The Border Lord and the Lady by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online Page B

that you sought my love. Have I not been a good husband to you? A competent lover?” he demanded.
    “I thought it would be enough,” Luciana answered him slowly, “but I find it is not enough for me now. I suppose it is my warm nature that makes it so.”
    “I am sorry then that I must disappoint you,” the earl told his wife. “But we need not be enemies, madam.” Nay, they would not be enemies, yet he could never forgive her for the cruel way she had treated his daughter, would continue to treat Cicely. With a polite bow he turned and left her.
    “Does he hate me?” the countess asked Donna Clara.
    “Nay,” the older woman replied. “But had you made the slightest effort towards little Lady Cicely, had you shown her even a modicum of kindness, my lady, you might have gained his love. The love he had for his daughter’s mother was one born of familiarity, longevity, and kinship. They had much in common because they were raised together. Do you not recall your brother Gio’s first love was your cousin Theresa?”

    “He outgrew her,” Luciana said.
    Donna Clara shook her head in the negative. “Nay, he did not. He would have willingly wed her had your father and hers allowed it. But they would not because each family needed a wealthier mate for their child. Your husband was not as practical a man. He was ready to wed his lover. Only her death prevented it, and then he did what he should have done in the first place: He sought an heiress bride. He might have given you his love had you accepted his daughter. I warned you, my lady, after little Carlo was born, to relent and bring Lady Cicely into the house, but you would not. Now the earl’s patience is at an end. ’Tis you who have driven him to it.”
    “I do not care,” Luciana said irritably. “I do not need his love. I am his wife. I am the Countess of Leighton.” Then a calculating light came into her eyes. “I shall give him a daughter too! When he has another daughter, Donna Clara, he will not think so much on this one. And she will be gone from Leighton.”
    Donna Clara did not argue with her mistress. She doubted another daughter would change the earl’s attitude towards his wife. Oh, he would love the child, for he was a good man, but he would not love her mistress. “You are worn with birthing your three sons in so short a time, cara, ” the older woman said. “You must rebuild your strength, for if you are to have a daughter you will want her to be strong and healthy, as your sons are.”
    The countess nodded. “Aye, I do want a healthy daughter. You must continue to give me that strengthening drink you prepare each day for me.”
    “I will, my lady. You may be sure that I will,” Donna Clara promised her mistress. And as long as Luciana drank the potion there would be no more children, but of course the Countess of Leighton did not know it. And if her mistress convinced her husband to have another child Donna Clara would cease adding her special ingredient to the mixture. She was relieved that the earl had taken her advice and was
fostering his daughter out, for her mistress, she firmly believed, would not have let the matter go.
    On the following morning Orva came early to the hall and sought out Bingham, the steward. Bingham was filled with gossip. “The earl fought so loudly with her yesterday that you could have heard them in the next village,” the steward informed Orva. “It was about our little lady.” He reached into his pocket and drew out a ring of keys. “These are for you. What’s going on?”
    “Come with me to the storerooms, and I’ll tell you,” Orva said, and he followed her eagerly. “He has decided it will be safer for Lady Cicely to be fostered by another family,” Orva began. “And I’m to go with her!”
    “Lady Cicely is being sent from Leighton?” Bingham was surprised. “So the countess has had her way in the matter.”
    “My lord does it for his daughter, not for the countess,” Orva said