Knight's Move. Jennifer Landsbert
no doubt, but they have already left to continue their journeys homewards, otherwise I am sure they would have been glad to spend this time with me.’
So he admitted he would rather be with his loutish friends than with her. Hester felt a sudden irrational twinge of pain at the admission. She stamped it down. After all, she didn’t want him here. If he preferred their company, why didn’t he go with them instead of staying here to plague her?
‘How unfortunate for you to be without them,’ she commented wryly.
‘Yes—and for you, of course. Had I been occupied with them, you could have spent the whole day with your bailiff as you wished,’ he said sharply, looking away from her towards the grey horizon.
Great banks of cloud were looming there, threatening to bring the rain which the wise woman had predicted. If only they would speed their way across the sky, their rain might call a halt to this detestable task of accompanying him around Abbascombe.
They traversed the fields in silence, deliberately looking at anything except each other, while Amir bounded off, running great circles around them, covering ten times the distance of their more sedate journey.
Hester knew Guy wanted her to make conversation, to tell him what had happened in this field over the past few years, which crops they’d planted here, which had been most successful, the problems they’d had. As they rode on, the information buzzed in her head. This is where we found blighted leaves on the turnips, but William pulled out the affected plants and burned them and the disease spread no further. We counted ourselves very lucky for that. And this is where the plough broke three years ago. And here is where William tried planting leaf beet for the first time and it grew beautifully. Why should she share it all with him, these precious, happy memories? Especially if he wanted to know?
As these thoughts were buzzing through her mind, Guy slowed his horse to walk alongside hers. Hester glanced sidelong at him, trying to measure his mood. Then he spoke.
‘My lady, I wish to learn about the land, and I believe there is much you can tell me,’ he declared, as if he had read her thoughts. Hester looked back at him and again felt the weight of his dark eyes upon her.
‘You do not wish to share your knowledge with me?’ he asked with alarming directness. ‘Why would that be?’
Hester glared back at him. How could he ask such a question? After ten years’ absence…after last night…how could he dare to ask?
‘I am not a fool, my lady. I can understand how little you may have wished for your husband’s return, and how unwelcome that return may be to you. But I am here now and I mean to stay.’
‘How long for?’ Hester tossed back at him, feeling the meanness of her words even as she uttered them, yet saying them nonetheless. After all, he deserved to hear them.
‘For good,’ Guy replied evenly, still watching her face. ‘I am here to stay and I mean to be a good keeper of the land.’ He paused and looked into the distance, then continued, ‘’Twould be best if we could work together as a team. I can see how much you know of Abbascombe and what it means to you. But if you cannot bear to work with me, then I will rule the demesne without your help and I will seek advice elsewhere.’
A gasp caught in Hester’s throat as she felt the force of his words. Of course, that was what he would do. She had not really expected anything else. But, as well as a threat, he had issued an invitation. He had offered to work with her.
‘When you say “work together as a team”, what exactly do you mean?’ she asked, trying to sound her most businesslike, allowing no hint of emotion to escape in her words. It was the same voice she used when negotiating prices with the corn factors, a voice which hid her true feelings like a verbal mask.
‘I know nothing of farming or of the land, but I want to learn. You can tell me what I need to know. And instead of continuing to manage Abbascombe alone, as you have in the past, we can carry the load together.’
Hester hesitated and looked at him. His gaze seemed to be open and honest, yet she felt troubled by his suggestion.
‘It is a disgrace that you know so little of your own land.’ She could not help it, the words slipped out before she could prevent them. She expected anger in return, but Guy’s face remained impassive.
He nodded, paused, then spoke. ‘My education fitted me for fighting. It taught me nothing of farming.’
‘But you could have learned if you’d wished.’
‘Perhaps I could. No doubt I should have done. But I did not know how much I desired it until I was far away from Abbascombe, living in the hot sand of the desert. And my childhood was taken up with learning how to be a knight, far away from here.’
‘In Devonshire at the house of Lord Perigord.’
‘You know of it?’ Guy replied in surprise. ‘Then you know too that I was absent from Abbascombe from the age of seven to seventeen.’
‘Seven?’ Hester repeated. ‘I had not known you were only seven when you left.’ She thought of how she had been wrenched away from her own home at the age of twelve, how painful that had been. But, at seven, how much worse?
‘Yes, seven,’ Guy continued, oblivious to the sympathy that was suddenly welling up inside her. ‘My mother died the following year. By the time I returned I was too full of knightly endeavours to settle to farming.’ He laughed, a hollow, sad laugh. Hester met his eyes. Something in their depths stirred a chord within her. Why not accept his offer? Why not try working with him? At least then she would still have some control over Abbascombe. The alternative was to be completely ousted.
‘Very well,’ she told him carefully. ‘Let us try working as a team.’ And then she began to talk of the land as they rode across it, the crops, the soil, the people. The words flowed easily once she had started and Guy listened attentively, seeming to absorb what she said, remaining silent mostly, but asking sensible questions every now and then, questions which suggested he was serious in his desire to learn. Inevitably, William’s name cropped up again and again in their talk.
‘You and William get on very well together,’ Guy commented one time.
‘Of course. William is my great friend. We work together every day. My burden would have been heavy indeed without him. He is an excellent farmer, knowledgeable and sensible, and also on good terms with all the tenantry. Everyone likes William,’ Hester enthused, ready with praise for her bailiff.
‘Especially you,’ Guy interrupted.
‘Yes. I have leaned on him these four years, and he has never let me down. I could not value anyone more highly than I prize William.’
‘And you appointed him? He was your choice?’
Hester nodded. ‘The old bailiff, Benoc, was dishonest,’ she explained.
‘Dishonest? Benoc? My father never detected him in any dishonesty, I think.’
‘Maybe not, my lord, but in the last few years of his life, your father was weakened by—by—’ A blow hovered on her lips. She bit back the words ‘by your desertion, by the appalling, callous way you treated him’. She did not quite have the nerve to utter them. Instead she continued, ‘By circumstances. His health became worn and he could not keep so careful a watch on his affairs as he might otherwise have done.’
‘I see. And you blame me for that, do you?’ In spite of her careful choice of words, he had heard the accusation in her voice.
Hester hesitated. What was the point of pretending? After all, he hadn’t tried to make things any easier for her all those years ago. He had made no attempt to soften the blow, so why should she spare his feelings now?
‘Yes, I have been used to blame you,’ she said boldly. Guy’s face clouded over and Hester feared what his response might be, but instead of lashing back at her, he said nothing and they rode on in silence.
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