Bone of Contention by Roberta Gellis Page B

this…creature…seized my hand and said we were to be married by order of Lord Waleran de Meulan. He was looking around the common room, at the plates on the wardrobe and the tankards. He never even looked at me beyond one glance. At first I was too frightened to speak, but I managed to pull my hand away and get behind a bench. Once I was free of him, I remembered why I was not married already. I told him that I was the king’s ward and that only the king himself could order me to take a husband.”
    Niall began to mutter something, but Loveday held up her hand and he fell silent.
    “For one moment the man looked taken aback, but then he laughed and said it was the king’s order, that the king’s clerk had come to Lord Waleran and bidden him find a husband for me.”
    “That treacherous clerk!” Niall burst out.
    Magdalene frowned. “I know the clerk said that Loveday was not sufficiently highborn or rich enough to make a marriage prize for one of Stephen’s own poor noblemen—”
    “Thanks be to God!” Loveday exclaimed. “One of those would strip Noke and Otmoorbare in a year to pay for his fine clothing and his gambling.”
    “I agree,” Magdalene said, still frowning, “but I am very surprised indeed that Waleran should send a common man-at-arms. I should have thought he would have chosen, as did William, one of his captains, who would be a knight and of decent if not noble family.”
    “Apparently I was not worth so much consideration.” Loveday’s voice was stiff and ice-cold. “But it became an advantage. Because I saw that he did not truly have any knowledge of what being a king’s ward meant, I gathered my wits and told him I would take no man’s word on a matter so important to me as my marriage. I said I must see the order in writing with the king’s seal before I would agree. He was angry, but my steward was there and he left, saying I was a fool to resist and start off on the wrong foot with him, that he would come back with the order.” She shuddered. “I would rather die, I thought, than have him. He stank!”
    “I do not always smell fresh as a flower,” Niall said tentatively, touching her cheek.
    Magdalene thought he probably did smell somewhat of flowers that day. He was clearly scrubbed clean and newly shaven, his hair washed…but not combed? And then she noticed that his sleeve was cut and so was his tunic, as if someone had attacked him with a knife, and the knuckles on the hand he had raised to touch Loveday were skinned and swollen.
    “No,” Loveday said to him, smiling, “nor did my father smell like flowers nor my brothers. Like them you smell of horses and honest sweat.” Her eyes came back to Magdalene and her voice sharpened. “That animal smelled of stale beer and wine and piss and vomit.” She shuddered again. “I was not certain what I would do if he did come back with the order. First I thought I would not let him in, but what good would that do? I thought the king would send many men to force me. So then I decided to let him in and look at the order. If it really was from the king… I would have the steward and the menservants from the house kill him!”
    Magdalene fought back a grin and said, “Better that than a life—a short one, I suspect—as his wife. But I hope you bethought you of how to hide what you had done.”
    Loveday sighed. “It did not come to that, but almost. He came with a document, but it was not an order from the king and it bore nothing beside the signatures of two witnesses. There was no seal. It was a betrothal agreement yielding all that was mine to him without any safeguard for me. It already bore my signature—” she snorted contempt “—an X with the words “Loveday of Otmoor, her mark’ beside it. The fool did not even know I could read and write.”
    “Can you?” Magdalene asked, surprised. It was an unlikely skill for a woman.
    “Yes, father taught me after mother died. He traveled a lot and he wanted to know in