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  “For the reason I said: he wants to train with you. The King won’t like your training one nobleman to fight another. And what is this I hear of your raising an army of criminals to overthrow the King?”

  Raine guffawed at this idea. “What liar told you this?”

  “Pagnell of Waldenham told King Henry this. Hadn’t you heard? I thought Alyx came to warn you of this. The King’s ears are being filled with lies against the Montgomerys.”

  “Alyx hasn’t seen fit to warn me,” Raine said.

  “And I’m sure you sat down and asked her nicely why she deserted her child and the comfort of Gavin’s house to come live near you in this cold forest.”

  “I neither need nor want your interference in my life.”

  Stephen shrugged. “I remember a few kicks I received when Bronwyn and I had problems.”

  “And now all is sweetness and light with you, is it?” Raine asked, one eyebrow raised.

  Stephen cleared his throat. “We do have . . . ah, a few disagreements now and then, but generally she learns the true way.”

  “I’d like to hear Bronwyn’s version of that,” Raine said before changing the subject. “Have you seen Miles?”

  Stephen was saved from answering by the appearance of Alyx bearing a tray, Joan behind her with a second tray. Stephen didn’t want to tell Raine that his problem with women was mild compared to Miles’s.

  As soon as Alyx realized that Joan was going to make a fool of herself over Stephen, she sent the maid out. The meal was an awkward one, the first Raine and Alyx had shared since she returned to the forest. Stephen did nearly all the talking, entertaining them with stories of Scotland.

  “And you should see my son,” Stephen boasted. “Already Tam has taken him riding and he can’t really sit up yet. You and I weren’t on a horse until we could walk. And how is your daughter, Alyx?”

  For the first time in two weeks Alyx let herself think completely about her daughter. “She is strong,” she said dreamily, “short and healthy with a lusty cry that made Judith’s son cry, too.”

  “Protective of his cousin, no doubt,” Stephen said. “She has your eyes.”

  “You saw her?” Alyx came off her stool. “When? Was she healthy? Had she grown any?”

  “I doubt if she’s changed much since you’ve seen her, but I agree about her voice. Do you think she’ll be able to sing?” He turned to Raine. “She has those dimples you got from Mother’s family.”

  “I must see to the camp.” Raine stood so suddenly he nearly upset the food Alyx had brought. Quickly, he left the tent.

  “He’ll come around,” Stephen said confidently, smiling at Alyx’s tearing eyes.

  * * *

  Alyx tried not to think of Raine’s constant anger and instead turned her attentions to Brian Chatworth. He was a miserable young man, his eyes black with a deep, burning hatred, and he never smiled nor seemed to find pleasure in anything. Alyx could not persuade him to talk or to confide in her about any subject. Her questions about where he’d been for the last several months since Mary’s death were met by silence.

  Alyx gave up after a while and left him to the men on the training field. As for Raine, he neither looked at nor spoke to the boy and spent most of his time with Stephen.

  After Stephen had been in camp for three days, Joan came to Alyx.

  “I think they’re fighting,” Joan said excitedly.

  “Who? Not Raine and Brian Chatworth?”

  Joan’s voice was impatient. “Of course not! Lord Raine and Lord Stephen have gone deeper into the forest, and one of the guards has reported loud voices coming from there. Everyone’s planning to go and watch.”

  “You will not!” Alyx said, pushing past her maid and out into the cool air. “Jocelin,” she shouted when she saw her friend. “Stop them. Leave Raine in private. And you,” she turned to Joan. “Help keep the men in camp. Do what you must. But nothing lewd,” she called over her shoulder as she hurried forward.

  Jocelin enlisted the aid of some ex-soldiers to help him while some of the wounded helped Alyx, and Joan had her own methods of making men obey her. Together they managed to keep the camp people away from where Raine and Stephen were having their “discussion.”

  “They’re just settin’ now,” said a guard as he was replaced by someone else.

  Alyx walked away, not wanting to hear any more of the facts. Raine was so much heavier than his brother, obviously so much stronger. Stephen couldn’t possibly win a fight between them, and Alyx prayed Raine would hold back and not truly hurt his slim brother.

  At sundown, Alyx took the water buckets to the river, hoping to escape the gleeful voices of the people in the camp. They were all huddled about campfires listening to the guards with rapt attention.

  She stood beside the river, motionless, glad for the quiet, when a sound made her whirl. Coming toward her, walking heavily, wearily, was Raine. Perhaps she should have listened to the people’s comments so she would have been prepared for her first sight of him. The left side of his face was swollen and turning purple. There were bruises on his jaw, his eye a flamboyant mixture of unnatural colors.

  “Raine,” she whispered, making him look up and away from her as he knelt by the water. She forgot any memories of anger between them but ran to him, knelt beside him. “Let me see,” she said.

  Docilely he turned his head to her and she placed cool fingers on his misshapen face. Without a word, she raised her skirt, tore away linen petticoat, dipped it in cold water and touched his face.

  “Tell me all of it,” she said in a half-command. “What sort of club did Stephen use on your face?”

  It was a long moment before Raine spoke. “His fist.”

  Alyx paused in her washing of Raine’s face. “But a knight—” she began. She’d heard Raine shout a hundred times about how unchivalrous, how unmanly it was to fight with one’s hands. Many honorable men had died rather than lose their honor by using their fists.

  “Stephen has learned some strange ways in Scotland,” Raine said. “He says there is more than one way to fight.”

  “And no doubt you stood there like a great ox and let him beat you rather than do an unknightly thing such as hit his face in return?”

  “I tried!” Raine said, then winced and calmed himself. “He danced about like a woman.”

  “Don’t insult my sex. No woman did this to your face.”

  “Alyx.” He grabbed her wrist. “Have you no feeling for me? Will you always side with others against me?”

  She took his face gently in her hands, her eyes searching his. “I have loved you since the first moment I saw you. Even then, when I had planned to hate you, I was drawn to you. I fought against loving you, but it was as if some great power controlled me and I had no say in what I did. Don’t you realize that I’m always on your side? That day at the fair if you’d killed Roger Chatworth you could have been hanged. I pretended to bed Jocelin to keep you from leaving the safety of the forest. What more can I do to prove my loyalty and love?”

  He pulled away from her. “Perhaps it’s your methods I don’t like. Why can’t you tell me what you’re doing? Why must you fight me all the time?”

  “Fighting is the only way you’ll listen to me,” she said in exasperation. “I told you you could not leave the forest when the people accused me of stealing, but you wouldn’t listen. I told you not to kill Roger Chatworth, but you stood there like a bull with veins standing out on your neck.” Her voice was rising.

  “I don’t know who unmans me most—my brother or you.”

  His tone was so little-boy, feel-sorry-for-himself that Alyx tried not to laugh. “What did you and Stephen quarrel about?”

  Raine rubbed his jaw. “Stephen suggested I consider that perhaps you weren’t disloyal when you saved Chatworth’s miserable life.”

  Raine turned and looked at her. “Have I been wrong? Have I treated you very badly? Is there any love in your heart left for me?”

  She touched his chee