Free Lady's Minstrel by N.J. Walters Page A

fireplace to speak with several of his men.
    She could feel the eyes of her people on her as she made her way across the large expanse of the hall, the keys attached to her girdle jingling and her leather shoes swishing against the rushes strewn across the floor. Conversation resumed as she started up the stairs. Several wall sconces, set with tallow candles, lit her way as she headed up the darkened staircase. She trusted William to keep a watch on the stranger.
    Entering the solar, she closed the heavy wooden door and leaned against it, shutting the world outside her chamber. Fatigue washed over her. It seemed to her as though she was always tired these days. Sleep wasn’t easy to come by. Worries kept her awake and pacing more nights than she cared to remember.
    Alicia crossed to the cheerful fire that crackled and danced in the hearth. Rubbing her hands up and down the arms of her plain green, woolen gown, she tried to warm herself. The dress was one of her best, but it was old and worn thin in spots and had been mended in others. Tonight, she felt as tired and threadbare as her clothes. Both of them had been brighter and newer when they’d come here six years ago. Now, at twenty-three, she was barely a bride and not really a wife, for all that she’d been married almost six years.
    Settling into her chair by the fire, she stared at the flickering flames. It had not always been so. Once she’d been filled with hopes and dreams of happiness. Her marriage had been arranged by her father, as was to be expected, for marriage was a serious affair of alliances and wealth. Alicia had not seen her husband Reys, Baron Warran, Lord of Hawkspoint, until her family and their entourage had arrived at Hawkspoint Abbey for the signing of the wedding documents and the blessing of the union by the church.
    Alicia rubbed her fingers over the gold band that adorned her left hand, a symbol of her authority here. The weight of it was as heavy as the responsibilities that lay on her shoulders. Hawkspoint was a small, but self-sufficient estate. The land was fertile and good for farming and raising sheep. The surrounding land provided fresh meat, firewood, wild berries and herbs. The bounty from the sea was equally as plentiful.
    Her husband Reys had been kind and patient with his eighteen-year-old bride. Alicia gave a little laugh as she remembered her wedding night. She had been led away from the marriage feast by the older women, stripped naked and put in a thin sleeping gown before being herded into the lord’s large bed. She had felt lost in the huge bed and tucked herself away in the corner with the covers pulled tight to her chin. The women had been laughing at her and joking about the night ahead when Reys had entered the chamber…
     
    Reys glanced at his new bride cowering in the corner of his bed and swept the group of women with a fierce scowl. “Out!” he thundered, his voice rattling the precious panes of glass set in the window.
    The women all hurried from the room. Reys waited until the last one left before slamming the door and throwing the bolt on the door.
    Alicia was afraid to move lest she’d draw her new husband’s temper her way. She was used to the men in her family, particularly her father, who were quick to cuff her when they were angry at something. So she stayed very still and quiet, wishing she were braver.
    Reys was a massive man with incredibly wide shoulders and huge hands. He was handsome with his long black hair and his piercing blue eyes. His jaw bespoke of stubbornness but, from what she’d observed these past days, he was a man who thought before he spoke.
    He strode to the table where a jug of wine sat and poured some in a cup. Taking a deep breath as though to settle his temper, he picked up the cup and came to stand beside the bed.
    “Drink this.” He held the wine out to her. “It will help calm you.”
    He said nothing more, but stood there waiting for her to accept the cup from him. Her