Alice slid off her palfrey without any warning. She was on the ground, walking toward Joan, before Hugh realized her intention. He dismounted slowly, wondering what she was going to do next. Alice would never be predictable, he thought.
She went straight past Calvert as though the monk were invisible. Then to Hugh's and everyone else's surprise, Alice knelt gracefully in the mud in front of Joan.
"Thank you for your gracious welcome, my lady," Alice said. "I ask your blessing on Sir Hugh and myself and on all the inhabitants of these lands."
Hugh heard the murmur of appreciation from those around him.
Joan made the sign of the cross. "You have my blessing and my promise to assist you in your new duties to this manor, Lady Alice."
"Thank you, madam." Alice rose with complete disregard for the mud that now stained her traveling cloak.
As he went forward to take Alice's arm, Hugh saw Calvert's face contort into a mask of fury. The monk had been unmistakably rebuffed in front of one and all by the new lady of the manor.
Alice's triumph was complete. She had made it clear that so far as she was concerned the person who held true religious authority here on Scarcliffe was Prioress Joan. That fact would not be lost on anyone present.
Joan looked at Hugh with a measure of concern in her gentle eyes. "Will you return the green stone to its vault in the convent, my lord?"
"Nay," Hugh said. "The task of protecting the stone is mine. I shall take it to Scarcliffe Keep, where I can make certain that it is secure."
"An excellent notion, my lord." Joan did not trouble to hide her relief. "I am delighted to see the green crystal given into the care of its rightful guardian."
Hugh took a firm grip on Alice's arm. "It has been a long journey. I must take my lady to her new home."
"Aye, my lord." Joan moved back to the shelter of the gatehouse.
Hugh handed Alice back up into the saddle and then he remounted his own horse. He raised his hand to signal the company to set off toward the keep.
"That was very nicely handled," Hugh said for Alice's ears alone. "The prioress is the one person on these lands in whom the villagers place some degree of confidence. She and her women have seen to many of the basic necessities around here while the previous lords have come and gone."
"I believe that I shall like her very much," Alice said. "But I cannot say the same for the monk. He may be a man of God, but I find him extremely annoying."
"You are not alone. I don't believe Prioress Joan cares much for him either, although in her position she must tolerate him. Calvert does possess a certain zeal for lecturing women on their duties and frailties, does he not?"
"Bah. I have met his kind before. He is not concerned for the salvation of women's souls. He is merely frightened of females and seeks to weaken them by suppressing their spirits with remonstrations and sour speeches."
Hugh smiled. "Aye, no doubt."
Alice frowned in thought. "You seem to have satisfied your people with the manner in which you carried out the terms of the legend, sir."
"Aye, a nuisance, but 'tis finished." Hugh was cheered by that fact. "Now I can get on with more important matters."
"A nuisance, my lord?" Alice's brows rose. "I am crushed to learn that. I would remind you that had you not been obliged to search for the green stone, you would not have encountered me. I was under the impression that you were quite pleased to find yourself such an efficient and convenient betrothed."
Hugh winced. "I did not mean that the way it sounded. I was referring to the business with that damned crystal, not you."
"Then I am convenient and efficient, after all?" Mischief flashed in her eyes. "I am vastly relieved to know that. I would not want to think that I had failed to uphold my end of our bargain."
"Alice, I do believe you are trying to bait me the way a small hound teases a bear. I warn you, 'tis a dangerous game."
She cleared her throat discreetly. "Aye, well, be that as it may, there is a question concerning the local legend that I have been meaning to ask you."
"What is that?"
"You said that in addition to protecting the green stone, the true lord of Scarcliffe must discover the rest of the treasure."
"Aye, what of it?"
"You obviously satisfied your people that you were able to guard the green stone. But how will you go about locating the missing Stones of Scarcliffe? Do you have any notion of where they are?"
"I doubt that they even exist."
Alice stared at him. "Then how will you find them?"
"I am not concerned with that part of the legend," Hugh said carelessly. " 'Twas the recovery of the green stone that was most important. Now that I have brought it back to Scarcliffe, the villagers will assume that eventually I shall fulfill the rest of the prophecy. There is no great rush to do so."
"Eventually someone will notice that you have not succeeded in finding the stones, my lord."
"Once this manor is plump and prosperous, no one will care about those damned stones. If I am ever required to produce a small chest of costly baubles, I shall do so."
"But how?"
Hugh raised his brows at her naivete. "I shall simply purchase them, of course. I can afford to do so if necessary. 'Twould be no more costly than a few chests of spices."
"Aye, mayhap, but they will not be the true Stones of Scarcliffe."
"Think upon it, Alice," he said patiently. "No one living today has ever seen any of the so-called Stones of Scarcliffe except the green crystal. Who will know the difference between a bunch of gems purchased from a London merchant and the stones of the legend?"
Alice regarded him with an odd expression, a mix of awe and admiration. Hugh discovered to his surprise that he rather liked it. He basked in the warmth of it for a moment.
"My lord, only a man who is himself a legend could be so casually arrogant about fulfilling the terms of one."
Hugh grinned. "You think me arrogant? Only a woman who is unafraid of the power of legends herself would dare to strike a bargain with a man believed to be one."
"I told you that I do not have much faith in legends, sir. I am, however, much impressed by a man who is clever enough to invent whatever he needs to fill in the missing bits and pieces of his own."
"Thank you. Always pleasant to be admired for one's wits."
"There is nothing I admire more than keen wits, my lord." Alice broke off abruptly to stare straight ahead into the mists. Her eyes widened. "By the wounds of the Saints, is that Scarcliffe Keep?"
Hugh steeled himself. He gazed at the great stone edifice that was emerging from the gloom. "Aye. 'Tis Scarcliffe." He paused to give weight to his words. "Your new home, madam."
"For a while," she said absently.
"One becomes accustomed to it," he assured her.
"Indeed?" She studied the keep with curious eyes.
Hugh tried to view it objectively. He had been born in Scarcliffe Keep but he had no memories of the place.
After his beloved daughter had swallowed poison, Hugh's grandfather had taken his infant grandson to live with a widowed aunt in the north. The old man had lost all heart for the task of managing Scarcliffe. His thoughts had been focused only on revenge. Upon his death, Scarcliffe had fallen into other hands. A great many of them.
Scarcliffe had continued to decline under the succession of greedy, negligent lords.
The keep itself was a dark stone fortress that projected outward from the cliffs that loomed over and around it. It was said that the original owner had intended the structure to last until the crack of doom and it showed every possibility of doing just that.
The walled keep had been fashioned of an unusual black stone. No one whom Hugh had questioned had known where the ashlar had been quarried. Some said the great blocks of onyx-colored stone had been hewn from deep inside the maze of caverns that were etched in the cliffs. Some said it had been brought from a distant land.