Page 50 of Suddenly a Bride
“Do ye not need me back at the castle, milord?”
Edmund looked up at the overcast sky. “The weather is turning. You go play with your friends, and I shall see you on the morrow.”
Wearing a beaming smile, the boy gave a quick nod to both of them and ran off.
Gwyneth studied her husband, who finally looked down at her. He must have seen her talking to Prudence, and she could only imagine what he was thinking.
But all he asked was, “Are you ready to leave?”
“I am rather hungry,” she answered, glancing at the tavern.
He hesitated, and she barely stopped herself from smiling. Perhaps he did not wish to see Prudence again.
“I still have much to do at the castle,” he said, “and the sky does not look good. We’ll purchase meat pies and eat them on the way.”
She nodded and walked at his side to the tavern. Inside, Edmund gave their order to Goodman Walcot, and Gwyneth smiled and waved at Prudence, who blushed even as she nodded in response. When Prudence was finished waiting on her table, Gwyneth told her about Will remaining in town. The woman thanked her and hurried away without looking at Edmund.
When they were riding The General out of the village, Gwyneth finished her pie and said, “You seem nervous, Edmund.”
“Nervous?” he echoed. “I am concerned that the coming storm might be severe.”
“Is that all? Or could it be that you’re wondering what I was talking to Prudence Atwater about?”
“She is Will’s mother,” Edmund said.
She thought she heard a note of caution in his voice. “She is that.” Leaning her head back against his shoulder, she looked up into his face. “She also wanted to tell me that she once tried to seduce you away from Elizabeth.”
He winced. “She felt the need to say that, did she?”
“I think she wanted to shock me.”
“Probably.”
“She claimed it was because she didn’t want me to make the same mistakes Elizabeth did.”
“How kind of her.”
Gwyneth grinned at his sarcasm. “She thought so.”
“And what do you think?” he asked, glancing down at her.
“I think she confirmed for me that you can be faithful even to a wife who treats you as Elizabeth did.”
She thought he clenched his jaw as he looked back at the road. “And how would you know about my first marriage?”
“Prudence told me a little. Now, don’t be angry,” she said, putting up a hand as if to stop the lowering of his brow. “I admit I led her to speak by telling her that Elizabeth didn’t treat me well. All she said was that you were patient and kind to your wife, things I have always seen in you.”
She wanted to kiss his stoic face. It must have been horrible to have his patience and love rewarded with indifference and cruelty.
With a sigh, she finally said, “But I imagine you don’t want to talk about it any more.”
“Nay, I do not.”
She leaned even further into his embrace, letting his arm support her back and his chest support her side. She even dared to rest her head against that very comfortable chest and allow the rocking of the horse to soothe her.
“ ’Tis a shame my sister Athelina isn’t here.”
“And why is that?”
