faced Tricky. “Please accept my apologies, Lord Reginald, for my maid’s interference—”
“Nay! ’Twas no fault of hers. She but responded to a missive I sent when I did not see you at supper last evening.” His smile was gentle and friendly. “I merely missed your presence and wished to have the opportunity to walk with you in the garden betimes.”
Disconcert flitted through her, and Madelyne did not know where to look—anywhere but into the warm, searching blue eyes. “Lord Reginald, I—”
“Forgive me, lady, but you are finished with your novena? I should have asked you first—I have no wish to disturb your prayers.”
She allowed a small smile at his concern. “Aye, I have made my petitions many times…whether they will be heard begs yet to be known.” Her smile faded, and she felt for the prayer beads that hung from the kirtle around her waist.
“Surely you are hungry. Your maid appeared to be much concerned about your lengthy absence, bewailing that you had not broken your fast.” Now he took her arm again, and pulled it into the warmth of his elbow. “Please, let me help you to find something to eat.”
“My thanks, Lord Reginald, but in truth, I have no wish for food. I fast today.”
“And my thanks to you, D’Orrais, as well.”
The deep voice coming from the shadows of the chapel caused Madelyne’s heart to surge into her throat, where it settled, thumping with fervor. “Gav—Lord Mal Verne,” she said, turning toward him, pulling her hand again from Lord Reginald’s arm.
Mal Verne came forward, and she saw from his stony face that he was angered. When he spoke, however, his words were simple and even. “I do thank you, D’Orrais,” he said again, “for seeing to Lady Madelyne’s safety. ’Though she is under the protection of the king—and myself—” he spared a quick, meaningful glance at her, “she appears to need some direction to cease wandering through the keep of her own volition.”
Lord Reginald nodded his blond head briefly, glancing at Madelyne as though to assure himself it was permissible to leave her with Gavin. “I didn’t know that the king had a special interest in Lady Madelyne.”
Gavin’s eyes were steady and cold. “Aye, the king and myself have great interest in her well-being…and, as well, there are other parties who have interest only in her non-well-being. I thus warn you that she will be well- guarded until such time as a permanent protector is chosen for her.”
Now, he turned to look fully at Madelyne and his words were for her. “Have you finished your prayers, my lady? If not, I beg that you will complete them in the privacy and safety of your chamber. Come with me.” Gavin did not wait for her assent. He grasped her wrist—albeit gently—and she had no choice but to allow him to direct her to the place he wished her to go.
That place was outside of the chapel, outside where the sun blazed down and serfs, knights, tradesmen, and pages hurried about their business in the large bailey of Whitehall. Madelyne blinked rapidly as her eyes watered, adjusting to the brightness. She stumbled as Gavin gently pulled her across the trampled ground. He didn’t stop, nor did he speak to her—or to anyone else—until they re-entered the keep. He guided her along the halls until they reached a private alcove, where he gestured for her to take a seat.
“Surely you did not mean to seek me out in the chapel, and interrupt my prayers to bring me here?” Madelyne asked, sitting on a wooden bench. A tapestry hung on the wall above her head, depicting King Henry’s coat of arms.
“Nay, I didn’t know you were in the chapel. Foolish woman. Again that you should be unprotected so soon after your father’s attack upon you yesterday. Until I received word from Clem that you had been gone since last eventide, and that your maid had sent D’Orrais in search of you, I didn’t realize you’d gone missing.” His face had hardened with annoyance. He appeared prepared to continue, but Madelyne thought it timely to interrupt before any passersby might hear his angry words.
“I do not fear harm when in a chapel, and in the presence of God,” she told him, smoothing her skirt, noticing the dirt that stained where she’d knelt in the sacristy. “Aside of that, and more practically, the priest was present during my entire stay, leaving just before Lord Reginald arrived. Surely you do not believe I would be that foolish, Lord Gavin?”
“I’m relieved to learn that you weren’t alone,” Gavin replied. “But I must reiterate again that it is not safe for you to wander about alone, or to be alone anywhere in this court. Even in a holy place. Your father is here— unbeknownst to the king—and he is a dangerous and desperate man. I cannot continue to protect you if you do not take care.”
Madelyne looked directly into his eyes. “I have seen the king, he has taken from me my freedom and my desire to devote my life to God, and thus you no longer have reason to have concern for my person, Lord Mal Verne.”
“I have been instructed to find you a husband, my lady,” Gavin told her in a harsh voice.
Madelyne’s gaze flashed to his face at this announcement, but he wasn’t looking at her. “You are to choose my husband?” she echoed. “What special talent have you that you should be thus privileged?”
“The king has ordered it of me—-that is the talent that I have,” he responded, his words softer now, and his gaze returning to her face. “Until then, I will keep you safe—and help you find your way and comfort here at court, now that you, as you have so aptly described, lost your freedom.” He thrust a hand into his thick hair, yanking his fingers viciously through so that it stood wildly about his head, making him look even more formidable. His annoyance seemed to evaporate with this gesture, and his next words gentled. “My lady, for the loss of your freedom and the disruption of your vows, I am truly sorry. ’Twas never my intention to place you in such a position.”
She considered him for a moment.
To her surprise, she was not angry. Nay, she’d come to accept it—and him—after this night of prayer and day of fasting. Nay, she was no longer angry with him. But disappointed, sad, and disconcerted—and frustrated with the futility of her position and the loss of her freedom.
“I accept your apology, Lord Mal Verne. Yet my acceptance is with the knowledge that, though you regret my inconvenience, if you had the choice to make again, you would make the same decision.” He began to speak, and she raised a slim white hand to stop him. “Prithee. ’Tis the man you are, Gavin, and there is naught I or anyone could do to alter that.”
“And what kind of man is that?” he snapped.
“A man of honor, of right, of vengeance…and, aye, of blood… That is the kind of man you are. And the man you will ever be. Just as I,” she sighed, and looked down at her trembling fingers, “…I will ever be a daughter of madness, of despair, and one destined to seek peace and serenity—all the while fighting to keep those selfsame tendencies from my blood.”
“Madelyne… ” He reached for her, then his hand dropped. “Aye. You have the right of it, my lady. You may not be schooled in the ways of politics or court, but you are a woman far too wise in the ways of men.”
Sixteen
“The blood of madness runs in her veins, say they.”
“She wishes only to take her vows and live cloistered for the rest of her life. What man would take to wive such a woman?”
“The lady must be as comely as a horse to desire only solitude!”
The catty tongues had already begun to wag, thought Judith as she sat demurely in the queen’s solar. Her relaxed posture and benign expression belied the anger and disgust that seethed within her at the nastiness abounding. She had not expected anything different, of course, knowing that many of the ladies of Eleanor’s court were self-centered and vain, but their words served to spark her own indignation.
Before she could decide whether it would be detrimental to Madelyne to speak in her favor so soon, the door to the large, open chamber swung inward, allowing entry to a young page and the source of the raging gossip.
Judith, who had deliberately chosen to arrive prior to Madelyne instead of escorting her there, sat on a hassock near the queen, surrounded by some of Eleanor’s favored ladies. Looking about the solar, she saw it as Madelyne must see it, entering this world for the first time: ladies dressed in bright colors, settled in groups about
