“Me?” Gerard stopped. “A man cannot marry when he has nothing to offer a woman.”
“Nothing to offer? You are a well-trained knight in the king’s service, a great swordsman and fighter. And you have your good looks.”
Gerard snorted. “A lady might rather have a home than good looks.” He hoped to distinguish himself in some manner in order to be rewarded with a castle, but such favor was rarely granted when no war or uprising was occurring.
“Not necessarily,” Strachleigh said. “Not if the lady already has a home but needs a protector or champion.”
“Indeed, Gerard. There is something I’ve been meaning to speak to you about.” Delia reached into her pocket. “I have a letter here from my friend Princess Elyce of Montciel. As soon as I read it, I thought of you.”
Gerard forced himself not to groan. Was Delia trying to match him to a foreign princess? Princesses did not marry destitute knights.
Delia’s eyes were scanning the letter. “Here’s the part. Listen to this. ‘My father intends to marry me off to a man who is odious to me, and it will seal the fate of my people. Instead of being allowed to lead happy lives as shepherds and woodworkers, they will be put to work in King Claude’s copper and iron ore mines in Valkenfeld. My father won’t listen to reason; he is so controlled by King Claude and consumed with how he himself will profit from this scheme. I am pondering a plan to make everyone think I am dead so that I can escape and find someone—a powerful duke or even King Wenceslaus—to help free my people from this tyranny.’”
Delia folded the paper and gazed into Gerard’s eyes. “Can you imagine? She’s so desperate she would feign her own death and run away from home! I feel so much empathy for her. I know what it is like to be that desperate.”
She spoke of the ordeal they’d endured when he and all his brothers had been falsely accused and locked in the Tower of London. Delia had shown herself to be brave and loyal, and had proved that women were not to be discounted when danger and treachery were afoot.
His heart did go out to this young princess his sister had been corresponding with since the two of them had met at a ball a few years before. And he did have some time to himself, since his lord, the Duke of Westmoor, had given him a few months to visit his family.
“Where is Montciel, pray tell?”
“In the mountains near France. It is part of the Holy Roman Empire, though I have heard King Wenceslaus pays no attention to it,” Delia said, her expression hopeful, her eyes big and fastened on his. “It is not so far. Will you go and help her?”
“Help her? How exactly am I supposed to help her?”
“You can raise an army, save her from that Claude of Valkenfeld. Perhaps convince her father that it would be detrimental to his country to force her to marry this man. Warn her father that King Claude is not a man to be trusted.”
“What an imagination you have,” Gerard said, “to think I would have so much influence and power. Who am I? Only the second son of an English earl, a knight. Why would her father, the King of Montciel, listen to me?”
Delia was glaring at him now.
“I’m sorry, Delia, but it does seem like a strange errand you’re trying to send your brother on.” Strachleigh was smiling gently at his wife.
“But someone has to help her. I cannot bear the thought of her marrying someone unworthy of her, of her people being sent to the mines against their will.”
Gerard felt the same. Forcing people to work at something they had not been born to did not sit well with him. Besides that, he had a vague memory of meeting Princess Elyce at the ball where she and Delia had become friends. He remembered her as a lovely girl, very young and petite, but with large blue eyes that were the color of the wildflowers that grew in the meadows near Dericott Castle.
Delia was staring at him. She had that look in her eye that said she had done something he would not approve of.
“I have written to the queen, and I’m awaiting her answer now. I am hoping that she will talk the king into sending a delegation to Montciel to convince Princess Elyce’s father not to make an agreement with King Claude.”
“But why would the king go to that trouble?” Gerard did not wish to disappoint his sister, but Delia was not thinking about her friend with a rational mind. “What does King Richard have to gain from preventing the marriage between Princess Elyce and King Claude’s nephew?”
“I don’t know, but wouldn’t King Richard wish to stop an injustice?”
“I have to agree with Sir Gerard, darling,” her husband said. “Kings cannot involve themselves in another country’s affairs unless it affects them. Otherwise, they will be risking a foreign war and spreading their resources too thin. The king never knows when his soldiers and knights will be needed at home.”
“Perhaps we could go, if Gerard doesn’t wish to.” Delia looked more determined than before. “Geoffrey, you and I should visit my friend. Perhaps we could discover something that would convince King Richard to get involved.”
But Strachleigh was giving her a gentle look before she even finished speaking. With a slight note of secrecy in his voice, he said, “Darling, you know why you should not be traveling . . .”
Delia blushed and did not answer.
“Delia? Is everything all right? Why should she not . . . ? Are you with child?”
Delia’s smile lit up her blushing face. “I am. But I wasn’t going to tell you just yet.”
Gerard enveloped her in an embrace and just as quickly let her go. “Forgive me. I don’t want to hurt—”
“You won’t hurt the baby by embracing me.” Delia laughed, joy shining out of her eyes, which were also wet with tears.
Gerard suddenly didn’t know where to look. He felt his own cheeks starting to burn.
“Have I embarrassed you? Forgive me, Gerard.”
“Of course not. I am very happy for you both, and happy to hear such glad tidings.” Gerard thumped Strachleigh on the back.
“I know you will be well attended,” he said to Delia.
“I only wish Princess Elyce were as well taken care of as I am.” She was giving Gerard a sly look from the corner of her eye.
He got the uncomfortable feeling that his sister was trying to manipulate him. But he also knew she was too good-natured to hold it against him if he did not do her will.
“I don’t like to think of anyone being treated unjustly, but I will only promise to pray about whether God would wish to send me to Montciel.” It was an easy promise to make, since Gerard was certain that God had no plans to send him on such a far-fetched errand across the sea to the Continent and to the mountainous region that he’d heard was full of wolves and bears. But he would keep his word and pray about it.
“Yes, pray to God and see if it is His will.” But when Delia smirked a bit, he felt a nervous tickle start at the back of his neck and run along both his shoulders.
They began to speak of swans and geese and the state of the roads on the way back to Strachleigh and how soon Delia’s baby would arrive. But once their walk took them back to Dericott Castle, Gerard didn’t want to delay doing what he’d promised, so he went into the small chapel to pray.