The Leopard Unleashed by Elizabeth Chadwick Read Free Book Online

would be on board a pilgrim ship bound for Brindisi. Surely there was no harm in playing with fire for so short a time. It would suit them both well.
    Standing up, he extended his hand to her. ‘You can stay for tonight,’ he temporised. ‘After that, well, we’ll see.’ And knew that he was deceiving himself as Olwen gave him a melting smile.

The Welsh Borders, Summer 1139

    The fields of the demesne were like an expanse of green-coloured sky clumped with creamy bleating clouds – the sheep that were, as the name of the village suggested, Woolcot’s main source of wealth. Gold upon the cloven hoof.
    On top of the knoll, Elene drew rein and gazed out over both land and flocks with a proprietorial eye. ‘It will be a good clip this year,’ she informed her female riding companion. ‘There were a lot of twin lambs born too. I’m glad I bought that new ram.’
    ‘You know almost as much as your bailiffs and shepherds, don’t you?’ laughed Heulwen de Lacey, her future sister-in-law.
    Elene returned the laughter. ‘I suppose I do. Papa was always telling me how much the sheep were worth and now he’s gone it’s a sacred trust, an honour to his memory.’ The curve of her lips became wry. ‘Besides, they are the better part of my dowry, the main reason the arrangement was made. A castle to defend the land between Ravenstowand Caermoel, and the sheep to pay for its upkeep.’ She plucked at a burr in Bramble’s mane. ‘I sometimes have the ridiculous daydream that Renard will want me for myself. Stupid, isn’t it?’
    Heulwen considered Elene’s fine, almost sharp features. Beneath silky black brows, her eyes were the green-flecked gold of turning leaves and quite beautiful in a face that was otherwise ordinary. ‘Renard is fond of you,’ she said awkwardly.
    ‘Oh yes, I know that.’ Elene turned her gaze from contemplation of her wealth and rested it on Heulwen. ‘Before he left with Prince Raymond, he gave me a bridle hung with bells for my new pony, and ruffled my hair. He’s fond of me the way he would be fond of a pet animal. Do you know what I gave him?’
    Heulwen shook her head.
    ‘A bracelet of my plaited hair woven with gold thread.’ She smiled bitterly. ‘You should have seen his face!’
    ‘Elene …’ Heulwen laid her hand on the girl’s sleeve, unsure whether to comfort or reason.
    ‘Oh, it’s all right.’ Elene shook her head. ‘I was still a child then. I didn’t understand.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘I could not think of anything to say to him when Adam set out. I just wrote down the first things that came into my head. He probably thinks he is going to get a sheep for a wife, as well as in payment of my marriage portion!’
    ‘He will discover differently when he sees you,’ Heulwen soothed. Her eyes clouded. ‘The situation being what it is, I expect you’ll be wed as soon as he sets foot in England. I only hope my father will be well enough to see you married.’
    Elene shook the reins and started the mare down theslope. ‘He has been very ill, hasn’t he? Even with the coming of the warmer weather his cough has little improved.’ She was fond of Lord Guyon, and had come to regard him as a father in the years since her own father’s death.
    ‘He doesn’t have the time or opportunity to rest it. No sooner does Mama get him settled by the fire than someone wants him, or a problem arises, and even if he cannot ride out with the patrols he has to brief them and listen to their reports. It eats at him that he’s so confined when before he lived such a vigorous life.’
    ‘He is not the best of patients,’ Elene agreed wryly, having assisted at his sickbed during the crisis time immediately after his near drowning.
    Side by side they rode towards the flocks and did not speak again, each burdened by heavy thoughts.
    Elene was questioning a shepherd about an outbreak of sheep fly among the herd and absently fondling his good-natured dog when Heulwen exclaimed and