Johanna Lindsey: Johanna Lindsey When Love Awaits

Shefford, and there are other uncles and aunts, most of them well placed.

It does not hurt a man to be well connected, eh?"

Rolfe was shocked. She was an heiress with a much richer dowry than

he'd known about, and highborn relatives as well. He supposed all this

ought to please him, but in truth he had believed her a solitary woman,

and now he began to wonder if his anger had made him take on more

than he wanted to.

Chapter 5

LADY Judith did not know why Rolfe d'Ambert wanted to marry

Leonie. If she had known she would have been furious. As it was, Judith

was in a state of near hysteria.

She had put off telling William of the king's order in hope that

something would come about to stop the wedding. But it was the day

before the wedding and she was in a panic.

She sat at the table on the raised dais waiting for William to join her,

having sent a servant to rouse him from sleep. It was morning, and much

earlier than William usually woke. She prayed his soggy mind would

clear long enough for him to understand, but only long enough for that.

To have him sober for any great length of time would jeopardize

everything she had accomplished over the years. If William ever realized

what she had done, he would kill her.

Judith did not dwell long on that thought. She knew that, given the

chance to go back in time, she would do nothing different.

William had destroyed all her dreams. He had been in a drunken

stupor caused by grief over the loss of Elisabeth, and emerged from it to

find that Judith had taken advantage of his drunken state and tricked him

into marriage. He beat her nearly to death for this, and the small scar she

bore on her left cheek had remained. She would never forgive him for it.

Vanity was her sin and her undoing. She had been so sure William

would accept her as his wife and be happy about it. After all, six years

ago she'd been a beautiful young woman lacking only a dowry. Her high-

boned cheeks, jewellike green eyes, and heavy, dark blond hair set her

apart from most other women. Many a man had wanted to marry her for

her beauty alone, but none were as well landed as William of Montwyn.

But William, it turned out, did not own all Judith believed he did.

Three of his keeps belonged to his daughter. Had she known that, Judith

would never have tricked William into marriage.

He was in such a rage over the marriage that Judith had had to lie and

say she was with child. It was either that or be cast out immediately. Of

course, Judith could never have a child. An abortion the year before had

ruined her womb, but William did not know that.

To protect herself from the time when William would ask about her

supposed pregnancy, she encouraged his inclination to stay drunk. And

she had kept him in a state of drunken forgetfulness since then. She

didn't care that she had helped to ruin the man, for she'd hated him from

the day he beat her. She hated him still. He was only a drunk now. She

could not bear to be near him.

Judith took charge of Montwyn, indulging her every whim, from

owning costly gowns and jewels to keeping handsome lovers near her.

Everything was in her charge, and she had seen to it right after marrying

William that his daughter was not at Montwyn to interfere.

It had been easy at first to tell William that Leonie was visiting

relatives. Later, she found she could make him believe that he saw Leonie

regularly, so ill with drunkenness and grief was he. He was, within a

short time, permanently disoriented. He could be told anything, be made

to believe anything.

Relatives and neighbors stopped inquiring after Leonie, thinking she

had gone to Pershwick of her own choice rather than stay with a drunken

father. Leonie was told that her father wanted nothing to do with her,

and she was forbidden to visit Montwyn. One way or another, Judith

managed to keep everyone from learning the truth.

In the meantime Leonie's dowry remained part of Montwyn and

Judith spent all the profits. She turned down Leonie's marriage offers, in

William's name, for she had no intention of giving up the use of Leonie's

land. If killing the girl could have brought that land to Montwyn

permanently she might even have killed her, but Elisabeth's acursed will

left the land solely to Leonie. If she died without issue, the land would

revert to Shefford.

Now, by the king's order, she was being forced to give up the land.

Who was Rolfe d'Ambert to be so favored by His Majesty? Judith had

dealt with both his offers, first for Pershwick, then for the girl herself, so she knew it was Pershwick the suitor really wanted. Why hadn't he just

taken the keep by force if he wanted it so badly? This was infuriating, she

told herself for the tenth time as she paced her room. She had managed

everything so cleverly, and now this!

"Judith."

She started. She hadn't heard William approach. When she looked at

him, she was shocked. He looked horrid, far worse than usual. William

was sick every morning until he'd had his first drink, but today he

seemed barely able to pick up his goblet. She would have to have her say

before he finished even this first drink.

"I have made all the arrangements, William, as you bid me," Judith

began quietly. "We can leave for Pershwick as soon as you are ready."

"Pershwick?"

"Where Leonie is, William. We will stay the night there, then go on to

Crewel for the wedding."

"Wedding?" He looked at her squarely, the whites of his eyes so

heavily veined with red as to be a hideous dark pink. "I do not recall—"

"William, William, you cannot have forgotten your own daughter's

wedding," Judith said with feigned exasperation. Of course, she hadn't

told him and he hadn't forgotten.

"Nonsense, woman," he said, "Leonie is a child. What wedding?"

"Only a father would still see her as a child. She is nearly twenty,

William. You would not see her married. You turned down every offer

for her. So the king has taken matters into his hands. You read his order.

Shall I bring it so you may read it again? King Henry posted the banns

himself. Leonie is to wed Sir Rolfe d'Ambert at Crewel."

William shook his head wearily. This was all too much to grasp.

Leonie nearly twenty? What offers had he refused? Henry ordering his

child's marriage? By Christ's holy blood, he could not picture his

daughter grown up. He saw her still as a child, with those large gray eyes

so like her mother's. Married?

"I do not remember signing a wedding contract, Judith. Were

Elisabeth's stipulations met?"

Judith frowned. "What stipulations?"

"Leonie's dowry is to remain hers to do with as she will. It was her

mother's wish that she be protected in this way. Elisabeth was protected

in our marriage, and she was determined that Leonie have the same

advantage."

Judith gasped. Would it make a difference to d'Ambert if he knew?

Probably not, for he would realize that once he had Leonie, he could force

her to do whatever he wanted. He could even force her to sell the land if

that was his wish.

"You need not worry about the stipulations." Judith spoke truthfully for once. "The contracts will be signed on the morrow before the vows are spoken, so you can make them known then. You can even have the

contract drawn up now if you wish, before we leave."

"Yes, that would be best. Who is Rolfe d'Ambert?" He was

embarrassed to be asking, for he must surely know.