Mystique (22 page)

Joan followed her gaze. “You intend to explore the cliffs?”

“Aye. I have never seen a cave. It should prove most interesting.”

“Forgive me, my lady, but I’m not certain that is a sound notion. Does Lord Hugh know of your intention?”

“Nay.” Alice smiled brightly. “He was occupied with weighty affairs of business this morning. I chose not to intrude.”

“I see.” Joan hesitated as though she felt she ought to say more on the subject but she changed her mind. “You told Sister Katherine that you did not think there would be war between the manors of Rivenhall and Scarcliffe.”

“Aye. What of it?”

“Are you certain? This land has suffered much, my lady. I do not know if it could survive such a disaster.”

Alice chuckled. “Have no fear, Lord Hugh will protect Scarcliffe.”

“I trust you are right.” Joan broke off abruptly as she glanced at a spot directly behind Alice.

A jolt of awareness went through Alice at that instant. She knew without turning around that Hugh was in the garden.

“I am well pleased to learn that you have such great faith in my abilities, lady,” he said in his emotionless voice. “I would wish that I could have a similar degree of faith in your good sense. What is this I hear about your plans to explore the caverns of Scarcliffe?”

Alice whirled about to find him looming as large and solid as Scarcliffe Keep itself on the path behind her. His black hair was windblown. His amber eyes gleamed with a dangerous intelligence. She had seen very little of Hugh during the past three days but on each occasion she’d had a similar reaction.

Whenever she happened upon him, even for a fleeting moment, the impact on her senses was startling. Her pulse quickened and something curled deep in her stomach. Memories of the night in Ipstoke when he had touched her so intimately warmed every part of her body.

She had not been able to sleep well for thinking of that passionate interlude. Last night she had prepared a hot drink of chamomile tea to settle her senses. She had got herself to sleep but she had dreamed.
How
she had dreamed.

“You startled me, my lord.” She fought her unsettled reaction to him by glowering ferociously. “I did not hear you come into the garden. I thought you were occupied with your accounts this morning.”

“I was very busy with them until I learned that you
planned a venture into the caverns.” Hugh inclined his head slightly toward Joan, “Good day to you, madam.”

“Good day, my lord.” Joan glanced from Hugh’s grim face to Alice’s scowling features and back again. She cleared her throat discreetly. “Mayhap ‘tis just as well you have come, my lord. I was a trifle concerned myself about Lady Alice’s plans. She is new to this land and does not yet know all its dangers.”

“Aye,” Hugh said. “And at the moment the most serious danger she faces is me.” He braced his fists on his hips. “What in the name of the devil do you think you are about, lady?”

She refused to be intimidated. “I merely wish to search for some interesting stones.”

“You are not to go into the caverns alone. Ever. Is that understood?”

Alice patted his sleeve in a soothing manner. “Calm yourself, my lord. I am quite skilled in the science of natural philosophy. I have been collecting interesting specimens for years. I will come to no harm.”

Hugh hooked his thumbs into his leather belt. “Heed me well, Alice. You are not to go beyond the bounds of this village alone. I forbid it.”

“Would you care to come with me? I could use a stout man to help me carry whatever interesting objects I may discover.”

For a second or two, Hugh looked completely taken aback by the invitation. He recovered immediately and cast a disparaging glance at the leaden sky. “There will be rain soon.”

“Unlikely, I think.” Alice looked up. “Tis just somewhat overcast.”

A speculative gleam appeared in Hugh’s eyes. “Very well, madam, as you are the expert on matters of natural philosophy around here, I shall bow to your judgment. I’ll escort you on your expedition.”

“As you wish.” Elation welled up inside Alice. She tried to appear unconcerned, as though Hugh’s decision was of no great moment.

Joan looked relieved. “Take care not to stumble upon our wandering monk while you’re traipsing about in the
vicinity of the cliffs. I am told that he is encamped in one of the caves.”

Hugh frowned as he took Alice’s arm. “Why is Calvert of Oxwick sleeping in the caves?”

Joan’s features remained serenely composed but her eyes sparkled with humor. “No doubt because I refused to give him a cell here in the convent. There really is nowhere else for him to spread a pallet except Scarcliffe Keep itself. Apparently he did not dare to impose on your hospitality, my lord.”

“Just as well,” Alice grumbled. “I would not have Scarcliffe Keep supply any accommodations to that obnoxious man.”

Hugh raised his brows but made no comment. Belatedly it occurred to Alice that decisions regarding the extension of the keep’s hospitality were rightfully his. She was not even his true betrothed. And she had made herself a promise that she would not get overly involved in household matters.

“Well, then,” she said briskly. “We had best be off, my lord. The day is getting along, is it not?”

T
he first drops of rain struck as they started up the rocky hillside beneath the caverns.

“By the Saints.” Alice fumbled with the hood of her mantle. “We will get soaked to the skin if we do not get into the shelter of the caves.”

“I told you it was going to rain.” Hugh grabbed her hand and pulled her swiftly toward the first of the dark openings etched in the cliffs.

“Do you make it a habit to point out your infallibility on each of those occasions when you happen to be correct in your estimation of a situation?” Alice broke into a run to keep up with him.

“Nay.” Laughter warmed Hugh’s eyes as he pulled her beneath the overhang of a large cavern. “As I am almost always correct, ‘twould be too much of a bother to mention that fact every time it is proven.”

She glowered at him for a moment and then her attention was captured by his rain-dampened hair. For some
reason the sight of it, tousled and plastered against his well-shaped head, made him look somehow different. Gentler, even a trifle vulnerable.

She caught her breath on a wild rush of hope. If Hugh really did have some gentleness in him, some degree of softness and vulnerability, mayhap he could learn to love her.

The rain began to fall in earnest. Thunder rolled in the distance.

As though he meant to squash any false illusion of underlying softness, Hugh ran careless fingers through his wet mane. He brushed it ruthlessly behind his ears, exposing his high forehead and the severe, predatory lines of his cheekbones. In the blink of an eye he was transformed back into a man who could easily shoulder the weight of a legend.

Alice smiled wistfully. “You are impossible, my lord.”

A hint of amusement edged his mouth. He glanced curiously around at their surroundings. “Behold your cave, madam.”

Alice followed his gaze and shivered a little. “‘Tis somewhat dark, is it not?”

“Caves tend to be gloomy places,” he said dryly.

The cavern was large. Its depths were lost in the shadows that shrouded the far end. The gray light of the rain-drenched day did not reach more than a short distance into the interior. There was an air of perpetual dampness about the place. Somewhere water dripped on stone.

“Next time I must remember to bring a torch,” Alice said.

“Aye. Without one we cannot see much, can we?”

“Nay.” She refused to admit that she was glad that they had a good excuse not to go deeper into the cavern. “‘Tis unfortunate that we must limit our investigations today, but it cannot be helped.”

Hugh rested one hand against the rocky wall and looked out over the village and fields of Scarcliffe. “There is a fine prospect from up here, even when rain is falling.”

Alice saw the pride of possession in his golden eyes. “On a clear day one would be able to see a great distance.”

“All the way to Rivenhall.”

The dangerous softness of his tone made Alice uneasy. She recalled the healer’s words.
The seeds of revenge were planted in the past. They have sent forth a dark herb that poisons this land
.

Alice told herself that she did not believe in legends. She gazed out into the rain and wondered why the healer’s words had held the ring of truth.

“Well, Alice?” Hugh said after a moment. He did not turn to look at her. His attention was still on the landscape spread out before him.

“Well what, my lord?” Alice leaned down to examine a chunk of dark stone.

“It seems to me that you have had ample time for contemplation. What is your decision?”

She froze over the dark stone as his meaning became plain. She stifled a groan of dismay and sought refuge in a pretense of misunderstanding. “‘Tis an interesting bit of rock but I do not believe that it is all that unusual. I would like to find a sample of the stone that was used to build the keep. Now that is a most interesting sort. I have never seen its like.”

“I was not talking about that damned stone and well you know it.” His gaze flickered briefly with cold impatience. “Have you made up your mind to wed me?”

“Bones of the Saints, my lord, it has been a mere three days since you requested my decision. I would point out that both of us have been extremely busy during that time.”

“Busy? You have done little except choose a clumsy oaf of a steward.”

“Elbert will make you an excellent steward,” she countered. “And how dare you accuse me of idleness? I have hardly had a chance to think, let alone to weigh the merits of such an important matter as marriage.”

Hugh said nothing for a moment. Then he lowered himself onto a rocky outcropping and rested his elbows on his knees. His gaze remained fixed on the distant lands of Rivenhall, which were shrouded in a rainy mist.

“Do you hate this land, Alice?”

She was startled by the question. “Scarcliffe? Nay, my lord. I do not hate it.”

“You find it ugly.”

“Nay, that is not true. I’ll grant you that it is not a gentle landscape, but ‘tis an interesting and varied place.”

“Scarcliffe will soon flourish. I will see to it.”

“I do not doubt that, my lord.”

“What of the keep?” he persisted. “Do you dislike it?”

“Nay. As you noted, it appears strong. Easily defended.” She paused, wondering where this line of inquiry was going. “And, in truth, ‘tis more comfortable inside than it first appeared.”

“So you do not object to making your home in it?”

“Uh, well, as I just said, there is nothing in particular to object to in the keep.”

“I am pleased to learn this.” Hugh picked up a small pebble and tossed it carelessly down the sloping hillside. It was a surprisingly playful gesture, a gesture at odds with his decidedly stern nature. “If in future you do discover that there is a problem with the keep you will tell me about it and I will see that it is remedied at once.”

“Aye, my lord. Thank you.” Alice watched him skip another pebble down the wet hillside. She wondered what sort of childhood Hugh had experienced. A short one, no doubt, just as her own had been. A bastard would have been forced to assume the mantle of manhood early in his life.

“So, you do not find the manor to be unpleasant and you are content with the keep,” Hugh concluded.

“Aye, my lord,” Alice said warily. “I am content.”

“Then there is no reason to put off the marriage, is there?”

Alice threw up her hands in exasperation. “My lord, I begin to perceive why it is that they call you Hugh the Relentless.”

“I do not care to waste unnecessary time.”

“I assure you, we are not wasting time. I need every bit of it that I can get.” She sat down on a large rock near the mouth of the cave and opened the sack the miller’s son had given her. “Would you care for a bit of fresh-baked bread?”

Hugh frowned at the loaf as she withdrew it from the sack. “You are attempting to change the subject.”

“Very observant of you.”

“Alice, I am not a man who is much given to hesitation or delay.”

“I am learning that truth all too well, my lord.” Alice tore off a chunk of the bread and handed it to him. “But in this matter, I fear you must learn patience.”

Hugh pinned her with his hunter’s eyes as he reached out for the bread. “How long will it take you to make up your mind?”

“I have no notion.” She nibbled determinedly at her portion of the loaf.

Hugh tore a large chunk out of his bread and chewed grimly.

Silence fell. So did the rain, heavily and steadily.

After a moment Alice cautiously relaxed. Hugh was apparently willing to let the subject of marriage drop, at least for the moment.

She took another bite of the crusty bread and indulged herself in the fleeting pleasure of Hugh’s company. It was good to sit here alone with him, to pretend that they were friends and partners and that they would share the future together. Surely such a fantasy did no harm.

“Elbert is creating havoc in the keep,” Hugh said after a long interval. “Do you think you should choose another to carry out his duties?”

Alice pulled herself out of her warm reverie. “Elbert will learn quickly. I spoke to several possible candidates for the position and he was by far the most intelligent and eager. Give him time, my lord.”

“That is easy for you to say. As you choose to dine alone in your chambers, you have not yet experienced the adventure of taking a meal in the great hall with the rest of us. I assure you, Elbert’s supervision makes it an unforgettable event.”

Alice glanced at him. “If you find it unpleasant to dine in the great hall, why do you not do as I do? Have your meal sent to your private chambers.” She hesitated and then added, very daringly, “Or you could join me, my lord.”

“That is not possible.”

Alice felt her face grow hot at the unequivocal rejection of her offer. “Forgive me for suggesting it. I did not mean to overstep my bounds.”

He shot her an irritated look. “Do you not realize that a lord must take his main meals in the company of his men?”