Bond of Blood (27 page)

"I do not know," Radnor said, struck more by his wife's ability to see clearly and state clearly such a point than by the argument itself. "In that way, perhaps you are right. Nonetheless, I do not like to see you arguing about money."

"Of course, if that is your wish, I shall never do so again." Leah submitted immediately, but she sighed a little for she enjoyed chaffering. "I shall have to teach one of my maids straightaway."

That innocent statement destroyed not only Radnor's gravity, but also his resistance. The subtleness of the thought combined with the naiveté that spoke it aloud was priceless. Leah was surprised by her husband's sudden laughter, more surprised when he leaned from his mount to embrace her and give her a quick kiss, and totally puzzled when he urged her to get as good a price as she might in the threadseller's booth. She did not know what had brought about the reversal in Cain's opinion, but she had not a cloud in her serene sky, and she was positive that of all women living she had the best, kindest, and most indulgent husband.

Leah's happiness persisted for the next two days as they traveled slowly southeast towards London. On the surface, everything was the same at Oxford as it had been elsewhere, for to Oxford they went in spite of Hereford's repeated protests that it was as foolish to stay there as to put one's head into the maw of a half-trained bear. Radnor only laughed, saying that if a man did not come face to face with a bear he would never know whether it was dangerous.

Leah had held her peace, relying on her husband's assurance that all would be well, but once in the keep, it seemed to her that Lady Oxford could not meet her eyes and that the talk of the men was too light-hearted and inconsequent. Her husband, dressed in orange and brown, looked unusually well, and laughed a great deal more than he commonly did. Unfortunately these facts gave Leah little comfort, for she was beginning to understand Cain's arrogance in the face of danger and beginning to understand too that the danger was great. How great was indicated by the fact that Cain's eyes glowed with a feral light and he wore a wonderful garment made of links of metal as fine as thread underneath his tunic.

In spite of Leah's growing fears, all ran smoothly enough at first, except that she felt too much wine was poured and drunk all over the hall. Cain kept taking his lower lip between his teeth and biting it as if it were slightly numb, and, by the time the roast meats were removed, his speech was slurring a trifle over difficult words.

It was in the middle of a discussion on tapestry making that the peace was broken. The men seemed to have run out of small talk, Hereford looking anxious, Oxford looking worried, and Radnor looking drunk. The women alone were speaking, raising their voices steadily to combat the rising noise from the lower tables where the men-at-arms ate. Suddenly Leah and Lady Oxford were drowned out completely as the voices of the men reached a new pitch and a dozen of them leapt to their feet, poniards drawn.

Hereford, Oxford, and Radnor all bellowed at once for their men to sit still and keep the peace, but by now all were too hot with wine and temper to hear or care. More joined the combatants, and the three leaders rose quickly to go down and pull them apart before lives were lost. Instead of falling away under the hammer-like blows of their masters' fists, the mass congealed.

Radnor was the first to go down; never easy on his feet, he was cleverly tripped and disappeared under a battling crowd of men. Hereford struggled like a madman to reach his friend, but every time he broke a hold, others seized him to draw him back, and then he went down too. Oxford, less encumbered, also seemed to be struggling to reach the fighting men and he shouted from time to time for them to hold their hands. The swarm above Radnor heaved as he exerted his strength to throw them off, flattened as the effort proved unsuccessful, and heaved again.

In the end it was the newest servant rather than the old retainers who freed his lord. Harry Beaufort, unlike Giles who had thrown himself into the struggling group at once, at first remained seated at the very end of the high table with a faint frown on his face. A few minutes after Lord Radnor went down, however, he calmly took a flaming torch from one of the wall holders and began applying it indiscriminately to backs, heads, and buttocks of the heaving group over his new master. In seconds Radnor was free and was surrounded by a wall of angry men while Giles helped him to his feet.

The rest of the fighting quieted as if by magic. Hereford's men helped him up and dusted him off. Oxford babbled apologies and excuses. Leah stood like a statue, unmoving and without a sound, her hand on her own small dagger. She had jumped to her feet and begun to pull the knife when Cain went down, but she had been seized from behind and after a brief struggle had frozen into immobility. Somewhere within her frozen faculties she heard Hereford's anxious voice and then her husband's husky, unshaken tones replying, but she could not make out the words because her ears buzzed so. She knew too when Radnor reached the table, although her misted eyes could not see clearly.

"I pray you, my lord, that you take me to our chamber. I should like to retire and rest. I find this entertainment a trifle too exciting after a day's travel." She could not believe, as she heard it, that the normal, quiet voice was her own.

They went out and up to the tower room assigned, protected by a hard-eyed group with murder in their hearts. In the same normal voice Leah bade her maids fetch water, and she helped Radnor undress with perfectly steady hands. With the same steady, gentle hands she bathed and anointed his wounds, mostly small cuts and tears from knife points that could not fully pierce the hidden mesh of steel. She wrung and folded the cloth she had been using, capped the ointment jars, handed both to Alison.

"You may go. I will not need you again tonight," she said, and as the door closed, she crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.

Leah knew nothing of the furor she caused, the excitement being very little less than that occasioned by the attempt on Radnor's life. His anguished cries brought nearly all his own men, Hereford and half of his, and, eventually, the only people of any use, the ladies of the castle, on the run. These last, when they could finally make their way through the crowd on the stairs and induce the men in the room to let them through, cleared the chamber and put the poor girl to bed. She began to revive naturally a few moments later, and, seeing her eyelids flutter, Lady Oxford assured Radnor that his wife would now be perfectly well and withdrew.

Cain had never been so shaken with fear in his whole hard life. "What did you do that for?" he asked in a low, vicious voice as soon as her eyes focused on his.

Leah dropped her lids and tears leaked out under her long fair lashes. "I am sorry," she faltered, "I was frightened."

He caught her into his arms then, smearing the bedclothes and her naked body with salve and blood, and held her so tight she felt strangled.

"Do not do it again. I do not like it."

The voice was hard and angry, but Leah could feel the pounding of her husband's heart against her breast and the tremor of his arm muscles. He had not been affected that way after the fight, so it had to be fear for her. Terror and weakness notwithstanding, Leah's sense of humor was tickled by Cain's ridiculous remark. She smiled feebly.

"I did not do it on purpose, I assure you."

"I did not say you did it on purpose," Radnor replied, his voice rising with the irritation of relief, "but I will not have it. I forbid you to do it again—absolutely forbid it. Now what is so funny about that?" he bellowed, for Leah was laughing openly at the silliness of commanding a frightened woman not to faint.

She did not answer, however, only pulled his head down to kiss him until the level of his breathing slowed to normal.

When he disengaged his lips, Cain sat looking at his wife broodingly for some time. Now that he had a chance to think at all, his thoughts were not pleasant. In spite of the preparations he had made, he had not believed, since his talk with his father, that any attack would be made upon him. The events, however, had proved Gaunt wrong and Llwellyn right. Pembroke did plan to have him killed and expected to escape the ill consequences for the very reason that Radnor thought he would not dare.

If one took the time to work out the tortuous path, it became clear enough. While Gaunt lived, no one could say that Pembroke would profit from Radnor's death; not even Gaunt would think of it. And Pembroke planned to cover himself additionally by thrusting the blame on Oxford, Lady Shrewsbury, and the king and queen. It would be normal, if her husband died, for Leah to return to her father's protection. Then Pembroke had to do no more than keep her unmarried and wait for Gaunt, who was old, to die.

The business with Chester was not only an attempt to get Fitz Richard's property but also to insure Pembroke the reversion of Gaunt's property. By betraying Chester and Hereford, Pembroke believed he would gain Stephen's and Maud's favor. And, Radnor thought, new light breaking in on him, Maud as well as Stephen had probably encouraged Pembroke to believe this was true.

After the betrayal, Pembroke would have to come to court to be invested with the land rights. He would come, but he would never leave, and the king and queen would have in their hands to do with as they pleased very nearly all of Wales and western England. Radnor shrugged his heavy shoulders and smiled. They were all mad together to think such a complicated thing would not fall of its own weight. First, it would not be in the least easy to kill him, as both Maud and Pembroke should know. Second, it might yet be possible to turn Chester and Hereford from their plan.

But Leah had told him that Pembroke wanted her for ransom. Why? To keep him off guard? And when the attempt on him had failed she had fainted. She said she had fainted from fear—doubtless that was true enough, but from fear for him or from fear because her father's plan had miscarried? Then she had laughed, and cozened him with kisses.

Cain slid one strong brown hand around his wife's slender throat. He would press no viper to his breast to sting him to death. Leah had closed her eyes, but at his touch she opened them. No fear misted them. The greenish irises were clear as glass, the expression as trusting as a child's. Radnor tightened his grip, but Leah only smiled and turned her head to kiss the fingers of his other hand, which lay upon her shoulder.

Cain snatched both hands away, and Leah looked startled for the first time. A moment later she was crimson; she had been too bold again, bestowing kisses unasked. Still, when Cain rose from the bed her hands clung to his as he moved away.

She is very young, Cain told himself. She could not know, keep her counsel, and act in such a way. If she wished to betray me, she could have slipped a word abroad about the mail shirt I wore. The clinging hands nearly convinced him so that he turned back to her and leaned forward expecting to catch a whispered plea that he stay with her. The eyes seemed to plead, but the lips, trained to obey the dictates of duty, stayed mute. Cain was dissatisfied, but he knew now that he could not bring himself to hurt her. Since he could not leave her behind or send her away either, it was best to remain on good terms. If she was innocent, it would be foolish to give her a reason to hate him by harsh treatment for which she would know no cause. Cain patted Leah's cheek kindly.

"There is no need to fear. You are in no way endangered by this. No one wishes you any harm. Now I must go down to my men. I have a few things to say to them that may well save us from similar broils another time. Oh, I will warm their ears for allowing themselves to be trapped into this."

Leah lay trembling and praying. She had thought that once she held her lord in her arms she would be at peace, but she saw that her mother had been right and that to love a man was to live from moment to moment in a torment of fear. The minutes crawled by slowly. Now it was growing dark, and still Cain had not returned. Leah drew on a robe and stole to the door. At the faint click of the latch, four men in the antechamber jumped up, their hands going automatically to their weapons.

"Stay still, madam," one said gruffly, and Leah closed the door.

Her fear could not be greater; instead a blessed numbness took hold of her. She took up Cain's gown and embroidered steadily, and even when, long after the watchmen had called midnight and she had once renewed the candles, the sound of footsteps and voices penetrated the door, her hand did not falter nor did she raise her eyes from her work. The door opened and closed and a halting step came across the room. Leah laid down her embroidery and closed her eyes to fight off the faintness that came with utter relief.

"You are still awake! I was sure you would be sleeping, so I sent no message fearing to disturb you. When I came down I found Hereford trying to discover the cause of the uproar. The only thing he found was that whoever planned this is clever as a snake. It seemed best to go back to the hall as if we believed it to be an accident. Get you to bed now, madam. The earlier the better away from this place."

"Let me help you disrobe."

Cain came up and rested a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I sit awake tonight. Nay, do not look so aghast, Leah, there is no cause to be afraid. I will keep you safe."

As her own safety was the last thing with which Leah was concerned just then, this scarcely gave her comfort, but there was nothing she could do. No sight could have been more welcome to the tired girl lying perfectly still with wide staring eyes than the light of dawn, in which Radnor stood up and stretched his somewhat cramped limbs. He had no need to dress or arm, having changed silently to his traveling costume soon after Leah had gone to bed.

When Cain and Leah reached the great hall, Hereford too was ready. His face was somber, showing faint bluish patches beneath his eyes, for his fair complexion was readily marked by every sign of strain. They breakfasted politely, but with all possible haste, and Leah began to breathe a little more freely as they made ready to leave in the courtyard.