The Border Lord and the Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

own safety, and for the welfare of your half brothers, I am going to foster you out to a good family. There will be other girls with you from other families. The lady of the house will teach you all those things you must learn and must know one day when you become the lady of the house. Eventually I shall make a fine marriage for you, Cicely. Orva will go with you and continue to look after you as she has always done, poppet. You could not remain at Leighton Hall forever.”
    “Where are we to go?” Orva asked the earl quietly.
    He looked directly at her. “I do not know yet. I am going with Sir
William to Windsor in a few days. The court is very busy now, and if I am fortunate I will speak with the king himself. I will choose wisely, Orva. In the meantime you must keep close to the cottage. There must be no opportunity for the countess to see you, or to see Cicely. Do you understand me?” he asked her softly, meaningfully.
    Orva nodded. “I will keep the little lady safe, my lord.”
    “Will I ever see you again, Papa?” Cicely asked her father, and he heard the fear in her young voice.
    “Of course you will see me, poppet!” he assured her. “Sadly, your stepmother will not share her excellent household skills with you, and if you are to wed one day you must have those skills. Most girls your age are sent to other families. You will follow an age-old pattern, Cicely. And while I am at Windsor, Orva will make you some fine new gowns from the materials she takes from the storerooms. You will be the prettiest young lady in whichever household you join.” And Robert Bowen bent and kissed his little daughter’s cheek, careful to avoid her bruise. He arose from his seat. “I must return now to the house. When I come again, Cicely, I will know where you are to go.”
    “Go into the cottage, child,” Orva said quietly. “I need to speak with your papa.”
    Cicely obeyed immediately.
    “Would you send her away if it had not been for the incident with your sons?” Orva asked her master frankly.
    “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “She does need to know the things that only a lady of rank can teach her. Donna Clara tells me my wife speaks of harming Cicely, for the jealousy assailing her cannot be quenched. Sending my daughter away will keep the child safe, I believe. Don’t let Cicely eat anything you have not prepared yourself while I am gone. Do you understand, Orva?”
    Orva nodded, her mouth quirking with her disapproval. “I have heard these foreigners like to use poison,” she noted.
    The earl sighed and shrugged. “What else can I do but what I’m doing?” he said.

    “Find us a good home, my lord,” Orva replied. “And find my mistress a good husband when she is old enough.”
    The earl nodded. “I will,” he promised.
    At Windsor his cousin managed to introduce him to the king, but the young man was more interested in preparing for war than in the fortunes of the daughter of an unimportant man. But Henry V was not heartless. Seeing the disappointment on the earl’s face, he said, “Such a request is not within my purview at this time, my lord, but I shall send you to my most excellent and well-loved mother, Queen Joan, with my request that she aid you in your endeavor.”
    Relieved, the Earl of Leighton bowed low and thanked the king, who sent him off with a servant, promptly forgetting him.
    Queen Joan’s antechamber was filled with petitioners. Robert Bowen was forced to wait, but the king’s servant waited with him to introduce him and present the king’s request of the lady.
    Queen Joan had been Henry IV’s second wife. The daughter of King Charles the Bad of Navarre, and his wife, a princess of France, she had been married first to the Duke of Brittany, by whom she had had nine children. After her husband died she had acted as regent for her oldest son until he came of age at twelve. She had then married the widowed King of England, a father of six children himself. While