The Velvet Promise (40 page)

Helen stared at her daughter. She neither spoke nor smiled. Slowly, the color drained from her face. She fell forward into her daughter's arms.

"Help!" Judith managed to gasp.

A tall young man who was nearby ran to her and quickly lifted Helen.

"To the stables," directed Judith, "out of the sun."

Once in the shade, Helen began to recover almost instantly.

"Mother, you are well?"

Helen looked meaningfully at the young man.

He understood the look. "I'll leave you alone," he said and walked away before Judith could even thank him.

"I… didn't know," Helen began. "I mean I didn't know Lord Gavin even knew of my love for John."

Judith stopped herself from laughing aloud. "I asked him some time ago for permission, but he wanted to consult the king. Yours will be an unusual wedding."

"And soon enough," Helen murmured.

"Soon—? Mother!"

Helen smiled like a child caught in some mischief. "It's true—I bear his child."

Judith sank into a pile of hay. "Shall we deliver together?" she asked in wonder.

"Close."

Judith laughed. "Arrangements must be made quickly, so the baby will be able to claim a name."

"Judith!" She looked up to see Gavin coming toward them. "A man said your mother took ill."

She rose and took his arm. "Come, we must talk."

Moments later, Gavin shook his head in disbelief. "And to think I believed John Bassett to be a sensible man!"

"He's in love. Men and women do unusual things when they're in love."

Gavin looked at her eyes, the gold especially brilliant in the sunlight.

"I'm well aware of that."

"Why didn't you tell me she was a widow?" Judith asked quietly.

"Who?" he asked, honestly puzzled.

"Alice! Who else?"

He shrugged. "I didn't think to tell you." He smiled. "I find I have other thoughts when you are near me."

"Are you trying to change the subject?"

He grabbed Judith by the shoulders, lifting her from the ground.

"Damn you! It's not I who am obsessed with the woman, but you. If I cannot reason with you, I'll try to shake some sense into you. Would you like to be shaken in public?"

He shook his head in wonder when she smiled at him sweetly. "I would rather attend the hunt. Perhaps you could help me mount my horse?"

He stared at her a moment, then set her down. He would
never
understand women.

The hunt was exhilarating to Judith, the little tiercel hawk on a perch on her saddle. Her hawk brought down three cranes, and she was well pleased with the day's hunting.

Gavin wasn't as lucky. He was barely in his saddle when he received a whispered message from a maid. Stephen wished to meet with him on some private matter when they were two miles outside the castle walls.

His brother asked that he tell no one about the meeting—even his wife.

Gavin was puzzled by the message as it didn't sound like Stephen. He left the hunting party while Judith was engrossed in the flight of her tiercel, cursing his brother under his breath for taking him away from such a lovely sight.

Gavin didn't ride directly to the place indicated but tied his horse some distance away and approached cautiously, sword drawn.

"Gavin!" Alice said, her hand to her breast. "You gave me a terrible fright."

"Where is Stephen?" Gavin asked, still looking about the place warily.

"Gavin, please put your sword away. You frighten me!" Alice smiled, but her eyes didn't look fearful.

"You have called me, and not Stephen?"

"Yes, it was the only way I knew to get you here." She lowered her eyes.

"I thought you wouldn't come for me alone."

Gavin sheathed his sword. It was a quiet and secluded place, much like the one where she used to meet him.

"Ah, so you think of that time also. Come, sit by me. We have a lot to talk about."

He stared at her and without wanting to he began to compare her to Judith. Alice was pretty, yes, but her little mouth with its closed-lip smile seemed ungenerous—stingy, almost. Her blue eyes rather reminded him of ice rather than sapphires. And the red, orange and green she wore seemed gaudy instead of brilliant, as he used to think of her clothes.

"Have things changed so much that you sit so far away from me?"

"Yes, they have." Gavin didn't see the brief frown that crossed her pale brow.

"Are you still angry with me? I've told you over and over that I was married against my will to Edmund. But now that I am a widow we—"

"Alice," he interrupted, "please don't talk of that again." He had to tell her, and he dreaded hurting her. She was so soft and delicate, so unable to take the pain of life. "I will not leave Judith, neither through annulment nor divorce nor any other unnatural means."

"I… don't understand. There is a chance for us now."

He put his hand over hers in her lap. "No, there is not."

"Gavin! What are you saying?"

"I have grown to love her," he said simply.

Alice's eyes blazed at him a moment before she recovered her temper.

"You said you would not. On your wedding day you
promised
me that you wouldn't love her."

Gavin almost smiled in memory. Two vows had been made that day.

Judith had vowed to give him only what he took. How deliciously she had broken that vow! And he, too, had broken his. "Don't you remember that you threatened to take your own life? I would have done or said most anything to keep you from doing that."

"But now you no longer care what I do with my life?"

"No! It's not that. You know you will always have a place in my heart.

You were my first love, and I will never forget you."

Alice looked up at him, wide-eyed. "You talk as if I were already dead.

Tell me, has she taken all your heart that I can have none?"

"I told you that you had a part, Alice, don't do this to us. You must accept what has happened."

Alice smiled, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. "Should I accept it with the fortitude of a man? But Gavin, I'm a woman—a frail and fragile woman. Your heart may be cold to me, but mine is only warmer at seeing you again. Do you know what it was like being married to Edmund? He treated me like a servant, locked me in my room continually."

"Alice—"

"And can you guess why? Because at your wedding he had me watched.

Yes, he knew when we went alone to the garden. He knew the times when I was alone with you in your tent. Remember the time you kissed me with such feeling, the morning after your wedding?"

Gavin nodded, not wanting to hear her confession.

"During our marriage, he never lost a moment to remind me of the time I had spent with you. Yet I bore it all, willingly—gladly almost—for I knew you loved me. Each and every lonely night I lay awake and thought of you, of your love for me."

"Alice, you must stop."

"Tell me," she said quietly, "didn't you once think of me?"

"Yes," he answered honestly. "I did at first. But Judith is a good woman, kind and loving. I never thought I would love her. It was a marriage for estates, as you know."

Alice sighed. "What am I to do now? My heart is yours—has always been, will always be."

"Alice, this won't help. It's over between us. I'm married and I love my wife. You and I must part ways."

"You are so cold to me." Alice touched his arm, then moved her hand up to his shoulder. "Once you were not so cold."

Gavin clearly remembered making love to Alice. Then he had been blinded by his love for her, and he believed anything she did was the way it should be done. But now, after months of passion with Judith, the idea of bedding Alice almost repulsed him. The way she could not stand to be touched before or after lovemaking. No, with Alice it was sex—a pure animal drive, nothing else.

Alice saw the expression on his face but didn't understand it. She continued with her hand until she touched his neck. He stood immediately. Alice stood also, but she took his reluctance at her touch as a sign of his growing desire for her. She stood boldly against him, her arms going around his neck. "I see you do remember," she whispered, raising her face to be kissed.

He gently pulled her arms from his neck. "No, Alice."

She glared at him, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You are so unmanned by her that you are afraid of her?"

"No," Gavin said, surprised, both at Alice's reasoning and her outburst.

Anger was unnatural to Alice, who was always so sweet-tempered.

Alice quickly realized she'd made an error in revealing her true emotions. She blinked her eyes until great jewellike tears formed. "This is good-bye," she whispered. "May I not have even one last kiss? You would deny me that, after all we've meant to each other?"

She was so delicate and he'd loved her so much once. He wiped a tear from her cheek with his fingertip. "No," he whispered. "I wouldn't deny myself one last kiss." He took her gently in his arms and kissed her sweetly.

But Alice wanted no sweetness. He had forgotten her violence by half.

She thrust her tongue in his mouth, grinding her teeth against his lips. He felt no building ardor as he once would have, but only a faint sense of distaste. He wanted to get away from her. "I must go," he said, concealing his revulsion.

But Alice could feel that something was very wrong. She thought to bring him under control through that kiss but she knew she hadn't. If anything, he was more remote than before. She bit her tongue over her sharp words and managed to look properly sad as he made his way through the trees to his waiting horse. "Damn that bitch!" Alice said through clenched teeth. That red-haired she-devil had taken her man!

Or at least she thought she had. Alice began to smile. Maybe that Revedoune woman thought she had Gavin, that she could crook her little finger and he would come to her. But she was mistaken! Alice would not allow someone to take what was hers. No, she would fight for her property and Gavin was hers… or he would be again.

She had done so much to get where she was now, at the king's court near Gavin; she had even allowed her husband's murderer to escape. She would watch the woman and find her weakness. Then Alice would regain what was hers. Even if she decided to cast Gavin aside, it was to be her decision and not his!

Gavin rode back to the hunting party quickly. He had been gone a long time, but he hoped no one had missed him. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Judith hadn't seen him kissing Alice. No amount of explaining in the world would have pacified her. But all that was over. As difficult as it had been, he had told Alice, and now he was forever free of her.

Gavin saw his wife ahead, swinging her lure to bring her tiercel back to the perch. Suddenly his desire for her was boundless. He urged his mount forward until he was almost galloping by the time he reached her horse.

He bent forward and jerked the reins.

"Gavin!" Judith called as she grabbed the pommel of the saddle, her tiercel flapping its wings in fright.

The people around them hooted in laughter. "They have been married how long?"

"Not long enough," came the reply.

Gavin stopped both horses when they were some distance away in a secluded glade.

"Gavin! Have you lost your mind?" Judith demanded.

He slid from his horse then lifted her from hers. He didn't speak to her but began kissing her hungrily. "I was thinking of you," he whispered.

"And the more I thought of you, the more my need… arose."

"I can feel your need." She looked about her. "This is a pretty place isn't it?"

"It could be prettier."

"Yes, it could," she answered as he kissed her again.

The sweet outdoor summer air added a great deal to their passion as did the slightly naughty idea that they were doing something somewhere they shouldn't. Judith giggled when Gavin made a comment on King Henry's numerous children. He stopped her laughter with his lips.

They fumbled with each other's clothing hurriedly and made love as if they'd not seen each other for years. Later, they cuddled close together, wrapped in warm sunlight and the delicate scent of wildflowers.

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Alice looked over the heads of the many men around her to the slim, blond, handsome man leaning against the wall. He had a pensive expression on his face that she recognized as that of someone in love. She smiled sweetly at a man nearby but Alice didn't really hear him. Her mind was completely on that afternoon, when Gavin said he was in love with his wife. She watched as Gavin held his wife's hand and led her through the intricate steps of a dance. It didn't matter that Alice had several young men at her feet. Being scorned by Gavin only made her want him more.

Had he sworn he loved her still, perhaps she would have considered one of the many marriage proposals offered to her. But Gavin had rejected her, and now she knew she must have him. Only one thing stood in her way, and that she planned to remove.

The young blond man stared at Judith with fascination, his eyes never leaving her. Alice had noticed him at dinner when he looked up at the high table, not even blinking as he stared at Judith. Alice realized that the woman was too stupid to even be aware of an admirer, for Judith's eyes never left Gavin.