Page 87 of Suddenly a Bride
“Hated?” Edmund echoed.
“How do you think it felt having to carry out the earl’s dreadful orders? I had no wife, no friends. I was glad to give it up. And glad, too, to see you make this place come alive again, my lord.”
“Even though I was a murderer?” Edmund asked impassively.
Martin’s face paled. “It was me that said those things, my lord, you know that, don’t you?”
“Aye.”
“I couldn’t…they wouldn’t let me stop.”
“Who?”
“Lord Langston. It was a horrible thing he made me do, and afterward I wrote and told him I was finished and that if he tried to harm me, I would make sure people found out what he’d been up to.”
“’Twas my idea,” Prudence said with a proud lift of her chin. “The old earl never answered back, so we thought Marty was safe.”
“I ask your forgiveness, Sir Edmund,” Martin said, going down on one knee. “You have my allegiance, and you hold my fate in your hands.”
Catching her breath, Gwyneth stared up at Edmund, whose face betrayed nothing. She had a good feeling about the lovers and believed they had both put their pasts behind them. But mayhap her husband needed more proof.
Edmund sighed. “I accept your apology. Get dressed, Fitzjames. I suggest the two of you formalize this union, or else find a safer place to meet. This section of the castle is dangerous. And do not speak of our discussion to anyone else. Do you understand?”
“Of course, my lord. Thank you!” Martin grinned at Prudence. “Do you want to get married, my dove?”
Prudence glanced at the three of them. “Perhaps ye could ask me at a more…romantic time?”
Geoffrey and Gwyneth filed into the corridor, and then Edmund pulled the door shut behind them. Gwyneth walked before the men, feeling relieved.
Edmund raised his torch higher. “You seem light in your step, wife.”
Picking her way through the rubble, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. “I am merely waiting for your congratulations.”
“Congratulations?” He didn’t smile back; rather, he stared at her intently.
“I did remove two suspects from your list, did I not?”
“That you did,” Geoffrey agreed. “We thank you heartily, my lady.”
“Oh, no thanks are necessary.”
She heard Edmund grumble something.
“What was that, my lord?”
When they reached the great hall, she turned to face them.
“You performed admirably,” he admitted.
Just looking up at him, remembering that things were no longer the same made her heart gave a painful shudder. She wanted that closeness back. She desperately wanted to have his son. How to bridge this awkwardness she’d caused?
She glanced from one man to the other. “What were you two discussing so intently when I found you in the stables?”
Edmund kept his face impassive, not wanting to show how much he admired Gwyneth’s pursuit of Prudence Atwater. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”
She put her fists on her hips and frowned up at him, lovely as a brave kitten. He wanted to hold her close, to ask why she would keep secrets from him. He must love her, for his heart was breaking.
Traitorous Geoff smiled at Gwyneth. “I’ve had men high up in the dale, looking for lead ore. It’s been mined in these parts for centuries, so why should Edmund’s land be any different?”
