The Captive Heart Read Online Free PDF

church for the priest’s blessing,” her father said. “A few days, mignon . No more than that.”
    “Am I to meet my betrothed husband before that day?” Alix wanted to know.
    “Indeed, you should,” he agreed. “I will speak with Sir Udolf.”
    Alix dressed carefully before she came to the hall that evening. Her gown was simple, of dark green jersey with a high waist, gathered sleeves with cuffs trimmed in a thin skim of brown marten that matched the trim around her neckline. She wore a gold chain to which was attached a small jeweled cross. A slender pretty girl of medium height with long hair the color of dark honey that she wore loose to denote her unmarried status, she had fair skin and hazel-green eyes.
    Entering the hall discreetly, she let her gaze sweep about, seeking out those who were already there. Her father and Sir Udolf were sitting by the hearth drinking and talking. Alix was glad that they liked each other. It would make her father’s last days pleasant to have a friend. And then she saw him. A tall boy, and yet he was said to be twenty. Still he had a boy’s face. His hair was the lightest blond she had ever seen, and he wore a sullen look upon his almost pretty face. Was he to be her husband? Swallowing hard, Alix walked across the hall to greet her father and Sir Udolf. She curtsied to them.
    “Ah, Alix, here you are,” Sir Udolf said with a smile. Then, turning his head, he beckoned to the young man. “Hayle, come and meet your bride-to-be.”
    The young man sauntered from his place at the end of the room to where his father sat. He looked Alix over with a bold eye, causing her to blush. “Her breasts are small,” he pronounced. “Maida has breasts a man can pillow his head upon.”
    Alexander Givet drew a sharp breath.
    “Hayle,” his father remonstrated, “some thoughts we keep to ourselves. Greet Mistress Alix politely now, and ask her pardon for your rudeness.”
    Hayle Watteson looked at Alix with a hard gaze. “She’s pretty enough, and seems biddable. Are you obedient, mistress?”
    “I try,” Alix said. What kind of man was this who spoke in such a fashion to the girl he was about to wed?
    “She’ll do, Father, but you know my conditions for this marriage,” Hayle Watteson said. “See she understands them. How long do I have before I must wed her?”
    “My name is Alix,” Alix said sharply. “And I greet you, my lord.” She curtsied politely to him.
    He looked startled, but then he bowed from the waist.
    “Take Alix and walk her about the hall, my son,” the baron instructed. “It is a good thing to get to know the woman you are marrying before the contracts are signed.”
    “They will be signed nonetheless whether I will or no,” Hayle responded to his father. “But I will obey you, sir.” He offered his arm to Alix. “Come,” he said.
    Alix took his arm, and they walked away from their fathers. “You are not happy about this marriage,” she said. “Would it surprise you to know that neither am I?”
    “You don’t want to marry me?” He was surprised. “Why not? I am most eligible, and I am said to be pleasing to the eye, wench.”
    “I am not a wench,” Alix told him. “I am a lady. The queen is my godmother. My mother served the queen as one of her ladies. My father is her physician. I had hoped to spend my life at court in the queen’s service.”
    “The queen is brought down, as is our mad king,” Hayle replied. “You have no court in which to serve. You must either wed, or enter a convent. Those are the choices open to a respectable woman. Since your father has decided to barter you in marriage so he may have a warm hearth in his old age, you are to be married to me.”
    “The queen proposed this match to protect us,” Alix said angrily. “If my father’s health were better, he would take me back to Anjou. Papa loves me, but you are near to correct in your assumptions. However, it is I who agreed to wed you so my father would have a