She jumped back when he moved to prove it, reaching for her waist to lift her up to his level. She put out a hand to ward him off, sparing a glance to see if they were observed in this ridiculousness. That it appeared not did not ease her exasperation.
“Jesú, there is just no dealing with you today, and I have better things to do than waste my time trying.”
“Reina?”
She had turned away, but now she swung back, ready to blast him with the full heat of her temper. She did no more than open her mouth before her reflexes had her catching what he tossed at her.
“Yours, I believe?” he asked, his expression deceptively bland. “You should not leave them lying about just anywhere, wife. ’Tis likely to give a man ideas.”
She did not understand until she looked down at what she held in her hands, and then she sucked in her breath so sharply she choked on it, adding to the hot color that suffused her face. Horrified, she stuffed her braies up her wide sleeve, gave her husband a fulminating glare worthy of his bizarre humor, and departed ere someone noticed she had shrunk in size, for she felt about two feet tall at the moment.
Chapter Twenty-five
Dusk was a dismal bank of clouds threatening rain, but Reina made it back to the keep ere the first drops fell. She had spent the remainder of the afternoon in the village, tending to the ills and hurts she had neglected this past week. It was her custom to go every few days for an hour or two, unless someone was seriously ill, which fortunately no one was at this time.
Her baker’s sister, who had yet to carry a child full term, was pregnant again and needed a new supply of hollyhock. Old Delwyn needed gout weed for his swollen joints. Red Alma, the village light-skirt, had got her foot stepped on by her cow while milking it, and the small cut had become a large sore from infection. Reina left her enough horsetail for several applications, and also the beauty ointments made from cowslip Alma always managed to wheedle out of her, which kept down her freckles. There were the usual colds, sore throats, and fevers to see to, and a dog bite needing madweed, some running cankers and ringworm needing tetter berry. And while she was at it, she made up a mixture of sweet violet for herself, for its calming effect.
She stayed much longer than she was needed. Even after her neglect, she was too efficient for it to take more than two hours to see to everyone. She stayed longer to visit, to answer the many questions about the new lord—and to hide. Without wrapping it up neatly with excuses, she was suffering plain old cowardice, enough to desert her guests for the remainder of the day without the slightest twinge of conscience.
But who could blame her? Dinner had been late because she had been reluctant to come back to the hall earlier. And when she did, she had felt her face coloring every time she sensed Ranulf looking at her, knowing, justknowinghe was silently laughing at her. She did not think she would ever get over the mortification of not having been aware that a very pertinent article of her clothing had been missing. But he had known, that devil, that miscreant of misplaced humor.
She had escaped as soon as was possible, and was reluctant to return even now. She could only hope that her husband would be gone, that Simon had done as she suggested and convinced Ranulf to leave with him.
She saw Aylmer watching her as she dismounted at the base of the forebuilding stairs and tossed the reins to a waiting groom. That he did not rush forward to greet her as was his custom made her realize she had not seen the boy recently, in fact, goodness, not since the day de Rochefort’s men had attacked. True, he did not normally come into the hall, and she had delegated many of her regular duties, in which she was likely to come across him, to other of her ladies to allow her more time with her guests. Even if he had come to the hall to try to gain her notice, ’twas not likely she would have seen him as crowded as it had been.
He was sitting on the side of a storage shed with his back braced against the wall. Once he saw he had her notice, however, he looked away. She knew then that something was definitely wrong, and rather than call him to her, she crossed the ward to him, in no great hurry to enter the keep even with the first drops of rain begun. Only when she reached him did she notice that he had company. Lady Ella was curled up in his lap.
She did not mention the cat, asking the boy, “Have you been avoiding me, Aylmer?”
He did not look up at her to reply. “You have been busy, my lady.”
“So I have.”
Reina squatted down next to him. The short eaves of the shed did naught to keep the rain away, and so she ignored it as the boy was doing, though why the cat was not running for cover she did not know. The thing was as stupid as it was ugly.
She said speculatively, “Did you think things would be different now I have married?”
“Are they not?”
He still would not look at her, and was not much able to conceal his gloomy expression. She was not sure what was bothering him, but she had an idea.
“Everything should be back to normal soon now,” she assured him. “The only difference is that Clydon has a lord again, and more men to protect us. Do you not think that is to our benefit?”
“We did well enough—”
“Nay, we did not, Aylmer, and you know it. Now tell me why you are out here doing naught when you should be at your job assisting the wafer maker this time of day.”
“He came in the kitchen,” Aylmer said in explanation, his voice a mere whisper.
“He? Oh,him. So?”
“So I ran off, and now Aldrich will whip me for it, especially since he still has extra wafers to make for those guests remaining.”
“Do you let me see to Aldrich,” she replied, thinking to herself that if she found out he had been whipping the boy, she would have his ears served up for the morrow’s dinner instead of his wafers. “But you knew you were wrong, Aylmer, to run—” She could not finish in that vein, not after she had just done the same thing. “Never mind. Sometimes there is good reason to disappear for a time. Why did you?”
“Why?” He finally looked at her in surprise, as if the answer should be obvious to her. “I—I did not want the lord to notice me. I was afraid did he see my foot, he would send me away from the keep.”
Reina groaned inwardly. She wanted to put her arms around the boy and assure him that would never happen, but how could she? He was right. Some men did react despicably toward cripples, as if they saw them as a threat to their own immortality, and she did not know Ranulf well enough to speak for him.
