Free Conquering Passion by Anna Markland

He’ll come to see you’re not a threat, but you must make him see you can help him achieve his ambitions.”
    Mabelle moved her head from side to side as Giselle stood again and kneaded her tense neck muscles. “How did things get so complicated, Giselle? I want a husband who can love me for myself, let me be myself.”
    “Don’t give up hope, milady . Someday Rambaud de Montbryce will be that man. Help him grow.”
    Mabelle placed her hand atop the maid’s. “Thank goodness I have you, Giselle, I would feel alone here without your guidance.”
    ***
    “You seem upset, mon fils —again,” Comte Bernard remarked to Ram, who’d stormed into the solar, slamming the door, the second loud bang to reverberate through the castle that evening.
    Ram whirled around, his eyes wild. “This woman you want me to marry is insufferable. She’s wilful.”
    His father smiled. “ I want you to marry? Sit down, Ram. What has she done now?”
    Ram sat, but on the edge of the seat. “You think highly of her, mon père , but she needs to learn to be more obedient.”
    Bernard rolled his eyes. “Don’t you find her pleasing, Ram?”
    She pleases me so much I can’t control my arousal whenever I’m near her.
    He stood again and paced. “ Oui —er—she’s pleasing—I agree—but—”
    Comte Bernard stretched out his legs and crossed his feet at the ankles. “Don’t you think she’s intelligent?”
    “ Oui —very—but—”
    “Would you prefer an empty-headed wife?”
    “Well— non —”
    “Is she not beautiful?”
    Ram sank back down into the chair. “She’s breathtakingly beautiful, but—for example—it’s my right to decide what should be done with Alensonne when her father dies, isn’t it?”
    Comte Bernard stood, walked to the hearth and stared into the flames. “Alensonne is her birthright, Ram. True, it’s part of her dowry, but she grew up there. She lost that childhood home when she was a girl.” He turned to face his son. “Why do you want to deprive her of a say in what happens to it?”
    Silence reigned. Ram got to his feet again, and resumed his pacing, his arms folded across his chest. His father waited.
    “I didn’t think of it that way.”
    Bernard put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Mabelle isn’t a threat to you, Ram, unless you turn her into one. She’s survived worse tyrants than you, and is wily. If you want her on your side, you’ll need to be more subtle, more appreciative of her talents and opinions. If you’re not, she’ll find a way to achieve what she wants, despite you.”
    Ram looked up at his father and their eyes met.
    “She’ll make a much better ally than enemy. She’s listened to gossip in castles the length and breadth of Normandie and may have a better idea of people’s sentiments than even our Duke. Mabelle is an exquisite rose and roses have thorns, but we tolerate the slight pain they may cause so their intoxicating beauty can enrich our lives.”
    Who is this man I thought was my father?
    “I suppose I could indulge her a little more.”
    ***
    That evening, in the gallery, Giselle curtseyed when she arrived for her appointment with Comte Bernard , whose family she’d worked for most of her life.
    “Please be seated, Giselle. How fares your lady?”
    Giselle made herself comfortable in the upholstered chair. Her feet swung free of the floor. “Just as she has for the last fortnight. She’s frustrated with milord Rambaud’s insistence on obedience.”
    Comte Bernard shook his head. “And my son is still complaining about her wilfulness.”
    “ Milady has agreed to be less confrontational, to try to get him to understand she can be a support to him and not a threat.”
    Bernard chuckled. “And Ram has agreed to be more indulgent .”
    There was a silence between them, and Comte Bernard sensed Giselle’s hesitation, but he knew this diminutive woman well. Sooner or later she would say what had to be said.
    “I hope my advice to her is correct.