Read Online The Warrior's Wife by Denise Domning - Free Book Online Page B

concern. He looked back at Rafe. “It won’t work, brother,” he breathed. “Glevering’s priest isn’t going to wed his lord’s daughter to a Godsol. Nay, you must come home for only our own priest won’t refuse you.”
    Rafe shrugged. “If all we need is a willing priest, then send a man riding to Long Chilting. Have him bring Father Philip and all the men you can spare halfway to Haydon. There, they’ll wait for our messenger to bid them meet us at Glevering.”
    His words sent his eldest brother rocking back on his seat. A laugh exploded from Will, the sound loud enough to make his hawk flap helplessly against its tethers. Will dealt Rafe a hearty and approving slap on the shoulder.
    “By God, but you’re a devious man! It’s all that living at court that’s made you what you are, God be praised for small favors.”
    “Glad you approve,” Rafe said, the corner of his mouth lifting.
    Content with what he planned, Rafe finished his pasty then used his eating knife to spear a honeyed plum from the round of stale bread that was his trencher. As he raised the sweet to his mouth, the music stopped. Rafe’s gaze leapt to the dispersing dancers.
    Across the glade, Kate started back to where her sire sat, a golden-haired man at her side. Rafe sneered. Although this man was tall enough, Kate’s companion was wiry, lacking a proper man’s breadth of shoulder. True, the knight wasn’t as ugly as Sir William, but neither was he fair-featured enough to offer Rafe any true competition.
    Then Kate lifted her head to look at her companion. Adoration filled her expression.
    For another man!
    It was a crossbow bolt through Rafe’s heart. How could his Kate look at another man that way? How could she not know what was so clear to him? There was no other man for her save him, just as there was no other woman for him. They were meant to be together. The passion in their kiss last night confirmed that.
    Still reeling at Kate’s unwitting betrayal, Rafe’s gaze shifted to the knight beside her then forgot all in a swell of newborn anger. It wasn’t just any sort of smile the fair-haired man sent Kate’s way. Rafe needed nothing more than his own experience in borrowing other men’s wives to recognize the man’s expression. The worm-eating lecher was trying to seduce his Kate.
    God help her, but she was too innocent to realize the man’s intent. The need to protect Kate brought Rafe around on the blanket so swiftly that the plum slipped from his knife’s tip to splatter onto the fabric. Will shied back from the staining slop.
    “Ack, Rafe! Be careful what you do!”
    “Who is he?” Rafe demanded, stabbing his knife in the direction of the fair man.
    Will gingerly shifted on the blanket and looked where Rafe indicated. “Warin de Dapifer, Bagot’s steward. An honest man, by all accounts--that is until he took employment with the Daubney rat-kisser.”
    Rafe again looked at the steward and Kate. Damn him and the Godsol name that kept him at a distance. How was he supposed to protect Kate from her father’s man of business when the bitch’s son had constant access to his liege lord’s daughter? Jesus God, but he couldn’t even warn Bagot that Warin de Dapifer was a false knight who planned to betray his employer by stealing both Bagot’s daughter and her riches.
    Across the glade, the seducer and his intended victim stopped near Lord Humphrey. The traitorous steward offered his employer a low bow, then started back across the grassy expanse. Rafe watched de Dapifer’s every step until the man reached the edge of the woods. There Sir Warin paused to send a meaningful look in the direction of his lord’s daughter. It was an invitation for Kate to join him, nothing less.
    Rafe’s fists closed against the urge to race after de Dapifer and kill him on the spot. By God, but the man leered at her like a hungry wolf. How could Bagot not see him for what he was?
    Instead, he forced himself to stay where he sat.