The Silent Touch of Shadows by Christina Courtenay

Author:Christina Courtenay [Courtenay, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781906931766
Google: 9Ett8z74Ta8C
Amazon: 1906931763
Publisher: Choc Lit
Published: 2012-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The great hall at Idenhurst was at least three times the size of the one at Ashleigh and Sibell watched her father looking around in envy. She followed his gaze towards the great oriel window Sir Gilbert had recently had installed to brighten the room. It was a beautiful piece of architecture and must have cost a great deal. She knew it galled her father that he couldn’t aspire to anything so grand, although he was hoping her marriage to Sir Fulke would change things.

‘With his connections, I’m sure he’ll be able to help me rise to a more prominent position in society,’ he had been heard to boast to his sons. ‘Then we’ll see about buying a larger manor house and more land.’ The fact that his daughter had to be sacrificed for the sake of his ambitions seemed not to matter.

Sibell saw his eyes wander upwards towards the cavernous ceiling, where the great roof timbers were decorated with corbels carved in the shape of serpents’ heads. An involuntary shudder passed through him, as if he found them intimidating rather than decorative. Sibell had to admit the snakes looked ready to strike at any time.

They had been invited to a feast in honour of the powerful Lord Blaine, an acquaintance of Sir Gilbert’s, and the entire Ashleigh family was present.

‘I wish we could have refused to attend,’ her father grumbled to his eldest son Henry, who was seated on the other side of him, ‘but Blaine is on good terms with Sir Fulke of Thornby. He’ll want to look Sibell over on behalf of his friend.’ He glanced at his daughter and, by the expression of distaste that crossed his features, she gathered he found her wanting, as usual.

‘Well, I hope he doesn’t look too closely then,’ she heard Henry mutter. The guffaw that followed this thoughtless remark did nothing to improve her father’s temper. He cuffed the boy, wiping the smirk off his face in an instant.

‘Shut your mouth, fool,’ he hissed. ‘You had better pray the man likes what he sees, or else there’ll be no wedding. You know full well the advantages of the match and should we fail there’s no one else half so powerful who’ll have her. By the saints, that a man should be so plagued with a lackwit for a son, and my heir to boot now …’ He continued to curse under his breath for some time and Sibell looked round to make sure no one was listening.

Henry was the largest and strongest of her brothers, with fists the size of small hams, but the good Lord did appear to have forgotten to give the boy a brain. He had ever been slow to grasp things, frustrating his impatient sire who often said he had no idea how Henry would ever manage Ashleigh. His only hope was that his other sons would help when the time came.

Simon leaned across Sibell and whispered to his father, ‘I heard a rumour that Thornby is occupied with the young wife of an elderly knight.

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