“A thimbleful is too much. We must assume Lord Raine has taken too much. Come, there is much, much work to be done.”
It took a full day to clean out Raine’s system. Rosamund gave him vile-tasting concoctions that made him vomit, that emptied his bowels. And constantly, men took turns walking him.
“Sleep, let me sleep,” was all Raine would mumble, his eyes closed, his feet dragging.
Alyx allowed no one to stop walking him nor would she let him turn away from the liquids that were forced down his throat. After many hours, he began to regain control of his feet and started walking somewhat under his own power. His body was empty of all solid matter and Rosamund began to make him drink buckets full of water, hoping to flush him more. Raine was waking enough to protest more loudly.
“You didn’t leave me,” he said once to Alyx.
“I should have, but I didn’t,” she snapped. “Drink!”
At noon of the second day, Rosamund finally allowed Raine to sleep and gratefully, she and Jocelin also rested. Tired beyond belief, Alyx went to each of the people of the camp and thanked them personally for helping her with Raine.
“You ought to sleep yourself,” came a gruff voice, and Alyx recognized one of the men who’d accused her of stealing. “We don’t want to save one of you just to lose the other.”
She smiled at him so gratefully that he turned red and looked away. Still smiling, she staggered into Raine’s tent and fell asleep beside him.
* * *
Alyx stayed with Raine for another week—until he found her holding a woman’s baby and crying silently.
“You must go back to Gavin,” Raine told her.
“I can’t leave you.”
He raised one eyebrow. “You’ve seen that your presence here won’t prevent what’s going to happen. Chatworth will lay his brother to rest, then we shall see what will happen. Go home and see to our daughter.”
“Perhaps a visit,” she said, her eyes alight. “Maybe just for a week or so, then I’ll return to you.”
“I don’t think I can live long without you. Go now and tell Joan to pack for you. You can see our Catherine in three days’ time.”
Alyx’s thanks, her joy at the thought of seeing her daughter again, made her leap into Raine’s arms. And her kisses soon led them elsewhere. Before either of them realized what was happening, they were rolling on the floor on top of a Saracen carpet, tossing pieces of clothing here and there.
Gleefully, they made love and Raine was pleased to see so much happiness in his wife’s eyes. Afterward, he held her close. “Alyx, it meant a great deal to me that you stayed during the fight with Chatworth. Whether you admit it or not you have a high sense of honor—not the honor I believe in but your own special sort. Yet you forgot it for love of me. I thank you for that.”
He smiled when he felt her tears wet his shirt. “You are going to see our daughter, yet all I get are tears.”
“Am I selfish for wanting everything? I want you to see our daughter, for the three of us to be together.”
“I will soon. Now give me a smile. Do you want me to remember you in tears or with your own special impish smile?”
At that she smiled and Raine kissed her. “Come on, let’s start getting you ready.”
Alyx kept telling herself the parting was only for a month or so, but she had a sense of permanence, as if she’d never see the forest camp again. The people seemed to think the same thing.
“For your baby,” said a man as he handed her a toy whittled out of a bit of green oak. There were more gifts, all homemade, all simple, and each one brought fresh tears to her eyes.
“You stayed up with ray baby when she was sick,” said one woman.
“And you buried mine,” said another.
When it was time to leave, Raine stood quietly behind Alyx, his hand on her shoulder, and he wa
s radiating his pride in her. “Don’t stay away too long,” he whispered, giving her one last kiss before setting her on her horse.
Alyx rode away, her head twisted back over her shoulder, watching all the people waving at her until the trees hid them.
Chapter Twenty-two