The Bride Gift Read Online Free

neither was it a command, and Ewayne turned and joined Sir Guy. They strode out of the hall.
    Bridget snorted from the other side of the table. “Did not think he would say that, did you, Nell?”
    “No,” she replied thoughtfully. “I did not.”
    The hall was nearly empty by the time Colin appeared. It was as if a fist squeezed her heart as his tall, lithe form crossed toward her.
    “Nell?” He was frowning. “I have just heard the most pernicious rumor.”
    Helena winced. She’d hoped to tell Colin herself, but the extra occupants of the hall caused the meal to stretch long into the morning. It was late before the keep rose from the table. Sir Guy and Sir Ewayne hadn’t rejoined them, but Willie reported seeing them in the practice yards. Probably thwacking things and making firm friends.
    “Sit down, Colin.” Helena motioned for him to be seated beside her. “I will get you something to eat.” She turned to a serving girl to pass the instruction as she pondered the best way to tell Colin the news. He would be devastated.
    “They say you are wed.” He threw himself onto the bench beside her. “I said it must be a lie because you cannot be wed. You are to marry me.”
    “It appears we waited too long.” It was the wrong thing to say because Colin’s face clouded over immediately.
    “Is this some jest of yours? An underhanded contrivance to force my hand?”
    “There you have it, Colin.” Helena laced her tone heavily with irony. “I have been plotting behind your back and this is the result.”
    “Nell.” His brows gathered like a storm cloud over his eyes.
    She was being petty. Colin’s reluctance to wed had rankled so, but it no longer mattered. “Roger brought him from Court.”
    Helena broke off at the interruption of a serving maid who placed a bowl of stewed fruit before Colin with a fresh nut loaf and some cheese.
    He gave the food a cursory glance. “Brought who from court?”
    “Eat, Colin.” Helena nudged his bowl toward him. “Roger is banished,” she whispered. Some of Sir Guy’s men still lingered in the hall.
    Colin gaped at her. “Banished?”
    “Aye.” Roger was truly gone, leaving a huge hole in his wake. She missed him already. Sweet Lord, how would they get on without him? “He refused the king’s latest call to arms and Stephen branded him a traitor for it.”
    “So where is he?”
    “Gone.” It hurt just to say it aloud. “Roger has left for Normandy.”
    “I warned him.” Colin pushed the bowl away. “Now what is to become of us?”
    “Roger saw to that.” Helena fastened her gaze on the table before her. “It seems that the rumor is true, Colin. I am wed to Guy of Helston.”
    “You cannot be.”
    “But I am.” Bitter frustration thickened in her throat. She and Colin were a perfect match. Perfect . Roger would have seen that in time.
    Colin scowled at her. “Roger would never have done such a monstrous thing.”
    “Mind your tongue,” Helena warned him. She let her glance linger significantly over the new faces in the hall. “And, aye, it is true.”
    “And you agreed to this? You agreed to marry that lout?”
    “I did not have much choice,” Helena retorted. “They arrived suddenly and Roger himself told me it was true.”
    “But you are to marry me.” Colin stabbed at the cheese with his eating knife. “How can you be married to another man? Take it away,” he snapped at the young serving girl who hovered near. “I cannot eat now.”
    “Colin.” Helena laid her hand across his arm. It was fine and familiar beneath her palm, nothing like the touch of her fingers to Sir Guy’s arm. This was why Colin was the man for her, a courtier and a dreamer, not a warrior. Not some death-wielding butcher who barely spoke above a grunt. “You must not despair. I do not accept this marriage.”
    “What does that matter? You are married, and there is naught to be done about it.” He slammed his fist on the table. A few lingering diners glanced in