“What comfort could I give her after my brothers have given her so much?”
“She gets little enough elsewhere.”
“Shall I have my squire fetch swords?” Stephen asked sarcastically. “Or perhaps you would like full armor?”
Raine relaxed immediately. “You are right, brother. I just wish that this other brother of mine were as sensible.”
Gavin glared at Raine, before looking back at his food.
Stephen watched Gavin’s eating for a moment. “Raine, are you trying to interfere between Gavin and his wife?”
Raine shrugged and adjusted his leg. “He doesn’t treat her well.”
Stephen smiled in understanding. Raine had always been a fighter for the underdog. He would champion any cause that he felt needed him. The silence between the brothers grew heavy until Raine rose and left the tent.
Gavin looked after him then pushed the food away, full at last. He stood and walked toward his cot.
“She carries the man’s child,” Gavin said after a time.
“Demari’s?” Stephen asked then gave a low whistle at Gavin’s nod. “What will you do with her?”
Gavin sank onto a chair. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Raine says I didn’t comfort her, but how could I? She killed her lover.”
“Was she forced?”
Gavin hung his head. “I don’t believe so. No, she couldn’t have been. She had the freedom of the castle. She came to me in the pit and again when I was brought from there and taken to a tower cell. Had she been forced, she wouldn’t have had such freedom.”
“That’s true, but doesn’t her visiting you mean that she desired to help you?”
Gavin’s eyes blazed. “I don’t know what she desires. She seems to be on the side of whoever holds her. When she came to me, she said she did everything for me; yet when she was near Demari, she was wholly his. She is a clever woman.”
Stephen ran his thumb along the edge of his knife, testing it. “Raine seems to think a great deal of her, and Miles also.”
Gavin snorted. “Miles is too young to know yet that women have anything besides a body. And Raine…he has championed her cause for long.”
“You could declare the child to be another’s and set her aside.”
“No!” Gavin said almost violently, then looked away.
Stephen laughed. “You are still hot for her? She is beautiful but there are other beautiful women. What of Alice, whom you declared you loved?”
Stephen was the only person Gavin had ever confided in about Alice. “She was married not long ago to Edmund Chatworth.”
“Edmund! That bit of slime! Didn’t you offer her marriage?”
Gavin’s silence was his answer.
Stephen put his knife back in the case at his side. “Women aren’t worth the worry you spend on them. Take that wife of yours and bed her, and don’t give her another thought.” He dismissed the subject and rose. “I think I’ll go to sleep. It’s been a long day. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Gavin sat alone in his tent, the darkness rapidly gathering. Set her aside, he thought. He could do that since she carried another man’s child. But he couldn’t imagine not seeing her.
“Gavin,” Raine interrupted his thoughts. “Has Judith returned? I told her she mustn’t stay out past sunset.”
Gavin rose, his jaw clenched. “You think too much of my wife. Where was she? I’ll find her.”
Raine smiled at his brother. “By the stream, through there,” he pointed.
Judith knelt by the side of the river, her hand playing in the cool, clear water.