“You are all right, my lord?”
He couldn’t yet speak. He merely nodded.
Trist jumped from her shoulder to Severin’s. He eased himself down into Severin’s tunic.
It was dark, the only light coming from the fire, when one of the men handed Hastings a piece of roasted rabbit. Hastings thanked him and offered it to Severin.
**. ft
“Nay,” he said. “You carry my babe. Feed him.”
“I will feed the father first. Open your mouth.”
After she’d fed him his fill, she simply looked at the man Ibac and then at the flaming pieces of rabbit still roasting over the fire.
She fed Trist, who looked distinctly unhappy, then ate two pieces, each burned black, each tasting delicious. “I’m sorry, Trist. I know you do not care for rabbit, but it is not such a bad taste, is it?”
The marten was cleaning his face. He merely looked at her a moment and went back to his bath. Hastings couldn’t help it. She laughed. “He is insulted,” she said to Severin. “Insulted.”
Severin laughed as well. He didn’t know there could possibly be any laughter anywhere in his body, but there was. De Luci looked over at
them, frowning. He opened his mouth, then closed it. He resumed eating and speaking to several of his men, one of them Ibac.
Hastings told Severin what the man had said to her. He didn’t seem to hear her, just stared at her a moment, then said in a low, utterly enraged voice, “How dare you, Hastings. By Saint Peter’s staff, you could have killed yourself, he could have struck you-”
“I didn’t think,” she said, splaying her hands in front of her. “He is mad, at least he is uncontrolled, and surely that must play to our advantage.”
He looked at her oddly, wishing he could touch her, wishing he could pull her against him and press her face against his heart. He swallowed, looking away. De Luci could not allow him to live. He must think of something, and yet here was Hastings, speaking of their advantage. “You are right,” he said quietly. “We must determine how to exploit this weakness of his.”
“I will control myself,” she said with such utter conviction that once again Severin laughed.
De Luci yelled, “Get her away from the whoreson. Bring her to me.”
Hastings slowly rose when one of the men came to her. “It is all right, Severin. I will control myself and I will learn what he is planning.”
But she didn’t learn a thing. He gave her a cup of ale and she was thirsty. She didn’t think, just drank from the cup. In moments, she sagged to the ground.
She didn’t know that Severin, drinking from the same cup before her, was also unconscious, Trist patting his face, staying close to warm him.
Hastings awoke to see Eloise staring down at her, her thin face as blank as a death mask, her eyes opaque and dull.
“You didn’t die.”
“No, I did not. We are at Sedgewick, Eloise?”
“Aye, my father brought you and Lord Severin here. My father was
worried when you did not wake up. Lord Severin yelled and screamed, but it did no good. My father merely cuffed him with his sword. But now you are awake. I will call Marjorie.”
“Eloise?”
The child turned slowly, as if she didn’t want to.
“Your father is planning to kill Lord Severin and-”
“Ah, Hastings, you are awake and already trying to talk someone over to your side. Eloise, my sweeting, fetch a cup of milk from the kitchen. It will clean out Hastings’s insides. Your father doesn’t want her to die just yet.”
“Marjorie, how pleasant to see you.”
“Be quiet, Hastings.” Marjorie said nothing more until Eloise was
gone from the small bedchamber. “Listen to me. I did not realize what
Richard planned. I merely wanted you gone so that I could have Severin.
^ But Richard wants Oxborough and the only way he can gain all that
wealth is to wed you.”
Hastings marveled at her. “That makes no sense, Marjorie. You & knew that de Luci wanted Oxborough. The only way he could have it