Hastings allowed herself to be painted. She said nothing when they garbed her in the gown she had worn on her wedding day. Finally, it was done.
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“You are beautiful,” Dame Agnes said, stepping back and looking at her charge up and down, rubbing her arthritic hands together. “Do you not agree, Alice?”
“Aye, the loveliest lady in the land.”
“Was the chair leg mended, Agnes?”
“I saw to it personally,” Agnes said. “Someone had worked the leg loose. It was not an accident, but now it is fixed.”
“A chair leg and Severin’s saddle,” Hastings said. “How odd this all
55
IS.
When Hastings entered the great hall, she saw that Severin was holding out her chair for Marjorie.
Hastings called out, “Good evening, my lord.”
Everyone turned to look at her. She saw Severin’s hand still on her chair back. She saw that Marjorie was just smiling toward her. She said something to Severin, then returned to her own chair, leaning over to pat Eloise’s hand.
Severin now held the chair for her, for his wife. He even pushed it
closer to the trestle table when she was seated. He even touched his fin-
•*» **>
gertips to her shoulder.
“You look well,” he said, seating himself beside her. “By Saint Andrew’s teeth, what is that red on your cheeks and mouth? Do you have the fever?”
“No, it is Alice’s attempt to make me less ordinary.”
“I do not like it. You look like a camp trollop.” He picked up the corner of the soft linen spread and pulled it toward her. “Wipe it off.”
She did.
“Now you look pale, but at least you once more look like yourself.”
“Aye. Myself.”
Marjorie leaned toward Hastings. “I was worried about you, but your women did not think you should have too many people coming into
your bedchamber. You look much better, Hastings. I was very distressed when Severin brought you home yesterday. All were.”
“Thank you, Marjorie.” She ate a bite of cherry potage. She tasted the rich red wine MacDear had poured into the thick soup.
“MacDear made the potage just for you. I asked him what your favorite dishes were, and he said this was one of them and he had not prepared it for you in a very long time. The dear man even allowed me and Eloise to remain in the kitchen to help him. He yells louder than any man I have heard in my life.”
Hastings looked beyond Marjorie to Eloise, whose head was down. She wasn’t eating, just shoving her food about on the pewter plate. “Eloise? Did you help MacDear like you did before when you lived here? ”
“I did not know you had helped MacDear before,” Marjorie said, covering Eloise’s small hand with hers.
“I did not. Hastings wanted me to but it was too hot in the kitchens. Everyone yelled. That fat man yelled. I did not remain.”
Hastings gasped. “That isn’t true, Eloise. You even sat on MacDear’s lap. Don’t you remember?”
“I remember that you made me sit on his lap. He smelled and he yelled. I hated it.”
“Then why did you go back today?”
“Because Marjorie was with me. She didn’t make me do anything I did not want to do. I ate cherries.”
“Aye, you did, sweeting. You still have a red tongue.”
Eloise stuck out her tongue at Marjorie, then laughed and pressed herself against Marjorie’s side. Marjorie said to Hastings, “My little sweeting here will give me gray hairs before I am even an old woman.”
“You will never be old,” Eloise said. “You are the most beautiful lady in all the world.”
Lady Marjorie tweaked Eloise’s nose, laughing all the while. “You are shameless, Eloise, flattering me until I will grow so large a head it will not fit through our bedchamber door.”
Eloise laughed. Hastings stared. It was the first time she had seen the
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child so gay. Trist mewled and climbed up onto Hastings’s shoulder. She winced because of the knotted muscles, then began to relax when the marten’s body heat began to seep into her.
She turned to her husband, who was staring down at his soup. “You do not care for the cherries, Severin?”