A RIDE AND A DISCOVERY
The next morning, Conn awoke with a smile. He stretched and felt soft linen beneath him. It took him a moment to remember where he was. He was in Annecy. Somewhere in this very building was Leona.
His smile grew wider then. He remembered what she had looked like in that pretty dress the evening before, allowed his imagination to focus on those smooth curves and imagine what it would be like to undress her. To kiss that soft neck and let his mouth move down to the smooth rise of her breasts. He imagined them full and warm in his hands as his lips closed over a hard nipple, sucking it tenderly into his mouth. Imagined her surprised smile of pleasure as he did so.
Whist man! He felt a hardening in his groin and chuckled to himself. He slid out of the crisp sheets and stretched, yawning.
“My lord?” The servant who appeared with a tunic for him sniffed in a disapproving fashion as Conn walked heavily to the ewer and rinsed his face in it, sighing in pleasure at being clean again after the long journey.
“Thank you,” Conn commented as the man left the clean tunic and withdrew.
As Conn shrugged on the clothing, he let his mind turn to more serious thoughts. Like, for example, the problem Leona had confided to him the evening before.
There is something odd going on here. And I don't like the look of that other feller who's staying here as a house guest.
He finished dressing and combed his hair, and then went downstairs to the dining hall.
“...And we should make sure to visit, ah!” the Count of Annecy declared, smiling at Conn as he entered. “Look, niece! Your kinsman arises earlier than we had expected him.”
Conn flushed as Leona turned in her chair, giving him a broad grin. “Good morning, Leona,” he said warmly.
“Hello, Conn,” she said, giving him the teasing grin that she had given him since they were children. “I'm surprised to see you awake. You had a long journey yesterday.”
Conn smiled at her and took the seat the tall footman drew for him. “I slept so well, I don't think I'll ever be tired again,” Conn grinned.
He noticed her uncle looking between them with a bemused grin, then saw Leona notice it too and translated for him.
While Leona was busy relaying their conversation to her uncle, Conn allowed himself to give her a closer look. His eye ran down from her strawberry tresses to the dress she wore; a simple dress in green linen, but cut in a way that showed each of her delicious curves to best advantage. He found himself flushing and looked quickly away.
“...And we should...Conn!”
“Uh? Yes, Leona?” Conn looked round to Leona, feeling foolish. He hadn't realized that she was talking to him!
“I was just asking Uncle if we might borrow some horses from the stables,” Leona said, raising a brow at Conn.
He recognized the gesture from childhood as alerting him to a hidden meaning. “Oh,” Conn blinked. “Yes. Uh, yes please, sir,” he added, smiling hopefully at the Count of Annecy. “That would be really kind.”
Leona rolled her eyes at him and then translated for her uncle, who nodded, said something brief, and then clapped his hands to bring a servant running.
Conn reached for some bread and ham off the central serving plates.
While her uncle explained their needs to the servant, Leona turned to Conn. “I need to talk to you alone. We can do that on the ride. Oh! There's a big dragon on your nose.”
Conn looked at her as if she had gone mad. “Leona? What...”
“Hush,” she admonished.
Conn sat beside her, feeling confused. Had she lost her mind? What was the nonsense about the dragon? “Leona...”
At that moment, Leona's uncle coughed and they turned to face him. He said a few sentences, then nodded affably and pushed in his chair.
“Uncle said he's got to do some business with the Comte,” Leona explained in a whisper. “He says we are welcome to his hospitality and to a ride before luncheon.”
“Thank you,” Conn said to her uncle. He nodded and left. Conn turned to Leona. “Leona! What the...”
“Whew,” she said, ignoring his urgent whisper. “Now we can talk. Conn – I think the Comte of Cleremont understands more than we think he does.”
“What?” Conn stared at her. “Leona – how can he understand Gaelic? Are you sure?”
“I'm not sure of anything,” Leona said seriously. “But this morning, when I came down, he was at breakfast. He said something about the sundial in the arbor. Remember when we were talking about it yesterday?”
“Yes?”
“Well, he asked me if I had explored the gardens. I said yes, and he mentioned the sundial. Asked if I can read it. I told him yes.”
“So?”
“Well, he said he was not surprised...that I always think of everything.”
“Are you sure it isn't just coincidence?” Conn asked. He was rewarded with a skeptical look.
“And he would have known the joke we made about how I always think of everything, too? By coincidence?”
Conn let out a long breath. “Leona...”
“We have to be careful,” Leona continued in a whisper.
“How do you know your uncle doesn't understand Gaelic?” he asked.
“Is there a dragon on your nose?” Leona asked with a skew grin.
“What the heck are you...Oh!” Conn nodded, understanding. She had seen her uncle watching them and wanted to find out if he would react. Since he hadn't reacted to her crazy comment at all, he must not understand. “Smart,” he said, nodding.
“Thanks,” Leona smirked.
Suddenly they could have been children together again. The thought twisted Conn's heart painfully, reminding him of their current difficulty. “Well, then. Since we know the count understands us, what can we do?”
“Go riding?” Leona suggested.
Conn nodded. He was already standing, pushing in his chair. “Let's go.”
They met by the stables and Conn had to restrain himself from gawking at her. In her flame-colored riding dress, her figure was shown off to perfection. He could see her generous cleavage, narrow waist, long legs. She was so beautiful that it made his whole body ache.
“Leona...”
“Hello,” she smiled coyly. “Are you ready to go riding?”
He grinned. “Yes.”
They mounted and set off.
As they rode along the path that led to the hilltop, Conn couldn't help slowing so he could admire Leona from all angles. The second time he did it, he caught her blue eyes on him, a naughty look in them.
“Conn,” she said with a grin. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?” he asked innocently.
“Stop finding excuses to slow down. We're not wed yet. And if we don't find a way through this mess, we won't ever be.”
Conn nodded, feeling foolish suddenly. “Yes, Leona.”
She smiled and he fell in beside her. “Conn?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think we could ride to Aix in a night?”
Conn bit his lip, thinking. “No. Not just because of distance. Because of danger on the road, I think we'd do best to hide around here somewhere, in an abbey or something, before we set off to Calais. We need to keep as low a profile as we can.”
“I agree,” Leona nodded.
“I think what we should do is ride to Bois, and there we can stop at...” His next thought was interrupted by a shout. He turned to see a man running up the path behind them.
“My lady Leona! My lord,” the serving-man panted, doubled over from the run. He turned to Leona and said a long sentence, then, when she nodded, smiling, he disappeared, back down the way he had come.
Conn turned to Leona, a frown on his brow.
“He said my uncle sent him. He's summoned us back to the house.”
“Oh?” Conn looked at her, eyes wide.
Leona nodded. “I think someone is behind this.”
“You mean..?”
“I mean our Comte of Cleremont wouldn't want us being too friendly, now would he?” She made a sour face.
“You think he asked your uncle to fetch us back?” Conn asked, falling in beside Leona as they walked their horses back toward the manor.
“I think there's a lot we don't know about my uncle and his friendship with the Comte,” Leona said grimly.
Conn swallowed. “You don't think he wants to force you to marry him, do you?”
Leona nodded. “I think it suits them both, Conn. My uncle is not unkind, but he is ambitious. He wants the land the Comte is offering him. He imagines what value it will add to his estate, how much revenue he can make from farms on the sunny southern side.”
“And he'd sell you for that?” Conn stared, aghast.
“He'd sell almost anything for a bigger profit,” Leona said firmly. “As I said, I like him, but he wants to make Annecy the richest holding in northwestern France. And who can blame him?”
Conn nodded, feeling slightly ill. “I suppose. But this is...this is wrong, Leona.”
Leona blinked at him. “Yet marriages in our own land are negotiated for less every day.”
“I suppose.”
“Come,” Leona added. “There he is. We'll have to try and speak alone later.”
Conn looked up the path, noticing that she was correct: her uncle had come out and stood near the stables, waiting for them. Behind him, the smile carefully wiped off his face, was the Comte.
Conn found he felt slightly ill. Leona was right, he supposed. Men of power manipulated and used their sons and daughters in this way every day. For land, for power. For gain. All the same, it was a world he had never thought existed before. Now, looking at the Comte and the way his thin lips lifted in a triumphant grin as he and Leona walked up the path, he wished he was still ignorant of it.
“Ah, Leona,” her uncle said, turning to Leona where she stood just ahead of Conn. Conn did not understand much of what he said, only that he mentioned dinner that evening.
Well, I'll just have to pray that we have some time alone after dinner.
Feeling more uncomfortable than he could have imagined, Conn followed Leona, her uncle and the silent, brooding Comte up the steps and back into the house.