Aline laughed at that. "But there's no comparison between Raymond and Raoul." She picked up the salve pot, looking at it as if she'd never seen it before. "You're probably right, though, that Raoul's interest in me will fade with a little time and distance. I suppose I'd be doing him a kindness to send him away."
"Aline, I was talking about you! Raoul is older, and a great deal more experienced. I doubt he'll change as easily."
"If he loves me at all ., ."
"Would a man like that want to marry unless he loved? I presume he did ask for your hand in marriage."
"Oh, yes." Aline gave in. She put down the pot and recounted the whole of her conversation with Raoul.
Jehanne groaned at the end. "But you know, cousin, when a man like that makes such a snarl of it, it is a sign of something."
* * * * * By the next day, Jehanne could sit up, and even move around a little without too much pain. As she worked her way along the narrow corridor to the hall at one end of the building, however, she took uncharitable satisfaction from the notion that Bishop Flambard had received a full cycle of the rod. Perhaps Galeran could find the grace to forgive the man, but she couldn't. It wasn't the beating she held against him, but the harm he had tried to do to her family.
When she found Galeran in the hall, she said as much.
"You overestimate my charity," he said, as he helped her to a bench near an open window. "I hope he's in agony, and that there will be worse for him in the future."
They smiled with the easy understanding once taken for granted, now deeply appreciated.
"About Raoul . . ." she said.
"... and Aline," he completed with a humorous grimace.
"What are we to do?"
"Turning matchmaker?"
"Why not? Marriage is a wonderful institution."
Again, their smiles danced together, and they spoke silently of other things entirely.
"I suppose Raoul didn't handle things well," said Galeran.
"An understatement! But Aline is sensible to have reservations, no matter what honeyed words he tempts her with."
"His word is true," said Galeran sternly. "That was the problem. He won't make a vow he cannot keep."
She reserved comment on that. "Is there any hope for them, then?"
"We'll have to see. But I have one thought I'd like your verdict on."
"Yes?"
"I don't think Hubert of Burstock will be best pleased to have his only daughter married off without his leave. We'll have to take them back home to be wed."
"Oh, poor Raoul! Back to the harsh north."
"And we're moving toward autumn. We'd better provide him with furs."
And they laughed together at simple human foibles.
Chapter 22
When the first gift came, Aline was sitting in the room she shared with Jehanne, Winifred, and the baby. Hiding, really. She didn't want to see Raoul. She didn't like the amused look in everyone else's eyes. This situation was not the slightest bit funny.
A servant entered carrying a prettily carved wooden box just the size of the palm of her hand. When she opened the domed lid, she found an exquisite sprig of blossoms. For a moment she thought it was real, but when she touched a leaf she found it was metal colored green, and the blossoms were carved out of ivory. Accompanying it was a message, so beautifully written that he must have hired a scribe: As beautiful as the almond blossom.
The only thing she'd seen similar to this was the rose Jehanne owned, the one with the petals that kept falling off. This was a finer piece, though. Had he just found it, or had he stood over a craftsman all day and night as it was created to his order?
It was a marvel, but sadly, it didn't change anything. She knew he was devoted to her now, but she had seen devoted couples grow apart.
Sometimes love dies entirely, and in such times friends and family are the only comfort and protection. She knew, too, that a bride far from all she knows is in a perilous position.
She could not help but go show the pretty ornament to Jehanne, however.
She found her cousin in the hall with Galeran, laughing as they had in the old days. For a moment she felt a bitter stab of jealousy, for if she could not have Raoul, there would be no other to laugh with like that.