Page 12 of A Lover for Lady Jane (The Welsh Rebels #5)

Chapter Seven

D irectly in front of them, framed by rows of dark, skeletal trees, the full moon rose from under the blanket of clouds, as red and glowing as a fire ember, almost shimmering with evil intent. Jane shivered. There was something unsettling about the whole scene, ominous almost.

“What is it?” Griffin asked, his voice low and reassuring in her ear. He would have felt her tensing against his chest.

“The moon… It’s like the eye of a devilish creature. A dragon of some sort, looming over us, ready to pounce.”

He let out a soft laugh. “Ah, my lady, such fanciful musings. ’Tis the moon, nothing more. Surely you’ve seen it many times before?”

Of course she had, but tonight it appeared different, swollen and menacing, glowing over the horizon, bursting with malevolence, nothing like the usual benign presence guarding them from up above. She shivered again when it slid back under the veil of clouds.

“It’s all right,” Griffin murmured, tightening his hold around her. “I’m here, I will not let anyone, even devilish dragons, get to you.”

“No. I trust you.”

What would she have done, out here on her own, Jane asked herself for the tenth time? Thank God he had fled with her.

To distract herself from the unease the moon had created inside her, she asked him what she had wanted to ask him for days.

“How is it that you own a destrier?”

With his powerful rump and strong neck, Eryr had obviously been bred to carry knights in armor to battle, not to work in a farmer’s field.

Even Geraint, who was clearly a man of some means, had not possessed such a splendid stallion.

As Lord Sheridan’s daughter, Jane knew just how expensive a warhorse could be.

A man like Griffin would never have been able to afford a mount destined for a nobleman.

“One day, about six months ago, the local lord organized a tourney,” he started to explain.

“The English knight who won it was a young, proud man. Though he was gravely injured in the last melee, he refused to let it be known for fear of dimming the prestige of his victory. He rode away from the castle, pretending everything was fine. I found him outside my cottage the following morning, lying in a pool of his own blood. He’d fallen from his horse straight into the geese pen. ”

Jane almost laughed at the undignified image. “What a fool. It is not as if there was anything shameful in sustaining an injury during a melee. It happens all the time.”

“I wouldn’t know. I have never been to a tourney.”

“No. Of course,” she mumbled. Why had she said something like that, which only highlighted the distance between the two of them?

“Well, I’m telling you, he was a fool for hiding his injury and riding away before he could be seen by anyone.

What prestige is there in ending up lying face down in a geese pen? None, I should think.”

Griffin let out a snort. Evidently he agreed with her.

“I brought him in, but my efforts to save him were in vain. As he lay dying, he urged me to take good care of his horse, who was his most precious possession. I did, as I had no idea where to send him anyway. His original name was Conqueror. Not wanting to keep such an unfortunate, English name, I renamed him Eryr, though I’m not sure why. ”

“It was a good decision,” she said with a smile. “Conqueror is indeed an unfortunate name for a Welshman’s mount.”

“Yes, I thought so.”

Just as they had last night, they set up camp as the first sunrays pierced the horizon.

The risk of discovery being considerably less than it had been the previous morning, they didn’t waste time trying to find a hole like they had the day before, instead choosing a place buried deep in the middle of the woods.

Unless Geraint and his men scoured every bush they came across, they would never see them where they were.

Besides, as she knew, they were not on the obvious route.

All night they had traveled in happy companionship. A lord’s daughter and a farmer’s son should not have anything in common, but Griffin was surprisingly easy to talk to, mischievous and sharp, and she found herself laughing out loud more than once.

Though this was not something she would have dared admit to anyone, it was refreshing to be able to enjoy a man’s attention without worrying about hurting Sian’s feelings.

Jane had started to feel self-conscious from a young age, when she had seen how people treated the two of them differently.

Men usually ignored her shorter, clumsier, supposedly less beautiful sister whenever she was around, praising her elegance and poise instead, not sparing a glance for Sian, who was relegated to the role of observer.

It had been embarrassing, even if, fortunately, Sian had never seemed to mind the men’s lack of interest. Of course, now, Jane knew why.

Her sister had not been interested in catching anyone’s attention, for she had been biding her time until Christopher, the man she’d elected to marry from a young age, finally fell in love with her.

Mercifully, he had. Ignoring her slightly unpolished exterior, he had seen her sister for the gem she was and married her.

Her new brother-in-law had never even spared a glance for her, Jane, the much praised “beauty of the family.” He was the only man who’d never given her the impression he wanted to bed her, for which she was grateful.

It would have been unbearably awkward otherwise.

As to Griffin…

Griffin might well want to bed her. Jane had not missed the gleam in his eyes when he looked at her, but unlike the other men, he did his best to hide his desire and never caused her any unease.

From the start he’d wanted to protect her.

He had saved her from a dire fate, seen to her comfort, was doing everything he could to alleviate her fears, and he was even making her laugh.

With him, she could be herself, or rather, a more accomplished, more complete version of herself.

She was not reduced to the way she looked, and she did not have to worry about hurting her sister’s feelings.

It was very satisfying.

“Why did you end up with men the likes of Geraint?” she asked once the fire was roaring. It was not as cold as it could have been, but a light breeze had picked up and the warmth of the flames was welcome.

He sighed, as if he’d asked himself the same question too many times.

“He came to my village a few weeks back, asking for someone who could speak English. No one was better placed than I was to do that. As I wanted to leave anyway, and had my own horse, I jumped on the opportunity to go with them. Obviously, I had no idea what he needed an interpreter for, or I would never have agreed to have anything to do with any of them.”

Still, it would not have taken him long to see what kind of men Geraint and his companions were. They could not have inspired trust in him with their rough manners and hostility, especially Cynan. Why had he been so desperate to leave his village that he’d ignored all the clues?

The question was out before she could wonder at the wisdom of asking it out loud.

“Did you leave because of a woman?” Wasn’t that always the way? And Griffin was far too handsome not to have attracted female attention.

“I did,” he confirmed, his voice raw. “A woman I thought to marry, if you’ll believe it. Only it turned out she didn’t want me.”

“Was she ma—” Jane stopped before the word “mad” could escape her lips. But really, what woman in her right mind would refuse to marry Griffin, especially if they were lovers already? “Was she married already?” she improvised. “Was that what the problem was?”

“No. But she never wanted me. All she wanted was a child.” He threw a few branches into the fire while he pondered on what to say next.

“I took precautions when bedding her at first but then she told me that she was taking plants to prevent conception, and I did not question it. I had seen her drink various potions, so why would I? In any case, I thought that we could always marry if there was a babe, because fool that I was, I had started to have feelings for her. And soon, I started to suspect she might indeed be with child, despite the potions she took in front of me. I confronted her one evening and she admitted she had never tried to prevent anything. The potions were just a decoy destined to fool me. She had planned it all from the start and she was now a few days late.”

How awful to be deceived thus. Jane could only imagine his reaction. She threw a twig in the fire to avoid meeting his gaze. “So, what happened?”

His answer was crushing. “Nothing. The morning after our discussion, she vanished. That same day another man from the village disappeared. I was told by a neighbor that the two of them had been seen kissing many times. By all accounts, I was the only one who wasn’t aware of their relationship.”

“Oh, Griffin, I’m so sorry.” Jane was horrified because he was right.

The woman had never wanted him, only to become a mother.

She’d started to bed him with the sole aim of getting with child, abusing his trust, pretending to take potions to make him give her by stealth what he didn’t want to give willingly.

Then once she’d achieved what she wanted from him, she had fled with another lover, a man who would get to raise the child instead.

It was a terrible betrayal.

Griffin shrugged, as if he cared not one way or another but she was not fooled. The woman had hurt him deeply, so much so that he had agreed to follow Geraint in a bid to get over the pain.