Page 27 of Knight School Chronicles Box Set
“ B ut I must go,” Evelina said.
Her father typically cared little how she spent her days unless he wished for her to host a meal or entertain a guest. Today, however, he’d stopped her and Amalia as they’d been about to leave.
“Why?” he asked. When he stopped her, Evelina had said she and Amalia planned to distribute bread, something they did often, which should not be a cause for undue notice. Oddly, though, her father had noticed.
Instead of answering his question, she posed one of her own. “Why are you concerned, suddenly, about our visit to the village?”
He’d already dismissed Amalia, so she and her father were alone in the solar chamber where they’d been summoned.
“You’ve been there too often of late.”
While it was true her visits to the village had increased since she’d been meeting Gareth, Evelina had hoped her father would not take notice.
She attempted a different position.
“What else would you have me do, Father, after my tutoring sessions each day?”
Evelina knew the answer before he gave it. “Supervise servants. Manage food supplies. Embroidery. Needlework. There is much for you to do, Evelina, as you know well.”
“I do most of those things,” she said, earning a stern glance for it.
“I’ve not once seen you with a needle in your hands,” he challenged.
“Because I’ve not the knack, nor inclination, for it.”
“Evelina . . .”
When he used her full given name, it was never a good sign.
“Father,” she countered. “I have complained little even though there is so much more I wish to do here at Ashcroft Manor.”
“Complained little? I’ve heard naught but complaints for as long as I can remember.”
This was the reason she refused, even as Amalia suggested it, to speak to her father about being involved in the knight school. Or being able to teach the villagers’ children of history, something she had stopped suggesting some time ago. Speaking with her father was impossible.
Unwilling to lose her composure, she remained calm. Though it was not easy.
“Father, what have I done to earn your scorn?”
That did seem to give him pause. “Scorn? You have all that you could wish for, Evie. I simply ask that you understand your place here and as an Ashcroft. The only Ashcroft,” he added, as he often did. “Unless you wish your cousin to inherit the title.”
Her father would be appalled how little she cared if he did, indeed, inherit.
“I wish only to serve you,” she said, honestly. But added, “And be happy as well.”
“Happy,” he muttered, under his breath.
Sighing, she resigned herself to not swaying him to her side but instead getting to the village to see Gareth.
“Aye, Father. If that is all,” she said with a slight bow, preparing to find Amalia.
“It is not,” he said in a voice that was as commanding as it was firm.
She froze. Could he know about Gareth?
“An envoy from Count Geoffrey V of Anjou will be arriving any time. I need you here, to help prepare.”
Evelina could not hide her surprise. “An envoy from Lady Maude’s husband? Is such a visit safe? Do any know he comes here? And why?—”
“You need only know they will be arriving this eve or on the morrow. See that all is ready.”
She did not move. So this was why he cared about her visit to the village.
“You are dismissed, Evie.”
His use of her familiar name did little to comfort her as it sometimes did. Not only would she need to find Amalia to bring word to Gareth, but this meant she’d not be seeing him today or tomorrow. But his announcement offered even worse implications.
“Do you plan to discuss the campaign only with this envoy? Or me?”
Typically Evelina disliked annoying her father, which questions always seemed to do. But there was no help for it.
“They are inextricably tied to each other,” he said, his answer not an answer at all.
“Father—”
“Enough,” he said, even more forcefully than before. “There is much to do to prepare.”
Without waiting for her to dismiss herself, Evelina’s father did so himself.
As he strode from the chamber where he conducted most of his business, she wondered if he would return if she simply waited there.
Evelina had to know if he planned to propose a betrothal.
She’d assumed such a thing would be years away, as they were no closer now to restoring Empress Matilda to the throne than they had been when the Guardians of the Sacred Oak was formed.
In the end, she could not wait to ask additional questions. Gareth would be waiting.
She left the chamber and attempted to find her maid, wondering how Gareth would respond.
Would he be disappointed? Evelina smiled.
If the way he looked at her when they were together, and the fact that he did indeed leave Castle Blackwood each day to meet her, meant anything, then aye, he would indeed.
And she was disappointed as well. Seeing him was the best part of her day, and even though he made no other move to touch her, except to hold her hand, Evelina suspected it wasn’t for lack of wanting to be with her.
Though she’d never experienced desire before him, she could recognize it easily.
“My lady.” Amalia rushed up to her. “Your meeting...”
“Shhh.” She pulled her to the side just as a kitchen maid passed them. “We cannot speak freely here.”
The two women made their way to an alcove on the second floor, and though it was less private than her bedchamber, it would serve for now. Evelina relayed the conversation with her father to Amalia, who agreed the news was most distressing.
“Will you go to him?”
Before the words had hardly left her mouth, Amalia was already standing. “I will tell him to come in two days’ time.”
With luck, she would be able to get away then. Nodding, she stood too. Hugging Amalia, she thanked her. “Tell him...” She swallowed. What could she say? “Tell him the truth.”
“Aye, my lady.”
At least she would know when next they met if a betrothal were even a possibility. If Evelina were lucky, this envoy would scoff at her father for aiming so high and send him on his way.
But if they did not?
Evelina could not worry about a problem that she could not control. Or one that may not come to pass. If she were lucky, it may never become a problem at all.