Mark thought about the few men who were still at least conscious. “Aye,” he said finally. “There are four men. Rolfe, Bayon, Ranulfe and Thoms. They are all strong and well enough to fight off bandits should they attack. They will grumble and hold their heads, but they will do. Do you want us to take some of Chandra’s dowry goods?”
“Nay, let my parents bring all the wagons, and most of the men to guard all of it. We will travel light.”
“Ah . . . does Mary come with us?”
Mary. Jerval recalled that he’d mentioned her coming with Chandra to Mark. He nodded. She was now under his protection. “Now,” Jerval said, looking about, “where is my wife?”
“I don’t know,” Mary said, coming up behind him so silently that, if she’d been an assassin, she could have easily stuck a blade in his back. She was, he saw, studying his face carefully. Did she fear that he had hurt her friend? Forced her? Probably so. He said easily, never looking away from her eyes, “When I awoke, she was gone. I had thought perhaps she had come here to fetch me some bread and cheese to break my fast.”
“Oh, no,” Mary said. “Surely not. Only if you were Lord Richard would she think of that.”
Mark said, “You are certain you did not frighten her into running away from you?”
“Aye, I am certain. She wouldn’t do that,” he said, and grinned.
“Ah, then she must be here, somewhere. Mary, you have not seen her?”
Mary shook her head. She looked worried, although she tried to hide it. “Is Wicket gone? Perhaps she is riding.”
Not more than a blink later, Chandra came striding into the Great Hall, dressed like a boy, her hair stuffed beneath a dark blue woolen cap, tendrils escaping to hang about her face. Her long legs covered a goodly amount of rush-strewn stone as she strode toward him. If he did not know she was his wife, if he had not possessed that white body of hers, heard her yell, felt himself explode inside her, his fingers clutching her hips, he would have seen a simple lad, all sorts of cocky and full of bravado, coming toward him.
He didn’t like it. She was a woman. She was his wife now, not this scruffy boy who looked so sure of himself. He felt anger pulse through him. She should be lying naked in his arms this very minute, up in her bedchamber, in her bed, smiling up at him, kissing him, stroking her hands over his body, asking him to take her again, to give her that incredible pleasure. Again.
He didn’t think, just strode to her, his pleasant dream falling beneath the rushes. He walked over those rushes and got angrier. She should be in bed, naked, feeding him chunks of bread, laughing as he chewed.
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, saying not an inch from her face, his voice a scratchy whisper, “I awoke and you were gone. You should not have left me unless it was to fetch me something to eat and drink. But you were not here. Where have you been? Why are you dressed like this?”
She jerked away from him, her chin up, her eyes cold, just like the Chandra before she’d become his wife, just like the Chandra before he’d brought her pleasure.
She didn’t look at him, just shrugged and said, “I was riding. Wicket needed exercise.”
“That is a pathetic excuse and you know it. Why did you leave me?”
She looked at him now, and there was a cold look on her face, and anger in her eyes. “I told you. I wanted to ride Wicket.”
Mark and Mary were standing close, all ears. Jerval said, “Wicket will get all the exercise he needs. We leave within the hour. Get yourself ready.”
“Leave? Croyland?”
“Naturally we will leave Croyland. Think you we are in London?”
“That is nonsense. My father wants us to remain here at Croyland for at least three more days. There is a joust planned, and he wants to go against you. There is no reason to leave. What are you talking about? Leave to go where?”
Her father again. Would she have yelled for him in
the competition were they not to leave? “I wish to leave today for Camberley. You have an hour. See to it.”
She jerked off her cap and threw it to the rush-strewn floor. “I do not wish to leave yet. You make no sense. You shout orders, but you do not give any good reasons.”
“I don’t have to give you any reasons at all, good or otherwise. I wish to leave, and it is my wishes that are important. Cease your woman’s prattle and do my bidding.”
Mary saw that Chandra was ready to leap upon her husband of less than a day, and threw herself between them. She said quickly, her hand tight on Chandra’s forearm, “Listen to me, Chandra. Jerval wishes you to become accustomed to your new home before everyone else returns. He wishes to show you everything himself, with no interference, with no other duties that would distract you, that would take your time.”
Chandra stepped right into her friend’s face and snarled like a wild wolf, “Get out of the way, Mary.”
“No. If you want me moved, you will have to throw me out of the way.”
Chandra got hold of herself. She saw that Jerval’s eyes were narrowed, that he didn’t believe for a moment that she would attack him. She snarled in that same voice, “Then why didn’t the fool tell me that?”