Unending Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

remove him.”
    Maddoc wasn’t pleased with the directive but he
understood somewhat. The situation was delicate. With a lingering glance to the
odd fellow lying on his back and strumming his citole, David disappeared into
the keep.  Maddoc remained at the top of the stairs, however, watching the fool
as men walked around him and dogs sniffed his feet.  He eventually shook his
head with disgust.
    So this is what men in love do ?  Although he’d never
been in love before, he hoped he was wrong.  He couldn’t imagine allowing
himself to succumb to such deplorable behavior.  He’d seen ample displays of it
in the past two days.
    As Maddoc continued to stand there and observe,
he caught sight of someone beside him. Turning his head, he saw Adalind
standing behind him, using him for a shield as she peered down into the bailey
at Eyndsford.  She was very close, bumped up against him as she tried to hide and
Maddoc found himself studying the shape of her eyes. She had very beautiful
eyes. But Adalind wasn’t looking at him; she was focused on the fool down in
the bailey.
    “God’s Beard,” she hissed. “Has he not gone
away? What is he doing?”
    Maddoc’s gaze lingered on her sweet face,
appreciating it through new eyes, before returning his focus to the ward.
    “He is lamenting your loss, I believe,” he said.
    She looked at him. “What did Papa tell him?”
    “That you are spoken for.”
    “With you again?”
    “He was not specific, but it was enough to send
your suitor into fits.”
    Adalind’s gaze returned to the idiot with the
citole. After a moment, she shook her head with displeasure.
    “I wish he would go away,” she said. “He is
humiliating me just like he did before. All that man does is humiliate me.”
    Maddoc looked at her. “How has he humiliated
you?”
    Adalind didn’t want to speak of it, just as she
didn’t wish to speak of the series of events that eventually had her fleeing
Court for home. Those were painful memories she didn’t wish to discuss even
though her mother and grandmother had already forced it out of her. But Maddoc
had asked a reasonable question based on her statement so she did him the
courtesy of answering. She sighed heavily.
    “I first met Eynsford back in January when the
king had a Masque for the advent of the New Year,” she said quietly. “I was
attending the Lady Margaret, Hubert de Burgh’s wife, and somehow Eynsford saw
me.  He was a guest of the Duke of Norfolk, evidently.   He tried to catch my
attention at first but I ignored him, which turned out to be my mistake.  When
the meal commenced, he came to my table and announced he was deeply in love
with me and would proceed to woo me. It was simply [J6]   awful.”
    Maddoc crossed his big arms thoughtfully. “Have
you spent all of this time running from him?” he asked. “Perhaps it would be
better if you simply told him you were not interested.”
    She gave him a look of disgust. “I have told
him,” she said. “I was polite at first but he would not listen. He kept
following me, playing that… that stupid citole, singing stupid sonnets until I
was nearly mad with it. Finally, I was quite nasty with him and told him I had
absolutely no interest in him at all and I’d sooner wed a goat. It did not seem
to matter to him. He continued to try.”
    Maddoc returned is attention to the man on the
ground. “How did he find you here? Did he know of your family?”
    Adalind seemed to dim. “Someone must have told
him, for I never did,” she said softly. “Those terrible women who… well, it
does not matter. Someone must have told him.”
    Maddoc was focused on her statement; those
terrible women who…. It seemed to reinforce what David had told him about
the women at Court chasing her away.  He could only imagine what those sly and
worldly women were capable of and he began to feel strangely protective of
Adalind, something beyond his normal sense of duty.  The sensation was
surprisingly