When the banners of the approaching cavalcade could be clearly identified Fulk knew a moment of panic. Could this be planned? Rubbing the place where his nose had healed crooked, he laughed at himself for a fool. He was leaving Hugh's court and heading south. She'd been in the south for weeks, and of course would need to head to court sooner or later. Devious as his wife was, she would not have a travel party drawn up and waiting so she could run into him.
Some fifty paces distant Eleanor's party halted and a single figure rode out ahead, reining in once the distance was halfway closed.
Fulk held up a hand to call his own entourage to a halt. What could he do? The time for avoiding her was past, by his own decision and by his king's orders. But to talk in the middle of the king's highway with some hundred or more people looking on? Absurd! Even before the consideration she'd be unhappy with the first half of what he had to say - by design. If their marriage as a whole was to survive certain things needed killing once and for all.
"Wait here," he ordered, setting his spurs to his horse and riding out in front. He'd keep this to a minimum. No audience laughing behind their hands as his wife flattened him in righteous fury. Or the audience making her keep that fury in check. That talk must wait for another day.
After an uncomfortable moment she was the first to speak, bowing her head in meek greeting, "Good day, my lord."
Fulk was content to merely sit there and drink in the sight of her.
"You are still angry." Then she looked up from under her eyelashes, and then looked him fully in the face all trace of meekness gone. "Christ's bones, what happened to you?!"
"Ah." Fulk gingerly touched his black eye. "That."
"Yes, that."
Your brother thinks I'm scum and unbent from his lofty throne long enough to punch me, Fulk thought. "Oh, nothing much. Minor mishap. Looks more dramatic than in truth it is."
"I hope you returned the mishap and with extra." Eleanor cocked her head to the side. "It does rather spoil your looks, you know. Perhaps you should wear your full-head helm for a while in order to maintain your stature as a dashing knight?"
And that was why he loved her. He tightened his grip on his horse's reins so he wouldn't reach out to her. "I have missed you, my gooseberry."
"And I you, my luflych little knight."
This was impossible. He could not stay without getting over-friendly and then it would be harder still when came the time to tell her what he'd done. "I assume you are on some business. Very well; meet me at Woburn when you are done." He began to pull his horse around.
Eleanor leaned across and caught his mount's bridle. "That is all?"
"I will not discuss the particulars of my marriage in the middle of a road, my lady, no matter how content you may be to do so."
"Of course not. Why not accompany me?"
"It will help nothing. You are about your work and I-" Fulk broke off at the sight of a lone female rider heading out to them as some haste. "Who is that?"
Eleanor turned to look. "Adele," she growled. "My sister. And I may guess why."
The lady who drew her horse to a stamping halt next to them could never be taken as anyone other than Eleanor's sister. Fulk found himself fascinated; should you ignore the facial differences it was like looking at Eleanor with curves and a hand more height. Softer, gentler, and with the physical maturity which came from motherhood.
"And you must be my sister's husband," Adele said, smiling radiantly and making a polite inclination of her head which was unnecessary from someone of her rank to his.
Behind Adele Eleanor scowled.
And like that the moon eclipsed the sun. "Yes, I do indeed have that great pleasure." Fulk kneed his horse so it sidestepped, clearing Adele from his view of his wife. "If you will forgive my rudeness, we were making our goodbyes. I know you're pressed for time." He reached out for Eleanor's hand, and once he held it he pressed it tenderly to his lips. "My lady."
Adele exclaimed, "Oh, but of course you must accompany us! I have heard so very much about you, and besides we are family and must become acquainted." She smiled most prettily; Fulk's stomach lurched and not in a way he appreciated.
He smiled tightly. "No, I regret not. I must be leaving."
Then she pouted, such a appealing little pout which made the mind consider how it would feel to kiss those lips. "You simply cannot leave us to make the remainder of our journey alone; a bold knight such as yourself would ensure our safety against all perils."
Fulk repressed a shiver. He bowed in his saddle. "I wish you a good journey." He turned his horse and rode away, breathing a sigh of relief. That had been damned uncanny. From this day on it would be harder to laugh at tales of succubi.
He reined in, angling his horse so he could see back down the road. All this time apart and there she was, riding away back to her own group. All he needed to do was continue back to his own and leave, and he'd be free of all temptation.
"God's blood," Fulk cursed under his breath. He knew what he was going to do. What had been the point of pretending otherwise? He sketched a small cross over his heart and prayed softly, "Look kindly on this poor soul heading into a fight he fears he is unequal to." He dug in his spurs and galloped back down the road. The thunder of hooves made Eleanor look over her shoulder, and pull to a halt
Making sure he looked into Eleanor's eyes as he spoke, he said, "I will accompany you." He placed very slight emphasis on that last word.
Ignored to one side, Adele clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Oh, I knew you could not possibly abandon us. And now we shall all ride together as one happy little family within this group, just the three of us. You must tell me all about yourself. I have heard so much!"
Fulk felt his neck go stiff. He managed to smile almost graciously at his sister-by-law. "Might I beg a very great favour of you? One I have no business asking, and one, which I must honestly admit with penitent heart, is beneath you?"
She fluttered her eyelashes and practically glowed at him. "Have no fears, my dear Sir Fulk. We are family, are we not? Anything you might ask, I will listen to."
Fulk snapped a bow. "My thanks, your Highness."
"Call me Adele, I beg you, and I shall be pleased to call you Fulk. No need for formally between us, I hope?"
Fulk dismounted and pressed the reins of his horse into Adele's stunned hand. "Please mind my stallion doesn't follow his lesser brain and stray after some mare." With his most charming smile as a parting shot, he turned and held up his arms in invitation for Eleanor to dismount into them. "Never fear, my wife. I'm sure your generous sister will mind your horse also." Said generous sister appeared to be lost for words.
Once he had Eleanor in his arms it proved difficult to let go and place her hand on his arm ready for a stroll, but he managed it. He whisked her away from the mess on the highway. "We ride hard and arrive at court tomorrow before dark. Then we dump her on your brother and leave for Woburn the very next morning. This is possible?"
Eleanor slanted a questioning glance at him. "I would think so."
"Then that is what we do." They were far enough away that there was no need to continue walking; stopping he turned to face her. "We shall resolve your sister and then at Woburn resolve ourselves. Until then ..."
She raised an eyebrow. "Until then?"
Fixing his mind firmly on the speech he'd been working on since he decided he was no longer willing to live without her, Fulk managed to take a half pace back. "Until then we live amicably but with no great closeness. Not until I have said what I will say and you have heard it." When she parted her lips to speak Fulk placed a finger over them. "No. Not here, nor anywhere until it is only we two on our own land. There is too much between us to mend it if we're forced to behave like we're mummers in a miracle play."
She nodded and the motion made his fingertip caress her lips. Fulk's throat constricted; a fight he was unequal too indeed. He slid his hand around to cup her cheek where he'd slapped her all those weeks before. "That was not well done."
"It was my own fault. I should not have kept pressing you."
And if he hadn't been avoiding the matter she wouldn't have needed to press. Fulk let his hand drop, looked away. "Another time. All of this for another time."
Eleanor closed her eyes; he knew how she must feel. So long alone and then that brief contact ...
She said, "My sister. Do not touch her. Do not allow yourself to be alone with her."
A spike of raw anger burst through Fulk. Of course she thought that. She thought him so base he could be ordered off to sire a bastard in violation of his vows; why wouldn't he look with lust at whatever beautiful women he encountered? "You need have no worries on that count," he said harshly. "Not interested. Aside from it being incest, I've had more beautiful. Curvier. More alluring. All varieties - you forget the years of my life with you have been the exception, not the norm." Because of the unfairness of that, how hard it had been to keep that change and how easily she'd disregarded it he added, "Damn it, I've had women who make her seem bland as can be. She's no more than a spoiled girl toying with my privy parts to see if I can be made to jump."
Eleanor drew a long, steady breath, held it and let it out. In a level voice she said, "I intended to warn you that she is unstable."
And now didn't he feel like a complete idiot? "Oh."
"Her experiences have damaged her. Treat her with caution or you may find her shrieking the palace down around your ears."
Fulk ran his fingers through his hair, pressing hard enough to scratch his scalp with his nails. "My dear gooseberry, is there a single member of your family who might be described as normal?"
"There is one other thing you should know." She shifted her feet uneasily. "Trempwick is amongst my retinue."
"I beg your pardon?"
"He is disguised as my confessor. I am using him to deal with my sister-"
Fulk held up his hand to stop the words. "I don't want to know." All this time he'd been alone and she'd been trotting around the country with the man she came within a gnat's breath of marrying? The man who had tried to leverage her onto the throne? "Keep him out of my way, and get rid of him when we get rid of your sister. You can explain yourself once we have shed this - this spectacle."
"I can leave Adele with him and then we can ride alone together if you wish."
Aware of how much these measured responses must be costing her, Fulk took her hand and tucked it on his arm once again. "What a mess we are, my dear little wife. I'm sorry."
Eleanor leaned her head on his shoulder. "The sooner we start moving the sooner we 'dump my sister on Hugh', as you so quaintly worded it. Then we can think of ourselves."
"Quite right." He chuckled, looking at the sulking figure sat preventing the escape of two horses. "She's not entirely without use though."
He felt a tremor run through Eleanor's body as she fought not to laugh. "I cannot believe you used my sister - a former queen! - as a groom!"
"I did warn her the favour I wanted was beneath her."
"Will you ask her to wipe the mud from your boots next?"
"You're being very remiss in your duties, oh dear gooseberry of mine. Where's the appreciation for my play on words?" For effect he deepened his voice to a heroic rumble as he intoned, "Please mind my stallion doesn't follow his lesser brain and stray after some mare."
"Yes, yes, very good for someone who has been hit about the head with blunt weapons for much of his life."
"There should be more appreciation. It works on so many levels. Stallion being slang for, well, you know. And 'please mind', isn't that part excellent? It's the bit which makes the entire thing work. "
Eleanor poked him in the ribs. "Please mind labouring a joke becomes tiresome."
"Now you're so jealous of my wit that you're making inferior copies."
"Oh no - that was a warning. 'Please mind' as in 'take note'. So do take note, lest I suspect your already simple wit far simpler than I had given credit for."
"Deep down you're impressed. I can tell. Practically swooning with admiration."
"No, that is the strong stench of unwashed knight which is making me light-headed."
"Don't worry, beloved. Healthy manly sweat has that effect on most women. Quite the passion-starter."
"I would not know for you stink like your horse, and I believe you may have trodden in something on your way out of the stables."
They were almost back to the road. Fulk stopped and pulled her around. "Then you had best give me a bath when we find lodgings."
"I might condescend to empty some buckets of cold water over you in the yard."
"Make it very cold water."
Fulk noticed the cheering only after the kiss had been going on for a while. Startled he broke away and looked up to see most of his retainers and Eleanor's watching appreciatively.
After a beat Eleanor murmured, "Well I suppose we must have been difficult to live with, you dragging your people hither and thither to avoid me, and I moping."
"One of them just threw his hat in the air," observed Fulk. "This is distinctly weird."
"Quite."
"It's rather embarrassing."
"Let's head back and shout at them until they reorganise into a single travel party?"
"Good idea. Put the fear of superior rank into them."
"Shout in a manner politely appreciative of the sentiment, I meant."
"That was a joke, dearest gooseberry."
"I know. It was so feeble it was not worth treating as such."
"I get no support."
They started walking again, this time Fulk had his arm around her waist and was luxuriating in the sensation of her body touching his. Directing his eyes heaven-ward he thought ruefully, "Thanks for the help, oh Lord - battle well and truly lost!" Now it was going to be even harder to tell her.
Put the two back together in a scene and the instantly writing regains some bounce. Shows very clearly why, way back in the beginning, my attempts to stop them having a romance failed abjectly. I never had a chance; they work too well together. :grumbles about how she just wanted to do politics and civil war:
Cunobelinus54, part of your wondering is now answered. The opening shots are fired and it's not looking like the three of them will be sitting around the fire eating cakes and telling happy stories about when they were children.
Qorten, thanks. Hopefully this time I won't have any more problems.
karolus, have you heard that Martin has finally finished Dance with Dragons? Publication is set for July. 11 years of waiting, if you discount the fact he split the book into two and published part 6 years ago. Now there's an author who makes me feel the gaps between my updates are reasonable ...
I have to wait for the DVD before I can watch the series. It looks fantastic, can't wait.
Chief Ragusa, Nell marrying the King of Spain would be a kind of full circle back to the very beginning of the original story. Thematic fun. Knowing what she does she'd off the king at the first chance. At the beginning she'd been sent by Trempy to 'marry' one of the major lords in Brittany; in reality she was there to get close and kill him before any wedding could take place. Total deniability since she arrived quietly and William didn't know; they claimed it was an impostor because any such real marriage would have been heavily advertised.
Some fifty paces distant Eleanor's party halted and a single figure rode out ahead, reining in once the distance was halfway closed.
Fulk held up a hand to call his own entourage to a halt. What could he do? The time for avoiding her was past, by his own decision and by his king's orders. But to talk in the middle of the king's highway with some hundred or more people looking on? Absurd! Even before the consideration she'd be unhappy with the first half of what he had to say - by design. If their marriage as a whole was to survive certain things needed killing once and for all.
"Wait here," he ordered, setting his spurs to his horse and riding out in front. He'd keep this to a minimum. No audience laughing behind their hands as his wife flattened him in righteous fury. Or the audience making her keep that fury in check. That talk must wait for another day.
After an uncomfortable moment she was the first to speak, bowing her head in meek greeting, "Good day, my lord."
Fulk was content to merely sit there and drink in the sight of her.
"You are still angry." Then she looked up from under her eyelashes, and then looked him fully in the face all trace of meekness gone. "Christ's bones, what happened to you?!"
"Ah." Fulk gingerly touched his black eye. "That."
"Yes, that."
Your brother thinks I'm scum and unbent from his lofty throne long enough to punch me, Fulk thought. "Oh, nothing much. Minor mishap. Looks more dramatic than in truth it is."
"I hope you returned the mishap and with extra." Eleanor cocked her head to the side. "It does rather spoil your looks, you know. Perhaps you should wear your full-head helm for a while in order to maintain your stature as a dashing knight?"
And that was why he loved her. He tightened his grip on his horse's reins so he wouldn't reach out to her. "I have missed you, my gooseberry."
"And I you, my luflych little knight."
This was impossible. He could not stay without getting over-friendly and then it would be harder still when came the time to tell her what he'd done. "I assume you are on some business. Very well; meet me at Woburn when you are done." He began to pull his horse around.
Eleanor leaned across and caught his mount's bridle. "That is all?"
"I will not discuss the particulars of my marriage in the middle of a road, my lady, no matter how content you may be to do so."
"Of course not. Why not accompany me?"
"It will help nothing. You are about your work and I-" Fulk broke off at the sight of a lone female rider heading out to them as some haste. "Who is that?"
Eleanor turned to look. "Adele," she growled. "My sister. And I may guess why."
The lady who drew her horse to a stamping halt next to them could never be taken as anyone other than Eleanor's sister. Fulk found himself fascinated; should you ignore the facial differences it was like looking at Eleanor with curves and a hand more height. Softer, gentler, and with the physical maturity which came from motherhood.
"And you must be my sister's husband," Adele said, smiling radiantly and making a polite inclination of her head which was unnecessary from someone of her rank to his.
Behind Adele Eleanor scowled.
And like that the moon eclipsed the sun. "Yes, I do indeed have that great pleasure." Fulk kneed his horse so it sidestepped, clearing Adele from his view of his wife. "If you will forgive my rudeness, we were making our goodbyes. I know you're pressed for time." He reached out for Eleanor's hand, and once he held it he pressed it tenderly to his lips. "My lady."
Adele exclaimed, "Oh, but of course you must accompany us! I have heard so very much about you, and besides we are family and must become acquainted." She smiled most prettily; Fulk's stomach lurched and not in a way he appreciated.
He smiled tightly. "No, I regret not. I must be leaving."
Then she pouted, such a appealing little pout which made the mind consider how it would feel to kiss those lips. "You simply cannot leave us to make the remainder of our journey alone; a bold knight such as yourself would ensure our safety against all perils."
Fulk repressed a shiver. He bowed in his saddle. "I wish you a good journey." He turned his horse and rode away, breathing a sigh of relief. That had been damned uncanny. From this day on it would be harder to laugh at tales of succubi.
He reined in, angling his horse so he could see back down the road. All this time apart and there she was, riding away back to her own group. All he needed to do was continue back to his own and leave, and he'd be free of all temptation.
"God's blood," Fulk cursed under his breath. He knew what he was going to do. What had been the point of pretending otherwise? He sketched a small cross over his heart and prayed softly, "Look kindly on this poor soul heading into a fight he fears he is unequal to." He dug in his spurs and galloped back down the road. The thunder of hooves made Eleanor look over her shoulder, and pull to a halt
Making sure he looked into Eleanor's eyes as he spoke, he said, "I will accompany you." He placed very slight emphasis on that last word.
Ignored to one side, Adele clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Oh, I knew you could not possibly abandon us. And now we shall all ride together as one happy little family within this group, just the three of us. You must tell me all about yourself. I have heard so much!"
Fulk felt his neck go stiff. He managed to smile almost graciously at his sister-by-law. "Might I beg a very great favour of you? One I have no business asking, and one, which I must honestly admit with penitent heart, is beneath you?"
She fluttered her eyelashes and practically glowed at him. "Have no fears, my dear Sir Fulk. We are family, are we not? Anything you might ask, I will listen to."
Fulk snapped a bow. "My thanks, your Highness."
"Call me Adele, I beg you, and I shall be pleased to call you Fulk. No need for formally between us, I hope?"
Fulk dismounted and pressed the reins of his horse into Adele's stunned hand. "Please mind my stallion doesn't follow his lesser brain and stray after some mare." With his most charming smile as a parting shot, he turned and held up his arms in invitation for Eleanor to dismount into them. "Never fear, my wife. I'm sure your generous sister will mind your horse also." Said generous sister appeared to be lost for words.
Once he had Eleanor in his arms it proved difficult to let go and place her hand on his arm ready for a stroll, but he managed it. He whisked her away from the mess on the highway. "We ride hard and arrive at court tomorrow before dark. Then we dump her on your brother and leave for Woburn the very next morning. This is possible?"
Eleanor slanted a questioning glance at him. "I would think so."
"Then that is what we do." They were far enough away that there was no need to continue walking; stopping he turned to face her. "We shall resolve your sister and then at Woburn resolve ourselves. Until then ..."
She raised an eyebrow. "Until then?"
Fixing his mind firmly on the speech he'd been working on since he decided he was no longer willing to live without her, Fulk managed to take a half pace back. "Until then we live amicably but with no great closeness. Not until I have said what I will say and you have heard it." When she parted her lips to speak Fulk placed a finger over them. "No. Not here, nor anywhere until it is only we two on our own land. There is too much between us to mend it if we're forced to behave like we're mummers in a miracle play."
She nodded and the motion made his fingertip caress her lips. Fulk's throat constricted; a fight he was unequal too indeed. He slid his hand around to cup her cheek where he'd slapped her all those weeks before. "That was not well done."
"It was my own fault. I should not have kept pressing you."
And if he hadn't been avoiding the matter she wouldn't have needed to press. Fulk let his hand drop, looked away. "Another time. All of this for another time."
Eleanor closed her eyes; he knew how she must feel. So long alone and then that brief contact ...
She said, "My sister. Do not touch her. Do not allow yourself to be alone with her."
A spike of raw anger burst through Fulk. Of course she thought that. She thought him so base he could be ordered off to sire a bastard in violation of his vows; why wouldn't he look with lust at whatever beautiful women he encountered? "You need have no worries on that count," he said harshly. "Not interested. Aside from it being incest, I've had more beautiful. Curvier. More alluring. All varieties - you forget the years of my life with you have been the exception, not the norm." Because of the unfairness of that, how hard it had been to keep that change and how easily she'd disregarded it he added, "Damn it, I've had women who make her seem bland as can be. She's no more than a spoiled girl toying with my privy parts to see if I can be made to jump."
Eleanor drew a long, steady breath, held it and let it out. In a level voice she said, "I intended to warn you that she is unstable."
And now didn't he feel like a complete idiot? "Oh."
"Her experiences have damaged her. Treat her with caution or you may find her shrieking the palace down around your ears."
Fulk ran his fingers through his hair, pressing hard enough to scratch his scalp with his nails. "My dear gooseberry, is there a single member of your family who might be described as normal?"
"There is one other thing you should know." She shifted her feet uneasily. "Trempwick is amongst my retinue."
"I beg your pardon?"
"He is disguised as my confessor. I am using him to deal with my sister-"
Fulk held up his hand to stop the words. "I don't want to know." All this time he'd been alone and she'd been trotting around the country with the man she came within a gnat's breath of marrying? The man who had tried to leverage her onto the throne? "Keep him out of my way, and get rid of him when we get rid of your sister. You can explain yourself once we have shed this - this spectacle."
"I can leave Adele with him and then we can ride alone together if you wish."
Aware of how much these measured responses must be costing her, Fulk took her hand and tucked it on his arm once again. "What a mess we are, my dear little wife. I'm sorry."
Eleanor leaned her head on his shoulder. "The sooner we start moving the sooner we 'dump my sister on Hugh', as you so quaintly worded it. Then we can think of ourselves."
"Quite right." He chuckled, looking at the sulking figure sat preventing the escape of two horses. "She's not entirely without use though."
He felt a tremor run through Eleanor's body as she fought not to laugh. "I cannot believe you used my sister - a former queen! - as a groom!"
"I did warn her the favour I wanted was beneath her."
"Will you ask her to wipe the mud from your boots next?"
"You're being very remiss in your duties, oh dear gooseberry of mine. Where's the appreciation for my play on words?" For effect he deepened his voice to a heroic rumble as he intoned, "Please mind my stallion doesn't follow his lesser brain and stray after some mare."
"Yes, yes, very good for someone who has been hit about the head with blunt weapons for much of his life."
"There should be more appreciation. It works on so many levels. Stallion being slang for, well, you know. And 'please mind', isn't that part excellent? It's the bit which makes the entire thing work. "
Eleanor poked him in the ribs. "Please mind labouring a joke becomes tiresome."
"Now you're so jealous of my wit that you're making inferior copies."
"Oh no - that was a warning. 'Please mind' as in 'take note'. So do take note, lest I suspect your already simple wit far simpler than I had given credit for."
"Deep down you're impressed. I can tell. Practically swooning with admiration."
"No, that is the strong stench of unwashed knight which is making me light-headed."
"Don't worry, beloved. Healthy manly sweat has that effect on most women. Quite the passion-starter."
"I would not know for you stink like your horse, and I believe you may have trodden in something on your way out of the stables."
They were almost back to the road. Fulk stopped and pulled her around. "Then you had best give me a bath when we find lodgings."
"I might condescend to empty some buckets of cold water over you in the yard."
"Make it very cold water."
Fulk noticed the cheering only after the kiss had been going on for a while. Startled he broke away and looked up to see most of his retainers and Eleanor's watching appreciatively.
After a beat Eleanor murmured, "Well I suppose we must have been difficult to live with, you dragging your people hither and thither to avoid me, and I moping."
"One of them just threw his hat in the air," observed Fulk. "This is distinctly weird."
"Quite."
"It's rather embarrassing."
"Let's head back and shout at them until they reorganise into a single travel party?"
"Good idea. Put the fear of superior rank into them."
"Shout in a manner politely appreciative of the sentiment, I meant."
"That was a joke, dearest gooseberry."
"I know. It was so feeble it was not worth treating as such."
"I get no support."
They started walking again, this time Fulk had his arm around her waist and was luxuriating in the sensation of her body touching his. Directing his eyes heaven-ward he thought ruefully, "Thanks for the help, oh Lord - battle well and truly lost!" Now it was going to be even harder to tell her.
Put the two back together in a scene and the instantly writing regains some bounce. Shows very clearly why, way back in the beginning, my attempts to stop them having a romance failed abjectly. I never had a chance; they work too well together. :grumbles about how she just wanted to do politics and civil war:
Cunobelinus54, part of your wondering is now answered. The opening shots are fired and it's not looking like the three of them will be sitting around the fire eating cakes and telling happy stories about when they were children.
Qorten, thanks. Hopefully this time I won't have any more problems.
karolus, have you heard that Martin has finally finished Dance with Dragons? Publication is set for July. 11 years of waiting, if you discount the fact he split the book into two and published part 6 years ago. Now there's an author who makes me feel the gaps between my updates are reasonable ...
I have to wait for the DVD before I can watch the series. It looks fantastic, can't wait.
Chief Ragusa, Nell marrying the King of Spain would be a kind of full circle back to the very beginning of the original story. Thematic fun. Knowing what she does she'd off the king at the first chance. At the beginning she'd been sent by Trempy to 'marry' one of the major lords in Brittany; in reality she was there to get close and kill him before any wedding could take place. Total deniability since she arrived quietly and William didn't know; they claimed it was an impostor because any such real marriage would have been heavily advertised.