The Mistress of Normandy. Susan Wiggs

ever so tolerant of a cripple.”

      Rand clasped that hand, that archer’s hand that had been ruined by a vindictive French knight so Jack might never draw his longbow again. “Soon we will both live in this hostile place.”

      “Think you the woman will prove hostile?”

      “I don’t know. But she’s twenty-one years old. Why has she never married?”

      “You don’t want to think about that,” said Jack. He extracted his hand and spat into the sea. “You’re determined not to like her, aren’t you, my lord?”

      “How can I, when she stands between Jussie and me?”

      Jack shook his russet head. “You know better than that. ’Twas the king’s edict that took you away from Justine.”

      “I know.” Rand let out his breath in a frustrated burst of air. Ever loyal, he said, “I cannot fault Henry. Longwood is vital to him. He’s trying to secure it peaceably, and this is the best way he knows.” Rand tried to fill his empty heart with a feeling of high purpose, of destiny. It felt cold, like a draught of bitter ale after a cup of warm mead. “I suppose winning back the French Crown is larger than one man’s desires.”

      * * *

      Presently the Toison d’Or dropped anchor in the small, quiet harbor of Eu. Wedged between the granite cliffs, the town seemed deserted. Disembarking with his contingent of eight men-at-arms, his squire, Simon, the priest Batsford, and numerous horses and longbows, Rand recalled the ruined fields he’d observed. His shoulders tensed with wariness.

      “Goddamned town’s empty,” said Jack. “I like it not.”

      Their footsteps crunched over shells and pebbles littering the road, and the wind keened a wasting melody between the shuttered stone-and-thatch cottages.

      His sword slapping against his side, Rand approached a large, lopsided building. Above the door, a crude sign bearing a sheaf of wheat flapped creakily. A faint mewing sound slipped through the wail of the wind. Rand looked down. A skinny black-and-white kitten crouched behind an upended barrel. Unthinking, he scooped it up. As starved for contact as for food, the kitten burrowed into his broad palm and set to purring.

      “I puke my way across the Narrow Sea and for what?” Jack grumbled. “A goddamned cat.”

      “Easy, Jack,” Rand said. “Maybe she’ll let you sleep with her.” The men chuckled but continued darting cautious glances here and there as if half-afraid of what they might see.

      Rand shouldered open the door to the inn. Afternoon light stole weakly through two parchment-paned windows, touching a jumble of overturned stools, tables, and broken crockery. The central grate was cold, the burnt logs lying like gray-white ghosts, ready to crumble at the slightest breath.

      Absently Rand stroked the kitten. “The town’s been hit by brigands. Lamb of God, the French prey upon their own.”

      “And leave us naught,” Jack said, scowling at an empty wall cupboard. The other men entered the taproom. Jack looked at Rand. “Now what, my lord?”

      A chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling and landed squarely on Jack’s head. He choked and cursed through a cloud of dust.

      Rand’s eyes traveled the length of the ceiling. In one corner a small opening was covered with planks. “There’s someone in the loft,” he said. Ducking beneath beams too low to accommodate his height, he knocked lightly on the planks.

      “We come in peace,” he said in French. “Show yourselves. We’ll not harm you.”

      He heard shuffling, and more plaster fell. The planks shifted. Rand saw first a great hook of a nose, then a thin face sculpted by sea winds, its high brow age-spotted and crowned with a sprinkling of colorless hair. Sharp eyes blinked at Rand.

      “Are you an Englishman?”

      Rand rubbed absently behind the kitten’s scraggly ears. “I am a friend. Come down, sir.”

      The face disappeared. A muffled conversation ensued above. An argument, by the sound of it, punctuated by female voices and the occasional whine of a child. Presently a rough ladder emerged from the opening. The old man descended.

      “I am Lajoye, keeper of the Sheaf of Wheat.”

      “I am Enguerrand Fitzmarc,” said Rand. “Baron of Bois-Long.” Yet unused to his new title, he spoke with some embarrassment.

      “Bois-Long?” Lajoye scratched his grizzled head. “I did not know it to be an English holding.”

      “All Picardy belongs to the English, but a few thickheads in Paris refuse to admit it.”

      Lajoye glanced distrustfully at the men standing in his taproom. “You do not come to make chevauchée?”

      “No. I’ve cautioned my men strictly against plundering. I come to claim a bride, sir.”

      Interest lit the old pale eyes. “Ça alors,” he said. “Burgundy’s niece, the Demoiselle de Bois-Long?”

      Rand handed him a stack of silver coins. “I’d like to bide here, sir, while I send word to her and await her reply.”

      Lajoye turned toward the loft and rasped an order. One by one the people emerged: Lajoye’s plump wife, two sons of an age with Rand, and six children. More noises issued from the loft.

      “The others, sir?” Rand said.

      Lajoye glared at the men-at-arms, who were shuffling about impatiently. Instantly Rand understood the old man’s concern. “The first of my men to lay a hand on an unwilling woman,” he said, touching the jeweled pommel of his sword, “will lose that hand to my blade.”

      Lajoye stared at him for a long, measuring moment, then flicked his eyes to Robert Batsford, the priest. Although he preferred hefting a longbow to lifting the Host, Batsford also had an uncanny talent for affecting an attitude of saintly piety. “You may take His Lordship at his word,” he said, his moon-shaped face solemn, his round-toned voice sincere.

      Apparently satisfied, Lajoye called out, and the women appeared. Children dove for the skirts of the first two; the second two, their hair unbound in maidenly fashion, stood back, fearfully eyeing Rand and his soldiers.

      Lamb of God, Rand thought, they must live like rats scuttling in fear of their own kind. Eager to show his good faith, he turned to his men. “Set the room to rights, send for the ship’s stores, and arm yourselves.” He handed the black-and-white kitten to a little girl. “We’ll ride out after the brigands. Perhaps we can recover some of the plunder.”

      As the men set about their tasks, Lajoye eyed Rand with new respect. “Your name would be blessed if you could return the pyx those devils stole from our chapel.”

      “I’ll try, Lajoye.” Rand moved out into the dooryard, where Simon was saddling his horse.

      Lajoye followed. With a gnarled hand he stroked the high-arched neck of the percheron. “So, you lay claim to Bois-Long.”

      Rand nodded. “Do you object to my claim?”

      Lajoye heaved a dusty sigh. “As a Frenchman, I suppose I should. But as an innkeeper seeking a peaceful existence, I care not, so long as you keep your word on forbidding plunder.” He spat on the ground. “The French knights, they ravage our land, rape our women.”

      Rand tensed. “Would the brigands attack Bois-Long?”

      “No, the château is too well fortified. Have you never seen it, my lord?”

      Rand shook his head.

      “The first keep of Bois-Long was built by the Lionheart himself. Your sons will be wealthy.”

      Rand furrowed his fingers through his golden hair. “As will this district, if I have my way. Do you know the demoiselle?”

      “I’ve never met the