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Chapter 14
“Marry you?” At first Maira thought Jacob was jesting. But when she saw the look on his face, she realized he was serious. “Get up, Jacob. Please.”
“Not until you agree to be my wife.” He still held her hands and stared intensely into her eyes, waiting for her answer. Although she felt attracted to Jacob and would much rather marry him than the High Sheriff, she kept thinking what her father or the earl who had been her guardian would say. “My father and the earl want an alliance with the High Sheriff,” she told him.
“They won’t still want you to be betrothed to him after they find out what a wretched man he is.”
Maira had no doubt her father would be furious and her mother would cry if she came home married to a man who was naught more than a thief. “I don’t know,” said Maira. “I’m not sure my parents or my guardian would like it if I married you.”
“What does it matter what they think?” he asked her. “You said you were granted permission by the late king to choose your own husband. So you can choose to marry me. Do it now before the High Sheriff returns and tells you that you no longer have that power.”
“It’s not that simple,” she explained. “I wasn’t really granted permission to choose a husband . . . just the permission to agree or disagree to a betrothal.”
Jacob’s smile faded and he slowly got to his feet. “Then you agreed to the betrothal with the High Sheriff before you came to Durham?”
“Nay, I didn’t. I disagreed to it.”
“If you disagreed to it . . . then why are you even here?”
“I told my father I’d give the High Sheriff a fortnight. If I didn’t feel the marriage between us would work, then I would be able to go home.”
“Then you want to marry the High Sheriff?”
“Nay! Of course not.”
“Then you want to marry me.”
“I – I don’t know. I told you that I don’t think my parents would like me getting married before I told them about it.”
“Oh, I see,” he said with a slight nod. His jaw clenched and his words were forced. “You don’t feel I’m worthy of marrying you since your grandfather was the king and I no longer hold a title or lands.”
“Well, you were excommunicated,” she said, not looking at him when she spoke.
“From the church, not from being able to marry. Besides, all that is going to change once I attack and seize Durham Castle.”
“Jacob, as much as I want you to be lord of Durham Castle, it isn’t that easy to reverse an excommunication. It might take months or even years, and we don’t have the time.”
“That’s why we’ll get married right here in the woods,” said Jacob with a wave of his hand through the air.”
“I am a noblewoman,” she reminded him. “When I someday marry, it has to be in a church as is proper.”
“Or what?” he challenged her.
“What do you mean?” Maira felt scared for one of the first times in her life. Everything was happening so quickly.
“You don’t seem to me like a woman who is afraid of what others think of her.”
“I’m not.”
“You come across as a rebel.”
“I’m not a rebel. You don’t know me if you think I’m rebellious in any way.”
“Mayhap, you’re the one who doesn’t know yourself, Maira.” He turned and started back to the horse.
“Wait,” she cried. “Why are you walking away in the middle of our conversation?” She followed after him quickly.
“This conversation is over.” He slid his hands around her waist and hoisted her up atop the horse. “It’s obvious you don’t want to marry me so there is nothing more to say.”
