“Isabel, I am so sorry that all your plans have come to this. Why did the king insist you wed?”
“He made a present of me,” she said sarcastically, “in gratitude to his noble servant, Bolton.”
“Oh.” William avoided her eyes and hefted the pitchfork.
“I had no choice,” she insisted.
He looked surprised. “I know that, my lady. Why would I doubt it?”
“Because I myself can’t imagine why I did it.”
“If you’d have gone against the king, you’d have lost everything.”
“Did Bolton tell you that?”
“No, Lady Isabel,” he said patiently, as if everyone would obviously understand.
She sighed, and for a moment a tense silence hovered between them. William finally cleared his throat and spoke, his voice so soft she could barely hear it.
“Isabel, did he…hurt you?”
Her skin heated but she didn’t look away. “I made sure all the servants know that he did not consummate the marriage.”
William gasped. “You told such a lie?”
“ ’Tis no lie.”
He slowly closed his gaping mouth, and his brows lowered in thought. “I wonder why he?—”
“Enough,” she said sternly. “Why does he force you to muck his stables?”
“But this is where I start my service.”
“You’ll be able to stay?” She heard the silly hope in her voice.
William smiled. “Yes, Isabel, I’m staying. I can’t leave you here alone.”
“But the son of a baron—in the stables?”
“I’m grateful. He could be sending me home in disgrace. Istolefrom him.”
“That is my doing, not yours. I shall make him see that.” Isabel once again thought how foolish she’d been to allow William to accompany her. The guilt would not rest easy.
“My lady, I must finish my duties. But one last thing—be careful. This rumor you’re spreading will only anger him.”
“And humiliate him,” she added with relish.
“Yes, and a humiliated man might not show any more sympathy to his new wife.”
“Sympathy? When has he shown me that?”
William began to shovel out the manure. “I would say he showed you more sympathy last night than most men would have.”
Isabel turned on her heel and walked out.
~oOo~
James spent the rest of the morning with his steward, going over his account books and seeing where his dowry money—old and new—would be most useful. He tried not to think of Isabel, but occasionally a maid would helpfully inform him that she still kept to the battlements, after her one visit to the stables.
