Hidden Honor

“Don’t bother trying to argue with me, Lady Elizabeth, you’re too tired. You’re a clever girl, but I’m a wise woman, and right now you’re no match for me. Just come along and let me get you settled, and then I’ll tell Lord Thomas he’s a father. Unless you’d rather be the one who imparted that particular news? There’s old business between you and the two of them, though the gossips at Wakebryght Castle haven’t been as efficient as they usually are or I’d know all about it.”

“It’s not of much interest, even to gossips,” Elizabeth said. “And I’d be happy never to see Thomas of Wakebryght again.”

“Indeed,” Joanna said in an approving voice. “Thomas is pretty enough in a pleasant manner, but he’s nowhere near the man your prince is. I don’t blame you for choosing danger over safety.”

“I didn’t make any choices! And he’s not my prince!” Elizabeth said again, too loudly, ready to weep.

“But you’d like him to be, would you not? I know men, and I know women, and I think you’d gladly toss your habit to the four winds for him.”

Elizabeth managed a rusty laugh. “You’re mad. You’ve never even seen the two of us together.”

Joanna pushed open a door set deep in the wall, holding it for Elizabeth to precede her. “I don’t need to. I’ve seen him, and I’ve seen your reaction every time his name is mentioned. You’d quite happily bed the dark prince, wouldn’t you?” she said.

“Would she?” Prince William asked, clearly curious.

He was seated by the fire in the luxuriously appointed room, and Thomas’s uncle Owen was standing near the window. He was a heavyset man, and food stained his overly embellished tunic. He looked at the two of them in the doorway, and there was no missing the possessiveness in his small eyes as they roamed over Dame Joanna.

“Phaugh!” he said. “The two of you look like you’ve been to a hog butchering. I presume my niece is no longer on this earth. Are you planning to take her place, Lady Elizabeth, as you once longed to?”

If that was the first time the prince had heard of her previous connection to the household, he didn’t seem surprised. “Didn’t you hear your lady, Owen?” he asked lazily, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “It’s me she wants.”

Elizabeth was not amused. “Lady Margery was delivered of a healthy son.”

“Praise be,” Owen muttered piously. “Then maybe this household can get back to normal. If my lord will give me leave, I’ll bring the happy word to the rest of the family.”

Prince William waved a hand in airy dismissal, and Owen backed out of the room, a model of obsequiousness. He paused at the door, surveying his leman. “Go make yourself presentable,” he said—an order, not a request. “I’ve no great liking to see my woman drenched in the blood of childbed. I’ll join you as soon as our guests leave.”

Dame Joanna inclined her elegant head. “As you wish, my lord.” She bowed low, to both the prince and Elizabeth. “God speed, my lady. Prince William.” There was no missing the trace of deviltry in her voice that almost overshadowed the bleakness that had settled over her perfect features once more.

And she left the two of them alone in the small bedroom.

5

“You’re a pretty sight,” the dark prince observed lazily. “You look almost as bloody as a soldier at the end of a long battle.”

“I imagine I feel the same.” She was so exhausted she could feel herself begin to sway. Prince William lounged lazily in a chair, and he hadn’t asked her to sit. She should stay standing until he said otherwise. It didn’t matter—she sat down on the wooden bench opposite him, silently daring him to object.

He smiled at her—totally irritating. “Feeling dangerous, are you, my lady? Is it the blood of Lady Margery? Shall I wish you happiness?”

“What?” She didn’t care that she sounded stupid—her wits seemed to have vanished.

“Lady Margery took your place in this household, sending you back to the tender care of your father, according to the gossips. Your appearance here set their tongues free—until now I think you were fairly well forgotten. With Thomas’s wife dead you can assume your rightful place and marry him.”

“People have been far too busy informing you of my past.” Her voice was cool and measured. “I would think you had more interesting ways of passing the time.”

“Not particularly. This household seems unreasonably devoid of attractive women apart from Dame Joanna, and besides, as you doubtless haven’t forgotten, I’m on a journey of penance. Such occasions are not suited to lechery.”

“You strike me as someone always suited to lechery.” Again her unruly tongue betrayed her. “I beg pardon,” she added swiftly.

“Oh, don’t apologize,” he said airily. “I find your candor quite refreshing. I’ll miss it on the rest of the journey.”

“Why do you keep assuming I’m staying here? Lady Margery has delivered a healthy baby boy, and she herself is strong and recovering rapidly. I don’t doubt she’ll go on to present Thomas with a dozen offspring before she’s done.”

“That shouldn’t please you.”

“Why not?” She stared down at her bloodstained gown. She was a mess, and she had brought no other clothes with her. Once she reached Saint Anne’s she’d be wearing the clothes of the holy order, and there was no need to waste good cloth, her father had said. Her cast-off dresses would do for the servants. “I don’t know what they told you—if it was Thomas’s mother then she was doubtless unkind. She never liked me, and was well rid of me when Thomas changed his mind. In the end, it’s all for the best. I am better suited for the convent.”

He snorted with laughter. “I’ve yet to meet a lady less suited to the convent, unless it’s perhaps your new friend Dame Joanna. But you’re right, it’s for the best. The insipid Thomas would have bored you to tears in a matter of months, and I suspect you know it.”

She didn’t bother to argue—one didn’t argue with even a bastard prince of England. “I expect to be very happy and useful in the convent. I hardly have Dame Joanna’s…” She struggled for the right phrase, unwilling to say anything unkind about the woman who’d worked so tirelessly by her side. “I don’t have…Dame Joanna is a very…”

“Dame Joanna is a leman,” he said bluntly. “A woman who survives on her back. She’s also a woman who survives on her wits, and despite your attempts to prove otherwise, I do believe you’re a very clever woman. Dangerously so.”

She leaned back against the wall, the cold stone reaching into her bones through the thin gown, but she was too weary to move.

“I don’t feel particularly clever right now,” she said. “When do we leave this place?”

“When will you be ready?”

She glanced at him. “I cannot believe it will be my choice. But if it were up to me, the sooner I’m gone from here the better.”

He nodded. “You’ll want to wash up and change those rags of yours.”

“I have no other rags to wear, my lord,” she said.

“Then we’ll find you some. I’m not traveling with a woman smelling of childbed blood. It could draw wild boars to our caravan, and we have enough danger to contend with without the added complication of marauding animals.”

“And what if I were…” She stopped, horrified at what she’d almost said. If she weren’t so tired she would never have brought up such a blunt subject.

“If you were having your monthly courses?” he finished for her, unmoved. “We’d find ways to deal with it. I believe you are blushing, Lady Elizabeth. You seem so matter-of-fact and practical—I’m surprised that a natural bodily function would leave you tongue-tied.”

“It’s not something discussed with men,” she said sharply. “And I’m not! That is, the time isn’t right….” she added.

“You’re snappish enough that you might be. I know more of women’s bodies than you’d expect, my lady. I have an interest in medicine.”

She closed her eyes, settling against the cool stone. “I have no doubt you’re completely conversant with women’s bodies, my lord William. I find the medical interest to be less likely.”

“Are you accusing your prince of lying?” His voice was so mild she was forced to open her eyes, to ascertain whether or not she’d finally gone too far. If she’d said half the things to her father that she’d said to a bastard prince of England, she’d be whipped.

But Prince William looked unperturbed. “There are a great many things about me that would surprise you.”

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought. “I prefer not to discover them.”

His smile was faint. “You really should watch your tongue, my lady. Most men are not so forbearing as I am, and I would hate to see you run afoul of someone inclined to brutality.”

“As opposed to you?” The words were out before she could stop them, but she had the sense to quickly apologize. “I beg pardon, my lord. I’m too tired to realize what I’m saying.”

“You’re too tired to stop from speaking your mind, my lady. You still know exactly what you’re saying. Shall we have Lady Isobel attend you, bring you one of her dresses?”