As soon as Judith saw her husband, she knew something was very wrong. His eyes were like black coals, his lips so tightly drawn that they appeared to be only a slash across his face.
He turned his wrath on her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pledged to somone else before me?”
Judith was bewildered. “I told you I was pledged to the church.”
“You know I don’t mean the church. What about that man you laughed and flirted with at the tournament? I should have known then.”
Judith could feel the blood beginning to pound through her veins. “You should have known what? That any man would be a more suitable husband than you?”
Gavin took a step forward, his manner threatening, but Judith did not retreat. “Walter Demari has lain claim to you and your lands. To prove his claim, he has killed your father and taken your mother captive.”
Immediately, all the anger left Judith. She felt deflated and weak. She grabbed a chair back to steady herself. “Killed? Captive?” she managed to whisper.
Gavin calmed somewhat and put a hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean to tell you like that. It’s just that the man lays claim to what is mine!”
“Yours?” Judith stared at him. “My father killed, my mother captured, my lands seized—and you dare talk to me of what you have lost?”
He drew away from her. “Let’s talk reasonably. Were you pledged to Walter Demari?”
“I was not.”
“Are you sure?”
She only glared at him in answer.
“He says that he will return your mother to safety if you will go to him.”
She turned instantly. “Then I will go.”
“No!” Gavin said and pulled her back to the seat. “You cannot! You are mine!”
She stared up at him, her mind concentrating on business. “If I am yours and my lands are yours, how does this man plan to get them? Even if he fights you, he cannot fight all your kin.”
“Demari doesn’t plan to do so.” Gavin’s eyes bored into hers. “He has been told we don’t sleep together. He asks for an annulment, that you declare before the king your distaste for me and your desire for him.”
“And if I do this, he will release my mother, unharmed?”
“That is what he says.”
“And
what if I don’t make this declaration before the king? What will happen to my mother?”
Gavin paused before answering. “I don’t know. I cannot say what will become of her.”
Judith was silent for a moment. “Then I am to choose between my husband and my mother? I am to choose whether I give in to the greedy demands of a man I hardly know?”
Gavin’s voice was different from anything she’d ever heard before. It was cold as hardened steel. “No, you do not choose.”
Her head came up sharply.
“We may quarrel often within our own estates, even within our own chambers, and I may concede to you often. You may change the falconer’s lures and I may be angry at you, but now you will not interfere. I don’t care if you were pledged to him before we married, or even if you spent your childhood in bed with him. This is a matter of war now, and I will not argue with you.”
“But my mother—”
“I will try to get her out safely, but I don’t know whether I can.”
“Then let me go to him. Let me try to persuade him.”