Anne knocked at the door and was invited to enter. Her father looked at her as she did so, his brows lifting. ‘Your mother has sent you to fetch us to table, I dare say?’
‘Yes, Father. Mother says that supper is ready, and she wants to talk to Harry.’
‘In other words, I have kept you too long to myself, Hal,’ his father told him with a smile. ‘We must not keep Lady Melford waiting another second. She will want to hear all you can tell her about the lovely lady you intend to ask to wed you.’
Anne realised that her father was happy with the marriage. He did not mind that the lady Claire St Orleans was French, and that pleased Anne, for she would not have wished her brother to be disappointed.
Lord Melford’s eyes came to rest on his daughter. ‘As for you, miss, your brother has made a request of me that I am minded to grant, but we must ask your mother first. She may not agree that you should go with Harry to fetch the lady Claire home to us.’
‘Go with Harry?’ Anne’s pulses leaped with excitement as she looked at her brother. ‘Do you mean it? May I truly come to France with you?’
‘Father has given his permission if Mother agrees,’ Harry told her and grinned. ‘I thought it might be a good thing if Claire met someone from my family, someone who thinks well of me and will reassure her that I am to be trusted. Otherwise she might refuse me.’
‘Oh, Harry, thank you,’ Anne cried, her excitement bubbling over. ‘I should like that so very much.’
‘Well, we must ask your mother first,’ Lord Melford said, but with an indulgent look. ‘Had circumstances not interfered, you would have been taken to court at least once before this, Anne. It may do you good to see something of the world outside this house and our village. We have excellent neighbours, but few young men of your age. It is possible that you may meet someone in Harry’s company. On your return from France, you will go with him to London, and make your long-delayed appearance there. Lady Melford and I will come up to join you. We shall all return here for the wedding.’
Anne’s smile lit up her eyes. It was all she had longed for—an adventure that would take her somewhere far away from her home. To visit London had once been the extent of her dreams, but France conjured such pictures in her mind, though she had little to go on except for stories that Harry sometimes told her about the French court. He was one of King Henry’s trusted courtiers and had visited several countries in his Majesty’s service. She knew that he spoke both French and Spanish fluently, so perhaps it was not surprising that his choice had fallen on a French lady.
‘It is so good of you to take me, Harry,’ she told him excitedly. ‘You are the very best of brothers!’
‘I hope you will tell Claire that,’ Harry said. ‘I have gifts for both you and Mother in my saddlebags. It is as well that the fair is coming tomorrow, for you will need a new gown before we leave, Anne.’
‘When are we to leave?’ Anne asked.
‘In three days,’ her brother replied. ‘I have a month before I need to return to court. I know that Henry has further work for me soon, but he has granted me leave to visit my home and to fetch my bride home…if she will have me. I shall need to spend time at Claire’s home, and if we marry I shall wish some time alone with her before I return to my duties, so the sooner we start our journey, the better.’
‘How could she refuse you?’ Anne asked. She was surprised and thrilled that her brother wanted her to accompany him. ‘When I tell her how kind and generous you are, she will be happy to wed you.’
It was as they returned home from the fair that afternoon that the news came to Melford of a terrible murder in Shrewsbury.
‘Lady Madeline Forester and her uncle, Sir Hugh Grantham, were brutally slain,’ Lord Melford told his family when they gathered that evening. ‘Sir Hugh’s men tried to stop the murderers escaping and they wounded one, but unfortunately the rogues escaped.’
‘That is awful,’ Melissa said, her eyes dark with shock as she looked at her husband. ‘When did this terrible thing happen?’
‘It must be two days gone,’ Rob replied.
‘And do they know the names of these evil men?’
‘The messenger did not say. Apparently one was dark-skinned, perhaps a Saracen, from the east certainly, and the other might have been Spanish or French. He did not look English, I am told, but that might mean anything.’
‘I did not care for Sir Hugh,’ Melissa, said frowning slightly. ‘But the lady Madeline was pleasant enough, though I have met her but once. Her elder sister died tragically by her own hand some years ago I believe. There was some story of her having been with child.’
‘She was to be betrothed to Gervase de Montfort,’ Rob said. ‘Few knew of the arrangement, for I believe it was not spoken of—and he was murdered. Some say by his own brother, though I have always wondered if there was some mystery there. However, Stefan de Montfort left England and the scandal was hushed up. He would be Lord de Montfort since his father’s death, of course, though there is nothing left of the estate. Lord Cowper purchased it when the old man lost his fortune.’
‘That is a sad story, Father,’ Anne said and shivered. ‘And now the lady Madeleine has been murdered and her uncle with her…who could do such a terrible thing?’
‘It may have been robbers,’ Rob replied. ‘I do not know of anyone living locally that answers the description of the men involved. Perhaps they were just passing through. I doubt that it would have been local men.’
Anne remembered the two strangers she had seen on the day of Harry’s arrival. She wondered if she ought to mention them to her father but decided against it. Even if they were the men who had murdered the lady Madeline and her uncle, they would be long gone by now, and she could not be certain that they had been anywhere near Shrewsbury…though they had seemed to come from that direction. She decided to say nothing. If the travellers had passed through it was best if they went unheeded and were never seen again, for if they had brutally murdered a lady and a knight, they would murder anyone else who got in their way.
The seamstresses had sat up all night to finish Anne’s new gown, which was made of a dark emerald green silk and became her well. She would not wear it on the journey but keep it for when they arrived at the Comte’s chateau in France. It was packed into her trunk with all her very best things and was on the baggage cart, which had started out some hours earlier so as to be at the arranged meeting place by the time they arrived.
Anne hugged her mother excitedly, thanking her for allowing her to accompany Harry to fetch his bride home. It was such an adventure, for she would go to court when she returned to England and who knew what might happen then? She might even meet a handsome young man in France!
‘Be mindful of your brother and remember your manners,’ Melissa said as she kissed Anne’s cheek. ‘You are sometimes inclined to be hasty, dearest, though I know you have a good heart.’
‘I promise I shall do all that you would wish,’ Anne said, her lovely face serious. She had never been parted from her mother in her life and realised that she would miss her and her young brother. ‘I shall do nothing that would make either you or Father ashamed of me.’
‘I know that you have oft thought of marriage, but be careful where you give your heart,’ Melissa said. ‘I was fortunate to find your father, and Catherine is happy with Andrew. I would wish for you to be as fortunate in your marriage, my love.’
‘I shall heed your warning, dearest Mother,’ Anne promised. ‘I thought once that my heart was given, and that he would ask me to marry him one day—but it was not to be and I shall be careful in future.’
Anne’s