A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick Read Free Book Online Page A

and calmed her soul. To be a nun, to wear Christ’s ring on her finger, that would be a fine thing.
    Followed by Edith, her maid, she returned reluctantly to the world outside and allowed the waiting groom to help her up on to the pillion position of his cob while Edith mounted her donkey. The sky was threatening rain and a chill wind blustered across the Downs, whipping her veil about her face like the wings of a bird. Shivering, Aline huddled inside her cloak for the journey.
    As the cob plodded through the timber gateway of the manor house, Aline noticed the fine palfreys tethered by the trough and her stomach leaped. As far as she knew, they were not expecting guests, and she didn’t recognise any of the horses.
    The two smartly equipped serjeants standing with the beasts saluted her and Edith as they rode past. Once into the courtyard proper, Aline allowed the groom to lift her down from the cob, brushed pale horse hairs from her gown, and hurried into the hall. Then she stopped in her tracks, her limbs suddenly gelatinous, for John FitzGilbert was standing by the fire talking to her mother. Her heart began to pound. She wondered if she could escape to the upper chamber without him seeing her, but even as she hatched the thought, he looked up and trapped her in the straight intensity of his stare.
    Her mother’s tone was gentle but peremptory. ‘Aline, come here, child. Your guardian is here to pay his respects and see that we have everything we need.’
    Swallowing on panic, Aline advanced to the hearth and, keeping her gaze on the tiles around the firepit, dropped a deep curtsey. ‘My lord,’ she whispered, before her throat closed.
    She felt her arm taken in a firm grip, drawing her to her feet, and then a finger beneath her chin, tilting her face towards the light from the unshuttered window. ‘Aline,’ he said.
    She raised her lids, met his gaze and felt it burn her. It took every iota of her will to hold her ground but she stiffened her spine and clutched the comforting smoothness of the prayer beads he had given her.
    He lowered his hand and gestured. ‘I see you have the gift I sent to you.’
    ‘Yes, my lord,’ she answered in a high, strained voice.
    ‘She treasures them,’ her mother intervened again. ‘They are never off her person.’
    He walked to the window and looked out, arms folded.
    Pale with anxiety, Aline glanced at her mother. The older woman shook her head and made a calming gesture.
    John turned round and gave the sigh of a man reaching a decision. ‘I am of a mind to make a marriage of this wardship and join the Pipard lands to my own. If your daughter is willing, then I desire to make a formal betrothal.’
    Aline gasped, feeling as if she had been punched in the solar plexus.
    ‘My lord, forgive us, this is sudden,’ Cecily said.
    Through her shock, Aline saw his lips curve in a grim half-smile. ‘Not that sudden. You have known of the possibility for more than two years. Nevertheless, I am prepared to wait a while longer and give you time to adjust.’ Returning to the women, he took Aline’s hand. ‘Are you willing?’
    Aline swallowed and darted a frantic look at her mother. Was she willing? The latter made a shooing gesture behind John’s back and nodded. ‘Y . . . yes, my lord, you do me great honour,’ Aline said. There was no other possible answer. When she wasn’t dreaming about being a nun, her thoughts were both pleasured and troubled by images of this man who had arrived out of nowhere and was now proposing to make her his wife.
    ‘Then I am content.’ He raised her captured hand to his lips and kissed her fingers in the manner of a courtier. ‘Do you go and dress in your finest and I will give you a ring and a vow to go with it.’ He released her, but Aline stayed where she was, rooted by shock.
    ‘Go to, child.’ Her mother stepped forward and propelled her towards the stairs. ‘My lord Marshal will think you a lackwit!’
    Aline managed another