Hellion (50 page)

Vivienne made to snatch her hand away, but her intended clasped it tightly, growling, “Come, lady, do not be foolish.”

The priest performed the ceremony as quickly as he dared. He was not comfortable in this Great Hall of the d’ Bretagnes. It was surely a cursed place. He doubted the word of God had ever been heard here, nor would be again. When he had finished,
he hastily made a sign of the cross over the newly married couple and nodded to the count.

“Now,” said the Count of Brittany jovially, as if this were a happy occasion, “have your servants bring wine, lady, and we shall drink a toast to you and your new husband, and afterward you and your brother will both swear your fealty to me.”

When they all had goblets in their hands, the count, raising his, said, “Long life, and many children!”

Simon de Beaumont grinned, showing surprisingly white teeth against his tanned skin. “We’ll do our best to give your lordship a generation of loyal sons and daughters for Brittany.” His arm was clasped possessively about Vivienne’s tiny waist, but he was finally forced to release his firm hold on his new bride that she and her brother might pledge their loyalty to the count.

“Before I go,” Count Alan said, “will you tell me who this other lady is who has been with us?”

“The lady is my wife,” Guy d’ Bretagne said.

“She is lovely,” the count remarked. Then, turning back to Simon, he said, “You have your instructions, de Beaumont. Keep La Citadelle secure for me.” The count and his small party departed the castle.

“I will watch from the ramparts,” Hugh said, “and bring you my report, lady.” He bowed, and was quickly gone from the hall.

“Your people must learn that I am now lord here,” Simon de Beaumont said sternly.

“You are my sister’s husband, de Beaumont,” Guy told him, “but La Citadelle belongs to Vivi. You may plan its defenses for your master, but your wife is mistress here. Without her goodwill, no one will heed your orders. Count Alan is gone now.”

“You would defy Brittany’s ruler?” de Beaumont blustered.

“There is no challenge here,” Guy said. “You do not understand. Allow me to enlighten you, but come let us be comfortable while I speak.” He returned to the high board, seating
himself and taking Belle into his lap, where he began feeding her morsels of bread and cheese. “Here at La Citadelle we live beneath the benign rule of a matriarchy. This castle has been inherited by its eldest daughter for so long that no one can quite remember when or where the tradition came from, de Beaumont. These women sometimes take husbands, and other times not; but no matter, they remain first and foremost mistress of La Citadelle. Their husbands and lovers are nothing more than pleasant conveniences. Oh, by the way, do you know that my sister has been taking lovers since she was fourteen? I hope you are a good cocksman, Brother Simon. Vivienne has a voracious appetite for passion. You do understand now, don’t you? We will not prevent you in any way from doing your duty to Count Alan, but you must not interfere in the way of life that we enjoy here at La Citadelle.”

Simon de Beaumont was outraged, but, looking around him at the band of ruffians inhabiting the hall, he knew he had little chance of survival should he object. They probably wanted him to object so they could kill him. What kind of a den of evil had his master sent him into? His new male relation smiled at him wolfishly, and he was angry. He would not allow this man or his sister to intimidate him.

“Why do you feed your lady?” he asked Guy, changing the subject.

“Belle is allowed to eat and drink only at my pleasure,” Guy d’ Bretagne said. “She is a very obedient little wife.” He caressed her breasts beneath her elegant tunic. “I bathe her, too, do I not, my precious? She is very delicious, are you not, Belle?”

“If you say so, my lord,” Isabelle replied, her tone amused.

Guy laughed. “You see, Brother Simon. She is a treasure!”

Hugh reentered the hall. “The count’s army has gone over the hill,” he said. “I have sent riders after them to make certain they are really gone, and this is not some ruse.” He sat down on the other side of Vivienne, reaching out to take up the wine
pitcher. Pouring himself a healthy dollop, Hugh drank the potent liquid down.

The meal was brought in, and they ate in relative silence. Afterward Guy said wickedly, “I think, sister, that it is time you took your bridegroom to your bed. He looks as if he may prove a sturdy mount.” He turned to Simon. “You will be careful not to crush her beneath your great weight, will you not? You will be delighted at how delicately made she is, and none has fairer skin.”

“You speak as if you know,” Simon de Beaumont said.

Guy laughed uproariously. “Of course I know. Who do you think was my sister’s first lover?
I was!
”

The count’s knight grew pale with shock. “Such a thing is forbidden,” he said.

“
Forbidden
?” Guy laughed again. “Nothing is forbidden to the d’ Bretagnes, brother Simon.
Absolutely nothing at all!
”

“Ohh, Guy,” Vivienne chided her brother. “Must you tell all our secrets?” Then she giggled. “Well, perhaps not
all!
”

“Lady,” Simon de Beaumont said sternly, “you will behave like a good Christian wife from now on, or I shall be forced to instruct you in the ways of propriety.”

Vivienne laughed. “Do you want me to be more like Belle, Simon, my lord husband? Belle is very docile. At my brother’s request she lay with both him and Sir Hugh for their pleasure. Shall we allow Sir Hugh to lie with us one night after we have gotten to know one another better?” she purred into his ear. Then her little tongue flicked about her lips.

Simon de Beaumont was shocked, and not certain he believed her at all, but her tone was very exciting. She was utterly exciting. He could feel his desire for her rising, and, standing, he pulled her up. “Take me to your chamber, Vivienne,” he said. “I am of a mind to be better acquainted with you. Be warned, lady. I am a tireless lover.”

“So am I.” Vivienne laughed again, and led him away.

Guy stood up. “Let us follow their lead,” he said, drawing Belle from the hall after him.

Hugh sat alone. In a sense, he was relieved to be quit of them all. Tonight he would sleep alone for the first time in months. Standing, he left the hall and joined his falconers in their hay barn.

“Have you been able to approach the Langston men?” he asked them. “What did they say to you?”

“They will not leave unless the lady Isabelle goes, too,” Alain said. “Damn fools! As if we would leave the lady behind.”

“She suggested it,” Hugh told them, “but I have told her that when we go, we all go together, my lads.”

“But how, my lord? And when?” Lind asked him.

Hugh shook his head. “I feel like a dunce,” he admitted to them. “I do not yet know. I have wracked my brain, and yet I cannot think of a way. I debated telling Count Alan our tale, but I feared he would do nothing. I will come in the morning when ma Belle comes to visit Couper. We will talk then, and perhaps she will have some suggestion of sorts.” He left them and returned to his new apartment in the castle to sleep.

When the dawn came, Hugh went to the mews and found Belle there.

“I know a way from the castle without going through the barbican and across the drawbridge,” she told him excitedly. “I learned of it yesterday, but then I could find no moment in which to tell you, with all the ado about Vivienne’s wedding.”

“What is the way?” he asked her excitedly.

“Guy is to show me today. There are stairs from the deepest cellars down through the rock to the beach below. We must learn the tides for they sometimes flood the caves, and if we were caught, we could all drown,” Isabelle told him. “Hugh! Hugh! At last we have a chance!”

“Aye,” he agreed with her, and then said, “We will also have to learn how far the beaches extend up the coast toward Normandy, and if they are passable. We must find a way to get our horses away, and Couper.”

“Perhaps the Langston men could leave through the gates, taking the horses with them for exercise. I can bring Couper on my gauntlet. No! Let Lind and Alain bring her. They will take the birds into the fields to exercise them. No one will question them about it. That is what we will do!” Then she thought, and said, “But where shall we go, my lord? To Duke Robert’s court at Rouen? Certainly he would help us return to England. I know of no other way, do you?”

Hugh shook his head. “We can but pray he is on good terms with King Henry, ma Belle. If the brothers are at war, we shall be caught in the middle once again. For two people whose only desire is for a quiet life …” He chuckled, and she laughed with him.

Chapter 17

T
he impossible had happened. In the space of a single night Vivienne d’ Bretagne had fallen out of love with Hugh Fauconier and madly in love with Simon de Beaumont, her husband. She could scarcely believe it herself as she gushingly told her brother.

“
He
is wonderful, Guy! He is everything I always wanted in a man. A tireless lover! And unafraid of us, brother.
He beat mer
,” she finished in a whisper.

“
He what
?” Guy d’ Bretagne was outraged. Surely he had not heard aright. While he enjoyed gently chastising a woman, it was always done with love, never brutality. Vivienne’s fair skin bore bruises, he now noted. Guy d’ Bretagne had never marked a woman’s skin like that.
Never!

“I was very naughty.” Vivienne giggled inanely.

“Have you lost all your wits?” her brother said furiously. “You are Vivienne d’ Bretagne, not some silly female of lesser blood. This man is not even your equal, or he would have his own lands. How dare he lay hands on you in violence?”

“
I liked it
,” Vivienne said softly. “Do you not comprehend, brother? This man is stronger than I. All my life I have been the great Vivienne d’ Bretagne, of a race of sorcerers, and dangerous to behold. Every lover I took feared me. Perhaps not Hugh, for without a memory Hugh knew not what fear was, but I will tell you something I have never dared to utter aloud, although I knew it in my heart. Hugh has loved before. Whoever she is, even without the memory of her, he yet loves
her. He never ever gave himself to me fully, although he has certainly never been disloyal. I loved him, but I dared not to give myself to him completely for fear that his memory would suddenly come upon him and he would then despise me.

“It is not that way with Simon. He does not love me yet, but he will, brother. I love him as I have never loved any man. He will have me completely! My body, my mind, yea, even my very soul; or he will kill me. He has said it. I am his gladly!”

Guy d’ Bretagne was horrified. “Vivi,” he said in his gentlest voice. “You are behaving like a silly child. People like us do not dare to love as you describe it. It weakens us.” He took her hand in his. “
Petite soeur
, enjoy your lusty stallion, but do not love him with such deep and undying passion. It will be the death of you.”

“And you, brother,” she replied in equally soft tones. “Do you not love your pretty Belle that way? Do not lie to me. I have seen the way you look at her.”

“Yes,” he admitted, “I do love her, Vivi, but I should never allow her to have the upper hand over me as you are allowing your new husband to have over you. I am always in control of our passion.”

“I am weary of being in control. I am tired of being feared,” Vivienne said. “I want to be like other women, Guy.”

“You will never be like other women,” he told her angrily, “and when you wish otherwise, you shame our heritage! We are d’ Bretagne! We descend from a great race. You, my sister, are like the finest mare ever bred, but you have taken for your mate a common rutting boar of the forest. I hope you do not live to regret it!”

“You must send Hugh away,” Vivienne said, ignoring her sibling’s anger.

“Nay,” Guy responded, “I will not do it. You will tell him of your feelings for your husband. Then, sister, you will offer him the choice of remaining as a knight for the castle, or leaving. I pray he will stay, Vivi, for I believe we will need him in the
days to come else your
husband
fill La Citadelle with his kind.”

“Will you at least remain with me when I tell Hugh?” Vivienne asked her brother. “If he grows angry, I know you can stem his ire.”

“I will stay. Where is Simon now?”

“He sleeps,” she said, blushing. “I will return to him shortly.”

Guy snorted with disbelief. For one thing, he had never in his entire life seen Vivi blush like a maiden. It was all very disconcerting, and not just a little distasteful.

Hugh came in from the mews in the company of Belle, but both of the d’ Bretagnes were too distracted to make note of it.

“Come and break your fast, Hugh,” Guy invited him. “Vivi has news of a somewhat startling nature.” He filled the goblets set at their places with newly pressed cider, and tore a large chunk off the fresh loaf which he pushed down the board to the other man. “Sit in my lap, Belle, and I will feed you while my sister speaks.”