She looked perplexed until she smiled, a dimple appearing in her cheek. “I’ve tried to be wicked only with you.”
He laughed, took her hand, and followed the silent brother, who led them to his own cell. Severin left her to change. “I will change with the other men. Dress warmly, Hastings.”
The cell was dry and warm and smelled of sweet rosemary. When •she returned to the main dining area, where there were six trestle tables set close together, she inhaled the odor of warm ale, fresh baked bread, and roasted chicken.
“This is not the normal fare for travelers,” Severin said to her. “I have paid dearly for this meal. It had better taste as good as it smells. I told the abb*ot*tnat the food had to find favor with my wife else I would be displeased. I then touched my fingers to my knife. I enjoyed watching him pale.” He touched his palm to her cheek, then to her forehead. “You are warm to the touch. You feel all right?”
“Oh aye,” she said, and touched him back. “And you, my lord?’
“I believe,” he said slowly, looking down at her, “that if you continue as you are, all the brothers will gnaw their knuckles in the throes of lust. I promised the abbot that he was to think of you as just another man, a castrato, perhaps.”
She giggled and raised her voice to a high, squeaky wail, “Very well, then, I can even sing for my dinner. I will not kiss you, but I want to, Severin. Your mouth pleases me.”
“Stop it, Hastings. Ah, our meal is ready.”
Hastings said after she bit into a chicken wing, “Don’t stick your dagger through the abbot’s neck, ’tis well enough prepared.”
After dinner, Hastings checked all of the men. Tabar, one of the
Oxborough men-at-arms, was overly warm, his chest heavy. Hastings
. d him a potion of warm milk and gentian and watched him drink it
down “Now, chew these columbine leaves if your throat becomes sore.
Keep yourself warm, Tabar. Sleep close to the other men. Their body
warmth will help.”
One of the brothers, a small, wiry man with great purity of expression, came to her after she gave Tabar the herbs. His look was furtive. “I have a toothache, my lady. The tooth looks healthy, but it must be rotting from the inside. Have you perhaps anything that would help me?”
“Aye, Father. Mix these ground delphinium seeds into a mug of wine or ale. It will relieve you. But the tooth must be pulled, Father. If it pains you, it cannot be long until it will cause you such agony that you must pull it.”
“Aye, I know it, but I am a coward. I would wait until the pain drives me into delirium. Then one of the other brothers could draw it for me.”
Suddenly, the abbot was there. “You come to this woman? You speak to her? You take the Devil’s evil potions from her?” He knocked the packet of delphinium seeds to the floor.
The brother looked ready to cry out his misery. He stared down at the scattered delphinium seeds beside his sandaled feet. “Father Michael,” he whispered, “it is just a small thing for the pain in my tooth. The lady does nothing evil.”
What she gave you would produce evil visions in your sleep, rother. You would dream of the flesh of women and this dream would corrupt you.”
Hastings didn’t say anything, but it was difficult. She wanted to kick
1 e abbot. She wished he had the toothache. She wondered if he would
suffer silently or chance of dreaming of her.
” p » ^ome, Severin said quietly, walking to her. “You can do nothing
for the brother. No, don’t argue. The brother is a member of this order He must follow the rules.”
He took her hand when she lagged, looking back at the poor brother who was holding his palm to his cheek. He pulled and she had to skip to keep up with his long strides.
“I do not wish to fluster the poor brothers. We will lie together as would a brother and his sister.” No sooner had they settled themselves in blankets on the narrow cot in the brother’s cell than there came a yell from the great hall.