Page 60 of Almost a Bride
“My ship went down during the battle, and I washed ashore. I was bleeding from a sword wound in my chest when Roselyn found me on the beach.”
“How fortunate to come ashore near your own estate.”
Spencer smiled. “Believe me, I knew where the battle was taking place, that I had somewhere to go.”
“But youdidn’tcome to the manor—you stayed with Lady Roselyn. Surely you must not look upon her in a kind light.”
“When I finally discovered her identity, I was less than gracious. I felt her caring for me was perhaps…an atonement for her sins.” Spencer stretched out his leg, wondering what Heywood would think about that statement. “So tell me what happened with Roselyn’s ‘marriage.’”
“They are her secrets to tell, my lord.”
“I don’t ask you to reveal Rose’s secrets, Heywood. Just tell me what you saw.”
“Rose?” Heywood echoed softly.
“A slip of the tongue,” Spencer said with a shrug, feeling as uncomfortable as if he’d revealed his own dark secrets.
“Lady Roselyn and Philip Grant were handfasted in London, where they lived for almost a year.”
“Roselyn says he taught her the baker’s trade.”
“Yes. And she insists on using it here to support herself.”
“And you buy her bread,” Spencer said.
“The estate buys much of it, yes. After Roselyn gave birth to Mary the Black Death broke out in London, and she brought her husband and child here, the only place she could think of that was safe.”
“But they died of it anyway.”
“Yes,” Heywood said, gazing out over the rolling fields with a sad, faraway look. “She wouldn’t let us help her as her husband and babe lay dying.”
“She didn’t want you to sicken.” Spencer’s voice was low, as he thought of Roselyn all alone, surrounded by illness and death. No wonder she seemed almost too calm at times. How else could she live with what she’d seen and felt? “Why did she stay?”
“She insisted she couldn’t return to her parents, and I knew there was nowhere safer for such an innocent girl. She wouldn’t accept my hospitality in the manor, so I gave her a cottage. She insisted on paying rent.”
“I’m not surprised.”
They were both silent, listening to the rustle of the grasses and the squawking of birds.
“My lord,” Heywood began hesitantly, “now that we know of your visit, perhaps you will stay at the manor.”
“No.”
Heywood rose swiftly to his feet. “Surely you know it is unseemly to remain with Lady Roselyn.”
“Perhaps,” Spencer conceded, looking up at the bailiff, “but if you tell no one I’m here, who will know?”
“But she is only a poor widow—”
“Who was to be my wife,” Spencer interrupted, but without the anger he’d come to expect. “Let us say that she and I have our own bargain.”
“Do you plan to marry her?”
“No,” he said flatly, and was surprised by a flash of regret. “There are things I can’t tell you, ways she is in danger. But I won’t be here much longer.”Only five days.
As Spencer rose and began to limp away, he said over his shoulder, “Remember—tell no one I am here.”
“My family will have to know.”
