Love Is A Wound

Chapter 40

Discovering what a wandering, disconsolate life he had led made Katherine feel even more guilty about having brought him to this position.

Guy discovered, through Alice, that Katherine had arrived in the area with the story that her husband had died and left her in so much debt that she had to leave her home. A distant relation had taken pity on her and bought the farm for her. Alice told Guy that Katherine was teaching her to read and that sometimes Katherine would let her dress her and plait her hair. Alice enjoyed that but was disappointed that Katherine only seemed to have a few ribbons, not the fine jewels she had supposed a lady such as she was would have.

Alice also let slip that her mother and father thought that Katherine would not stay with them for long. They said it was only a matter of time before a gentleman whisked her away, she was so beautiful.

Even Alice notices how Guy scowled when she mentions Katherine being ‘whisked away’.

Guy asked whether any man had yet come to visit Katherine and learned that one has: Richard Trevellyan, a wealthy landowner from near Truro.

He feels such a stab of jealousy that he wishes he had not asked the question.

A few days later Guy is helping Stephen feed the cattle when they hear the sound of a horse being ridden into the yard. On asking Stephen who it is, Guy discovers that it is Sir Richard.

‘He visited a couple of times before the snows came, looks like he’s back again now it’s thawed,’ Stephen says, unaware that each word feels like a blow to Guy.

‘Does she meet him alone?’ Guy asks.

‘Yes.’ replies Stephen, ‘They go for a short walk down to the brook … why?’

‘No reason,’ says Guy, smiling grimly.

Katherine and Sir Richard are halfway down to the brook when he suddenly stops telling her about the problem he is having with the sheep on his estate and looks quizzically at something over her shoulder.

Katherine turns to look and sees Guy limping slowly along with Vasey at his heels. She stops walking and Guy and Vasey stop. She starts again and they do likewise. Katherine cannot help but smile.

‘Who is that fellow?’ Sir Richard asks.

Katherine quickly invents a story about Guy being an old friend of her father’s who had become ill. She says that he is staying with her until his health improves.

Sir Richard seems to accept this but says, ‘He seems to be following us. Why?’

‘To protect my reputation, I suspect,‘ Katherine says with a laugh. ‘Perhaps he feels that my father would not have wished me to walk alone with a man. ‘

Sir Richard d says softly, ‘Do you feel that I may be a danger to your reputation?’

Katherine smiles at him. ‘Well, that is not for me to say Sir Richard … you seem to have all the traits of an honourable gentlemen. But I’m afraid my house guest may view you differently.’

To illustrate her point she stops suddenly and turns around and Guy, whose attention has wandered a little, has also to stop abruptly in order not to catch up with her.

Guy watches the pair of them resume their walk and looks sourly at the way Sir Richard bows his head to talk to Katherine and the way she smiles as she talks. She seems completely at ease, there is none of that reticence and hauteur she displays whenever she talks to him.

He begins to wish he has not embarked on this ridiculous role of chaperone; in truth he has done it as something of a joke, but now it is proving to be too painful. Looking at Sir Richard, Guy sees all the things he will never be and thus, all the things he can never offer Katherine.

Sir Richard and Katherine reach the brook and Katherine sits down on a large boulder whilst Sir Richard stands by her. They converse amicably and then Sir Richard looks across at where Guy and Vasey are standing still, further along the brook. Vasey is drinking the water.

‘Ah, I see now the poor fellow is a cripple,’ says Sir Richard, ‘how did he lose his hand?’

Katherine feels herself wince at hearing Guy described thus and hopes fervently that Guy had not heard. ‘He lost it fighting in the Crusades.’ she says simply, knowing it is a lie but reasoning that Guy had indeed fought in the Holy Land.

Sir Richard seems satisfied with this as an answer and the rest of his visit passes without incident.

Later, when Sir Richard is gone, Katherine chances upon Guy sitting lost in thought in what she calls her 'nice room', the room in which he was apprehended on the night he broke into the farm.

He often sits in here, gaining comfort from the way it smells just like Hindelford and looks like it too with the jugs of evergreens and the glint of plate.

‘Did you and Vasey enjoy your walk?’ she asks, gently. She expects some gruff, non-committal reply.

Instead Guy says, ‘No, not really, but I felt I owed it to Foster.’

‘Oh Guy,’ Katherine says tenderly and cannot stop herself reaching out and touching his arm.

Did he let his eyes linger on hers a little longer than usual? Perhaps, but he still pulls his gaze away first and after a moment she lets her arm drop and then leaves him to sit alone with his thoughts.

But she cannot stop herself from hoping that it has been a little step forward, a little step closer to the day when he will be ready to hear her tell him how much he is loved.

Alice is looking at Guy with a quizzical expression on her face.

‘But doesn’t it tickle women when you kiss them?’ she asks.

Guy laughs, rubbing his hand over his beard. ‘I’ve never had any complaints.’

Alice has been telling Guy that she does not like his beard and that she thinks he should shave it off. Guy wonders whether this is something that has come from Alice or from Katherine. For a few moments he has allowed his mind to dwell deliciously on the thought that Katherine might in fact care enough about what he looks like to comment on it to Alice.

He decides to test Alice a little.

‘Did you know, Alice, some women like unshaven men?’

‘Possibly some may,’ says Alice quick as a flash, ‘but I think most prefer either a clean shaven man or one with some stubble. When a man is as handsome as you are, a huge beard just hides that.’

Guy raises an eyebrow and gives Alice one of his piercing looks. ‘How do you know what I look like Alice if you have only ever seen me with a beard and, as you say, that hides my face?’

He sees a look of panic come into Alice’s eyes. Then she shrugs her shoulders and jumps down from the wall on which she has been sitting. ‘Have to go and feed the chickens now,’ she mumbles at him and walks hurriedly away.

Guy watches her go and feels something blossom in him that he hasn’t felt since Nottingham.

It is hope.