‘It was a pledge, not a debt.’
‘Some foolish pledge then, made years ago in the heat of the moment. One which my father never thought he would have to honour. So you know of it?’
‘Yes, I know. Our fathers were comrades in arms, friends for years and my father saved your father’s life at the siege of Acre. Sir Hugh promised that one of his children would marry a de Villers as a mark of his gratitude.’
‘Yes, but that was when your father’s star was rising, but now I hear rumours that it is waning and that Baron de Villers is sickening and has fallen on hard times. So I am the unlucky son who has to take an impoverished wife who brings no acceptable marriage portion, little wealth and land, just because your father has written, begging bowl in hand, calling in old favours.’
Edric’s insult to her father stirred Giselle’s anger, and her face grew hot with it. ‘Do you think I wanted to marry under such circumstances? Do you think it is easy for me?
‘Well you, my dear, have no choice, whereas I had my sights set far higher than the poor daughter of a fallen Baron. At least you are pretty and won’t embarrass me in that regard. God help you if you were plain, as well as penniless.’
‘If this union is so distasteful, don’t wed me then. Refuse your father.’
He smiled at her nastily. ‘There’s the rub. If I refuse to honour his promise, I will be thrown out and left to fend for myself. He is not very fond of me, you see, so he has set me to marrying you as my penance for my sins.’
‘Which I am sure are many.’
‘Oh yes, for the most part, gluttony, licentiousness and drunkenness,’ he announced with pride.
Dear father had begged her to do this. She couldn’t let him down. ‘Neither of us wants this Edric, but can we not make the best of it?’
‘No, Giselle, I will not make the best of it. My older brothers go off to war and glory, or to court in London, while I am stuck here, in this dreary place, to oversee an old man and his mouldering castle, with an unworthy wife foisted on me.’
‘I am not unworthy, you are.’
Edric grabbed her hand and squeezed it spitefully until she thought her bones might break. ‘When we are wed, tomorrow, for I cannot cling on to my freedom longer than that, you will learn the prudence of obedience, or I will deal with that tongue of yours.’
He released her and sat back in his chair. ‘Oh, and Giselle, I expect you to provide me with some sport. What you lack in coin I expect you to make up for in enthusiasm when you share my bed. You owe me that much at least.’
Edric rose with a loud scrape of his chair, and stalked away from the table and out of the hall.
The Earl watched him go with a hard look on his face and then he leant towards Giselle.
‘Don’t mind my son, he is a half-wit, good for nothing. He’ll do as he’s told. I will honour my pledge to your father. Ah, it stirs my blood to think on it now. Made it at Acre as it was falling, with the infidel’s blood still wet on our hands where I pulled an arrow out of his shoulder, an arrow meant for my heart. If he hadn’t shielded me with his body, I would not be here today offering you the tiresome fruit of my loins. Don’t look so glum. I know Edric’s not much to look at, but you will have a protector in life at least. We will get this thing done soon, before my son cuts and runs, eh?’
Giselle gave him a weak smile. How could he joke about this as if it were nothing - her life, her marriage? If anyone should cut and run it should be her, but to what? The de Villers castle and lands had been snatched from her family with casual ruthlessness, given to King Edward’s new favourite as a gift. Her home was gone, and her father’s dearest wish had always been that she wed the son of his lifelong friend.
The thought of going home unmarried was dreadful. All Giselle could hope for back there was a life dependent on the charity of her older sister, Sabine, born of her father’s first wife, and resentful of his second, her mother. No doubt she would find a suitably low-born man to take her. Knowing her half-sister’s indifference to her welfare, and her resentful temper, he may well be a worse prospect than Edric.
No, she must bear her fate, and she must wed this fat bully, for the sake of her family’s name and honour. There was no escaping her fate now, for Giselle had absolutely nowhere else to go.