The Traitor's Daughter (13 page)

Alais almost smiled at the thought. Hugh had not loved
his wife, yet he had wanted to do the best he could for her.

“And after she died, were you not married again?” Alais
could not keep the question to herself. She could not contemplate how terrible
it would have been for Hugh to have lost two wives.

He shook his head and she thought he was relieved. “No,
I would not take any of the heiresses that were offered to me. I was a second
son, so it did not matter until it became obvious that Geoffrey’s wife would
bear him no children. And then when he died, I had to accept that I must marry
again.” He looked into her eyes and, once again, she caught that strange mix of
emotions that she had seen when they first met. The desire and pity she was now
used to seeing, although she had begun to suspect that he did not know himself
what his eyes showed to her. What was new was the lifelessness that made her
gasp with fear for him. He raised an eyebrow as if in question, but she ignored
him and continued her query.

“So you are betrothed?”

“Not yet. But I have suddenly become very eligible and
many fathers send their daughters here in the hope of marrying them off to me.
Lady Katherine is heiress to some large estates that neighbour those of my
father in Essex. My father believes that she would be most suitable.”  Now the
desire and the pity were gone, replaced by the dullness that had frightened her
before. This was a different side to Hugh, one that scared her. She reached out
and touched him. Despite herself, she wanted to reassure him that there was
someone besides Edmund who cared whether he lived or died.

“And is there no one at all that you would like to
marry?”

“None,” said Hugh, “but my father grows impatient and
soon I must choose.”

“I am sorry,” said Alais. “A second marriage should be
for love.” But she could see that for Hugh there could be no love, had never
been any love in the marriage bed, nor, perhaps, anywhere else.

Hugh laughed, but there was no humour in it. “There is
no place for love at all when you own or will inherit as many great estates as
I.”

“Would you wish to marry for love?”

“I would wish not to marry at all. I have yet to see any
married couple who were happy together.” She was overwhelmed by a desire to
prove him wrong, to give him hope, but how could she give him hope when that
love must be found with a woman other than her?  She realised that she was
trapped, wanting him to understand that love was possible in a marriage, but
not wanting him to love anyone but her. This was worse than knowing that she
desired him. She should love her husband, not his son. Everything she was
learning about her husband inclined her to lose respect for him and everything
she learned about Hugh made her love him more. She looked around the passage,
as if seeking a way out, but there was none. She was betrothed to Sir William de
Liss and whatever she might feel for his son could make no difference. In a few
days they would make their marriage vows. Then the marriage would be
consummated. There was nothing else to be done; she could no more follow her
heart than Hugh could follow his desire.

“My parents were happy,” she said, at last. “They did
not marry for love, but they came to love one another and their children.”

“How did they come to love one another?” Hugh moved
closer to her until they were almost touching. She could feel his warm breath
on her cheek. She closed her eyes, as if to remember, but it was because she
wished to avoid the renewed desire in his eyes. No, she thought, he does not
know what he feels.

“I do not know” She swallowed. “It was before I was
born, but I know that they did love one another. They each had their own realm
and did not interfere with one another. They talked and gave advice to each
other, but my father ruled in his realm and my mother in hers and there was no
bitterness between them if one did not take the advice of the other, although,
of course, they often did.”

“They trusted one another?”  She heard the wonder in his
voice and opened her eyes. Alais tried to look stern. Would he not trust her if
they were married?

“Yes, there was great trust between them. My father knew
that when he was away, and my mother controlled his realm, that she would obey
the instructions that he left. He never feared to leave home and always rushed
to come back.”

“And your mother was not frightened of him?”

“No, my lord.”

“My mother was very frightened of my father,” explained
Hugh, but Alais had already guessed that that was the reason for his question.

“Not many marriages are happy,” she reminded him.

“Do you expect to be happy?” His eyes bored into her as
if this was the most important question he had ever asked. It surprised her,
but she knew what her answer must be.

“No. I expect to be a good wife. I do not expect to love
my husband, or to be loved by him.”

“Then I do not think you will be disappointed.” Hugh
spoke bitterly, but Alais had spoken nothing less than the truth. She and her
mother had spent many hours discussing the kind of marriage that she would have
and they had concluded that there was little chance that Alais would find love
with her husband. Alais did not consider herself a child, so she did not expect
to be loved wherever she went, but she knew that she had been loved at Leigh
and that she would not be loved at Liss. Hugh’s words and actions over the last
few days had already told her much that she needed to know about her future at
Liss. She had long since concluded that she would look for a long time to find
love in her husband. On the day of their betrothal they had exchanged rings and
a kiss and then he had mounted his horse and returned to his estates alone.
Their first meeting had been a humiliation. The four years that he had left her
alone since with no enquiries about her well-being, no gifts and no messages
were an even greater humiliation. She had not been in the least surprised that
it had taken her brother’s death to remind him that he had a wife. Her sudden
position as heiress to a large, well-run and prosperous estate was certainly
the reason for the sudden necessity on his part of making the marriage a
reality.

Hugh had already returned to their quest to find her
sleeping chamber. She sighed quietly and followed him, wishing that she
followed him to their shared bedchamber rather than a cold, damp room that she
would share with two unknown women.

Alais had been correct in her assessment of the
bedchamber, except that it was also small. Surprisingly small, given the size
of the house. Nothing here was as she had expected. Where she had thought to
see riches and wealth and comfort, she saw dirt and meanness. Where she had
expected good manners, she found rudeness. Where she had expected respect, well,
she did not yet know what she had found in the place of respect. Hugh grimaced
and anger passed across his face as they looked in through the open door. Since
he had known which room he was to take her to, he must have been in here
before. Perhaps he had not looked at it properly or he did not care enough
about Elizabeth and Agnes to be angry about their accommodation, but he was
angry for her.

She was about to speak when she realised that the room
was occupied.

“Hugh, I did not know that you had returned.” The woman
who turned a pretty, round face to them was short and plump and smiling.

“Agnes.” Hugh’s smile showed his pleasure at seeing the
young woman again. He turned to Alais. “Lady Alais, this is Agnes, Joan’s
sister.”

Agnes curtsied and Alais smiled at her, pleased to have
another apparent ally in this unfriendly place and because Agnes was so
cheerful that it was difficult not to smile in her presence. “You are very
welcome here, my lady,” she said.

“Lady Alais is to share with you and Elizabeth,” said
Hugh, “until I can see my father and make some other arrangement for her.”

Agnes looked surprised.

“I am sorry for that, my lady. You should be in your own
chamber. I am afraid that the bed is small for three.”

Both women glanced at the bed. Unlike everything else
she had seen at Liss, it was not in need of cleaning. The room itself was also
neat and clean. It seemed that these two women, at least, took care of their
surroundings and had not given in to the general air of decay that pervaded
Liss.

Agnes was looking at her, expectantly, “I am sure we
will manage,” Alais offered, trying to make the best of the situation. She
smiled: Agnes deserved to know that she appreciated her efforts and the
cleanliness of what was to be her room. She resolved to make a friend of Agnes,
who was neat and clean in her own person, as well as in what she had done in
the room, which inclined Alais to like her. It was, of course, possible that
the cleanliness was Elizabeth’s doing, but Alais thought that both of them had
probably contributed to this little sanctuary of cleanliness in what she was
already beginning to think of as a house of squalor. She knew that her reaction
was extreme, but she had been taught to be a good housekeeper as a preparation
for being a good wife and it disturbed her more than anything else that she had
learned about her husband to find that he could live happily in such
surroundings. It was entirely possible that he was not here very much, but it
spoke badly of his care for his retainers and his family.

“Would you like me to wait and take you to the solar?
Lady Katherine likes us to sit with her and spin and sew in the afternoon.”

“I do not think Lady Alais need be at Lady Katherine’s
beck and call,” said Hugh, indignantly. “She is the lady here, not Lady
Katherine.”

Alais, however, thought it interesting that Agnes and,
presumably Lady Katherine, had seen the situation rather differently. It was
not a position that someone like Lady Katherine would take without being sure
that it would be welcomed by the lord of the manor.

“It is well, my lord, that Lady Katherine keeps the
ladies busy,” she said. It was not good that Hugh should show his true thoughts
to someone as lowly as Agnes.

“She is not lady here,” he repeated, more quietly.

“Perhaps you have unwittingly encouraged her in her
belief that she will be,” said Alais in exasperation. She was surprised at her
boldness and noticed that Agnes had blushed at her suggestion. Alais had to
admit that she did not know Hugh that well, despite having been with him these
last few days. He was not very communicative and what he had told her did not
illuminate what his relationship with Lady Katherine might be. He could have
been encouraging Lady Katherine for some motive of his own, or he could have
looked at her with the same kind of desire that his eyes held when he looked at
Alais. That was an unexpectedly painful thought and she did not pursue it. It
was entirely possible that Lady Katherine had simply mistaken his kindness for
approval of his father’s intentions, but he had been far from kind when she had
embarrassed him in the hall just now and she did not think that Lady Katherine
found much favour with him.

“No, my lady, I have neither said nor done anything to
make her believe that I want her as my wife.” Hugh was quick to answer and it
did not seem to her that he lied.

“Then, my lord, perhaps your father…?”

Anger burned coldly in Hugh’s eyes. “Oh yes, I am sure
my father has encouraged her to believe that she will be mistress here after
you.”

“Then I need not consider it too great a slight,” she
said lightly and with a smile for Agnes’ benefit, her eyes still fixed on
Hugh’s face. They both knew how much she had already been insulted. Hugh shook
his head slightly, so that Agnes would not see. He knew better than she how
this household worked and what were his father’s intentions.

“Agnes,” Alais turned and smiled at her, “there is no
need to wait for me. Sir Hugh will help me to find what I need and guide me to
where I need to be.”

She thought Agnes’ face darkened, but it must have been
fancy on her part, for the young woman dropped a curtsy and left them alone in
the bedchamber.

When they were alone again, Hugh moved closer to her so
that they were almost touching and spoke quietly, “I apologise, my lady, but I
fear that this is another calculated insult.”

“I wonder why he bothered to call me here at all if he
did not wish me to be here.”

They both knew, nonetheless exactly why she was here at
this time. Alais was aware that after four years of betrothal, Sir William had
only become interested in finalising the marriage arrangements when she had
become the heiress at Leigh, on her brother’s death at the beginning of the
summer. He did not yet know that he was already lord of Leigh, or would be, as
soon as their marriage was consummated, which event no longer seemed as near as
it had this morning.

“And you, my lord, will you marry Lady Katherine?” She
whispered the question.  He lowered his head to her and she had only to tilt
her head slightly and their lips would touch. She knew she must not give in to
the temptation.

“Why not, my lady?” Hugh seemed to think her question
perfectly reasonable. She half expected him to turn away and was preparing to
turn him back so that he must answer her. To her amazement, he continued to
look into her eyes. She felt the warmth of his breath on her lips and struggled
to remember that he was talking about marrying another woman. “If not her, it
would be someone else. She is healthy, intelligent and beautiful. She will bear
healthy, good-looking children and will teach them well. I would rather the
Liss estates were inherited by my son than my nephew.”  Given what he had said
earlier about marriage, his bitterness should not have surprised her, but it
did.

“But there is no love there, my lord?” She no longer
knew what answer she wanted. She would not wish Hugh trapped in another
loveless marriage, but she could not bear the thought that Hugh might love
someone else.