“I think that if you are kind to him, he will be kind in return,” Hilde said steadily. “Mayhap, you should stop trying to convince him you are a storm witch. Clearly, he does not care. Mayhap, you should simply be kind and obedient.”
As she knew, Adelaide didn’t like that answer. She frowned. “Is that why has he not returned?” she said. “Because I am not kind and obedient?”
“You saw how he responded to Lady Bowlin, who was kind to everyone.”
That was definitely not something Adelaide wanted to hear or be reminded of. “A Beguine,” she scoffed. “A mindless chit whose only desire in life is to tend foundlings. What a bore. Is that why Thomas has not returned to Wark? Because I am not like Lady Bowlin and he does not wish to return to me?”
Hilde was careful in her reply. She was still in the wardrobe, looking at the very expensive pieces of clothing, some of which needed mending, and trying hard not to enrage her young charge with the conversation.
But it was a difficult task.
“He probably remained at Castle Questing to see his family for a day or two,” she said. “You must not worry, my lady. He will return soon enough.”
Adelaide sat on her bed, pondering the situation. Truth be told, she’d been worrying about all of this since the de Wolfes had departed yesterday. It had been an abrupt departure and a cold one. Lord and Lady de Wolfe didn’t even bid her a farewell. Standing up, Adelaide went over to the lancet windows that overlooked the river beyond the walls.
“They left rather quickly,” she said thoughtfully. “Don’t you think they left rather quickly? I wonder why. I thought Lord and Lady de Wolfe were planning on remaining until the wedding. And my father… he is still in the vault. Why would Thomas gooff and leave my father in the vault and not take him home, as I wished?”
Hilde pulled out a shift that needed mending in the hem. “I am sure he will return soon and do just that,” she said. “You told him that you wish to return home, didn’t you? He will take you home.”
“And he will stay,” Adelaide said firmly. “Kyloe Castle will be his and he shall remain there with me. Wark is nothing compared to Kyloe. The House of de Wolfe is nothing compared to Northumbria. Won’t Thomas make a magnificent earl?”
“He will, my lady.”
Now, Adelaide was smiling as she looked from the window, the warm rays from the sun touching her cheek as she dreamed of her future as the Countess of Northumbria.
“He will make thebestearl,” she said. “The most handsome in the north. I will be the envy of everyone with Thomas de Wolfe as my husband. He was destined to be the earl, Hilde. I had toensurehe became the earl. Everything my father and I have worked so hard for is so close that I can almost taste it. When Thomas returns, we shall be married immediately. Has the priest from Kelso arrived yet? I sent word to him yesterday, you know.”
“No one has arrived, my lady,” Hilde said.
Adelaide sighed sharply. “Not yet,” she muttered, turning away from the window. Her gaze was on the chamber now, looking it over. “This place holds nothing but misery for me. Why, in this very room, Lady de Wolfe told me to stop being so silly and selfish the day my father was killed. Can you believe that? She had the audacity to scold me. A Scots! As if she can tell me anything. She is nothing but a Scots rat.”
Hilde wasn’t paying much attention to her but pretending that she was. Too much inattention and Adelaide would throw things. She might even strike her, as she had before. Hilde livedin fear of Adelaide and had ever since she’d been a young girl and stabbed her in the arm with a knife when Hilde said something to displease her. That was the first instance of Adelaide’s violent nature, something that had only gotten worse with time.
The woman had no boundaries and therefore knew no fear when it came to expressing her anger or getting what she wanted. That included ridding herself of fine young men because she no longer wished to be betrothed to them. Like rubbish, she simply disposed of them.
That was Adelaide’s deep, dark secret.
“Lady de Wolfe is a powerful woman,” Hilde reminded her. “You would do well not to speak ill of her in her husband’s outpost.”
Adelaide looked at her. “I am not speaking ill of her,” she said. “I am simply stating a fact– she is an inferior Scots who happened to marry well. But she cannot tell me how to behave in my own home. This is my domain and my husband will be a more powerful earl than William de Wolfe.”
Still fumbling with the garment that needed to be mended, Hilde went on the hunt for the sewing kit to repair the torn shift.
“Have you not stopped to think that your husband is half-Scots?” she said. “That means your children shall have Scots blood in them. You should be careful how you speak of the Scots, my lady. You are about to be related to them.”
Adelaide looked at her as if taken aback… but taken aback by what? The truth? The fact that Hilde had the impudence to say such things that were obvious to anyone else but Adelaide? The old woman was in the wardrobe looking for the sewing kit and Adelaide marched over to her and slammed the wardrobe door against her head, clipping the old woman’s ear. As Hilde gasped and fell back, Adelaide kicked her. Hilde ended up on her arse.
“Keep your stupid words to yourself,” Adelaide hissed, standing over her menacingly. “I will hear no more from youabout Scots or Lady de Wolfe, do you hear me? Thomas will marry me and we shall live at Kyloe. I will become his world and it is a world with no Scots and no old women telling me what to think. Do you understand me?”
Hand over her bruised ear, Hilde nodded quickly but she didn’t reply. She was afraid to. However, Adelaide’s words struck fear into her heart–no old women telling me what to think. To Hilde, that meant Adelaide meant to get rid of her. She’d known the woman long enough to know that the meaning was clear. Adelaide de Vauden was many things, but she was not one to make idle threats and, in that statement, she’d revealed her future intentions. She could call it a slip of the tongue, or deny it altogether, but Hilde knew better. She had seen many examples of the woman’s follow-through over the years.
She knew that Adelaide meant to kill her.
It was a shocking realization, but given who spoke the words, perhaps not so shocking. Hilde was quite sure that she was not being paranoid. Fear in her heart kept her quiet, but Adelaide was evidently looking for an answer because she kicked her again, her pointy toe against Hilde’s tender thigh.
“Well?” Adelaide demanded. “Do you understand me?”
Hilde kept her gaze averted. “I do, my lady.”
