A Knight's Vow by Gayle Callen Page A

reddened.
    "William, I'm sorry I could not have you released yesterday. Did Bolton tell you why?"
    He nodded. "The wedding, you mean?"
    "If you can call it that."
    "Isabel, I am so sorry that all your plans have come to this. Why did the king insist you wed?"
    "He made a present of me," she said sarcastically, "in gratitude to his noble servant, Bolton."
    "Oh." William avoided her eyes and hefted the pitchfork.
    "I had no choice," she insisted.
    He looked surprised. "I know that, my lady. Why would I doubt it?"
    "Because I myself can't imagine why I did it."
    "If you'd have gone against the king, you'd have lost everything."
    "Did Bolton tell you that?"
    "No, Lady Isabel," he said patiently, as if everyone would obviously understand.
    She sighed, and for a moment a tense silence hovered between them. William finally cleared his throat and spoke, his voice so soft she could barely hear it.
    "Isabel, did he.. .hurt you?"
    Her skin heated but she didn't look away. "I made sure all the servants knew that he did not consummate the marriage."
    William gasped. "You told such a lie?"
    '"Tis no lie."
    He slowly closed his gaping mouth, and his brows lowered in thought. "I wonder why he—"
    "Enough," she said sternly. "Why does he force you to muck his stables?"
    "But this is where I start my service."
    "You'll be able to stay?" She heard the silly hope in her voice.
    William smiled. "Yes, Isabel, I'm staying. I can't leave you here alone."
    "But the son of a baron—in the stables?"
    "I'm grateful. He could be sending me home in disgrace. I stole from him."
    "That is my doing, not yours. I shall make him see that." Isabel once again thought how foolish she'd been to allow William to accompany her. The guilt would not rest easy.
    "My lady, I must finish my duties. But one last thing—be careful. This...rumor you're spreading will only anger him."
    "And humiliate him," she added with relish.
    "Yes, and a humiliated man might not show any more sympathy to his new wife."
    "Sympathy?" she cried. "When has he shown me that?"
    William began to shovel out the manure. "I would say he showed you more sympathy last night than most men would."
    Isabel turned on her heel and walked out.
    James spent the rest of the morning with his steward, going over his account books and seeing
    where his dowry money—old and new—would be most useful. He tried not to think of Isabel, but occasionally a maid would helpfully inform him that she still kept to the battlements, after her one visit to the stables.
    If James had to speak to one more blushing, giggling maidservant, he would erupt into an angry defense of his chivalrous behavior. What were his people thinking? That he should just force his attentions on a woman who could barely come to terms with her married state?
    He held his temper without answering everyone's obvious questions. At dinner, the soldiers and servants flooded the great hall. Isabel entered, William Desmond beside her. Though she tried to sit at a far table, James had her escorted to his.
    "Your place is beside me, wife," he said sternly. As William bowed and turned away, he added, "Sit with us, Desmond. My wife seems to enjoy your company."
    No one else made any move to join them, and James wasn't surprised. Who would want to sit between a rumor-mongering wife and her frustrated husband. But Father Carstairs suddenly waddled forward and sat at James's left hand, after nodding to Isabel. Isabel practically turned her back to talk
    to her squire. James sighed and began to eat his fish stew.
    For a few tense minutes, he watched Isabel eat as if she were starving. Then Father Carstairs tugged on his arm.
    "Lord Bolton, might I say something... indelicate?" the priest asked in hushed tones.
    James gritted his teeth, feeling his meal sit in a ball in his stomach. "What is it, Father?"
    "My son, I have heard whispered rumors that disturb me."
    James rolled his eyes. Didn't even a priest care that he showed a woman mercy? He felt his face