Page 1 of Forbidden: Claude

Chapter 1

Port of Sandwich, England 1294

Claude Jean Montague returned to England only to have his heart broken once again.

Love hurt. Claude learned this at the young age of five and ten years when he had his heart broken the first time by Lady Rose of Sandwich. Daughter of Baron Conlin de Braose of the Cinque Ports, Rose had shown kindness to Claude when he and his mother first arrived in Hastings from France, eight years ago. It had been during a trying time in Claude’s life because that was when he first met his father. He had hoped to one day marry the girl, but she had eyes for her father’s squire, Toft, instead.

Had Claude known he was about to walk right back into the hardships of the past and that it would bring all those old feelings rising to the surface again, he never would have agreed to make the trip to England to celebrate his younger sister’s birthday.

Having sailed to Sandwich from France where he’d been living for the past six years, Claude had plenty of time to think about the girl he once loved. But Rose was married to someone else now, he reminded himself. She wouldn’t feel the same way about him that he felt for her. This fact was hard to accept.

“Mon Seigneur, nous approchons les quais de Sandwich,” Claude’s squire so generously pointed out they had approached the docks. Claude didn’t speak his native language much anymore. Even though he’d returned to his homeland of France when he inherited his late grandfather’s castle and demesne, he felt like more of an Englishman than French after finding out that Baron John Montague of Hastings was his father.

“Oui,” Claude answered. “Felix, it would be better if we spoke in English while we are on English soil,” he pointed out. “My father is not fond of the French language.”

“Aye, my lord,” said Felix.

Claude’s eyes fixated on Briarbeck Castle in the distance as the ship sailed into the harbor. Rose would be there with her husband, Toft. His heart sped up. He longed to see her but dreaded it at the same time. Confusion welled within him. The flame of love still burned in his heart for Lady Rose, inhibiting him to take a wife even though he was already three and twenty years of age. Rose didn’t see him in the same light. She considered them naught but friends. Her love was only for her husband, Toft.

The ship docked, and Claude made his way to the boarding plank to disembark.

“The docks are crowded today, my lord,” said his squire, carrying Claude’s travel bag over his shoulder as they headed down the pier. Sandwich was a major port of trade and one of the Cinque Ports along with New Romney, Dover, Hastings, and Hythe. Claude’s father was the Baron of the Cinque Ports of Hastings, but he resided in Winchelsea now that Hastings was too silted up for ships to dock. A storm eight years ago ruined the harbor, and took many lives as well as dumped half of Castle Hastings into the sea. His father had a hard time coming to terms with the fact he had lost his prestigious castle to an act of God.

Heartbreak was no stranger to Claude’s family. Claude’s sad and lonesome childhood and his mother’s stories of watching her mother burn at the stake were things that haunted him yet. He wished he could forget them forever.

“Do you see your mother?” asked Felix, stepping around two dockworkers hauling a trunk from a nearby ship. Fishermen carried poles and bait buckets, loading them onto their small vessels that bobbed up and down in the waves. Ships of all sizes filled the harbor, flying the flags of nobles and even foreign lords that arrived there for trade.

The slips closest to the dock held the smaller fishing vessels and flat-bottomed cogs that could sail right up to the docks to unload. The larger trade ships that needed deeper water so as not to be marooned, anchored further out and the occupants took shuttle boats to the pier.

“Nay, I don’t see her,” said Claude, scanning the pier and the many people that ranged from sailors, fishermen, and nobles, to dockworkers and even beggars. A baker carrying a tray over his head sold loaves of brown bread. An old alewife followed in his steps with her husband, pushing a cart with buckets of ale, a ladle, and some wooden cups. A lame man sat on the edge of the pier begging, talking with a fishmonger who kept busy shucking a bucket of oysters.

The sounds and smells of the sea and the salty summer breeze filled Claude’s nostrils bringing back memories of the first time he visited England. He was a skinny, insecure, and angry boy back then. He had changed much in the past eight years, and his father was to thank. John Montague took Claude as his squire and trained him for two years before Claude decided he could no longer stay in England. He’d continued his training in France with his mentors and advisors while ruling over his new demesne at Stonebury Castle.

Claude was a knight now, not just a scared boy. Would Rose notice? And would she even care?

In the distance, he saw his father’s ship, The Poseidon, docked next to Lord Conlin’s ship, Lady Bellacose. Lord Nicholas Vaughn’s ship, The WindStorm, was there as well. His father was a good friend to the other Barons of the Cinque Ports, being very close with Lord Conlin de Braose of Sandwich and Lord Nicholas Vaughn of New Romney. Claude missed these men as well as their families. They had been kind to him and his mother and accepted them with open arms. He felt an ache in his chest and wondered now if he’d been wrong in staying away so long.

“Father’s ship is docked, so my family must be here already,” Claude told Felix.

“Did you ever discover why your parents wanted you to come to Sandwich instead of meeting with them in Winchelsea?” asked the squire.

“Nay. The missive didn’t say, although I suppose it has something to do with my sister Charlotte’s birthday. My father is a close friend of Baron Sandwich as well as Baron Romney. Perhaps they are throwing a celebration here because Briarbeck Castle has the most space.”

“Claude, Claude!” shouted a woman from the crowd.

Claude turned his head to see his mother waving her hand over her head. It had been nearly six months now since his mother last visited him in France with Claude’s sister, Charlotte, and his Uncle Lucio. Since Claude refused to return to England, his mother came back to France to visit at least twice a year.

Claude’s father, John, stood next to her with little Charlotte perched like a bird on his shoulders.

“Brother,” he heard Charlotte call out, clapping her hands and smiling. The little girl was so excited to see him that she tried to stand up and almost fell.

“John, put Charlotte down. That is no way to treat a young lady,” said Claude’s mother, Celestine.

Claude smiled as he approached them. He missed this type of banter since his isolated life without a father had been very quiet, indeed.

“Charlotte is going to get hurt,” Celestine continued.

“Wife, you worry too much,” grumbled Claude’s father, leaning over and giving his wife a peck on the cheek. “Besides, Charlotte wanted to watch for Claude.”