“The singer,” Alyx said firmly, making Raine laugh.
“To see what you have to compete with?” he teased.
She smiled at him, too happy to let his teasing bother her. After a brief visit to the singer, who was no good at all in Alyx’s opinion, they stopped at a gingerbread stall and Raine bought her a spicy fresh-baked lady.
Eating her treat, looking this way and that, she was hardly aware when Raine stopped before an Italian’s booth.
“What do you think of this?” Raine asked, holding up a length of violet silk.
“Lovely,” she said absently. “Oh, Raine, there is a bear doing tricks.”
“Your bear of a husband is going to do tricks if you don’t listen to him.” When she looked up, he continued. “I have had enough of Judith’s berating me. Choose the colors you want and I’ll have them sent to the castle.”
“Choose?” she asked dumbly, looking at the wealth before her.
“Give us everything you have in purple,” Raine said quickly. “And those greens. You’ll look good in those, Alyx.” He turned back to the merchant. “Cut off enough of each one for a dress and send it to the castle. A steward will pay you.” With that he took Alyx’s arm and pulled her away.
Like a child, Alyx looked backward, her gingerbread in her mouth. There must have been three shades of purple, four of green in each type of fabric, and the types included silks, satins, velvets, brocades and others Alyx didn’t recognize. Raine stopped before the performing bear, but when he saw Alyx wasn’t watching, he pulled her to another booth—a furrier’s.
This time he didn’t wait for her to choose but ordered a cloak lined with lambskin and another with leopard from Asia. He told the furrier to see the cloth merchant and send some bits and pieces for trim for the dresses he’d ordered.
By now Alyx was recovering herself. She was being dressed without even so much as a consultation as to what she wanted. If she had any idea of what she did want, she’d protest Raine’s highhandedness.
“Do you choose your own clothes like this?” she ventured. “Do you leave the choices up to the merchants?”
He shrugged. “I usually wear black, saves time that way. Miles is the one who knows clothes.”
“And what about Stephen? What does he know?”
“He keeps Gavin and me apart and all he wears are the Scots’ clothes, leaving most of him bare.”
“Sounds interesting,” Alyx murmured, making Raine give her a sharp look.
“Behave yourself. Look at this. Have you seen this before?”
What Alyx saw was a woman working with hundreds of wooden spools on a fat little pillow. “What is it?” The finished product looked to be white silk cobwebs.
“It’s lace, my lady,” the woman said and held up a collar for Alyx’s inspection.
Gently, Alyx touched it, almost afraid it would fall apart.
“Here,” Raine said, pulling a bag of gold from under his doublet. “Let me have three of those. Take your pick, Alyx, and we’ll give one to Judith and send the other to Bronwyn.”
“Oh, yes,” she breathed, pleased at the idea of a gift to Judith.
The lace collars were carefully laid in a thin wooden box and given to one of the knights to carry.
The next few hours were the happiest Alyx had ever known. Seeing Raine in his natural environment, seeing him get the respect he deserved, was a joy to her. Yet this man who was so honored could sit down with the lowest beggar and listen to the man.
“You’re looking at me oddly,” Raine said.
“I am counting my blessings.” She looked away from him. “What are all those people looking at?”
“Come on and we’ll see.”
The crowd in front of them parted to let the seven big men and the small woman through. Inside the circle were four half-dressed women, their flat bellies bare, their legs visible through transparent silks, undulating to some strange music. After her initial shock, Alyx glanced up at her husband, saw he was completely captivated by the women, as were the guards around them. And to think that moments before she’d been thinking Raine was close to the Lord’s angels!
With an exclamation of disgust, which Raine didn’t even hear, Alyx began backing out of the crowd, leaving the men to their obsession.