Free Claudia Dain by The Fall Page B

in the hall."
    Morgause, worth more to her than any man, had flown, her jesses trailing in the murky light of the hall. The sun still shone beyond the stone; she must be found before night fell or she would not be found at all.
    "Then we are away," Juliane said, rising to her feet "I go in search of Morgause, who, after rough handling, has flown. Your pardon, Father?" she asked, not asking at all but merely informing.
    "Aye, your pardon, my lord?" Ulrich said, standing at her side, taking her arm in his hand. She pried him off with a stiff grin on her lips.
    "You are not needed," she said.
    "All hands are needed in this," he said.
    "You have hardly made her easy in your company," she said, walking from the table.
    "I could as well say that she has hardly made me easy in hers."
    "Say it, then. 'Tis nothing but the truth," she said. Baldric and Ulrich, soon joined by his small squire William, were on her heels.
    "I would only help you, lady," Ulrich said from behind.
    "Then leave me, my lord," she said stiffly. "I need no help from your hand. I want none."
    "Need and want, they are not the same, lady," he said. "Let me only give you what I may. All else is in God's hands."
    She was turning to set him down again, once and for all, when the boy spoke.
    "He is very good with hawks, lady," William said, his gray eyes clear and earnest.
    "We could use a good hand with hawks in this, lady," Baldric offered. "Morgause was in high feather. She will not come easily."
    "Come, say yea to me," Ulrich urged, smiling, his blue eyes sparkling with good intent and latent humor. "I shall even swing the lure."
    Aye, he was good at luring. She could feel his mouth upon her even now. The place upon her neck where he had taken her tingled and throbbed still, the feel of him fresh and hot.
    "Very well," she said against every bit of common sense, "but if I know my merlin, you shall be the lure. Beware your eyes, my lord."
    "Lady, in your company 'tis my heart I must guard," he said.
    He said it with such overblown sentiment, with such sad eyes and mournful mouth, that she could not help laughing. It was to his credit that he laughed with her, making mock of all courtly ritual and the terms of courtly love. Which was only right.
    * * *
    "That went well," Philip said, watching them leave his hall.
    "It did," Father Matthew agreed. "He is not afraid of her, that is plain. Is he still the one you would have her taker?"
    "If all is as it should be," Philip said. "Let us see how he fares by Vespers tomorrow. I shall know enough by then."
    "You know he has no land," the priest said.
    "I know that few men do. If he can bed her, making the marriage lawful and unbreakable, then that is enough. It might be that I can find land for the man who can find his way with Juliane."
    "You could still give her to the church."
    "She will not go to the church," Philip said, shaking his head with a smile.
    "And you think she will go to him? To any man?" Father Matthew said.
    "Do I think she will go to any man? Nay, it is more than certain she will not. Do I think she will go to Ulrich?" Philip shrugged and rubbed his nub of an ear. "I think she might. What is more likely is that I think he has it in him to take her. She is a woman who must be taken; she will not give herself. That was proved when he took the kiss just now."
    "She spurns a life lived in the power of the flesh. By your every word, she sounds destined for the abbey."
    "Then you are not hearing me," Philip said with the smallest edge to his voice. "She will be wed. It is not in her to be praying away the hours of her life; she was not made for that. I will not send her to that."
    "Yet if she wants it?" Father Matthew pressed.
    "She will have what I want for her," Philip said, ending it. "But if you need your mind eased, ask her yourself. She will answer you straight; no other way is in her."
    "That I know full well," Matthew said, smiling, easing the sudden strain in the conversation.
    "But enough of this. What