Lara burst into sobs
“It’s not that bad, isit?”Sophie asked.“Captain Guiscard is a good man, and a goodlover, I’m guessing.”
Lara nodded, then laughed and snortedthrough her tears.Not that she had anyone to compare hislovemaking with, but good didn’t even begin to describe what she’dfelt with him.
Sophie cackled.“That’s what Ithought.”
“But, Tante, it was youwho warned me to stay out of his bed.Who told me not to get mybelly fat with his bastard.”
“He would marryyou.”
“You’ve heard him.”Larasniffed.“He has no intention of marrying me or anyone.Nointention of siring any brats.Besides, a man can’t marry when he’sdead.”
Sophie said nothing.What was there tosay?
“Tante?”Lara asked, hervoice just above a whisper.“Was it worth it?Loving a man, only tolose him?”
Sophie gave a sad smile.“My husbandand I were still getting to know each other as man and wife when hewas taken from me.But Orlando I loved as fully as any woman everloved a man, and he loved me.Though we only had five yearstogether, I don’t regret a single moment of them.”
“Yet you grieve for himstill, over twenty years later.”
“I do.Though I thought Idid a better job at hiding it.”
“Would you do it again?Would you let yourself love Orlando knowing you’d be grieving himlonger than you loved him?”
“I would,” Sophie answeredwithout hesitation.“I did.I knew he was a soldier, that soldiersdie in battle in numbers that devastate entire provinces.”Shepatted Lara’s hand.“You’re wrong about one very important thingthough.”She smiled and her lips trembled.“I haven’t been grievingeither of them longer than I loved them, for I love them still andwill until my dying day.”
***
Talon
Talon drank enough wine to keep hisbackside down on his seat in the common room after supper but notso much that his wits were dulled.He was spared having to interactwith Nithard at least, who kept Charles in near constantconversation.Ravenna sat surprisingly quiet beside her father,listening to the king with the reverence of a nun in church.Herbrother sat off in a corner, whispering back and forth with Fulrad,whose cousin, the king, had discharged him from the army andTalon’s care.
“I go to my wife on thesouthern shore of the Garonne where she and our twin sons awaitme,” Charles told the company.“The main army will winter inAuxerre, and since you’re so comfortably garrisoned here atCrossroads Keep, Captain, you will stay and keep these borderssecure until I muster the army, when you will help me secure theSaxon borders.”
Not sure if he’d been given a reprieveor a lengthening of his sentence, Talon held his cup up.“I accept,my liege.”
By the studied mask of indifferenceplastered on Nithard’s face and the sneer on Ranulf’s, it was easyto see they were less than pleased by the company’s continuedposting in the province.After lifting his cup to Nithard and thenRanulf, Talon drank deeply, then grinned and wiped his mouth withhis sleeve before slamming his empty cup down.
Ranulf lifted his cup to Talon anddidn’t drink a drop: an insult not missed by many seated around thehearth fire, certainly not by Talon, who let the insult go, fornow.
“See,” he said to Charles,who had watched it all.“See how politic I can be whenneeded?”
“I do see, Captain.”Charles steepled his fingers.“Very politic indeed.”
“And now, my liege.”Taloneased to his feet on unsteady legs.“I need to seek my bed, for mybrain is fogged from too much drink and too littlesleep.”
“Go, find your bed, myfriend.”Charles waved him off.“Go dream of long-legged wildcatswith pelts of fire and eyes of green and gold.Perhaps tonight’sdecisions will help bring her closer to you.”
Talon was sure Charles meant well,giving him more time here, and he wanted that time.He wanted tomake love to Lara again, to make her his.But would she let him?And if she did, what would become of her after he left?He stood athis full height and sucked in a deep breath to clear some of thedrink from his mind.Once he was gone from here, there wouldn’t bemuch he could do for Lara, but he could do something for hernow.
“Before I retire for thenight,” he announced in a voice that commanded everyone’sattention, “I have determined thelidi, Lara, has fulfilled her fullwergeld.As of tomorrow, she will be a freewoman, beholden tonone.”The last he spoke directly to Nithard, then he turned toCharles.“As you have released your cousin from his military duty,I assume you will agree to this.”
Charles didn’t bat an eyelash.“Theking declares it to be so.”
Talon took the stairs to his chamber,all too aware that Lara wouldn’t be there pretending to sleep, thatif she didn’t return sometime tonight, she’d likely never be inthere again.He was losing her already, yet his loss was temperedby knowing he’d done what was right.
In his chamber, Talon stripped down tohis breechcloth and plopped down on the bed.He closed his eyeswith a bone-weary groan, expecting the sweet oblivion of sleep toovertake him, but a host of sights and sounds haunted him: hismother, her cheeks tear-streaked, her face ashen as she bade himgood-bye; the copper scent of the blood that couldn’t be staunched;his father’s wracking sobs, his brothers’, his own; the wails ofthe newborn babe whose birth had killed his mother.He lay in hisbed praying never to hear Willem or Wyatt cry like that, that bothPatience and her babe survived the grueling process of birth, thatLara wouldn’t have to say good-bye to her friend so soon afterPlutarch.He lay there in a half-drunken, half-dreaming stupor whenhe realized someone was knocking at his chamber’s door.Once he’drolled off the bed and found his feet, he opened the door, and asmall, dark-headed woman darted beneath his arm into theroom.
