Page 19 of When I Fall in Love (De Piaget #4)
N icholas welcomed the jongleurs into the great hall, pleased with the fortuitous nature of their arrival. He’d hoped he might be able to provide Jennifer with some sort of entertainment, but he’d thought he would need to go find it himself. His father hadn’t yet, in all his years as lord of the keep, been able to retain a set of musicians for longer than a pair of months. Perhaps the hall had never been to anyone’s liking or perhaps the keep was too far north.
Perhaps Petter’s proposed gallery for Wyckham would be suitable inducement for minstrels of his own. He supposed, though, that thinking about that might be premature. After all, it wasn’t as if he had a lady to grace that hall with her glorious presence and enjoy music on a nightly basis.
Not yet.
The day had gone well so far. He had passed a very lovely morning with Jennifer on the strand. They had talked of nothing of import and for that he was unwholesomely grateful. He’d been satisfied to discuss the contents of Artane’s new cook’s basket, the pleasing nature of his father’s finest wine, and the potential for rain before they finished both. The very last thing he’d wanted to discuss had been Jennifer’s future.
Or her return to the Future.
They were two different things entirely, but neither to his liking.
They had run back to the keep before the rain turned into a storm that had blown in hard from the sea. He had advised her to retreat to Isabelle’s chamber and have a rest lest she catch a chill. That she had agreed said much about the strain the past fortnight had put upon her.
Nicholas had immediately set to procuring some sort of entertainment for the evening. When the minstrels had knocked on the front doors, begging for shelter, he’d happily invited them in. He’d shown them the kitchens as further inducement. The agreement had been fixed right there in front of the cooking fire.
Now all that was left was to wait for Jennifer to reappear and hope that she would be pleased.
He waited for quite a while. Montgomery and John arrived from points unknown and began to pace in front of the table, as if they thought making themselves visible might hurry supper along. Miles arrived from outside and sauntered over to where Nicholas stood in the middle of the hall, waiting impatiently.
“I like gold and gray together,” Miles offered solemnly.
Nicholas grunted. “If you think that will earn you a dance with her, you are mistaken.”
“You can’t have her all to yourself,” Miles protested.
“Why not?” Nicholas asked.
“At least allow her to dance with Montgomery. You will benefit from the comparison.”
Nicholas pursed his lips. “I don’t need that sort of benefit. Even at court I manage to put one foot in front of the other and avoid treading on expensive, bejeweled frocks—”
He realized Miles was no longer listening. Indeed, Miles was no longer standing next to him. He looked behind him and saw that Jennifer had come into the great hall. Miles was hastening over to her as if he intended to claim her before anyone else had a chance.
Nicholas might have rushed over and elbowed him aside, but two things stopped him. One, he’d. forgotten over the course of the afternoon whilst she rested just how arrestingly beautiful she was. Just looking at her was enough to render him motionless.
Secondly, he wasn’t going to tumble over all his younger brothers as they currently tumbled over each other to be the first to reach her. He would simply wait until they had tangled themselves in a heap, then he would step over them and reach her first.
Unfortunately, his brothers were less bumbling than he had hoped, for they managed to get Jennifer and themselves to the table. In spite of that miscalculation, though, he did manage to take the seat on her right.
Never mind that he’d thrown Montgomery out of it.
Robin barked for Miles to move out of his seat, then he sat down at Jennifer’s left. Nicholas wasn’t concerned about that. Indeed, Robin made a fine buffer between Jennifer and Miles, who should have known better than to ply his wooing wiles upon a woman who had agreed to a fortnight with him.
“Nicholas?”
He looked at her. “Aye?” he asked shortly.
“I think you should have had a nap as well.”
He took a deep breath, blew it out, then gave her his best smile. “Sorry. I was contemplating ways to do in my younger brothers.”
“Why?”
“Aye, why?” Robin asked with exaggerated confusion. “I can’t imagine what they could have done to merit that.”
Nicholas shot Robin a glare, then looked back at Jennifer. “I thought they might be vexing you. Tell me if their attentions weary you.”
She shook her head with a smile. “It’s very flattering.”
“See,” Robin said with an exaggerated nod. “Very flattering.”
“Rob?” Nicholas said.
“Aye?”
“Be silent before I must silence you.”
Robin looked at Jennifer solemnly. “He is possessed of vile humors, as you can see. I try to beat them from him as often as possible, but ’tis an endless labor from which there is no rest for me. Perhaps you can aid me in my task.”
Nicholas would have argued the point with his brother, but the musicians emerged from ingesting their early evening morsel and had begun readying themselves near the back of the hall. Nicholas stole a surreptitious look at Jennifer to see how she was reacting. She was watching them with great interest.
He leaned closer to her. “Don’t ask them for employment.”
She looked at him in surprise. “How did you know that’s what I was thinking?”
“You were quite obviously lusting after that one’s lute. Can you play the lute, by the way?”
“I never have, but I could try.”
“I have one in my chamber. We’ll each attempt a song or two tomorrow. For now, you are the guest.”
“So I should just enjoy, not try to learn all their songs so I can perform them at a later time?”
He smiled. “Aye. But, now that you say so, could you learn all their songs?”
“I have a good ear.”
“Can you dance as well?” he asked.
She smiled. “No, but I could learn that, too, I imagine.”
He inclined his head. “It would be my pleasure to teach—”
“You,” Miles finished, hopping over the table and bowing low in front of it. “Mistress Jennifer, allow me to aid you however I might with my modest knowledge of the steps.”
“And me,” Montgomery said, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her chair. “If you’re finished with supper, that is.”
“You’d best include me as well,” John said with a weary sigh. “In fact, you should likely start with me. I’m the worst dancer of us all.”
Nicholas reached for Jennifer, but it was too late. She had been captured and spirited away from the table. He started to protest, but soon decided it was useless. His brothers were determined and he supposed it wasn’t such a bad thing. They could trip over their feet whilst trying to teach her the dances, then he would step in and toss them out the front door and have his lady to himself.
As he watched the lads take her out into the middle of the hall, he couldn’t help but compare his view at present with the views he’d had recently from his father’s high table. How many nights had he sat exactly where he was, enduring the schemes and machinations of his grandmère? How many evenings had he looked over a hall filled with women he couldn’t have cared less about? How many times had he wondered if it were even possible to find a woman to love?
He leaned his elbows on the table and his chin on his fists and watched Jennifer as Miles and the twins took turns fighting over who would take the lead in teaching her the dances they were trying to help her master. He was quite certain he’d never seen anyone like her. She treated his brothers with an easiness that was enchanting to watch. She laughed at them, teased them, made them exaggerated courtly bows, and simply enjoyed them. He could not, for the life of him, imagine any other woman of his acquaintance doing the like. Certainly none of his grandmother’s offerings would have bothered.
She was magnificent.
After a time, however, the pleasure of watching her with his brothers began to turn to ever-so-slight irritation that they seemed disinclined to release her.
“Miles,” Nicholas called. “My turn.”
Miles simply turned his back on him.
Nicholas tried to catch Montgomery’s eye, or John’s, but with equal lack of success. He heard a snort next to him and looked at his brother.
“What?” he asked.
“You might actually have to get off your comfortable perch and go rescue your lady,” Robin remarked. “Though I don’t see what you’re so stirred up about. They’re your brothers, for pity’s sake.”
Nicholas scowled at him. “Don’t you have somewhere to go? To Fenwyck, perhaps, to retrieve your wife?”
“I’m not certain I trust you to be alone with your lady without some sort of chaperon,” Robin said solemnly.
“Chaperon?” Nicholas exclaimed. “Surely you jest! I have chaperons right there. Three of the most irritating sort. I’ll never have the girl to myself.”
“It serves you right,” Robin said with a smile.
“What does?”
“To fall in love with a woman of her ilk. Especially given how rude you were to Jake about his past.”
“Future.”
“Whatever.”
Nicholas scowled at his brother. “Damnation, what does that word mean?”
“It means you are a dolt and Fate has a sense of humor,” Robin said with a chuckle. “I still can’t believe it. You with a wench ... well, that sort of wench. You know what I mean.”
“Aye,” Nicholas said with a sigh. “I know, indeed.” He looked at Jennifer dancing with his brothers. “It is ironic, isn’t it?”
Robin was so silent for so long that Nicholas finally looked at him. His brother was watching him with an expression of something genuine on his face. It could have been affection. It could have been pity.
Mayhap it was indigestion.
Nicholas scowled. “Yet more to spew at me?”
“Nay,” Robin said quietly, shaking his head. “Just my apologies. I didn’t realize.”
“Realize what?”
“That you do love the girl.”
“After less than three fortnights of knowing her?” Nicholas said, grasping at anything that sounded sensible. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Robin smiled gravely. “I imagine it didn’t take more than a single glance, did it?”
Nicholas wanted to deny it, but he simply couldn’t. He glared at his brother. “You’re detestable.”
Robin tapped his forehead. “My superior intelligence yet again rendering all within my scope helpless against my perception.”
“Shut up.”
Robin laughed. “I’ll leave tomorrow to fetch Anne, then your lady will have some tolerable company for a change.”
“Do that,” Nicholas suggested. “It might be even better if you went now.”
“And miss the dancing? Never. I love to dance. I love even more to watch dancing.”
“You lie,” Nicholas said. “You loathe every aspect of every type of courtly entertainment and the only reason you tolerate it at all is for Anne’s sake and to avoid censure from Grandmère for avoiding it.”
“And yet it doesn’t prevent me from wanting to watch you attempt to wrest your love away from your brothers.” Robin sat back and smiled pleasantly. “Be about it then, lad. Provide me with some sort of sport.”
Nicholas drained his cup, pushed his chair back, and walked around the table to the floor of the great hall. He invited his brothers quite politely to return to their suppers. They protested. He invited more firmly. He supposed they might have been tempted to refuse yet again, but he escorted them across the floor and over to the lord’s table where he instructed them to take their ease. He unbuckled his sword belt, laid his sword and his knife on the table, then turned and looked at Jennifer.
She was standing in the middle of the floor in her lovely dress with the less-than-lovely bit attached to the bottom. She clasped her hands behind her back and waited, smiling slightly.
He walked over to her and stopped. He bowed low, then nodded to his minstrels. They began with a very pleasant tune. Nicholas smiled.
“Did they manage to teach you any of the steps, or were they too busy trying to woo you?”
“I suppose I learned a step or two. Be gentle and I’ll do my best.”
He held out his hand. “I imagine I’ll be the one tripping over my feet.”
“I’ll try to keep you from falling on your face.”
He laughed as best he could for not having much breath to do it. All his had been stolen by the touch of her hand.
He had no idea how many dances they danced. He glanced, at one point during the evening, at the musicians, but they were looking at Jennifer in much the same way his brothers had, as if they simply couldn’t drink in the sight of her enough to quench themselves.
He understood completely.
Eventually, when he thought Jennifer looked a little flushed and he felt a little parched, he walked her over to the table then went to see how his minstrels fared. There was no sense in not pampering them a little so they would stay a bit and aid him in his wooing. He looked at the lutenist.
“Weary?” he asked.
“Not when there is such beauty to be enjoyed as your lady,” the man said, inclining his head. “Pardon my boldness.”
“I share your sentiments. Can you carry on for a bit?”
“Till dawn, my lord, if you like.”
“I do,” Nicholas said with feeling. And he did. He turned and watched Jennifer standing in front of the high table, sipping from a cup, then laughing at something Miles said.
Her laughter was music. She was music. Everything about her from her smile to her visage to her touch was glorious music that left him wanting nothing more than to hear her for the rest of his life.
The saints preserve him, but it was true.
He walked over to the table, accepted a cup of wine from her, then watched her over the rim as he drank. “Tired?” he asked, setting the cup down.
“Never. You?”
“The sun hasn’t risen yet.”
She laughed and took his hand. “Then, my lord, let us make good use of the night.”
“May I not have at least one more turn?” Miles asked plaintively.
“You’ve already had several.”
“One last one.”
Nicholas looked at Jennifer. “He’s had a turn.”
“You could consider it repayment for his teaching me the steps.”
Nicholas considered. He didn’t want to release her, but then again, he had an entire fortnight of her company to look forward to. He could afford to be gracious. He put her hand in his brother’s. It wasn’t hard to do given that Miles was shoving him out of the way.
He leaned back against the table and watched Miles dance with his love. Miles was, Nicholas had to admit unwillingly, as handsome as any woman could have wished, he actually danced quite well, and he was full of brilliant wit.
“Father won’t like it if you kill Miles,” John said from behind him.
Nicholas threw his brother a glare and turned back to watching the dance.
“Patience is a virtue,” Robin added.
Nicholas made a rude gesture behind his back which only left Robin laughing. He himself saw nothing amusing about any of it.
Yet, in time, the dance was over, and Miles was escorting Jennifer back to him. Nicholas watched her laugh with his brother and compliment him on his dancing.
And then she caught sight of him.
And she smiled.
He managed to smile back, but the truth had caught him full in the chest and he was finding it very hard indeed to take a normal breath.
By the saints, he was truly, hopelessly, profoundly lost.
His mother had told him once that when he finally fell in love, it would be with someone truly extraordinary. He would have to tell her that she’d been right. Jennifer was everything he could have hoped for, and more.
Now, if only he could see it last forever.
He took her hand and led her out onto the floor.
It was a beginning. With any luck, and perhaps a bit of help from Fate, it would be the beginning of something that would last forever. He pushed aside the knowledge of what he hadn’t told her and what he would have to tell her eventually. For now, he would dance with her, drink in her beauty and her smiles.
The Future be damned.