“It is good that you are leaving, my lady.”
Mother Bernard spoke gravely after she had heard my confession of all that had passed between myself and Jean Pierre. “Perhaps you should call for another man to lead you home.”
I smiled, for she spoke as if I were some girl coming home from a fair after being gone for only one day.
I kissed her, despite the years of hard training in my father’s court, and in Eleanor’s. Love’s expression flowed from me ever since my daughter had been born and died. Rose had given me much in that one day, and easy affection with those I loved was one of those gifts.
My brother would send no other man to fetch me. And I had no desire to delay.
Even then, my litter waited outside in the sunshine. Already, I could hear the horses gathering and the men at arms. M
