The Faithful Heart by Merry Farmer Read Free Book Online Page B

No one would know.
Something told him the woman would be game. But no, he still had
faith that someday soon he would zip down to Coventry and scoop
Madeline out of the convent.
    “Oy, what’s your name anyhow?” he chattered
to keep his mind on the straight and narrow.
    “Lydia,” the woman answered.
    “And what’s your sister’s name? Maybe I know
her. It’s not Alice, is it?”
    “Alice?” Lydia laughed, “Oh no. It was
Constance.”
    “Constance,” Jack repeated. “What’s she do at
Kedleridge?”
    “Nothing.” Her shrug rubbed him in all the
right wrong ways. “She’s dead now.”
    “Oh. Sorry about that.” He squirmed in his
saddle. They turned a corner and a patch of sunlight where the road
left the forest beckoned to him. He nudged his horse to walk
faster.
    “Actually, my lord, I’ve come to see if I
might take her place in your household.”
    The itch of temptation was met by the
uncertainty of how one went about hiring or replacing staff. “Uh,
yeah, maybe you could. What’d your sister do?”
    “Many things, my lord,” she hummed, “Many
things.”
     
    Madeline spun in front of the mirror Aubrey
had brought into her room, puzzling over the way her figure looked
in the green velvet kirtle Joanna had found for her. She smoothed
her hands over the soft fabric at her sides and over her hips.
    “It’s just so odd,” she frowned.
    Aubrey laughed. “How can it possibly be odd
to look like a woman?”
    “I never have before,” Madeline shrugged in
reply. “Hassocks are meant to cover earthly things so that the mind
and heart can focus on God.” She turned the other way, frowning at
the rise of her breasts and pulling the under-dress higher to
conceal more.
    “Stop fussing.” Aubrey stood from the bed and
came over to swat her hands. “You look beautiful.”
    “Hardly.” She patted the netting over her
cropped hair. It didn’t do much to hide the boyish cut.
    “Nonsense,” Aubrey huffed and took Madeline’s
hand. “You’re beautiful and I am quite sure at least one young man
I know will think so too.”
    Madeline’s cheeks flushed and a quiver shot
through her gut to her toes. “You said that Jack was at the
castle?” She let Aubrey lead her out the door and down the
stairs.
    “He … he had an errand to run. But I’m sure
he’ll be back soon.”
    The castle was buzzing with activity, even on
the top floors of the High Tower. As Aubrey had explained, nobles
had come from miles around to bend Crispin’s ear now that he was
Earl of Derby, especially since the emissary from London was there.
The castle was overstuffed with lords and ladies in rich brocades
and velvets, walking the halls with their heads held high, ordering
the castle’s servants this way and that. Madeline was certain she
looked more like a servant than the grand ladies they passed even
in the velvet.
    “I can’t stand a one of them,” Aubrey
whispered to her when they reached the main hall and cut towards
the castle’s huge front door. A handsome middle-aged woman in gold
brocade met Aubrey’s eyes with an obsequious smile that faded to a
sneer as soon as Aubrey smiled in return and looked away. “When
they’re not trying to worm their way into our good favor they’re
complaining about us behind our backs.”
    The other half of Aubrey’s ‘us’ strode around
the corner, spotted them, and changed his path to meet them.
Madeline stepped back and half hid behind Aubrey. It didn’t matter
how much her friend argued otherwise, Sir Crispin was still one of
the most frightening men she’d ever known.
    “Aubrey.” He reached her and grasped her
hand, stealing a quick kiss with a frown. “Lady Madeline.” He
nodded to her. “I heard you’d arrived.”
    Fear closed her throat and she could only nod
back.
    “What’s that look for?”
    At first Madeline thought Aubrey was talking
to her, but when she glanced up to answer Crispin beat her to
it.
    “Word of the king’s ransom has been