Aline was there, holding Donata. She immediately rose to leave, but Galeran stopped her. "Give the babe to me."
She stared at him from under her severe brows, making no move to obey.
Jehanne said, "Do it, Aline."
Aline passed over the child, along with a warning scowl, and left the room.
Galeran looked down at big dark blue eyes, long but pale lashes, and a sucking blister on the upper lip. "Aline fears me."
"No. But we all wonder when your rage will strike, and where."
Chapter 9
Galeran looked up. "Including you?"
Jehanne sat on a bench by the window as if her legs had given way. "I almost wish it would. That your rage would strike. I can't believe it won't. .
. . The waiting is hardest."
He didn't tell her his rage had already broken out. "Then let that be your penance."
The child made a mewling sound, and her tiny mouth worked anxiously while she stared up at him. No matter what her origins, he couldn't hate such an innocent.
She had her mother's delicate skin, and he could believe, if he chose, that the golden fuzz on her head was her mother's heritage too. Perhaps it was a blessing that Jehanne and Lowick were of a similar type. Galeran would never have to search for the father's features in the child.
Then the baby screwed up her face and let out a sharper cry. Galeran jiggled her a little, but she squalled louder. Frustrated, he scowled at Jehanne. This might not be his child, but did the babe have to reject him so openly?
"She's still hungry," Jehanne said. "I was feeding her when I heard you had arrived."
"Then why didn't you say so?"
She didn't reply, but because I was afraid floated in the room, making his heart ache. When she learned of his berserker rage, she'd fear him even more.
With reason. As he passed the babe to her, he remembered his foolish youthful wish that Jehanne would fear him.
He could have wept.
She raised her tunic and he saw that her gown was slashed down the front to free her breasts. She put Donata close, and the babe grasped the nipple with her gums to suck lustily.
Just as the peasant child had.
Just as Gallot once had . . .
Galeran pushed back that thought. "Can you talk as you feed her?"
"Of course."
He put a foot on a chest and leaned on his raised knee. "When did the bishop's men arrive?"
"Yesterday, quite early." A tense pallor in her face was a memory of fear.
"I suspected something, so I insisted that the men-at-arms stay outside the walls and permitted only the three monks to enter. Brother Forthred seemed taken aback to find that you weren't there." She flicked him a wary glance.
"I think he assumed you would support his case."
"And let him take the child?"
She nodded, stroking her babe's hair in a protective gesture Galeran thought entirely unconscious.
"Jehanne, I took the cross and traveled to a war half a world away to give you a child. Do you really fear I will let one be torn from your arms?"
She looked up then, eyes wide, and glossed by unshed tears. "Truly? It would be - "
"Truly." After a moment he straightened. "You could look more delighted."
"I am, I am. But I see blood in it, Galeran."
He took to pacing the room, for he did too. "Because of the bishop's men?
Tell me what happened."
She made an effort to compose herself. "Raymond has made confession to the bishop, who has decreed he should do penance for his sin. But the penance is that he raise the child he misconceived. They came to take her to him!"
Galeran stilled and nodded. "Cunning."
"I couldn't let them take her! I protested on any number of grounds, but Brother Forthred went on and on about sins and perdition. Then he promised damnation for all who abetted me. I was terrified that the people of Heywood might give him Donata just to stop his ranting!"
"So how did you escape?"
"I pretended to give in and went to get her. But I sent a message to Walter of Matlock. I ... I wasn't even sure he would support me against the Church, especially when you'd left orders I was not to leave the castle. But he did, thanks to Blessed Mary. He openly sent out a small group of men, saying they were to search for you and inform you of these matters. Then he accompanied me, Aline, and the babe out of the postern gate and down the road.