‘No!’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Gilbert was only doing his duty by me. As was Brunhilde.’
‘I might have known that your maid would be involved as well.’ Hugh stood with his arms folded, glaring at her.
‘They have nothing to do with it, Hugh.’
‘Of course not,’ he said sardonically. ‘Anyone else?’
‘No.’
‘Tell me.’ He watched her as she gulped and looked away. ‘I want the truth now, Eleanor.’
‘Only Father Thomas,’ she whispered.
‘The Tallany priest?’ He muttered an oath under his breath as he shook his head in disbelief.
‘You must understand, Hugh, that none of them are involved in the way you believe. They’re like family to me and were only doing my bidding,’ she said, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. ‘It was only ever me. Just me.’
‘Your concern for them does you credit,’ he said, leaning with his back against the wall, watching her in bed, still naked under the coverlet. ‘But don’t you see that you have put Tallany itself in danger with your involvement with the outlaws? Everything you have toiled so hard for?’
‘Some risks are worth taking, Hugh. They must be taken.’ She pulled the coverlet higher up to her neck and lifted her head.
‘At what cost, my lady?’ His lips compressed into a thin line. ‘At the risk of losing everything? What the hell do you think would have happened once you were caught?’
‘I did everything not to be.’
‘Yet that was always a possibility once we had married, Eleanor, and you’re shrewd enough to know that.’
‘I know, but sometimes in life there are no other choices.’
‘Oh, there are always choices, Eleanor,’ he said with a scowl. ‘You chose to meet with your steward and go down that tunnel. You chose to meet with that damned outlaw Le Renard. You chose all of it and you chose it willingly.’
‘It wasn’t like that...’
‘Oh? And what am I mistaken in? You lied, Eleanor.’ He raked his eyes over her. ‘From the very beginning you lied and worked with the outlaws against me.’
‘But that was...that was before I knew you,’ she muttered.
He laughed mirthlessly. ‘What difference did that make? Did you cease your duplicity once you got to know me, oh, so well?’ He shook his head. ‘No, you damn well did not.’
‘As I said, some risks are worth taking,’ she said, tilting her chin in the air. ‘They must be taken since they’re more important than anything and anyone. More important even than you and I.’
He stared at her blankly. ‘What a heartfelt speech. And whilst we debate the reasons that have made you lie, cheat and steal to aid a known criminal—an outlaw, for the love of God—there is a very real decision for me to take.’
‘What...what is that?’
‘What am I to do with you, Eleanor?’ he asked. ‘Do I look the other way, or do I hand you over to the King? Have you any idea what they will do to your pretty little neck?’ he said, frowning.
Her hands shook as she instinctively curled them around her neck. ‘No,’ she said, as she straightened her spine in an attempt at bravery. ‘But you must do what your conscience tells you.’
Hugh noticed her bottom lip wobble, making him want to take her back into his arms, but he couldn’t. He must resist the urge to go to her and make everything right between them.
Damn, he couldn’t be so weak-willed.
‘I will, my lady. I will. Tell me, though, was anything about you real? Was anything we shared real?’
She gasped. ‘Hugh, how can you say that? Especially after what we just shared on this bed.’
‘Easily. It’s not as though either of us wanted this marriage.’
She balked. ‘Yes, but haven’t things changed since then?’
‘I believed so—I thought so... But not any more.’
Hugh watched Eleanor’s eyes fill with unshed tears that she wiped away absently and he winced. He had never wanted any of it to unfold like this. He hated this—hated feeling like this and hated causing her pain. She’d had enough of that in her life...
‘At least allow me to explain about The Fox,’ she whispered, breaking the silence.
Hugh flicked his eyes at her. ‘I don’t want to know anything about your friendship with him,’ he said in a low voice, his lip curling in distaste. The thought of the outlaw and his wife, even as friends, made his blood boil. He clenched and unclenched his fists and turned his back on her. ‘What can you say, Eleanor, about an outlaw you betrayed me for and upon whose head there is a fair price?’
‘But you don’t understand—’
‘No, I don’t believe you understand, my lady.’ He moved towards her and lifted her chin, looking into her sad eyes. ‘I too want to do right by Tallany—but not by breaking my allegiance to the King and not by breaking the law.’
‘It was and is the only way, Hugh.’
‘Is that so, my lady?’ He expelled a shaky breath and watched her for a moment. ‘Eleanor, you have no idea about what you’ve done. You have wounded me more than you’ll ever know. More than I ever thought possible.’
He walked away and picked up his sword belt, tied it around his waist before walking to the door.
‘Hugh,’ she called out. ‘What will you do?’
He stood rigid, staring at the door. ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know.’
Chapter Seventeen
Eleanor sat on a wooden bench overlooking the herb garden, close to her lodgings at the back of the castle. The gardens were cleverly partitioned by evergreen hedges to separate the medicinal herbs from those of the culinary variety, which were potted and planted closer to the kitchens beyond.
She watched from a distance as kitchen staff intermittently ventured out from the building to take cuttings of the herbs that were needed for their cooking. And even from where she was sitting she could smell the delicious aromas drifting from the kitchens. Not that she could eat a thing. No, but it was good to watch everyday life unfold and carry on as normal. It was
