Free Everlasting by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Page B

permission. Cordelia stood quietly while Abrielle braced an arm on a buttressing rail and settled her chin glumly upon the heel of her hand. “I wish I could look forward to the nuptials with as much enthusiasm as the men are evidencing for the upcoming hunt.”
     
      Cordelia hesitated, and then softly asked, “How can you marry a man you’re unable to trust? A man whom you and all others loathe? When you wrote about the wedding, I must confess that I was shocked.”
     
      Abrielle glanced over her shoulder to make sure the squire was still well occupied. “It was either that or see my family come to ruin. Vachel has been brought to impoverishment due to his generosity to his late father and to his knights,” she admitted.
     
      Cordelia gasped. “What are you saying? That you must marry that ogre because of your stepfather’s ill-considered actions?”
     
      “The fault was not his.” Abrielle hurried to explain the injustice done by Vachel’s father. “Vachel was willing to face destitution rather than force me to accept Desmond’s proposal. I chose to spare him, and my mother, that shame.”
     
      Cordelia clasped her friend’s hand as she looked with tear-filled eyes into the blue-green orbs. “And some people think only knights have such noble traits.”
     
      “Say nothing of this to anyone,” Abrielle urged. “Vachel would not take it well if people thought his father had been unfair. He’d be hurt by any criticism they’d be wont to bestow upon the elder. Considering that he was a little addled toward the end, he might not have been aware of what he was doing.”
     
      “If you would permit me, I will only speak of this to my parents, who truly have the highest regard for Vachel. ’Twill be in tribute to him that I will share this with them.”
     
      “To them and no other,” Abrielle agreed. Thoughtfully she stared off into the distance as the softly wafting breezes lifted her kirtle.
     
      “What are you thinking now?”
     
      A doleful sigh slipped from Abrielle’s lips. “Though I’m ashamed to admit my feelings after accepting Desmond’s proposal of marriage, I do disdain the man more than anyone I’ve ever known.”
     
      Cordelia recognized her friend’s loss of hope in the overly restrained way she conveyed her lack of regard for her future husband, and laid a gently consoling hand upon Abrielle’s sleeve. “Ofttimes, when one approaches the unknown, circumstances may look the bleakest and most threatening. From experience, I know you have a valiant spirit and will rise above your fear. Did you not rescue me from a horrible drowning when we were children, though you were terrified of going into the icy waters after me?” Freshening tears welled within Cordelia’s green eyes as she added, “If not for your valiant spirit and victory over your own qualms, I would not be here today.”
     
      Abrielle’s own vision grew misty as she recalled their childhood and the frightening incident that had sent prickling shards of terror coursing through her being. Her own fear had seemed as painful as the icy slush she had been forced to tread to reach her friend. If not for the goading dread that she was about to lose her dearest companion, she might never have found the courage to go into the frigid depths after her.
     
      “I know I must take heart,” Abrielle admitted, and then heaved a dismal sigh as she considered what she would soon be facing, “but at the moment, my future looks so bleak that even drowning in an icy stream seems preferable. Truly, the horrors I’ll be facing as the wife of such a despicable creature seem so overwhelming that I have to wonder if I’ll be able to endure them.”
     
      Cordelia turned aside in an attempt to calm her own troubled spirit. She could only wonder what she would do in Abrielle’s stead. Mulling over her companion’s abhorrent plight, she did not notice thesmall company of mounted men approaching until they