Mystique (32 page)

Alice swallowed. “Wedding service?”

“Our marriage ceremony, madam.” Hugh’s mouth curved in a wintry smile. “Or had you forgotten about it?”

“Nay, of course not.” Alice picked up her spoon, gripping it so tightly that the blood left the tips of her fingers.

By the Saints, he is furious
, she thought. Far more so than she had realized. She wondered what she should do next. She had no notion of how to handle Hugh when he was in this mood. Despair threatened to sweep over her. She fought it with sheer willpower.

“You have not answered my question.” Hugh helped himself to a slice of the hot cheese and leek tart that a servant brought to the table.

“What question was that, my lord?”

“Why have you condescended to dine with your future lord and his men?”

“It was not an act of condescension. I merely wished to enjoy the meal with you. Is that so odd?”

Hugh considered briefly as he sampled a bite of the tart. “Aye. Most odd.”

He was toying with her, Alice thought. Baiting her, “Well, ‘tis the truth, sir.” She concentrated on a dish of almond-flavored vegetables. “I wanted to welcome you home from London.”

“Welcome me or placate me?”

Alice’s temper flared. She put down her spoon with a thump. “I am not here because I seek to placate you, sir.”

“Are you certain?” A humorless smile played around the edges of Hugh’s mouth. “I have often noticed that your manners improve greatly when you seek a boon. One could view your actions today as those of a woman who knows she has overstepped herself. Mayhap you think to make amends for what you did yesterday?”

Alice knew she could not eat a single morsel now. She stood up abruptly and turned to confront him. “I did what I thought was necessary.”

“Sit down.”

“Nay, I will not sit down, sir. I came to dine with you here today because I wished to see if you cared for the improvements that have been made in this keep.” She waved a hand at the black and amber canopy overhead. “You have not said one word about the decorations.”

“Sit down, Alice.”

“Nor have you bothered to pay attention to the excellent food.” She glowered at him. “I spent hours organizing this household while you were gone and you have not deigned to extend a single kind word. Tell me, do you find the tart tasty, my lord? Did you notice that it was warm, not cold?”

Hugh narrowed his eyes. “I am more interested in other matters at the moment.”

“Have you tried the ale? It is newly brewed.”

“I have not sampled it yet.”

“Did you enjoy the pleasant scent of your linens? What about the fresh rushes on the floor? Did you note that the garderobe shafts have all been washed with a great quantity of water and now exude a pleasant fragrance?”

“Alice—”

“What of the new colors that Julian and I so carefully chose? I added amber to match your eyes.”

“Madam, I vow, if you do not sit down immediately, I shall—”

She ignored him to shake out the folds of her skirts. “And what about my new gown, sir? The maids worked late into the night to finish the embroidery. Do you like it?”

He raked the black and amber garment with a single glance. “Did you think that the sight of you wearing my colors would sweeten my temper?” His hand closed fiercely around the arm of his chair. “By the devil, do you believe that I care more about clean garderobes than I do about vengeance?”

Alice was incensed. “I did no more than you yourself would have done had you been here when young Reginald came to plead for aid.”

Hugh’s eyes gleamed with fury. “You think to excuse your actions with such poor logic?”

“Aye, my lord, I do. You will never convince me that you would have let Lady Emma, her young son, and her entire household fall into the clutches of that horrible Eduard of Lockton. Regardless of your feelings toward
Rivenhall, you are far too noble to allow the innocent to suffer for the sake of your vengeance.”

“You know nothing of my nature.”

“In that you are wrong. I know a great deal about you, sir. And in my opinion, ‘tis most unfortunate that your fine nobility of manner is exceeded only by your monumental stubbornness.”

Alice whisked up her skirts, turned, and fled from the high table. Tears burned in her eyes by the time she reached the door. She rushed down the steps and out into the sunlight.

She did not pause or look back as she dashed through the keep’s gate.

S
he did not know what made her choose the cave as her destination. But for some obscure reason Alice found solace in the shadows of the large cavern where Hugh had made love to her.

It had been a lone, witless flight. What had she, thought to accomplish by fleeing the keep so ignominiously? she wondered.

She sat down on an outcropping of stone near the cavern entrance and breathed deeply to recover from her wild run. She was disheveled and exhausted. The circlet that bound her hair had slipped to the side. Wispy red tendrils blew lightly about her cheeks. Her soft black leather shoes were scuffed. The skirts of her new gown were stained with dirt.

She had been so certain that, once his temper had cooled, Hugh would comprehend why she had gone to the rescue of Rivenhall. So certain that he would forgive her. He was a man of keen intelligence, after all, not a brute of a man as was Eduard of Lockton.

On the other hand, Hugh was not known as
Relentless
for naught, she reminded herself. Those who knew him maintained that nothing could alter his course once he
had determined upon it. And he had been determined upon revenge since the day of his birth.

There was a great heaviness in Alice’s heart. Her normally optimistic outlook had turned to a painful and quite unfamiliar mood of deep gloom. She was so accustomed to planning for the future that it came as a shock to realize that that future might well be empty.

She gazed out over the landscape of Scarcliffe and wondered morosely how she could marry a man who had no heart.

Mayhap it was time to reconsider a life within the calm, cloistered walls of the convent.

Mayhap it was time to abandon her fledgling dreams of love.

It was strange to realize that until she had met Hugh, she had never even been tempted to dream such dreams.

Alice tried to force herself to think calmly and logically about the situation. She was not yet wed. There was still time to escape the betrothal.

She could force Hugh to honor his portion of the bargain they had made. When all was said and done, he was a man who could be counted upon to abide by his word of honor. She’d had ample evidence of that last night at Rivenhall. He had stood by his oath to her even though it had cost him his vengeance.

Of course there was always the possibility that he would be only too happy to dissolve the betrothal, she thought bleakly. She had proven to be a good deal more inconvenient than even Hugh had anticipated.

The thought brought the tears to her eyes again. She started to dash them away with the sleeve of her gown, hesitated, and then succumbed to the urge to cry. She lowered her head down onto her folded arms and gave herself up to the storm of emotion that swept over her.

She had never felt so alone in her life.

I
t was a long time before the floodtide of feeling exhausted itself. Alice eventually ceased sobbing and sat quietly, her head pillowed on her arms, until she grew calm once more.

Then she embarked upon a series of short, silent, bracing lectures.

Nothing was ever resolved with tears, she reminded herself. One could not waste time regretting the past. In truth, even if she had it to do over again, she would not alter yesterday’s events. She could not have turned her back on young Reginald and Emma.

She had been so certain that Hugh would understand, so sure that he would have done as she had done.

Clearly she had been mistaken in her judgment of the dark legend that was Hugh.

One had to put one’s mistakes behind one. It was time to go forward. If she had learned naught else in her life, it was that a woman had to be strong if she wished to remain in control of her own destiny.

The difficulty she faced now lay in the fact that she was dealing with a man who had learned the same hard lesson.

She wiped her eyes with the folds of her skirts, drew a deep, steadying breath, and slowly raised her head.

The first thing she saw was Hugh.

He leaned casually against the wall of the cavern, his thumbs hooked in his leather sword belt. His expression was unreadable.

“You certainly contrived to shock the priest,” he said blandly. “I do not believe that he has ever before witnessed such an entertainment at dinner.”

Alice’s stomach clenched. “How long have you been standing there spying on me, sir? I did not hear you arrive.”

“I know. You were well occupied with your tears.”

Alice looked away from his hard, implacable face. “Have you come to taunt me further? If so, I must warn you that I am in no mood for more battle.”

“What a strange notion. I have never known you to weary of combat, madam.”

She glowered at him furiously. “By the Saints, Hugh, I have had enough.”

“If the truth be known, so have I.”

The wry tone of his voice disconcerted her. She instantly
quashed the spark of hope that leaped within her. “Have you come to apologize, my lord?”

He smiled faintly. “Do not press your luck too far, Alice.”

“Nay, of course you did not come here for such a logical, sensible reason. Well, my lord, why did you follow me then, if not to make amends?”

“I told you that you were not to come here to the caves alone.”

He was avoiding the issue, she thought, surprised. That was most unlike Hugh.

“Aye, so you did. The day you gave me your ring.” She glanced down at the broad onyx stone that weighed heavily on her thumb. Another wave of sadness washed over her. “But surely this transgression pales into insignificance compared with my astounding sins of yesterday,” she muttered.

“Aye. It does.”

She wished she could tell what he was thinking. His mood was indecipherable. He did not appear especially furious, however. It struck her that Hugh himself may not have been certain of his own feelings. The flicker of hope resurged.

“Have you come to tell me that you wish to break our betrothal contract?” she asked coolly.

“Will you pursue me through the courts if I do choose to sever it?”

She bristled. “Don’t be ridiculous. We made a bargain, if you will recall.”

“Aye.” Hugh straightened and came away from the wall. He reached down, grasped her by the shoulders, and lifted her gently to her feet. “You would not sue me for breach of promise, would you?”

“Nay, my lord.”

“In fact, you would be only too glad to escape into a convent. Is that not so?”

She stiffened. “My lord, I know that you are very angry about what I did, but I would have you know—”

“Hush.” Hugh’s eyes gleamed. “We will not speak again of what happened yesterday.”

She blinked. “We won’t?”

“After much contemplation I have been forced to conclude that what occurred yesterday at Rivenhall was not your fault.”

“It wasn’t?”

“Nay.” He dropped his hands from her shoulders. “It was my fault and mine alone.”

“It was?” Alice felt as though she had stepped through a magical window only to emerge into a strange land where the normal logic of the world was slightly askew.

“Aye.” Hugh folded his arms across his broad chest. “I did not set clear limits on the authority I granted to you. I did not anticipate all possible situations. I did not make allowance for your soft heart.”

“You could hardly have done that, sir.” Alice began to feel quite waspish. “Given the fact that you do not seem to know what it is to possess a heart. And you may as well know that even if you had expressly forbidden me to ride to Rivenhall’s defense, I would have disobeyed you.”

Hugh smiled faintly. “You do not know when to stop, do you, Alice? And to think the world calls me
Relentless
. You could give me lessons in the art.”

“I still maintain, my lord, that if you had been here to see young Reginald plead for help, even the stone you use in place of a heart would have melted.”

“Unlikely. I would have kept my eye on the ultimate goal.”

“Sir, that boy is your blood kin, whether you like it or not. Furthermore, he and his mother had nothing to do with what happened in the past. None of you living today had anything to do with it. Let the sins of the past rest.”

“Enough.” Hugh cut off the flow of her words with a finger on her lips. “It may surprise you to know that I did not come here to quarrel with you.”

“Nay?” Alice gave him a look of mock astonishment.

“Nay.” Hugh’s jaw tightened. “Not another word on the subject of yesterday’s affairs at Rivenhall, Alice. What’s done is done.”

She gazed mutely up at him, intensely conscious of the exciting roughness of his callused finger against her soft mouth. For a moment he simply looked at her as though he sought some sign in her widened eyes.