loyal captain.”
“And so you plan to find a deserted monastery and disguise yourself as a monk?” Ariel asked wryly.
“Kirklees is cloistered,” he said softly, ignoring her sarcasm. “The only men allowed inside the main gates are of the Holy Order. If I have to shave my head in a tonsure and wear the robes of a monk in order to see her, I will do it gladly and willingly.”
Ariel’s smile faded. “You are serious.”
After a long, wind-rustled delay, Henry met her gaze. “I cannot just ride away and leave her here unprotected.”
“What will you do? Tuck a sword beneath your cassock while you tend sheep on the hillside?”
“I will tuck a sword and tuck a knife … I will even tuck Littlejohn’s glaive beneath my robes if need be, but I will not leave Eleanor alone and unprotected until either the king is dead or the barons come to their senses and find a way to prevent him from murdering his niece as he did his nephew.”
Whether it was a trick of the moonlight or just the heat of his convictions burning through, Henry’s eyes were glowing white-hot, like the core of a flame. Ariel had seen the same heated passion before, in Eduard’s eyes, the stormy night on the ramparts of Corfe Castle. She had attributed it then to the lightning, and only later to love, but …
“Henry …?” The unspoken question was snatched away on a frosted breath, but the answer was plain enough to see.
“Laugh if you like,” he said stubbornly, hunching his shoulders against a chill. “It would be no less than your due after the way I reacted to you and FitzRandwulf.”
“But … the Princess Eleanor …” Trying to think of the gentlest way to say it, Ariel was eased of the burden when Henry said it himself.
“Longs only to show her love for the Church, yes, I know. And I would not even try to dissuade her, for that love is as pure and shining as any I have seen. Nay, I would be content just to be near her, to see her now and then, to speak with her of harmless things.” He looked away again, staring at the gray walls of Kirklees as if he knew they would soon be enclosing his heart.
“Have you told Eduard?”
“I have told him,” he nodded. “I have also told him he has little say in the matter, little choice either, for he can waste no time returning to Normandy. The quicker he is known to have left England, the quicker the wind will carry the news and the name of his new bride to the king’s ears. What is more, John will hear that Henry de Clare is in Normandy as well—a little darker in appearance and speaking in a broader accent than might be expected, but—”
“Dafydd?”
“He has agreed to play me for a while, if only to throw his own brother’s hounds off the scent.”
Ariel whuffed a soft, misty breath into the stillness. It was obvious he and Eduard had discussed everything most thoroughly and she could expect small success in trying to persuade him to reconsider. It was nonetheless a shock to realize he would not be returning to Normandy with them, and a greater shock to realize she might not see him again for a very long time.
“Are you certain this is what you want to do?” she whispered.
“I have never been more certain of anything in my life … except, perhaps, knowing that I will miss you.”
Ariel went readily into his arms. “No more than I will miss you. You will be careful? You will do nothing foolish to draw attention to yourself?”
“I will be as careful as careful can,” he promised. “And you … you will have to learn to obey this new husband of yours; he does not seem to me the type to tolerate your schemes and rebellions with as much humour as the other men you have managed to tame into mere shadows of their former selves.”
“I have no wish to tame him,” she admitted honestly. “Although I confess, the prospect of being tamed holds great appeal.”
Henry held her out at arm’s length and frowned. “By God, I believe you really do love him.”
“Enough to forgive you for even doubting me.”
The faint crunch of footsteps prompted them to turn and follow the progress of the cloaked figure of Eduard FitzRandwulf as he walked down the slope from the abbey gates. The small group waiting by the horses, comprised