A/N: I'm trying to write stories! Lol, this is an complete AU, and is based off a story line that I read years ago. I hope you like this and pleeease tell me what you think! I hope its not all too bad... Please review!
Prolouge...
London winter, early 1075.
...
Lady Rachel requests that Lord Noah of
Montevoy come to her at Gunlinghorn...
Lord Noah sighed as the messenger, an earnest young man in baggy breaches, carried on in a piping voice...come to her at Gunlinghorn as soon as his duties at court will allow him.
It was not that Lord Noah did not want to come to Lady Rachel, he thought as he sent the messenger off for refreshment. He had known Lady Rachel forever, and he was very fond of her. She had once been wed to the king's cousing and was now a widow.
Even if the king had not favored her, that marriage had made her important. No, it was not that Lord Noah did not want to visit Lady Rachel. It was just that, at this particular moment, he had other things on his mind.
King Schuester was not currently in residence at court in London; he was across the channel, dealing with rebels in Le Maine and attending to his affairs in Normandy. But manu of the great men of England were there.
There was intrigue a foot, stirrings among the barons, jostlings for more land and more power. Greed had awoken, lifting its head and casting a glance about to see who was watching.
Lord Noah did not like the tension he felt in the air these days.
It was not just the thought of leaving this simmering pot unattended that concerned Noah. He told himself he had always preferred to be in the thick of things, to know what was going on and with whom, to use his intelligence to untangle the problems of the realm.
Noah had never been much for one for the isolation of the country, and Gunlinghorn was four days' ride to the southwest.
And, of course, he enjoyed partaking of civilized pursuits. More particularly, good conversation, fine wine and beautiful women. With his good looks and and a perfect body, Lord Noah was often called the most handsome man in England.
Noah had always treated the title with good humor-especially now, at the age of 24. His handsome face hid a keen mind, and any man who at first glance dismissed him as just a face was soon put aright.
Noah was an integral part of King Schuester's council, and as such the powerful barons saw him either as a shrewd friend to look to in times of trouble, or a man to be wary of if they were involved in anything detrimental to the king.
The woman saw him differently. Noah was also famous as a lover, and few ladies could resist so handsome a trophy to show off to their friends.
Rachel was the only woman he'd ever known who was unaffected by his handsome face. She didn't see him as a pretty trophy, or a shrewd adversary.
That was one of the reasons Noah liked her, and why he felt so at ease with her. He could be himself with her, he could be Noah.
If he remembered rightly, the last time he had visited her, she had sent him home with an indulgent smile and with the astonishment to be good. Noah had laughed and kissed her fingeers, then left her without a backward glance.
Had he been "good"? In his way, he supposed he had, but Noah knew he had done things that Rachel would quibble over. What did she expect? She looked upon him almost as if her were a troublesome mortal and she a goddess on high: a man struggling to rise to the dizzy heights she expected of him and yet never quite reaching them.
Still, she accepted his faults. She accepted him.
Such a friend, be they man or woman, was truly a rarity. Noah sighed again. Of course, he would have to go to her. Rachel would not have asked if she had not needed to see him, and if he left at dawn tomorrow he could be in Gunlinghorn in four days, assuming the weather held.
That would give him a few hours to tie up any business he had at the court-his trusted second in command, Sam, could keep an eye on matters and report to him if or when it became necessary. That would leave this evening free for Noah to visit his current mistress, Santana.
He could not expect to find someone like Santana at Gunlinghorn, nor would he feel comfortable preying upon Rachel's women. She was always, to his mind, overly strict when it came to visiting lords defiling her ladies-especially when some of those ladies seemed most eager to be defiled.
He turned the message over in his mind. It was a strange relationship, the one between Rachel and himslef, and yet it was a comfortable one. She had loved her husband, Finn, and had been grieving for him now for two years. When Finn died, Noah recalled, the glow left Rachel's big chocolate eyes. As if night had come to her soul.
Their son must be five years old. Noah tried to remember what he looked like and could not;beyond a pat on the head and a vague greeting, Noah never took much notice of the boy. In truth, children were of little interest to him;there was no place for them in his life. And as for having any children of his own...
Noah shuddered. He did not want the responsibility. Not after what had happened to him when he was a boy.
Shrugging off his dark thoughts, Noah let himself wonder what Rachel could want of him that required his swift attendance upon her. Was her son ill? Was she ill? But she would have said so, surely?
Perhaps she needed his advice? But no, Noah smiled mockingly at his own thoughts, to Rachel he was and had always been Noah, whom she treated with a combination of amusement and indulgence and irritation, but never took too seriously.
That wasn't strictly true, Noah chastised himself. When he gave Rachel advice on important matters, matters to do with land and the running and defense of her manor, she usually took it-she had always trusted him to know the best paths to follow in the murky waters of King Schuester's England. But once, when he had tried to tell her that a red gown suited her better than a yellow one, she had laughed until she'd cried.
"Are you a lady's maid now, Noah?" She had asked him at last, he brown eyes brimming. "Maybe I should ask you for reports from the court as to what is in fashion. Maybe you will wear a likeness of the latest headwear for me." And she was off again, bubbling with mirth.
Noah had tried not to take offence. They had known each other since they were children, and to Rachel he would always be that boy who followed her about, who was to be tolerated in a fond sort of way.
He found her attitude frustrating, but at the same time oddly comforting. Rachel was not like other women, and he had never treated her so.
"Jesse!" He called suddenly.
"Yes my lord?" Jesse, come last year from Lord Micheal's household to serve Lord Noah., looked up from where he was slumbering by the fire. At the moment he had the appearance of a large, dishelved hound, his deceptively sleepy dark eyes fixed on Noah. But Noah knew Jesse was far from being the idle man he looked.
"We will go south to Gunlinghorn at first light tomorrow. Prepare, will you? I do not expect our stay to be a long one."
"Who is at Gunlinghorn, my lord?"
Noah smiled." An old friend," he said. And realized that he was looking forward to this journey, after all. It had been too long since he had last seen Rachel. Far too long.
A/N: I know it's short, but it's the prolouge, and the next one will be up tomorrow! It will be much, much longer, I really hoped you like this, please review!