Free Danburgh Castle by Catherine E Chapman Page B

registered that he had been surveying her figure, well-defined in the bodice of a dress that had been made for her long before her maternity.  Emma was aware that the dress was now too small.  She blushed, feeling ashamed of her appearance, but then she immediately felt annoyed – it was only because of Norman oppression that she and her people found themselves in reduced circumstances.
    Emma drew herself up and looked Lord Robert straight in the face.
    Lord Robert raised his eyes to meet Emma’s and smiled at her.
    Emma scowled.
    “I remember you,” said Lord Robert.  “The child on your back, is this the same child you were carrying when last we met?”
    “Yes my lord,” Emma said, avoiding his gaze once more.
    “Tell me, is it a boy or girl?”
    Emma hesitated, aware that a lie might protect Oswald but a lie discovered could be fatal.  “A boy, my lord,” she said.
    “I too have a boy-child of similar age,” Lord Robert told her.
    Emma recalled Lord Robert’s widowed state and felt involuntary guilt that her treatment of him had been hostile.  But he was a Norman – she would give him no words of comfort.
    Lord Robert had taken out a purse.  He stooped from his horse and offered Emma a coin of value – enough money to feed her entire family for a month.
    “I cannot accept such a gift, my Lord,” Emma said, looking at the coin rather than the bearer.
    “It is for your child,” Lord Robert replied, holding the coin in front of her face.
    Emma knew that to refuse the token was rude and disrespectful but a sudden remembrance of Alaric prompted her to stand her ground.  “I will not take your money, Lord Robert,” she maintained.
    For a moment Lord Robert seemed at a loss.
    Emma glanced at him and was pleased to see his face flushed with annoyance and embarrassment at her rebuff.
    Lord Robert put the coin back in his purse.  He then lunged from his horse and caressed Emma’s cheek with his hand.
    Emma gasped in shock and drew back from Lord Robert but her skirts were caught fast in the brambles – she couldn’t move.  Emma felt Lord Robert’s hand, cool but tender against her warm skin.
    “I will keep my money then, woman,” Lord Robert said softly, “and hope that the opportunity will arise for me to do you some service in the future.”
    Emma raised her arm, intending to push Lord Robert’s unwanted hand from her cheek.  But she found her own hand only came to rest upon his and, rather than fending it off, she had to fight the instinct to kiss the hated hand, close as it was to her lips.
    Emma closed her eyes, so intense was the sensation of Lord Robert’s touch.
    The hand was abruptly withdrawn.  “Until we meet again,” Lord Robert said, urging his horse away.
    Emma opened her eyes to see the Norman lord retreating.  She felt strangely desolate to be left standing alone amid the brambles.  “I remember you,” she whispered to herself as the noble vision disappeared.
     

 
    Chapter 4
     
    Barely a week later a man came to the farm cottage and spoke with Emma’s grandfather.  Lord Robert had requested that Emma come to the castle to be nurse to his own boy-child.
    Without consulting his granddaughter, the old man agreed, negotiating that Emma would receive, in addition to the board and lodging offered to her in the castle, a sum for her services that was sufficient to keep the rest of the family.
    “When yer grandad told me, I couldn’t believe they’d said yes to it,” Emma’s mother informed her excitedly.
    Emma was fully aware that she had no choice but to accept a fate that would ensure, not only her own security, but that of her entire family.  “And little Oswald, he can come with me?” she said.
    “Ah,” her mother replied sadly, “that won’t be possible, lass.”
    Emma began to weep.
    “But, rest assured, my love, I will bring little Oswald up like one of my own.”
     

 
    Chapter 5
     
    Within days Emma’s new life was upon her.  “I will send money