Not only was Glenda gone by midday, but Sir Roger was also, the pouch of coins gone as well.
“Shall I find them, my lord?” Gwent asked, and rubbed his gnarled
hands together.
“Aye, Gwent, find them, take the pouch, then let them go. I fear Sir
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Roger will not be long pleased with his actions. I rather believe he deserves what will happen to him. I think it more a punishment than simply killing the fool.”
“It is an idea that had not occurred to me, my lord,” G went said. “There is the feel of a never-ending pain for Sir Roger in it. Aye, it’s good.” He strode from the great hall.
Severin turned to see Hastings walking slowly, her head down, toward him. She frowned as she kicked dirty rushes out of her path. And he saw her clearly thinking that she had forgotten the rushes. Then, when she saw him, she stopped and turned red in the face.
He raised a thick black eyebrow at her. “What have you done, Hastings? Worry not about the rushes, you will change them quickly enough. It matters not.”
She stared at him and suddenly she was again as clear to him as Edgar the wolfhound. He laughed. It was too much, she ran at him, pounding her fists against his chest, which gave him no pause at all. He continued to laugh until he realized that his men were looking at him, utterly bewildered. He brought her fists down in his large hands and held them at her sides. “What is wrong, sweeting? Has someone offended you? Why did your face turn red when you saw me?” Then he said, very close to her ear, “Ah. I plan to take you in a very different way tonight. I want you to ttlfnlfabout it, Hastings. All the ways a man and a woman can come together. We will do all of them and I vow you will like them, each and every one.”
She whispered against his chest, “But my bottom was in the air.”
“Aye, I just wish there had been some more light. All I could do was feel you. A lot of soft, extraordinary flesh, Hastings. Your bottom pleases me. I told you that it did, do you not remember?”
She groaned, then pulled back in the circle of his arms. “You will mock me until I will want to kill you, Severin. Now, I heard what Gwent said. I think you are wise. As for what you did to Glenda, I trust you did not enjoy it as you stripped her.”
“Not at all,” he said. “I have scarce ever been so angry before in my
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life, except those times with you, of course,” and she knew it was true because he was looking toward Thurston, thoroughly distracted. “Go, my lord. I have much to do before our meal.”
It was one week later that Lady Moraine, not quite so pale and thin now, said in a clear, crisp voice, “I know who Thurston must marry.”
Knives and spoons clattered to plates. There was utter silence in the great hall. Severin wasn’t yet used to his mother being with him in her mind, but she had been, with no relapses since Hastings had begun giving her the Healer’s potion. She drank a bit of it every morning.
“Who is it, Mother?”
“He must have sons, thus I cannot wed him, but I know of a proper girl, daughter of Sir William Dorset. He has a small keep near Hawksmere. She should be of marriageable age now. What say you, Thurston? ”
Thurston was trembling. He was now Sir Thurston of Hornsby, his father’s small keep near Kentleby. He was going to be Lord Severin’s castellan at Langthorne and now he was going to have a wife. A wife. He wasn’t ready for this. He said, “I-I do not know, my lady. A wife would be a lady and she would expect me to know how to act and speak and I could not belch or make other noises that would offend and-” His eyes rolled back in his head.