Lord Liar Part 36

she declared, batting her at Henry.

"I shall look forward to it," promised the prince, giving her bottom a familiar pat as if Ranulf and his page were not even there.

Then the courtesan looked back over her shoulder at Ranulf.

"Your sweetheart back in England is a lucky woman, too, my lord," she said sweetly, but her eyes were narrowed.

She reminded Aldyth more than ever of a cat.

"I'm sure she will adore your gift."

Ranulf's dark eyes darted to Aldyth, their expression unreadable, then back to Desiderata.

"I hope so, my lady."

A sweetheart in England. Of course. Somehow hearing her suspicions put into words by Desiderata made Aldyth feel doubly miserable. Ranulf was in love with someone back in England, and that was why he had been immune to the courtesan's obvious charms.

He must love her very much, Aldyth thought, her heart feeling like a lump of frozen lead within her chest. There were not many men who could resist a temptress like Desiderata, even when his ladylove would never know he had indulged his desires. Who was she? Was she a lady of the court or some heiress that he planned to wed? How had he developed such a relations.h.i.+p without her hearing of it? Well, Lord ltienne and Lady Nichola will be relieved, she thought distractedly.

She managed to contain her tears until they were cantering along the coastal road back to Henry's castle and she could fall behind, unnoticed by the other three. Then she let them flow, hoping the wind from the Channel would blow them away before they reached their destination. Perhaps Ranulf would want to stop on their journey home and give his New Year's gift to his beloved, thought Aldyth, picturing the misery of continuing her masquerade while Ranulf courted his sweetheart under her very eye. No! She would never accompany him on such an errand! She would run away from him as soon as they reached English soil again--nay, better yet, she would leave him right after New Year and find her own way back across the Channel . Aldyth was so preoccupied with her woeful thoughts that she failed to hear the dog that had come running out from a farmhouse by the road to announce their pa.s.sing.

Yipping and nipping at Motley's heels because it was the hindmost of the four, the dog succeeded in frightening the normally placid cob. The horse reared, neighing in fright. Aldyth, caught unawares, was thrown backward off the piebald.

Her scream was cut off as she landed heavily on her back.

Chapter Seventeen

She couldn't breathe. The world tilted crazily around the clump of dead gra.s.s on which she lay. Black waves of unconsciousness lapped at her brain. This was dying, then. She opened her eyes and saw Ranulf bent over her, his lean face pale with alarm. It was well that the last sight she saw in the world should he him, the man she loved. Aldyth was content.

And then the air burned as it rushed back into her lungs. She blinked.

Flexing her arms and legs experimentally a throbbing pain to announce itself in her left an- lde.

"Aldyth!" he whispered.

"Are you all right? Don't try to move! Thank G.o.d!"

The pain and relief that she was not dying after all made her want to cry, but she remembered that a boy would be etpected not to give way to girlish tears.

"I think so, my lord,"

she said, remembering to pitch her voice low to re, mind him that Desiderata was watching them from horseback just behind them.

"I ... just couldn't ... get my breath ... for a moment ... and my ankle hurts. I think. tis broken."

r he moved to her foot and, with infinite care, her boot and inspected the ankle, cradling it on his knee, probing carefully. She winced and could not suppress a small whimper when he hit a tender spot on the outside of her ankle.

"Aye, there! Ah, it hurts, my lord!"

"Yes, but I think 'tis only badly bruised. The bones underneath seem sound enough," he said, still eyeing her with concern.

"Do you think you can sit up?"

Just then Henry came trotting back, having recaptured Aldyth's mount.

"Edward just got the wind knocked out of him, my liege," Ranulf told him.

"And sprained his ankle, it seems."

Henry nodded. "" Tis well that he landed on turf instead of this cursed stony road. Are you all right, Ranulf? You're pale as a ghost. "

"I? I'm fine, my liege. I was just picturing having to tell this pup's mother that he'd broken his neck in Normandy, and I've no liking for hysterical women, I vow." His attempt to sound lazy and cynical fell short of the mark.

Aldyth saw Desiderata eyeing them very suspiciously. "I... think I can stand, my lord, if you'll just help me a little."

She found it hurt to put any weight on her leg, so she leaned against Ranulf and tried to hobble back to her blowing cob.

"Can you just ... give me a leg up? I think I can ride" -- "Nonsense. You can't even stand on that foot. Nay, you'll ride pillion with me back to the castle, and then you're going to bed with your foot propped up for the rest of the day. Perhaps one of the wenches can prepare some sort of poul- " Such a tender master," murmured Desiderata above them.

"He could not he more chivalrous to a damoiselle,"

she added, her words making the purring voice a snarl. "Sheathe your claws, my lady," Henry told her, a trifle "You should he jealous of a Aldyth didn't miss the angry flash of those feline eyes. If Desiderata were indeed a cat, she'd he hissing and spitting, she thought.

"Jealous? I? I have no reason to care how Lord Ranulf treats his precious page. I merely thought it touching, after " Enough! " the prince snapped.

"I'll lead the cob."

"My lord, I really do think I can ride. You needn't" -- Couldn't Ranulf see how his solicitude was angering the courtesan and making her suspicious of him? If he wanted to be convincing, Ranulf should be treating

"Edward" with the same rough indifference most lords had toward their underlings.

"Be quiet, Edward. Don't be foolish. I have' said you're riding pillion, and so you shall."

'"Tis you who are being foolish, my lord," she hissed at him from behind the cover of the horse.

"You should be flirting with Desiderata, not" -- "Be quiet," Ranulf commanded, his face emotionless as be a.s.sisted Aldyth onto the back of his palfrey. He seemed to ignore both Desiderata's gibes and Aldyth's nervousness.

She tried to hold herself rigidly erect behind Ranulf so that she didn't come into contact with him, but it was necessary to lock her arms around his waist to hold on as the horse began to move.

"Lean against me or 'twill be an uncomfortable ride for you," he said over his shoulder.

She had no choice, even under the courtesan's gaze. The motion of the horse as it began to trot forced her to relax, her cheek touching his shoulders, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rubbing against his back. Since she apparently had no other alteruative, she allowed herself to enjoy the heavenly closeness as they made their way back to the castle.

At the castle, he helped her down from the palfrey's back. The ankle was throbbing in good earnest now, but since Desiderata was still present she thought it best to hobble up the twisting stone steps to Ranulf's chamber, using him as a crutch on her left side.

The first pair of steps was awkward, but she stubbornly set her teeth against the pain, determined to make it if only to escape that feline scrutiny.

"You make it needlessly difficult. Here, put your arms around my neck. I'm going to carry you," Ranulf told her.

"Nay, you must not, she's staring at us," Aldyth whispered urgently to him.