no sign of it. Most likely he knew that, even in his wounded condition, he would triumph in a fair fight. Firdolf was big and young and brawny, but he moved a little too slowly and looked a little too harmless to be counted a threat.

"Can't you shave yourself?" Luke asked his brother.

Alex grinned as the wench planted a soft kiss on his forehead before proceeding with her work; Firdolf rose abruptly and stalked sluggishly from the hall. "Why would I want to?"

Why indeed? "How come you to know so much about Hauekleah?" Luke asked.

"She told me. We talk." Alex laughed. "Oh, don't look so sour, brother. I'm not trying to steal your wife out from under you."

"How rea.s.suring," Luke said wryly.

"'Twould be easy enough if I put my mind to it, though. Neglected brides are generally ripe for the picking." He tilted his head; the young woman ran the razor over his soapy cheek, dipped it in a bowl of water, and repeated the process.

"Neglected?" Luke couldn't believe she would have spoken to his brother about last night.

Alex shrugged elaborately. "I only meant it's the morning after your wedding, and you seem to have lost track of her already. A newly married couple ought not to emerge from the bedchamber till nones, and then they ought to need help walking."

"Thank you for your opinion," Luke ground out, wishing his brother weren't quite so artlessly perceptive. He had no desire to share with anyone, even Alex, his ambivalence about bedding his bride.

"Shall I fetch Lady Faithe, milord?" the boy asked.

"Aye."

He raced out the door. Luke followed at an unhurried pace, squinting at the dazzling sunlight that greeted him when he emerged from Hauekleah Hall. He strolled through the gate of the stone wall that enclosed the house and peered down the road to watch the approach of a horse-drawn wooden cart with two oversize wheels. It was too far away for him to make out the driver. A flash of movement to his left caught Luke's attention; he watched the red-haired boy dart through a stand of trees by the side of the road.

Luke traced the boy's path through the trees. Beyond them he discovered an enormous, plowed field nestled in the crook of the river that curved through Hauekleah. Men and women dotted the field, broadcasting seed with great sweeps of their arms. To the east, beyond the river, sheep grazed in a pasture surrounded by rolling open meadows. The meadowland, punctuated by woodland patches and a network of rivulets, was a deep, saturated green, the cloudless sky an unearthly blue.

The sight literally stole Luke's breath. Not since his childhood in the Aquitaine countryside had he seen earth and sky meet in such jewel-toned splendor. Warm breezes caressed him, ruffling his unbound hair. He breathed deeply, filling his lungs with the perfume of his boyhood-fertile earth, spring gra.s.ses, a whiff of manure...and an underlying fruitiness. Scanning the landscape, he spied it, to the north on the opposite bank of the river-a vineyard planted in orderly rows. Now he truly felt as if he had come home.

One of the field workers-a woman, backlit by the morning sun-was walking toward him across the field, accompanied by a child. Only when Luke saw the child's bright head did he realize that this was the red-haired boy-and that the woman with him must be Lady Faithe.

She wore a broad-brimmed, conical straw hat over loose hair, and the same ankle-revealing kirtle that she'd had on when he met her. To his astonishment he saw that her feet were bare. Snugged up against her hip was a curved basket half filled with grain and secured by a leather strap looped over one shoulder.

"You were sowing grain?" he asked her incredulously.

She smiled, as if amused by his astonishment. "Winter wheat. The first planting goes in right after the spring crops are sown."

"Of all the sorts of work for you to be doing..." he began.

"Work is work," she said carelessly. "'Tis all the same to me."

"Evidently."

"Sowing wheat is relaxing."

"Relaxing!"

He gazed over her shoulder at the field workers, each with a basket like hers, dispersing the sparkling grain in practiced arcs. A little girl scampered around a big open sack on the ground, scaring the crows away with a stick.

"It is relaxing," she said. "With other ch.o.r.es, I must always be thinking about what I'm doing. But with seeding, I get into a rhythm, and then my mind is free to venture elsewhere. I like to do it when I have things to think about, or problems to solve."

She ducked her head to fiddle with the strap on the basket, but not before he saw her face stain pink. Had she revealed more than she had intended? Was she thinking about last night? Had he, with his reluctance to consummate this marriage, been reduced to one of her problems to be solved?

"Your bailiff has returned," Luke said shortly.

"Orrik?" Lady Faithe looked up, instantly animated. She untied the hat and removed it, then lifted the strap of the basket over her head and handed it to the boy.

"Look, milady!" The boy pointed to the sky behind them. Luke and Lady Faithe shielded their eyes to peer overhead. "Three of 'em! That's your lucky sign, isn't it?"

"So it is," murmured Lady Faithe, her attention riveted on the three majestic hawks soaring in elegant circles over the field. Luke admired the ease with which she switched back and forth between French with him and English with the boy.

"What kind are they?" he asked, thinking he might take up hawking if he could raise the proper breeds.

"I can't tell from this distance," she said, still staring skyward. "There are so many different types around here. This region is known for them. That's how Hauekleah got its name. It means meadow of the hawks."

Luke's gaze shifted from the hawks to his wife, craning her neck, her eyes translucent in the morning sun, smiling with unabashed pleasure. G.o.d, she was beautiful-not in the way he'd come to a.s.sociate with n.o.ble ladies. Her clothes were absurd, her hair untidy, as usual. And that hat! Yet, standing here with the verdant grandeur of her fields and pastures behind her, she looked so right, so perfect-a creature entirely in communion with her world.

It was a rare and precious world, a community intimately linked to the seasons, whose entire reason for being was to coax sustenance from the land. This woman's link to this land, Luke realized, had taken centuries to forge. No wonder she was so covetous of Hauekleah, so willing to offer herself as the spoils of war if only she could keep it.

"Good things will happen for you now, milady," the boy announced gravely. "You've seen your lucky sign."

"Yes, well..." She ruffled his gleaming hair, then pointed to the seed basket. "Dump that back in the sack, Alfrith. Then help Cwen with the crows."

The boy's shoulders slumped in an exaggerated display of disappointment; clearly, crow duty was not his favorite ch.o.r.e.

"And at terce," she said, "you and Cwen may go to the kitchen and finish the rest of the hazelnut crumble from yest-"

"Oh, milady, thank you!" Alfrith raced toward the field with sudden determination. "I'll do a good job with the crows, I promise you."

"I'm sure you will." Chuckling, she turned and gestured for Luke to follow her back through the trees. "Come. I'll introduce you to Orrik."

The road was empty. "He must be coming to the back of the house," she said. Luke accompanied her back up the road and through the front gate of Hauekleah Hall. But instead of going inside, she led him around the side of the house, across a lawn planted with shade trees.

He couldn't help thinking what a strange pair they made. With her light-footed gait and her big, silly hat swinging to and fro in her hand, Lady Faithe looked the very image of pastoral innocence. Whereas Luke... he looked like what he was. An invader. An interloper. The black insect on the honey cake.

"You won't be able to speak your language with Orrik," she told him as they rounded the back of the house and proceeded up a flagstone walk through a kitchen garden that took up most of the walled croft. "He reads and writes Latin, but he refuses to learn French. He understands a little if it's spoken clearly, but he insists he'll never speak it himself."

"Eventually I'll expect all of Hauekleah's villeins to speak it-at least, those who answer directly to me."

She bristled slightly, but made no response. Past the garden, built up against the stone enclosure at the back of the croft, stood a cl.u.s.ter of small thatched structures. "The two in the right-hand corner are the storehouses," said Lady Faithe, pointing. "Vance is being held in the smaller one."

The flagstone walk terminated at a gate in the back of the stone wall; beyond it, he saw chickens pecking in the dirt. "There's a privy back there," she said, which he was glad to hear; he didn't care for chamber pots, and the woods were a bit far away for convenience. "Also the poultry house, barn, and stable."

The chickens shrieked and scattered in a panic. First one harnessed horse, and then another, came into view, followed by the cart, driven by a brawny man in a short, hooded cloak. The cart paused just outside the gate, and the man jumped down to swing it open.

"Isn't it rather early in the morning for him to be returning from such a distance?" Luke asked as they neared the gate.

"He probably spent the night with... a friend of his, down the road."

"A lady friend, I a.s.sume." These Saxons were the randiest people he'd ever met.

Faithe half smiled. "The Widow Aefentid. She has an inn on the other side of the woods."

By the time they got to the gate, a small crowd had gathered around the cart, but they moved aside to let Luke and Faithe pa.s.s. Lady Faithe walked up to the driver, who was unlatching and lowering the vehicle's leather-hinged back. "That's a fine cart, Orrik," she said.

Orrik lowered his hood as he turned toward her. "I thank you, my-" His expression turned grim when he noticed Luke.

He was older than Luke had antic.i.p.ated, probably close to sixty, but with the solid build of a much younger man. He wore his silver gray hair twisted into a knot at his nape, and, like nearly all Saxon men, a beard-although, unlike most, his was neatly trimmed. His eyebrows were jet slashes over eyes that glowed like new steel against his tanned face. Luke knew immediately that this was not a man to dismiss lightly.

Orrik spared Luke only the most cursory glance. "So that's him, then." He spat into the dirt, then hauled a large key out of the cart and set it on the ground. Turning, he grabbed two small sacks. "I got those nails, and a hundred tallow candles. Got a good price on the quicklime and the tar. The salt was a bit dear, though."

Lady Faithe took a step toward her bailiff. "Orrik..."

"They tell me you already married the evil, murderous, stinking son of a-"

"Orrik!" Faithe shot a quick, wary look toward Luke and said, "He understands English."

Orrik c.o.c.ked an eyebrow in Luke's direction and continued unloading his supplies.

"And we did get married," Faithe said, gripping her straw hat in her fists, "so he's my husband now, and lord of Hauekleah, so you mustn't say such things."

"I take back 'stinking.'" Orrik hauled out a bolt of brown wool and another of green and laid them on top of the keg. "He has no odor at all that I can discern. Doesn't seem quite natural. As far as I know, the rest still applies."

"Orrik, please."

"Nay, my lady," Luke said in English, keeping his voice level. "Let him talk. I like to know who I'm dealing with."

Orrik met Luke's gaze squarely for the first time. "You're dealing... my lord... with a man who saw firsthand what you bloodthirsty butchers did at Hastings. I saw hundreds-hundreds-of Englishmen mown down by your unG.o.dly crossbows."

"I was at Hastings, too," Luke said. "'Twas a battle, not a ma.s.sacre. Both sides fought n.o.bly."

"n.o.bly? You haven't heard what your William did to our king, then, after he'd been blinded by an arrow in the eye."

"I've heard it, but I don't believe it. All battles produce such tales."

"Granted," Orrik said, his voice soft with menace. "But in this case the tale is true, for I was among the men making that last stand with King Harold, and I saw it all from my ditch." The bystanders fell into silence. "'Twas dusk when they rode up, your William and three of his men. They drew their swords, and all I could do was hold my tongue and watch, or they would have slain me, too. First William stabbed Harold in the chest, then the rest went to work on him. One cut his belly open and pulled out his innards, while another hacked off his head. The third man cut off his..." Orrik glanced at Lady Faithe. "Another part of him. And wrapped it up and tucked it in his saddlebag, for what purpose I can't begin to imagine." He drew in an unsteady breath, his face washed of color, clearly shaken by the memory.

Dear G.o.d, Luke thought, he's telling the truth. And the worst of it was, Luke wasn't even surprised. Although a natural leader, William had never struck him as a man of honor. Now he knew his instinct had been correct.

"Harold was a great king," Orrik said. "Strong and just and even-tempered. And that's the way your n.o.ble William chose to end his life." Spitting on the ground again, he wheeled around and hefted a stack of slate. "Justify that, if you can."

"I can't," Luke said. "Nor can I justify most of what I've seen during my years of soldiering-nor most of what I've done, for that matter."