Never If Not Now - Madeline Hunter Page 0,3
to stay behind, but it emboldened him to steal that kiss.
If not now, never.
“You at least seem to have done well in the years since I last saw you, heading off to fight with the last king in France, and then joining Richard on his crusade.” Her gaze traveled down his tunic to his boots. “You have grown and filled out.”
“As have you.” The filling out part stretched the bodice of her simple dress. She caught his gaze lingering there, and smiled in spite of herself when he grinned.
“I am in the service of Lord Jean Fitzwarryn. He has lands on the northern marches where he guards the realm against the Scots. It is at most a day’s ride from here.”
“Did you leave the Crusade when the king did?”
“Shortly before. I did not stay long.” Long enough, though. Too long.
“There are some Scots here. I have heard their tongue. I suppose they will challenge you if you are in this border lord’s service.”
“Probably so.”
She had walked back to the tent’s entry. She now lifted the flap and glanced out. “He will be back soon. Please go.”
He did not want to leave. He wanted to take her down to the river and sit and talk about those innocent days years ago. The concern in her eyes made him give up that intention, for now.
He went to the flap. He looked down at her, and felt her warmth in the air between them. “I will see you again soon, Elinor.”
He did not make it a request. That would give her the chance to deny him, and he didn’t want to hear that. As he walked away, he calculated how he could change her caution to smiles, however, and also how to avoid telling her that Sir Hugo’s woes were all of his own making.
CHAPTER TWO
“I’ll be needing my crimson surcoat mended.”
Elinor’s father announced that in early afternoon, while she sat sewing garments brought to her by other knights. Word had spread that Sir Hugo’s daughter plied an expert needle and took in work, and several squires had arrived with a variety of clothing in need of a few stitches.
“If you had told me in good time that we were coming here, instead of the day before we left, I could have already done it.” She did not look up while she spoke, but kept her attention on her stitches. She worked outside to take advantage of the good light in the sun at the side of their tent.
“You’d have refused, so I’m telling you now that it needs mending.”
“Put it on the pile in the basket. I will do it tomorrow.”
“I need it for tonight.”
“I have promised this mending by early morning. Would you have me sewing long into the night?”
“I wouldn’t have you doing that for others at all. It isn’t seemly. You aren’t a servant.”
It was an old argument between them.
He sidled over and looked down at her stitches. “I’m of two minds about it here, though. It still isn’t fitting, but it doesn’t hurt for knights to know you are a practical woman, with such skill. That is attractive in a wife.”
“Is that one of your goals here? To find me a husband? I doubt it will be an appealing match since I am so old and I have no dowry. I won’t accept such as would want me, so forget that notion right now.”
“You are turning shrewish, Elinor. We won’t tell them that. It would discourage even the least among them.”
“Oh, Father. Please go away and talk treason with your friends. Allow me to do what I am doing without giving me more worries.”
“It is not treason to want what is best for the realm. We are only talking about the conditions present now.”
“I have overheard some of it since a few are too loud in their boldness. You are talking about replacing one king with another. That is dangerous.”
“There is no plotting being done. No insurrections being planned.”
“That is good to know. Now, please, leave me to my labor.”
He wandered away, no doubt to continue all that harmless talk. Elinor truly wished they had not come now. Those men in the tents nearby gathered to discuss their preference for Prince John over the absent Richard. They complained loudly about the money being demanded by Queen Eleanor to ransom her son. They sneered about how Richard did not speak English.
It was a short path for a group of men like that to talk themselves into