Severin didn’t have time to answer. In the next instant, Hastings was on the girl. She grabbed a handful of hair, pulled her head back, and put her face right into Glenda’s. “Don’t you ever speak to my husband like that again, do you hear me, girl? You believe me some dumb cow who Wl1′ just stand about and be insulted by you? Aye, I am an heiress, but I
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am not at all ordinary. My lord will attest to that. You don’t know that I am a healer, do you? That means I can also take my revenge upon someone who angers me. I can make your monthly flux never stop. You would bleed and bleed until you were white and drained. You want that Glenda?”
That was a threat Severin would never have considered. Glenda’s face was already leached of color. She looked terrified.
“Aye, my girl. Never forget that I am a shrew with a loud voice and you will be the first to hear it if you displease me again.” She shoved Glenda away from her. “Go fetch the remainder of the gowns. Get them all or I will see to it that your bleeding begins today.”
Severin watched the girl scurry toward the stairs like the Devil himself was after her. He turned to his wife, who was looking very strange. He expected her to be pleased with herself, but she didn’t appear to be. She was pale, not as pale as Glenda, but still without color. Her eyes had darkened from that pure, soft green to nearly black. He took a step toward her. “What is wrong, Hastings?”
She waved her hands at him. She didn’t want his questions. She just wanted to go bury herself. “It is nothing.”
He drew her up against him. She felt his large hands stroking down her back. “Come, tell me the truth, or I will not be pleased with you.”
STfë ffirew back her head. Her face was still pale, her expression pained. “I made a vow to the Healer. I was never to make a threat that I would mean.”
He stared down at her, feeling like a fool. He said very slowly, “And this is the first time you have done it. That means that you would not have given me watery bowels?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how to. Nay, I wouldn’t have done that to you, even had I known what herbs to mix together.”
He cursed. “I don’t even remember now why you made that threat, but you deserved what I wanted to do to you. But then I thought of my bowels and hunkering down next to the pig byre. I let you be. Saint Elrod’s knees, why can I not remember why I wanted to strangle you.
“Mayhap it is no longer important.”
Tje frowned down at her, those dark blue eyes of his looking directly hers She believed he would no longer chastise her? Did she not understand that she had bent so completely to him, he had not even thought bout it that there had been no need? Very simply she had not displeased h’m since she’d run into his arms upon his return from visiting his new
properties.
Suddenly, she whispered, “I shall have to confess to the Healer when We return to Oxborough. She will probably make my bowels watery as a punishment.”
That made him laugh, but he sobered quickly enough. “Then you really meant what you said to Glenda?”
She lowered her head and nodded. “Not now, but I meant it when I threatened her. She is a sly girl. Sir Roger is besotted with her.”
“He’s a fool.”
“Aye. I only hope that he has not betrayed you because of Glenda.”
Severin just shook his head, touched his fingers beneath her chin, and forced her face up. “This was some sort of vow you took to have the Healer teach you?”
She nodded, leaning her cheek against his palm. “The Healer has told me since I was just a little girl that I could not harm another person with my knowledge of herbs. She said that if I did, then all my potions would lose their efficacy.”