Coulter, Catherine. Rosehaven / Catherine Coulter.

“Of course not. There was no need. Everyone was glad to see me after they realized I wasn’t going to butcher all of them. Besides, I don’t frighten women and children.”

“Ha. Nay, don’t yell at me, you’ll just scare her more.” Hastings got off the bench and went down on her hands and knees. The child had wrapped herself in a tight ball, pressed against the far leg of the table.

“It’s all right, Eloise. Come, Severin is very big but he is also very nice. He won’t hurt you.”

The child seemed to tuck herself into an even smaller ball.

Hastings looked up over her shoulder to see Severin, standing there, looking baffled and impatient. Then Trist slithered out of his tunic and jumped onto the table. He smelled the buns, then backed away. He doesn’t like sweet buns like that,” Severin said.

“Eloise, would you like to meet Trist? He isn’t a man, he’s a marten.”

The child lifted her head. “What is a marten?” He is an animal, long and furry and very soft. He likes to eat eggs that are boiled just enough so that the insides are clingy.”

6 7

Slowly, the child inched out from under the trestle table. Severin had sat himself down so as not to frighten her. He was eating an almond bun. Trist was sprawled out next to his hand, his head on his front paws.

“That is Trist. He belongs to Severin. Isn’t he beautiful?”

The child stared at the marten. As if he knew he was being watched, Trist cocked an eye open and looked at the child.

“Does he eat almond buns?”

“Nay, he does not,” Severin said, as he reached for another one. “But he would like to see you eat one. He just said that you didn’t eat your breakfast.”

The little girl blinked and took a step back, bumping into Hastings’s knees. Hastings lightly laid her hand on the little girl’s shoulder. “Eloise, this is Lord Severin. He is my husband and the master of Oxborough. He will protect you. You are not to be afraid of him.”

“My father hit me.”

“Severin isn’t your father. He will see that no one will ever hit you again, I swear it to you. Severin will swear it as well as soon as h’e has swallowed the last of his bun.”

“I swear it, Eloise. You will remain here at Oxborough until King Edward decides where you will live. My lady will look after you.”

“She is very young,” Eloise said, staring hard at Trist. “Beale said she was too young to know anything at all about children.” Trist stretched out his full length, which was nearly a foot and a half. Then he stretched out his paws. He looked at the little girl. She said in a whisper, “Beale won’t like it. She won’t like any of it.”

“Beale has no say in it,” Hastings said. “I was a little girl like you not at all long ago. I’ll wager that Beale can’t even remember when she was a little girl.”

“Is she that sour-faced old woman dressed in black with the black hair on her lip?” Severin asked.

“Aye,” Hastings said shortly. “Here, Eloise, try a bit of the bun.”

But the child backed away. Even Trist at his most charming didn’t

fi 8

her now. Hastings could feel her retreating even though she was standing very still now.

“I cannot. Beale is right. Mama will look down from Heaven and

curse me.”

So be it, Hastings thought. She said matter-of-factly, “Then what would you like to eat? Surely your mama would not want you to starve.”

“Bread and water. That’s what Beale said I should eat.”

“Why?”

The child hung her head. She twisted her foot about in the rushes. “Because I am not good.”

Hastings looked at Severin. He was staring hard at the little girl. She saw he would speak and shook her head. She smiled at Eloise. “Very well, I shall have Alice fetch you some bread. But the milk is better than water, particularly Gilbert the goat’s milk. After you drink the milk you will feel very virtuous. I remember Father Carreg told me that.”