A Dangerous Love by Bertrice Small Page A

all.”
    The two brothers rode down the hillside into the sheltered valley where Stanton Hall stood. The fallow fields were well cared-for, Robert noted as they came. The village was neat, the cottage roofs well thatched, the cottages themselves freshly whitewashed. There was a small church at one end of the village and a mill at the other, but it did look deserted. The two brothers followed the road to the hall, and guided their horses into the courtyard of the great stone house. Stableboys ran out to take their horses. The door to the house opened to reveal a stocky man who stood blocking their entry.
    “Welcome to Stanton, sirs,” he said. “I am Albert, my lady’s majordomo. Do you have business with her?” He was polite, but he did not move.
    “I am Robert Lynbridge, heir to Lord Humphrey, and this is my brother, Andrew. We have come to pay our respects and those of our grandfather to the lady of the hall.”
    A smile now creased Albert’s face, and he stepped aside to usher them into the house. “My lady is in the great hall,” he said. “If you will but wait here, good sirs, I will tell her you are here.” He hurried off.
    “House seems to have survived the raid nicely,” Andrew noted.
    “Duke Richard came and made repairs,” Robert informed him.
    “What is his interest in her, I wonder?” Andrew said.
    “Good sirs, if you will come this way.” Albert had returned. “My lady is ready to greet you.” Turning, he led  them into the great hall of Stanton, where Adair stood waiting to receive her visitors.
    Both men were surprised by the girl’s beauty. They bowed, and Robert kissed her hand gallantly. “My lady, I am Robert Lynbridge of Hillview. I bring you greet-ings from my grandfather, Lord Humphrey. He knew both your parents.”
    “I remember your grandfather, sir. He once called at Stanton when I was a child.”
    “May I present my younger brother, Andrew Lynbridge,” Robert said.
    Boldly Andrew Lynbridge locked his gaze on Adair, and to his surprise she did not look away. He kissed her hand, his eyes never leaving hers. “My lady,” was all he said as he bowed to her.
    Adair took back her hand. “Come and be seated by the fire, sirs. Albert, wine for our guests.” She turned to Robert. “How is your grandfather?”
    “Crusty as ever,” Robert replied with a small smile.
    “He will be delighted you recalled him.”
    “I remember you too,” Adair surprised him. “But you were far too grown-up to be bothered paying attention to a little girl of five,” she said. “It was at the midsummer fair the year before the troubles came upon us. But I do not recall your brother.”
    “I left Hillview to join Duke Richard’s forces when I was sixteen,” Andrew said.
    “Ahh!” Adair’s face lit up. “You fought with Uncle Dickon?”
    “And went to France with him as well,” was his reply.
    “Why do you call the duke Uncle Dickon, if I may be so bold, my lady?”
    “After my parents were murdered I was raised in the king’s nursery,” Adair explained. “The Duke of Gloucester is very beloved of all the children there.
    When my nurse and I had almost reached London it was he who found us and saw we were taken to the queen in Westminster. He asked that I call him uncle.”
    “Ah,” Robert said. “So that is where you have been all these years. In the king’s house. We had wondered where you had fled for safety.”
    “Yes,” Adair said. “I was with the royal family.”
    Albert came now, offering wine and biscuits to the guests.
    “Why have you come home to Stanton now?” Robert inquired.
    “I thought it was time,” Adair said. “Ten years is a long while to be away, and Uncle Dickon said the house was habitable. My Stanton folk have worked very hard to help me refurbish it. We discovered chests of fabric that had not been found and looted. It has allowed us to make curtains and bed draperies. And they built a loom for me. I have begun a tapestry, the first of several I