Beloved Pilgrim (4 page)

The woman shrugged. "If you really wanted to
go, you would find a way. Perhaps you will find a way." She laughed
aloud at the girl's shocked face, crinkling her eyes and throwing
her head back in merriment. "I wish you could see your face! You
would think I just told you to sprout wings and fly." She thought
to herself, "Perhaps I just have."

Elisabeth's thoughts were awhirl. She could
not slow them down long enough to make sense of them. She
sighed.

As much as Elisabeth dreaded her brother's
departure for the Holy Land, there was an element of relief knowing
she would not have to bear his relationship with Albrecht for much
longer. There was a great deal to think about. She so trusted her
twin that disapproval was of little import, at least disapproval of
what he and Albrecht were doing when they were alone together. Two
things troubled her, one being her sense of being irrevocably
pushed out of her brother's heart, and the other her resentment
that he had not shared any of this revelation about his love for
Albrecht with her. She struggled with whether she must break
through whatever held him back before they left or let him go and
worry about that when he returned.

Then came a greater concern for them all. Her
mother did not improve with the passing of the winter, but grew
weaker. She seemed to lose her balance. She dropped things. She
took to her bed with frequent headaches.

Elisabeth overheard a conversation between
her parents where her father earnestly averred to delay his
departure or even cancel his plans. Her mother protested
vehemently.

"My lord, please do not. 'Tis but a temporary
thing. I shall be well again shortly."

"Nay, my love. I cannot leave you in this
state. And what's more I cannot leave our children to bear you up
alone. Do not argue with me, dearest."

Her mother hesitated, and then Elisabeth
heard her concession. "A delay, yes, that is all. You will see that
I am right in no time. Then you will be able to catch up with your
friends on their way to the Holy Land."

Elisabeth sighed with relief and went to tell
Elias what she had heard.

She was not surprised to see the conflict in
his face at the tidings. He chewed his lower lip. "Yes, it is best
we delay," he replied with undisguised regret. His glance around
she interpreted immediately. "I had better tell Albrecht as
well."

Their household activity multiplied with an
unwonted if expected distraction, as if the Lady Adalberta could
manage all she had. The sound of horns announced the impending
arrival of Reinhardt, Baron von Linkshändig, and his large party of
knights and soldiers. As she stood in the courtyard with her
parents and brother, Elisabeth, dressed in her best gown, realized
how predisposed to resenting her intended she was. That she was
about to become the man's wife was almost out of the range of
credibility.

She heard her mother's groan when, following
Reinhardt and his household knights, the horses and foot soldiers
continued to stream through the manor gate for what felt like a
half hour. She heard her mother call to Albrecht to run inside and
warn that the household would have to feed and accommodate.

Reinhardt reined in his destrier before the
noble family welcoming him. He saluted Sigismund, and then looked
over at the twins. Elisabeth saw him frown as his eyes lit on her.
She colored sharply and looked down, avoiding his gaze. Then hope
leaped in her heart. "Maybe he will decide he doesn't want me!" she
rejoiced silently. She felt Elias's supporting arm around her
waist, and cast him a grateful look.

Reinhardt did not wait for the groom who
pushed forward the mounting block but threw his leg over the
destrier's armored head and slid to the ground deftly. He was older
than Elisabeth remembered, and more comely. He stood by his mount
for a moment, pushing his mail hood back and off his black hair.
Gray eyes did not reflect his courteous smile. He went to Adalberta
and took her hand in his to kiss it. He struck his booted heels
together and said, "My lady, my thanks for your hospitality."

"You are most welcome, good sir, at any time.
But on this joyous occasion of your wedding to my daughter
Elisabeth, it is indeed a pleasure and an honor." She glanced over
and beckoned to Elisabeth. "My dear, come greet your husband to
be."

Elisabeth felt the squeeze Elias gave to her
elbow as she stepped away from him to join her parents and the
baron. She kept her eyes down fearing she would be unable to stop
herself from bursting into tense laughter. It was all so
unreal.

"My lady," came the rich baritone of the man
she was to marry. "It is with humble gratitude that I hear you have
accepted my offer of matrimony."

As he lifted her hand to his lips, she looked
up surprised. Accepted his offer? As if she had any real choice. He
looked up through dark thin lashes straight into her face. She saw
his gaze jump from her own to her mouth, her braids, her throat,
her flat bosom. He sighed so quietly only she heard it. It was not
a sigh of pleasure.

"My lord, I welcome you to our home."
Elisabeth found herself thinking, "And may you decide to stay in
the Holy Land rather than return."

She stole glances at Reinhardt during the
evening's repast, sitting between him and her father. The baron
greeted the news that Sigismund would delay his own departure with
little Grace. "I hope you do not expect me to remain behind while
you perform your uxorious duty."

Sigismund gazed with approbation at the
baron's remark, but he nevertheless reassured him. "My lady assures
me that she be well directly, at which time I will leave. You say
you are taking the western pass over the mountains?"

"Yes, to meet with the Frankish contingent.
We will pass into the Italian Peninsula nearer Milan."

"Then perhaps I can use the eastern pass and
meet you on the way to Calabria. It is shorter." He lifted one
eyebrow at Reinhardt.

"Perhaps," was the baron's desultory
response.

The two men spoke exclusively of the journey
to come. Elias and Albrecht hung on every word they could catch as
they waited on the high table at the top of the hall. Reinhardt
grimaced at her brother, a fact that mystified Elisabeth. It did
not seem to her that Elias was doing anything that was not
respectful and proper.

"Your son," Reinhardt addressed her father.
"He is coming with you to Palestine?"

"Yes, yes, and the other squire as well. I
will knight my son before we leave, of course. He is the elder and
well deserves it."

She caught the triumphant exchange of smiles
between the two boys. Then glancing over saw Reinhardt suppress a
frown. "I suppose he will need a squire of his own, then?"

Elias, interrupting the conversation at the
high table broke in, "No, Father feels Albrecht may serve us
both."

Reinhardt muttered, "Indeed?" but
acknowledged it when Sigismund apologized for his overanxious son's
lapse in manners.

"Our needs are not so onerous that the boy
cannot take care of both. If it proves unworkable, I am sure there
will be plenty of young men of squire's rank and training that I
can take into my employ."

Reinhardt leveled cold gray eyes on his host.
"You would let your son keep your current squire?"

"They are so good together. I should not want
to break them apart."

A soft chuckle from Reinhardt made Elisabeth
look at him sharply. He caught her gaze, reached for her hand and
lifted it to his lips. "You are such a loving family, my dear. You
should make a most attentive mother."

Adalberta chimed in, "My daughter is an
accomplished needle worker and has all the knowledge and skills she
needs to conduct a sound household."

Elisabeth blushed scarlet and dropped her
eyes. To her horror Reinhardt put his fingertips under her chin and
raised her face to his. His thumb came up and brushed her lower
lip. If she could have gotten any redder, she would have. "My dear
Elisabeth, you are so young, so fresh. By the time we are returned
to Bavaria from the Holy Land, laden with plunder, you shall have
filled out into your full womanly form. Then you shall come to my
castle to be its mistress."

Her heart sank. He still wanted her, in spite
of his obvious disappointment in how she looked. He perhaps
believed it was the slender awkwardness of girlhood. Who knows? He
could be right. She was not sure whether she wanted him to be.

Adalberta touched her husband's arm. He
looked back at her, and then seemed to remember something. "My
lord, there is one thing my wife and I would like to discuss with
you before your wedding."

"I should think the arrangements regarding
dower and inheritance were clear enough," the baron responded
curiously.

Sigismund looked uncomfortable. "We shall
discuss it after the young people have left the table."

Reinhardt's lifted eyebrow stayed in place as
he glanced over at Elisabeth. He began cautiously, "I imagine you
wish to make something clear about the wedding night?"

Elisabeth was horrified. She could not recall
a squeak of shock. Covering her face with both hands, she leaped
from her seat and ran indecorously out of the hall.

Sigismund sighed. "We have not discussed this
with the girl yet." Looking up at his son, he said, "Go to your
sister, Elias. Calm her down."

Torn between his affection for her and
intense curiosity he rose and followed her out of the hall into the
courtyard.

Albrecht remained, fading into the flickering
shadows to listen without being noticed.

In the courtyard Elias had found it
impossible to calm his sister. She would neither speak to him nor
look at him. He was relieved when Albrecht finally joined them
where they sat on the mounting block.

"I think you will be pleased at what has been
agreed upon, my lady," Albrecht said reassuringly.

Elisabeth lifted her tearstained face.
"What?"

Albrecht glanced at Elias and grinned. "Your
mother and father will not permit the marriage to be consummated
until the baron returns from Palestine."

"They . . . they will not? And the baron
agreed?" Elisabeth's relief was easy to hear in her voice.

"Well, he wasn't happy, but it was your dower
and inheritance about which he worried. He was afraid they would
renege on the agreement. He made them promise to stipulate that the
lack of consummation did not allow for annulment."

"Why did they do it? My parents, I mean?" she
asked.

"They said you were not ready to be a
complete woman, and your mother said she did not want you burdened
with his child not knowing if and when he would return."

Elias inquired, "And he went along with
it?"

"So long as it does not jeopardize the
transfer of your dower and property to him."

"That figures," Elias said sardonically.
Turning back to his sister, he remarked irreverently, "Just think,
you may be a widow before you are even deflowered."

Elisabeth chastised, "Elias!" and the three
made the sign of the cross. But then she smiled.

As Elisabeth, relieved, left the boys to go
to her rest, Albrecht held Elias back, saying, "There's something I
have to tell you."

Elisabeth slowed her steps long enough to
hear something about Reinhardt knowing the boy's secret. She heard
Elias exclaim, "How can he? Don't be ridiculous. It is your
imagining."

Over the few days before the wedding,
Elisabeth had ample time to observe the man she was about to marry.
He spent what time he did not spend talking with his knights and
the commander of his foot soldiers looking about the manor and its
surrounding lands. He asked her father's steward for a tour of the
holdings. The only time she saw him smile was while in conversation
with that same steward. The few times she caught him looking at
her, she saw a mix of speculation and distaste on his thin lips. He
sat stroking his pointed beard, just showing the tinge of gray in
the black hairs under his lower lip, surveying her body, front and
back.

"I am surprised he has not checked my teeth
nor taken my ankle to examine my hoof," she confided to Elias.

Her brother laughed. "Darling Elli, he has
done that, but to your lands, not your adorable person."

She looked at him, questioning. "But he
cannot expect to get Papa's holdings! Those will go to you! You and
your wife and children." Her voice trailed off. She had seen his
slight reddening and his quick glance in Albrecht's direction.

He put on his usual cheery expression. "Ah,
but I heard Father assuring him that you shall have the income from
one-third of the revenue from the estate."

Elisabeth's mouth hung open. "Really?" He
nodded. It was an unheard-of arrangement, making such a generous
provision for a daughter.

Father Boniface, the household priest,
conducted the mass and the bridal ceremony in the family's small
church. Elisabeth told her brother and Albrecht she felt like one
of those overdressed dolls her mother had brought from her own
childhood home in Lombardy.

Elias took her in his arms and planted a kiss
on her brow. "You are beautiful, sister. Simply beautiful. I even
saw your betrothed giving you an appreciative look."

She pushed him away roughly. "I am not
beautiful. Do not even say that. I am plain. I look more like a boy
than you do." She saw his raised eyebrow and hurt look. "I don't
mean you are girlish, Elias. Just that I am not."

His eyes grew serious. "Elisabeth, anyone who
knows you knows you are beautiful in ways few women can boast. Your
great heart, your wide smile and delighted laughter, your constancy
and your loving nature. And you have a cute little nose."

She laughed and slapped at him. "Oh
stop!"