She actually smiled up at him. “And what will you do, Severin?”
“I? Whenever your woman’s perversity keeps you from me, I will take Alice to relieve my lust. She is comely and enjoys men. I have remarked several comely women here in the keep. They will see to me.”
Without thought, with all her strength, Hastings threw the threelegged stool at him. It struck his belly, hard. He winced. She saw it and it pleased her until he was striding toward her and then she ducked around him. But she wasn’t fast enough. He grabbed her arm and jerked her back to him. He grabbed her other arm and shook her hard. He lifted her off her feet and brought her nose to nose. “You dare?” His breath was of the sweet ale MacDear made for the men.
She prayed that Trist would poke his head out of Severin’s tunic. That was why she’d thrown the stool low. She’d been afraid she would hit the marten.
Tftsfwasn’t with his master.
He shook her again.
“You struck me. You struck your husband, your master. You threw that stool at me. I would kill a man for a lesser assault.”
Even though she was afraid, she heard the outrage in his voice. He simply could not believe wnat she had done. He shook her again.
“You will not shame me,” she said, knowing well that he could kill her with but a single blow from his fist. In the next instant it would matter, but in this instant it didn’t. “I am your wife, that is true, thus you will not take any of my servants to your bed. That is your responsibility to me. Just ask Father Carreg.”
“You think I cannot do precisely as I wish? You believe I am some-
8 0
, bound to you and only you? That is lunacy. If you do not become
nerly submissive, then after you bear me my son and heir, I will have
u confined as a madwoman should be.” He released her and pushed her
back He streaked his large hand through his dark hair. He cursed. “I did
not come here to argue with you, yet within a very few moments, you
throw a stool at me and I am shaking you as I would the branch of an apple
tree Perhaps I will let the Beale woman remain at Oxborough. Perhaps
I will let her guard you. What say you to that?”
Hastings was rubbing her arms. They were bruised from the previous night. They ached. She looked at him, seeing the anger in him, but more than that, she saw confusion writ on his face. “What do I say to that,” she repeated slowly. “If you do what you threaten, then I will mix allium with felwort. I believe that the two together, slipped into your wine, will make your bowels so watery you will have to sleep in the bailey.”
He turned on his heel and left her, slamming the door behind him.
Actually, she had no idea what to mix with what to make a man’s bowels watery. She knew how to stop it though-ground borage mixed with rose petals, violets, and anchusa.
She wondered as she returned to her herbs how Severin would look in a tunic that wasn’t gray. Perhaps a light blue. She would gather some purple stock. Aye, it made a wonderful pale blue dye.
MacDear cooked an egg and pork stew for Trist that evening. Hastings saw many of her people looking at that stew, wanting it at least as much as they wanted the chunks of beef that floated in a rich brown gravy. There were peas fresh from the Oxborough garden, onions that were fat and sweet, and a brace of partridges for the lord.
Eloise sat beside Hastings, looking at the food but making no move toward it. Hastings served small portions of everything on the brightly shmed pewter plate. She smiled at the child. “I have prayed, Eloise, with
Father Carreg. He told me that Goa wants to see His children well fed and thus you must eat to please God.”
As a lie it would serve, but not for all that long. Hastings had already spoken to Father Carreg, a man who surely loved God and loved a wellbaked pheasant as well. It would take time. She looked down to a trestle table where Beale sat, her head bentSuddenly, the woman raised her head and stared at Hastings. Hastings drew oack, her back pressed against her chair. The look of pure malice made her tighten all over.