Alexandre de Challon leaned down to his sister and then breathed a sigh of relief when just at that moment she opened her eyes. For a brief instant, he had been convinced that she had been killed in the fall, and the very thought had almost caused his heart to stop beating.
"Alec," he breathed, as if he was of the belief that a loud word from him could now hurt her.
She offered him a smile while at the same time attempting to sit up, but this only resulted in her to grimace in pain. "What the hell..." she cursed, completely forgetting that a Lady was not supposed to express herself in this manner.
Her brother would have reproached her in any other circumstances, but at that moment he had not even become aware of it. However, this could also be due to the fact that he was also cursing the disastrous event vehemently as well as the subsequent interruption of their journey, for they were already late. A storm had caused them to have to wait for a rather long time before they were able to cross the Channel.
"Come on, I'll help you up," he offered his sister, having somewhat recovered from the scare that had struck him on that evening, and he leaned down once again to grab her under the arms. But when he tried to put her back on her feet, she uttered such a loud cry of pain that he lowered her immediately back on the ground. Needless to say, he did so in a very careful manner.
With tear-filled eyes Alexandrine looked up at him and he realized that it was not just the pain that was making her cry. Yet he felt like crying himself at this moment, knowing full well what was going through her mind.
"It's quite obvious that you can't travel any further, Alec," he stated - perhaps somewhat redundantly. "I'll send one of the men to organize a carriage."
She shook her head in misery. "We're already too late, Brother," she whispered, "We have to keep going. You know what's at stake. Remember the promise we made to Father and ...," she was unable to continue, but he knew nonetheless what she had wanted to say. He understood her despair all too good, after all, their father had made it quite clear to her that he was willing to send her to a convent if this wedding did not take place. But now it was really looking as if she was not able to travel on to her bridegroom.
"We'll think of something, Alec," he tried to reassure her. "But we need to get you someplace first where you can recover from your injury."
"That's not good enough!" she hissed at him, only to gaze at him apologetically in the next moment. But he was not angry with her, knowing she must feel terrible.
"You're hurt, you can't go on," he began once more, but she interrupted him right away.
"Remember what we used to do in the past to help each other?" For a brief moment, there was a grin on her face, causing him to respond with a nod. Of course, he had known immediately what she was getting at.
Alexandrine and he had always supported each other, which was perhaps due to the fact that they had already shared the space in the womb. They had then been inseparable as young children - no matter what the adults had tried to do - and only as they had gotten a few years older did they realize that they were not, in fact, entirely alike. In the early years, it had made no difference - at least not to them - that he was a boy and she was a girl. They had shared everything. Food, toys, and even their clothes. And once they had come to understand that people had a lot of trouble telling them apart - unless they were undressed - they had taken advantage of that to achieve their own goals.
Alexandre could not tell how often they had changed places. His sister had roamed the stables in his outfit, riding horses that no one would have allowed a girl to mount. He, on the other hand, had learned to play the harp in one of her dresses, something that as a boy he would never have been given permission to do. They had never felt guilty about deceiving anyone in this manner and as far as they knew, they had never been found out.
As they grew older and it could no longer be denied that he would one day be a man and Alexandrine a woman, they had feared they would no longer be able to carry out their role reversal. But this had not come true, for even at this point they had still been very much alike. This was partly due to the fact that his sister was quite tall for a girl, and muscular to boot. Besides, it had not taken her long to figure out how to hide her bosom beneath her brother's attire. With a little bit of practice, she had managed without problem to sound like him when she spoke. On the other hand, he had not grown taller than her - even if there had been times when she was ahead of him in this regard, but they had found solutions for that, as well - and no one seemed ever have noticed that his hair was as long as hers. In addition, he always made a point of being well shaved and he liked to wear loose clothing. So, it was not really surprising that just a few weeks prior to this journey they had once more swapped places successfully.
In fact, this was not what had gotten his sister into trouble. But it had no longer been sufficient for her to pretend to be her brother. She was also out in men's clothing when he could not take on her role so that no one would notice that she was not in the castle, and this had not gone unnoticed. Unlike her, he had never been caught, so no one had ever doubted him when he had appeared somewhere wearing one of her dresses - made up and with her jewelry. He was indeed very relieved about this, and not just for Alexandrine's sake. His father had been very angry with his sister, but if he would have ever known how much his son enjoyed dressing up as a woman, he would probably have beaten him to death with his own hands. At that moment, it would not have made any difference to him that the young man had always shown himself to be very skilled in his training to become a knight, as the Baron would not have been in a position to tolerate such a behavior.
But this was the reason why Alexandrine could now demand of him to once again take her place. He was to go on to Nottingham in her stead to meet the man she had to marry. He was also to be engaged to this man. He was actually to be Alexandrine until she had recovered and only then could he again be Alexandre.
"I will substitute for you, Alec," he promised to her nonetheless. "No one will notice anything about the exchange. I will see to it that your wedding can take place. Father will have no reason to send you to a convent. I swear this by all that I hold sacred."