“You cannot do that, lady! Your lord said I would see to her as I always have. He will see that you do not go against me. All know that he had to marry you, that he had no choice in the matter. He will protect me.”
Would Severin turn Eloise back to this wretched woman? If he even considered it, she would simply have to talk him out of it. “You will leave tomorrow morning, Beale. Your very presence offends me. You will have no more sway over Eloise. God doesn’t wish for children to be tortured.”
“God allowed my sweet lady to die in agony. God allowed her swine of a husband to murder her.”
“That is quite enough.” Hastings turned to Eloise. “Listen to me, here Js Dame Agnes. I wish you to go with her. She will show you my flowers and my herb garden. You can meet Gilbert the goat. You can help eed the chickens. She will show you the armory and you will meet Giles, will make you a bow and arrows. I will teach you to shoot.”
Dame Agnes didn’t wait. She strode like a conquering warrior into
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Hastings’s chamber, took Eloise’s hand, and led her out. The child was clearly uncertain. She looked up at Beale. The woman said, “If you do any of these godless things, you will burn in hell, Eloise. Your mama -will see to it. God will show you no mercy, for He will listen to your mama. God will listen to me. God always listens to me.”
Hastings waited until she heard Dame Agnes’ and Eloise’s footfalls on the solar stairs. She then walked to the woman and slapped her hard making her head snap to the side. She grabbed her skinny neck between her hands. “Listen to me, Beale. You are the wicked one here. You will never speak to Eloise again. Go now to your chamber and ready your clothes. You will leave early on the morrow.”
“Your lord will not allow this,” Beale said, Hastings’s handprint stark on her cheek. She was panting, not from the blow, Hastings was certain, but from rage. “You will pay dearly for this, lady. All men are the same. When he hears ill of you, he will believe it, and he will strike you down. I could see it in his face. Even though he is young, he is debauched and hard. He will grow harder and more brutal as he gains years. You will learn that you have no power. You will learn that you cannot treat me as you have. You are young and foolish. You will die young and foolish.”
“I suppose you will see that I die?”
Tîô13 gives us tools to help ourselves. I will see that you pay.”
Hastings wanted to strike her again but she didn’t. Beale was the first person she’d ever hit in her life. No, she remembered poking Tim the blacksmith’s son in the arm when she’d been all of ten years old and grown so quickly. He’d called her a maypole.
“Get away from me, Beale, before I vomit. Stay out of my sight until you leave in the morning. Aye, I will watch you leave to make certain it is done.”
After Beale had finally left the bedchamber, her venom still hanging in the still air, Hastings replaced the bramble blossoms in their marked drawer. She ground hyssop and savory. She worked slowly, careful not to spill any of the precious herbs. She began humming. Time seemed to
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1 w and the very air around her seemed to become softer and warmer.
She calmed.
She worked until the door opened and Severin looked in. He looked healthy, strong, his face and arms darkened by the bright sun. He was dressed all in gray, as was his habit. For the first time she saw him as a man a young man in his prime, his body as solid as the keep walls. He was not at all displeasing to look at. She remembered that first time she saw him, the utter fear she’d felt when he’d stood in that bright shaft of light large and mysterious, hidden, really, perhaps not really a man, but the Devil’s messenger.