Free The Traitor's Daughter by April Munday Page A

William was only in his early forties and there was
no reason why he should not live for another twenty years, baring accident or
war. By then she would be a mature woman and able to handle herself in the
event of opposition from her stepchildren. She might even have sons of her own
to protect her. No, she did not think her stepson was warning her; he was
simply sharing her grief.
    On the other side of Lady Maud’s grave was a deep hole.
    “I had intended to lie there myself,” Hugh sighed, “but
now I expect to die in France.”
    Alais thought it strange that he had not made provision
to be buried with his wife, but it was equally strange that her husband had
allowed his first wife to be buried so far from his own property. There was
much she did not know about her husband’s family.
    Once she had given her approval of the grave’s location,
she entered into the small church. It bore signs of recent work and she
realised that the tiny Lady Chapel was a new addition, presumably a project of
Hugh’s wife.
    “My mother was especially devoted to the Virgin,”
explained Hugh, following her glance. “I had the chapel built for her use.”
Once more he had confounded her expectations and she wondered again about his
absent wife.
    Edmund had followed them into the church and the three
of them stood with the priest and prayed for Lady Eleanor’s soul.
    Father Roland’s voice was soothing and Alais soon lost
herself in the sonorous Latin phrases. Happier times with her mother were all
she could remember now. As they walked out to the churchyard once more, the
carter and some other servants entered to carry out the body. They followed
swiftly to the open grave and gently lowered the body into its final resting
place. Father Roland said a few more words and then it was over. Alais stepped
forward to drop the bracelet Hugh had given her into the grave.
    When Hugh moved to take her back to the house, she asked
to be left alone and the three men walked away. Only the servants remained,
waiting to fill the hole.
    Alais did not understand her need to be alone. It made
no sense that the mother she had loved was now lying in this hole and they had
already exchanged their last words. Given the choice, Alais knew that this was
what her mother would have preferred – she would have been content with her
sacrifice knowing that Alais lived. She had watched her mother sacrifice
herself for her children all her life and she intended to follow her example
with her own children.
    It was only now, eight years after her father’s
execution, that she was beginning to be able to imagine what her mother must
have done to allow them to continue living at Leigh. Guy and then Raymond had
complained constantly about the loss of all their other estates, but Alais
thought about the humiliation their mother must have suffered just to retain
their smallest and meanest estate. She certainly knew what it had cost to run
the estate and make it prosper. Even as a child Alais had shared her mother’s
vision for the future of Leigh and now that future, too, was shattered, for
Lady Eleanor would not be there to see it and the estate would soon belong to
another. Lady Eleanor had expected to have a few more years to see her plans
come to fruition and Alais hoped that her husband would permit her to follow
the course that Lady Eleanor had set.
    Alais kept in her mind the faces of the people she had
left behind at Leigh.  They were her people now, her responsibility. They had
no one else to care for them. She had to make Sir William understand how
important they were. But she knew she was powerless. Sir William could do what
he wished with Leigh and its people and with her.
     
    Since he had originally intended to set out for Liss
that morning, Hugh found that he now had little time to finalise his
preparations. The situation in the town meant that things would be difficult
for the village this winter. His plans for the autumn and winter must