“It is I who am grateful,” she insisted. “For what he did nearly twenty winters ago, I will always be grateful to that man. And he expected nothing of me. And now that we are both happy, I will feel more at peace. Whenever Lord Halsted leaves his estate and comes to the keep, I hear about it. For as I said, I know many people in this town. And I always grit my teeth because I knowshehas returned to Pikestully. But now, I will laugh with joy.” She grinned.
My forced smile widened. From across the square, I saw Quinn exiting the apothecary.
“My friend, concerned that you are a stranger, approaches,” I indicated to Isabeau.
“Ah, a good friend then,” Isabeau said, standing. She placed a hand on my arm. “Thank you for listening, Edie. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
I must have nodded or done something to imply I felt the same.
She beamed at me and said, “I would tell you to give him my regards, but we know he is a reserved man…” And she leaned in and whispered, “Until he is swiving into you.”
54. Dreaming
“Who was that?” said Quinn, when she arrived having just missed a departing Isabeau.
“A former lover of my husband’s who warned me of the Lady Vinia.”
Quinn took Isabeau’s place on the fountain’s edge. “The noblewoman who always stares at you in the baths. River pointed her out to me.”
I nodded. “We must tell the others to never speak to her. The woman I was just speaking with told me her livelihood was almost destroyed due to Vinia’s possessiveness.”
“Dear gods,” Quinn said.
“If she cannot get to me, I worry she will try to get to one of you.”
“We will go about her carefully, Edie.”
“Yes. We will. But first, I have decided to be extravagant and spend what coin I have on lavender oil. Will you accompany me back inside?”
Quinn’s face fell. “I am sorry you are all siphoning your own wages for River. I confess I take it enthusiastically. But please know that we are eternally grateful—”
I held up a hand. “We are all as sisters now. I will not hear another word.”
I was desperate to be alone. My mind was awhirl with Isabeau’s story. I needed to parse it out and examine how I now saw my husband, how much to fear Vinia and what any of it meant to me. But we had to visit the brewery and I had promised to walk with Helena to the dyer’s on the way home. She was hoping to buy ground verdigris. I wanted to speak with her about it, but I still needed to think on it in my own head first. I let her speak more about the mural, about the blues and greens Prince Peregrine had said he would happily fund, still acting in his role of making sure his brother’s whims were executed in as fair a manner as he could. I focused on her contentment in painting, noting it to convey to Mischa later.
After the dinner meal, in the corridor, Luka tentatively approached Maureen and spoke shyly to her. She became excited and nodded at what he said. He left her and she turned to us and said, “He found kittens in the stables! But there is no mother cat to be found. He is going to bring them to the dormitory. There are five of them.”
This was the diversion I required. Luka delivered the mewling creatures in a crate of hay. He had secured a half jug of milk from the kitchens. We spent an hour playing with the kittens and feeding them from cloth dipped into the milk.
I then made my way to our room, in need of solitude. I uncorked my new vial of lavender and rubbed it over my hands and neck. I poured a tin cup of water and added a small drop of lightleaf. I sat at the desk and looked through the narrow window above it as Pikestully began to be blanketed by the night.
There was a knock at the door and my heart skipped a beat. “Come in,” I said, surprised at my steadiness.
My husband came inside, nodding in my direction and hung his breastplate, sword and shield on the wall and turned back to me. “Did you have a good day in the city?”
I looked up at him and inwardly laughed at myself. Did I expect that he would look different? He was still taciturn, still stiff of posture. “I did.”
He nodded, placing his hands on his hips, his default standing.
I looked at him a second time, saying, “You trained on the day of rest?”
“I have been lax in my own practice. Because of the trials.”
I shook my head. “And you will wake before dawn tomorrow and fight a boy of nineteen with your bare hands. You cannot go on like this. You run yourself ragged.”
He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Your concern is very… wifely.”
I snorted. “My concern is very logical. And I know you do not sleep well.”
