Page 91 of Wed By Proxy

“They’ll surrender shortly, you see if they don’t.” said Piers, nodding his head. “Cos we’ve got something they don’t. A hostage,” he said, glancing furtively at Mathilde.

“She’s not a hostage, you dunderhead,” sighed Willard.

“What is she then?” asked Gordon.

Will shot a look at Mathilde. “She’s the hero,” he said simply.

XXXX

Guy stared across at the man who had forced him to sign the marriage contract four years ago. Oswald Vawdrey looked just the same. One untrustworthy bastard. The whole day was starting to take on the properties of a nightmare, unreal and bizarre, with the same underlying feeling of dread that one experienced in the throes of one.

The entire ride home, he had been dogged with unnamed fears and a terrible sense of foreboding. He would never forget his feelings on returning to Acton March, when asking for his wife, and Firmin, ashen-faced had presented him instead with a royal summons. Please gods let her be returned to me. He asked for nothing else. He cared about nothing else. Not anymore.

Vawdrey led him to a green-striped tent and bade his men to wait outside. Once they were alone he had turned to him and asked coolly, “Give me one reason why I should allow you to take her back.”

Guy glared at him. “Who the hells do you think you are Vawdrey?” He seethed. “To stand between a man and his wife?”

“You seem to forget,” Oswald said mildly. “That it was I gave her to you in the first place.”

“In name only!” Guy fired up.

“True… She gave herself to you in person, and found herself rejected.”

“That’s a damn lie!”

“Indeed?” Oswald’s eyebrows rose. “And yet, I have heard,” he continued with infuriating calm. “That you withheld the protection of your name. That she was known as your mistress at Acton March, and kept in a separate household to your own.”

Guy’s face flamed. “I— That was only at the first,” he protested, feeling winded. “I never meant for that to continue.”

“You intended to wait and see if she would catch for a child, before bestowing your name on her?” asked Oswald with interest.

“No!”

“Apparently she is not with child,” carried on Oswald as if he had not heard his objection. “So, you may be easy on that score.”

Guy ground his teeth. “It makes not one whit of difference to my wanting her return.”

Oswald shrugged. “Doubtless you are ill-suited in any case. I should never have matched with you with such a shy little mouse. She would only need to see you roar once and would scuttle back to her home.”

“This is her home!” Guy burst out. “And she’s no mouse,” he added bitterly. “She’s heard my roar a hundred times without so much as turning a hair.”

“I confess, I have heard some very strange tales from this neck of the words,” Oswald murmured. “But in truth, a good number of them sound most unlikely. Especially about so meek and timid a woman.”

Guy snorted. “None of you know the first thing about her nature.”

“Until the day she ran away to be with you, she had never done a bold thing in all the years I’ve known her.”

Guy thought of Robin’s words about Mathilde never having been permitted to live her own life. He remembered Mathilde saying she had barely met either of her previous husbands. Oswald was quiet for a moment.

“What if I said I could get the king to sign a divorce, quietly and painlessly, granting your freedom from this dissatisfactory wife of yours?”

Only the fact Vawdrey had acknowledged the fact Mathilde was his lawful wife kept Guy calm. “I would not take it,” he ground out furiously. “Not for a thousand gold coins. Not for ten thousand. Not for all the gold in Karadok.”

Oswald gave a thin smile of amusement. “Indeed?” he said. “But I have heard you northerners prize gold and a strong sword arm above all things.”

“Not all things,” Guy said, not trusting himself to say more for the moment. “Not this northerner.”

“Not more than a loyal wife?” asked Oswald quietly.