“That is what you like about them,” charged one of the maids and they laughed again.
“What Tulley demands is what occurs in this keep,” agreed the cook.“The lady would be wise to cede rather than fight his command.”He gave Berthe a look.“You might want to encourage her in that.”
“But surely Lord de Tulley will not demand that my lady wed a stranger?”
“Her legal husband will not be a stranger,” Rose said.“For long.”
There was laughter at this.
“I thought you meant he was summoned to wed Lady Heloise,” Berthe protested and Rose smiled.
“There is not a man alive good enough for that one, at least to Lord de Tulley’s thinking.”Rose shook her head.“Indeed, I feel sorry for any man who grants her a glance, let alone the one she weds.”
“It is the raids on Annossy’s borders that concern Tulley, no more and no less,” the cook informed her.“Your lady will see that it is best for there to be a man in charge at Annossy.”
Berthe was not certain Lady Melissande would agree.She did not share the detail that there had been another such raid the night before.
Did Quinn and his party know something of that?
Indeed, this was her opportunity to learn more for her lady.“Who is this Quinn?”she asked.“From whence did he come?”
“He is Quinn de Sayerne, of course, and is returned from the Holy Land at Tulley’s summons to claim his father’s holding,” Rose supplied.
Berthe was surprised and not entirely pleased.“Jerome had a son?”
“Aye, but Tulley took Quinn under his own care some twenty years ago and sent him away.”
There had never been a lady at Sayerne in Berthe’s memory.
“Lord de Tulley sponsored Quinn to train for his spurs, then encouraged him to join the crusade,” Rose continued.“He saw him trained to be his minion and awaited only the death of Jerome.”
Those in the kitchen crossed themselves.
“It is always Tulley’s scheme to plan for the future,” the cook agreed.
“But this Quinn and his fellows could not have come from the Holy Land so quickly as that,” Berthe said.
“It was a year at Christmas that Tulley sent a messenger to find Quinn, and word came last summer that he had been found,” Rose informed her.“Quinn did not sail for home, though, but rode over land.It is farther and takes longer, but knights will cater to their steeds when possible.”
“I have never known a horse to like a ship, to be sure.”
“That will be his companion, Bayard de Neuville, who arrived with him, along with their squires,” Rose said.
“Then they are knights?”Berthe asked.She had been uncertain, based on Quinn’s appearance, but found this detail reassuring.
“Aye, Bayard and Quinn are,” Rose confirmed.
“But here is the greater question,” said one of the maids.“Is it true that Quinn’s eyes are golden?Are they the hue of honey or of amber?”
“Which of us shall discover the truth?”The women began to chatter and laugh again, and Berthe kept her head bent over her mending.
A young man burst into the kitchens.“We have need of hot water aplenty,” he said.“The newly arrived party have brushed down their horses and desire to bathe.”
“The fire is stirred up and the cauldron is simmering,” the cook said.“We started to heat the water as soon as we heard they would be arriving.”
“You knew before they arrived at the gates?”Berthe asked.
The cook laughed.“Tulley has spies in every corner.He knew when they halted at Beauvoir Pass, and when they stayed in a tavern two nights ago.He sent a party after them to Sayerne yesterday with provisions.He likely knows more than that.”
