Somehow Beaufort managed to convince Hereford that Radnor could not possibly be approached, and Hereford went off grumbling bitterly.
Chapter 19
Several days later, legs stretched before him, belt loosened, and replete with food and wine, Lord Radnor smiled patiently at Giles' insistent question.
"Very well," he said with a soft laugh, "I see that you are angry, being neither blind nor deaf, but I cannot think why. You ask what I was doing at Petworth and how I escaped. I can only tell you again that I was never there. Nor, as you well know, did I ever have any intention of going there." He listened to his master-of-arms splutter with rage for a moment. "But why are you angry with me because you took some harebrained notion from Roger of Hereford? It was you who told me his head was not bolted on right. Why, knowing what you do, did you listen to him?"
"My lord," Leah interposed, "Giles will take a stroke. Pray do not tease him any more. Truly, we would be glad to know what really did occur if you are not too tired to talk."
"It is briefly told. Pembroke and I left as arranged without let or hindrance. We rode due south as was planned and made a fair distance that night. No thanks for that was due to Pembroke either. His chest hurt him; his arms hurt him. He was forever tired or cold or hungry or thirsty. You would think that he was wounded in the tourney and I was the fugitive from the reluctance he showed to swift retreat. I do not think I have wailed in my whole life as much as he did in that one night. In any case, we did drag him forward, and early the next morning Philip of Gloucester sent a warning to the king that Pembroke was on his way south."
"Philip?" Leah gasped, "Philip told—"
Cain patted the hand that clutched his arm. "It was by our arrangement, my love."
"I suppose you did not think us trustworthy enough to keep the secret," Giles growled.
"It is easier to look surprised when one
is
surprised." Radnor laughed. "It was simple enough. My father gathered some of Pembroke's men who were loose in the town and, when Stephen was in sight, bade them flee into Petworth."
"Well," Giles muttered grudgingly, "it is not so mad as I thought. What went forward then?"
"My father and Pembroke, of course," Cain said with mischievous solemnity.
"Pah!" was Giles' only rejoinder to that piece of nonsense, and Leah giggled and pulled her husband's ear.
"We parted at Cocksfield," Radnor said more soberly. "I hope that my father and Pembroke made Pevensey before moonrise the next night. I came home." He laughed softly again. "I was full sorry to miss the siege at Petworth. I would have loved to see the king's face when the castle gates were opened, as it were in fear and trembling, and Stephen entered in triumph—to find nothing."
"Then is the king still at Petworth?" Leah asked. She had not released a grip on some part of Cain's body since she had first embraced him. It was as if she could not believe him to be back safe without physical contact.
"I cannot think so, although it would be all to the good. Soon as they enter, Stephen must learn the truth and go on to Pevensey, but by then my father will be safe away."
"Nay." Giles grunted. "Pevensey is impregnable and fronts on the sea so that Gaunt may go whenever it suits him best, or not go at all. Stephen will never take him there."
"I still think it dangerous," Leah said. "You do not know my father. In anger or spite, he could open the gates to the king."
Radnor frowned at his wife. "Treason could open the gates, but he would be mad to do it."
"If the water should fail in this dreadful drought or he should be hungered by a long siege—"
"There can be no want at Pevensey. Springs flow in the bailey so there is always water, and the serfs go down by leather ladders to the sea to fish. Moreover they can even unload small boats that stand in under the cliffs and are therefore safe from the attackers. No, Pevensey will not be taken, unless— In any case, we have taken precautions against any length of siege. Why do you think William of Gloucester, Leicester, and the other neutral lords rode with Stephen? Only to convince him that a siege was hopeless. Even Philip—my poor Philip! If I had known he would be so mad as to go, I had never confided these plans to him."
"We must all die," Giles said. "Mayhap you have done him a mercy."
Leah said nothing, only tightened her grip on her husband's shoulders, knowing that he could have no comfort on this subject until he accepted the fact that Philip was lost to him. Lord Radnor set his jaw for a moment and then continued speaking as though there had been no interruption to his tale.
"Those lords rode, not to make war, but to make talk. In a week Stephen himself will be returned, convinced that Pembroke has fled." Cain closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "Pembroke will be in Wales; I will be abed. All this rushing and riding and shouting and whispering will be as if it had never been. What a waste. What a waste. We are just where we were when we first arrived in London."
"Not quite, my lord," Giles said bitterly. "Pembroke is free to make more trouble, indeed, but Chester is in prison and Fitz Richard's estates forfeit. You had best bestir yourself a little to think of some remedy for that."
"Oh, Giles, may he not rest even for an hour in peace? Do not forget, my sweet lord, that good has come of this too. Roger of Hereford is not only free, but has learned a bitter lesson. He will look twice before he sets his foot in another trap."
"Speaking of Hereford," Giles grinned, "had we not better send him word that you may be spoken to again before he leaps headlong into more trouble?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact, I need him. I have thought much on the subject of Chester and I see light, but I must have Roger's help in this." Cain bent his head forward as a warm caress touched his neck. Leah had been fooling with his hair and tickling his ears for some time; now she had put her lips just above the collar of his gown and nipped him gently. It was immediately apparent to Lord Radnor that he had done enough for his country that morning. "Do not send for him now, or if you think it necessary, send and say I have just dropped asleep again. I have a sudden and great desire to do some more riding."
Giles looked startled. "To where? Will you need me, my lord?"
"Oh, I do not intend to get anywhere in particular, and I certainly hope I will not need you." Lord Radnor lowered his lids and laughed suggestively. "I only need you when I have trouble, and I hope to have no trouble in mounting this mare."
Laughing, Giles shook his head. "Ay, there are some things a man must do without help from others. Being born is one of them, and making children is another. Mind your sore ribs if you cannot wait."
Leah had walked away to cool her hot face in the breeze from the window. It was bad enough for her husband to inform the entire room of his intentions, but she wished he would not speak of her to others in terms of her purpose in life as a brood mare. Usually Cain was thoughtful about not making a point of the one real use he had for her. Usually, Leah thought, he exhibited a genuine or pretended pleasure in her company that nearly obscured the reason for his lovemaking, nearly made her believe that it was his desire for her alone that initiated his caresses.
A burning resentment filled her. Why should she love him and he desire her only for the fruit of her womb? She wished to cry out that she was real, a person as much as he was, that she could think and feel and should be valued for more than the children she would bear. Some day she would find the courage and tell him; then Leah sighed. So she would tell him, and either he would laugh good-naturedly at her foolishness—as if a dog had tried to speak—or he would be surprised and disgusted.
Meanwhile Lord Radnor had come up behind his wife. He pushed her braids apart and kissed the nape of her neck. Leah bent her head forward to accommodate him, the warmth of his lips flooding her until she thought her bones would melt. Vaguely, a last coherent thought before her whole being was taken up by her physical response was that it did not matter what a woman thought within herself. She had no power to enforce her will because she could not even remain angry under the male touch.
Unconscious of the pain he had caused her, Radnor slid his hands under Leah's arms to cup her breasts and pull her back against his body. Through her clothes and his Leah could feel him quiver with desire, and she sighed, so dizzy she would have fallen if not for his supporting arms.
Suddenly he let her go, pushed her behind him viciously, and turned so swiftly that the thrust of his hip threw her to her knees. Fifteen years of guarding his life and others from sudden death made for sharp ears even when all of his senses were concentrated elsewhere. The soft click of a door latch had often enough been the only warning he had of an enemy's approach, and Radnor had responded to it instantaneously.
"Hell and damnation!" he roared. "Is there no time when those cursed women of yours do not come creeping in and out of your room?"
Alison backed out with a cry of terror, but her place was instantly taken by Hereford, his beautiful skin bright red with wrath, his eyes the blue of a flame too hot to burn red.
"Yesterday you were dying—dying were you? Would it not have been kinder to speak the truth and say you would be bothered with me no more or that I was too dangerous to know or not important enough to know."
"Hereford, wait!" Lord Radnor glanced distractedly from his wife, still on her knees and leaning her head against the window ledge, to the young man who was just disappearing through the antechamber.
"Go," Leah gasped, "go after him. I am unhurt."
"Stop him!" Radnor called from the head of the stairs, knowing he could never get down them in time and desiring nothing less than a chase through the streets of London. "Hold him unhurt, curse you," he shouted to the men-at-arms as they fell upon Hereford. "If he bears one bruise or one scratch, I'll tear the man who did it limb from limb."
Radnor came down the steps as quickly as possible, watching approvingly the beating Hereford was handing out to the men who restrained him, but forbore, in fear of their master, from striking back.
"Hereford, Hereford," he cried, "let me speak."
He had reached the group and was about to speak with or without permission, but for several moments he was silent, listening with awed approval to the startling string of obscenities his fair young friend was mouthing. They were something exceptional even in his wide experience. When Hereford began to repeat himself, Radnor laughed, but seeing no other way to quiet him he enveloped him in his own arms. Cain grunted with pain as Hereford lashed out and strained to get loose.
"Roger," he said firmly, "if you put those broken ribs of mine through my lungs, I swear I will come back from the grave and haunt you."
The earl relaxed the pressure he was exerting immediately. "I cannot believe there is anything more we have to say to each other," he gasped furiously.
"Only come upstairs again where we may be private," Cain replied in a low voice. "If you so desire, I will go down on my knees and beg your pardon, but not before my men. It would be very bad for them. Let me explain what befell and why you were not told. You can be angry after the explanation as well as before it if you insist on being angry. If I let you go, will you come?"
"Very well," Hereford said sullenly, "but if you want me up there, get rid of that lying little bitch you married. I have had enough of watching her paw you."
Lord Radnor's expression grew rigid for a moment, but Hereford was too important to his present plans for him to display his jealousy or to take offence at anything he said or did.
"You are heated," Cain said slowly, "and I will let that pass, although it is no way to speak of my wife. You may have cause to be angry, but not with her. Nonetheless I would show how much in earnest I am to please you, and if you insist, Leah can wait in the antechamber until our talk is finished."
"No, I do not insist," Hereford snarled. "If you can no longer think what to say unless she hangs on you, let it be as you will. I expect any day to see you take suck."
Leah heard that as they were coming in and blushed hotly. Such a view of her affectionate behavior to Cain had never occurred to her, and she was shocked. She blamed herself for never having looked past her own pleasure in caressing him before his friends. The idea that her husband should have corrected her she dismissed. She knew him well enough now to understand that if he were satisfied he was arrogant enough to care little or nothing about what anyone else thought.
Turning on her the frown that he really wished to bestow upon Hereford, Cain snapped, "Leah, go busy yourself with your maids and your work. I want this room to myself for a time."
She lifted her head, her color fading. Perhaps it was true that she had made a mistake in making her lord look foolish, but it was her right to be reprimanded privately. Besides, this was her chamber. Under the circumstances it was comprehensible that Cain should wish to display his authority, but Leah was still a little sore from the earlier discussion with Giles and she felt that he could have phrased what he had to say differently. She dropped a deep curtsy, a thing she had not done since they were married except as a joke, and deliberately lifted her lids to show the hurt eyes filled with tears.
Cain had no time to give a sign of weakening because the other soft heart melted first. Hereford was much woman-ridden at home, two sisters and a mother frequently making him a victim of their tears. In the beginning he had sworn time and again that he would be firm, but experience had brought him wisdom and by now he accepted defeat gracefully.
"Do not weep, madam," he said hastily, "there is no need for you to go. I do not suppose there is anything that Lady Radnor does not already know that you have to tell me," he added, very neatly placing the blame for the incident on Cain's innocent head.
"It is your choice, Hereford," Radnor replied, trying and failing to put the shoe on the foot it really fit. "Of my affairs it is true that there is nothing she does not know."