He spoke without meeting her eyes, and she did not like it.
“I made a purchase from an old woman who makes herbal remedies.” Even under torture, she would not admit she had gone seeking a potion to make Jamie repulsive to her.
She waited for him to ask what her visit to a herbalist had to do with Eleanor, but Jamie’s lips were shut tight.
“The old woman told me,” she said, drawing the words out, “that Eleanor used love potions on Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.”
“Women waste their money on such ‘magic’ all the time,” Jamie said. “The City and the church officials turn a blind eye to it so long as there is no allegation of sorcery.”
“That is the thing.” Linnet turned so that her legs hung over the side of the bed and began to swing them. “The old herbalist says Eleanor obtains her potions from Margery Jourdemayne, a woman who works in the dark arts. This Margery is known as the Witch of Eye.”
Linnet wondered where the old herbalist was. When she went to her shop today, the door had been locked tight. Her neighbors said they had not seen the old woman in weeks.
“Tell me your curiosity did not move you to seek out this Witch of Eye,” Jamie said, sitting up. “It would be just like you.”
Linnet glanced sideways at Jamie. Despite his disparaging tone, his expression was uneasy.
“You know something about this,” she said, turning to tap her finger against his chest. “And about Eleanor Cobham.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the door, as if contemplating escape.
“What is it?” she said.
“You will laugh and think me a fool.”
Jamie looked like a boy caught eating cakes before supper.
“Perhaps I will,” she said, “but tell me all the same.” He fidgeted some more, blew out a breath, and glanced at the door yet again before he finally spoke. “When I was in London two or three years ago, I went to bed with Eleanor.”
His words stung like vinegar on a fresh cut. Jamie, however, showed no sign he noticed how his words made her wince.
“I had no intention of going with her, at first.” Jamie shrugged. “When she made it plain she was inviting me to her bed—the woman was not subtle—I tried to find a way to politely refuse her.”
“But you changed your mind,” Linnet said, doing her best to keep the razor-sharp anger she felt out of her voice.
“ ’Twas strange,” Jamie said, looking at his hands. “After having no thought except how to make my escape, quite suddenly, I wanted her. In fact, I wanted her so badly that… well…”
“Well what?”
He shrugged again, looking slightly embarrassed. “Well, I believe I took her right there in the corridor outside her chamber the first time.”
He could not wait to get Eleanor into her room?
Thefirsttime?
“And you thought I would laugh at this?” Linnet said, her voice rising.
Jamie looked at her with wide eyes. “ ’Twas not my fault. The woman drugged me!”
Linnet turned her head away. “I am not your wife,” she said through clenched teeth. “You need not lie to me.”
“I swear to you, she must have given me a potion. No woman would have been safe from me. I was like a bull in spring, mindless to anything but rutting, rutting, rutting.”
“How did you survive this trial?”
Somehow, Jamie failed to realize her question was rhetorical. Instead, the fool said, “In sooth, my cock was hellish sore for days.”
Did he think she wanted to hear that? She wanted to throw something at him, but there was nothing close at hand on the bed.
