Gaia turned those big, blue eyes to him and latched on to his arm. “I am much better when I am entertaining guests, not preparing for them,” she said. “I am excellent with conversation and I know how to make guests laugh. Cori can deal with the servants. That’s what she is good at.”
There was something condescending in that remark that Cole didn’t like. Gaia had a high opinion of herself, a spoiled little lass who firmly believed the world should fall at her feet.
He unwound her hand from his arm.
“Go,” he said, firmly and quietly. “You have been given a task. Do not disappoint me and ignore it. There are great knights arriving tonight and I do not wish to be embarrassed because you have not done as your sister asked and they are faced with slovenly quarters.”
Gaia wasn’t at all deterred by him removing her from his arm. She grinned up at him, impishly.
“As you wish,” she said, turning for the keep. “I should not want to embarrass you.”
Cole felt it, then; a sharp sting on his left buttock right where it met his thigh. He was wearing fine leather breeches today, thin and comfortable, and Gaia had managed to pinch him right through the leather. She wasn’t quite out of arm’s length, so he lashed out a trencher-sized hand and spanked her right on the buttocks. It sounded like the crack of the whip and Gaia yelped as she put a hand to her arse, looking at him accusingly.
Cole smiled thinly.
“My apologies,” he said. “My hand slipped.”
Outraged, Gaia stormed off towards the keep. Cole watched her go, a real smile playing on his lips, as he heard giggling behind him. He turned to see Gratiana standing there.
“I am sorry,” she said, putting a hand over her mouth. “I should not have laughed, but… but she has deserved that for a very long time.”
Cole fought off the smile that threatened to broaden. “As I said, my hand slipped.”
“So did hers when it pinched you.”
He looked at her a moment before finally breaking down into a snort. “She’ll think twice before letting her hand slip again,” he said. “And you, my lady? You have duties, too.”
Gratiana nodded, looking off to the knight’s quarters. “I know,” she said. “But I was wondering… this army that is coming? Does this mean we will see more fighting here?”
“Do you mean to ask if they will attract trouble?”
“Aye.”
Cole shook his head. “I do not think so,” he said. “I would not worry about it, my lady. Whatever happens, we will keep you safe.”
She was reassured, but not too terribly. There was still worry on her face. “My home is very peaceful,” she said. “Until the battle last month, I had never even seen a siege. It has given me new respect for men who see battle after battle. That kind of carnage and destruction must do something to your soul.”
Cole looked at her. Gratiana was a dutiful girl from a lesser noble family and, truth be told, her goal was to marry very well to help her family’s circumstances. Cole suspected that was why she had her eyes on Anteaus, but the man was out of her reach simply for the fact that he was a de Bourne, a descendant of the Kings of Northumberland. Undoubtedly, all three de Bourne brothers would be expected to marry very well.
He wondered if she knew that. It was a pity, really. Gratiana was a nice girl and she was compassionate, like Corisande.
It was a pity she might never get what she wanted out of life.
“It does,” he said after a moment. “Maybe you will understand why some men are so terribly hard. Sometimes it is what life has done to them. It is difficult facing death like that on a regular basis and not be affected by it.”
Gratiana looked up at him, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight. “You face it, yet you are not hard,” she said. “In fact, you bear the name of England’s most notorious warlord, yet you are nothing like the name would imply.”
He smiled faintly. “You’ve not seen me yet in battle,” he said. “I am hard enough. Harder than most. Now, you have duties to attend to and I shall not keep you. You did well today with your target practice.”
Gratiana smiled gratefully and headed off towards the knight’s quarters. Cole didn’t give her a second thought as he turned for the kitchen yard.
The last place he had seen Corisande.
The kitchen yard seemed to be devoid of servants. Cole suspected they were all inside the kitchens listening to Corisande tell them what glorious guests they were to have that evening.
One thing he’d learned about Corisande over the past month, among many, was the fact that she was a perfectionist. She liked everything perfect and she wanted to make each and every visitor feel as if they were the most important visitor The Keld had ever known. It was an enormously impressive skill, this woman who could make people feel very special, and he hovered outside of the kitchen door, listening.
He could hear her voice inside.
Something about the dulcet tones of her sweet voice filled him with more joy and contentment than he had ever known. There was satisfaction in his heart that he’d never had before. As he leaned against the wall next to the door, listening, he knew he could have listened to her forever. He’d never known a life like this.
He’d never known a woman like this before.
That’s why he’d come back to The Keld after the incident with Alexander MacDuff. His father had sent him to Alnwick to tell Yves de Vesci everything, but the entire time he was away from The Keld, he missed Corisande something fierce.
A yearning that tore his guts out and then some.
So, he returned to The Keld when he was supposed to return to Pelinom. He told Alastor that his father wanted him there in case something more happened with the Scots, so he was there as the eyes and ears of de Velt and William Marshal, which made sense to Alastor even if Cole thought it was a rather weak premise. But he served both masters so, in reality, it was the truth.
But his truth was that he couldn’t spend one moment more away from Corisande.
It had been an unconventional month of courting her, although it really wasn’t courting because he’d not spoken to her father, nor had he even told his father. The issue of Audrie de Longley still hovered over them, but there was no opportunity for Cole to get back to his father and tell him about the situation and there was certainly no opportunity for him to get to Northwood Castle to speak with Audrie.
Therefore, the situation was a little uncertain as far as asking Alastor to court his daughter, but he knew he’d have to ask the man sooner or later. He was certain that people weren’t oblivious to the fact that he was quite attentive to Corisande. Surely something like that hadn’t escaped the notice of Alastor, Ares, Atlas, and Anteaus. The person who hadn’t noticed was Gaia, but that was because she was wrapped up in her own little world. Gaia only saw what was important to her, not the blossoming romance between her sister and the big de Velt son.
But Cole had never been so aware of something in his entire life.
So, he stood there and waited for the chance to speak to Corisande alone. Perhaps he’d even steal a kiss. He’d done that several times over the past couple of weeks. In fact, he saw an opportunity now as servants began to leave the kitchens, spilling out into the yard and not seeing him because he was pressed back against the wall next to the door. He could hear Corisande’s voice growing closer as she told the cook to make one of her specialty pies for the evening’s guests. She walked out of the door, passed right by him without seeing him, and headed in the direction of the buttery.