After an hour’s training, Alyx ran back to the tent to fetch some of Rosamund’s herb drink for Raine, and there she found Blanche sorting through his clothes.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Alyx demanded, making Blanche jump guiltily.
“For... for laundry,” she said, her eyes darting.
Alyx laughed at that. “Since when do you know what soap is?” With a quick movement she grabbed Blanche’s arms. “You’d better tell me the truth. You know what the punishment for stealing is—banishment.”
“I should leave here,” Blanche whined, trying to twist away from Alyx. “There’s nothing here for me anymore. Let me go!”
As Blanche pulled Alyx pushed, and Blanche went sailing across the room, her back hitting a tent pole.
“I’ll repay you for this,” Blanche sneered. “I’ll make you sorry you ever took Lord Raine away from me.
“I?” Alyx asked, trying to keep the pleasure from her voice. “And how have I taken Raine?”
“You know he doesn’t take me to his bed anymore,” she said, rising. “Now that he has a boy—”
“Careful,” Alyx warned. “It seems to me that you should worry about my anger toward you. What were you searching for when I came in?”
Blanche refused to speak.
“Then I guess I’ll have to talk to Raine,” Alyx said, turning to leave.
“No!” Blanche said, tears in her voice. “I have nowhere else to go. Please don’t tell him. I’ll not steal. I never have before.”
“I have a price for not telling Raine.”
“What?” Blanche asked, frightened.
“Tell me about Jocelin.”
“Jocelin?” Blanche asked, as if she’d never heard the name before.
Alyx only glared at her. “I will be missed soon, and if I don’t have the story by the time someone comes for me, Raine will hear of your stealing.”
Immediately, Blanche began the tale. “Jocelin was a jongleur and all the highest-born ladies wanted him, not only for his music but for his...” She hesitated. “The man never grew tired,” she said wistfully, making Alyx believe she had firsthand knowledge.
“He went to the Chatworth castle at the command of Lady Alice.”
The name Chatworth made Alyx’s head come up. Chatworth was the man who held Raine’s sister and sister-in-law.
“Lady Alice is an evil woman,” Blanche continued, “but her husband, Lord Edmund, was worse. He liked to beat women, watch their struggles as he took them. There was a woman, Constance, and he beat her until she died—or at least he thought she was dead. He gave the body to Joss to dispose of.”
“And?” Alyx encouraged. “I haven’t much time left.”
“The woman was not dead and Joss hid her, nursed her back to health and he fell in love with her.”
“Was this unusual for a man of Joss’s... talents?”
Blanche suddenly began to look very nervous, her hands pulling on each other, standing on first one foot, then the other. “I don’t believe he’d ever loved anyone before. When Lord Edmund found out the girl was still alive, he took her for his own again and threw Jocelin in anoubliette. And the girl... this Constance...”
“Yes?” Alyx said impatiently.
“She thought Joss was as good as dead and so she killed herself.”
At that, Alyx crossed herself at such a sin. “But Joss did get out, and he came here,” she finished.
“But first he killed Lord Edmund,” Blanche said quietly, and with that she pushed past Alyx and ran from the tent.
