beside her. She had seen the look of victory shining in his eyes. He was getting what he wanted. He wanted this wedding. The realization sank in slowly and painfully. She had been fighting this battle assuming that he would not care either way, that he merely needed to be shown how unpleasant this marriage could be. But nothing was going as she had planned. First, he'd claimed to love all that she had created for him to hate; then he'd turned the tables on her at that picnic, then she had fallen in the river rather than he, and now he had turned her own weapon back on her. Garlic! she thought angrily. I should have had a backup plan , she realized. Something in case the first plan did not work. Poison in his porridge, perhaps, or a knife in his heart.
Or, she realized suddenly, I should have thought out more thoroughly why he had not promptly refused the wedding . She had not exactly endeared herself to the man with her complaints to the king over the years, surely. Why had he not refused outright? Why had he come here entirely ready to carry out the wedding?
The answer to that was so simple and obvious, Helen nearly groaned aloud. Tiernay, of course. She had forgotten how rich and prosperous the fiefdom was, how attractive it would be to him. Helen herself was just small part of what he gained through this marriage. Tiernay was the prize. And one well worth having.
Suddenly, she realized where she had gone wrong. It was Tiernay she should have made appear as unattractive as possible. It was Tiernay she should have made smell and painted black.
For a moment, she was terribly excited at the realization, but then she realized that it was too late in coming. Or was it? Could she still delay the consummation of the marriage? Could she still find a method to escape? She had to!
She spent the celebration that followed in a tizzy, her mind racing about like a crazed mouse. She had to do something. She had to think of a way to put him off long enough for her to make Tiernay unattractive.
Something he could not combat. Around her, the festivities continued. There was much toasting and cheering. Much ribald teasing and laughter. But she was oblivious to the lot.
It was not until the last course of the feast that inspiration finally came to her. Standing abruptly, Helen ignored her new husband's startled and questioning glance and hurried toward the kitchens. As she had expected, Ducky was there.
Hethe rubbed his stomach absently and watched his new bride disappear into the kitchens, a sense of foreboding overtaking him. His gaze slid to her aunt to find the woman looking after her niece with a concerned expression. He had a feeling it was not a good thing. He had been aware of his new wife's silence throughout the meal. She had not touched a single bite of the food set before her. He had almost been able to see her mind working over the problem of his having combated her bad breath with some oral stench of his own. And it had worked. At least, he assumed it worked. With his own mouth garlic-drenched, he had not really been able to tell if she had flouted the directives of their contract and chomped on the stuff herself. It mattered little, he supposed. What mattered now was that with the garlic filling his own breath, hers had not been the least offensive. For a moment, before she had pulled away, he had found himself enjoying that kiss more than he expected. The wedding night would not be a trial for him.
In fact, now that the problem of her offensive breath was out of the way, he was anticipating the coming night with great hopes.
The opening of the kitchen door drew Hethe from his thoughts, and he watched curiously as his new bride returned to the table. She looked slightly anxious and distracted, he noted with a frown, and he arched an eyebrow as she reclaimed her seat. If she saw his questioning look, she ignored it, merely picking up the quail drumstick in her trencher to handle it with an obvious lack of interest.
"Is the food not to your liking?" he asked solicitously, knowing that was not the problem, but unable to keep from teasing her a bit after the torments she had put him through. Not to mention