It wasn’t exactly a lie, but Achilles didn’t question it. He’d seen the priest with his writing implements, so it made sense to him. Removing his gloves, he took a seat across the table from her, putting his gloves on the tabletop. He eyed the steaming bowl.
“What are you eating?” he asked.
She looked at it. “Cabbage pottage.”
“Is it any good?”
“It is very good. What I can taste of it, anyway.”
Achilles looked around and, spying a serving wench, motioned to Susanna’s bowl. As the wench disappeared into the kitchen, he returned his attention to Susanna.
“Well,” he said. “If it is any consolation, half the men are ill also. That storm we traveled through seems to have claimedseveral victims. How is Lady Cadelyn? Have you looked in on her?”
Susanna spooned the hot pottage into her mouth. “Aye.”
Achilles had expected more of an answer. “And?”
Susanna swallowed the bite in her mouth and put another on her spoon. But she didn’t put it in her mouth just yet. “And she seems better,” she said. “At least, her illness seems better. But I fear she is very unhappy.”
“Why?”
Susanna shrugged, stirring up her pottage as she thought on her answer. “I believe she has come to realize that her feelings for Sir Kress will never come to completion,” she said. Then, she cast Achilles a long glance. “The night we arrived, he remained in her room most of the night. You know that, don’t you?”
Achilles sighed sharply. “It is none of my affair and none of yours.”
“I have known Cadie for several years and I have never seen her like this, ever. I believe she is in love with Kress.”
Achilles shook his head. “You will not say that to anyone, do you hear?” he said. “That is gossip. It can only hurt people.”
Susanna turned back to her pottage. “I have not spoken of it to anyone, nor will I,” she said. “But you… I do not know why I have even said it to you except that I know you are trustworthy. You will not repeat it. But know that this situation concerns me.”
“Why?”
Susanna looked at him, then. “You do not know Cadie,” she said. “She is a brilliant, stubborn woman. If she feels something for Sir Kress, then this marriage will be even more difficult for her than it was before. That worries me. She will make herself miserable.”
Achilles was watching her as she spoke. “You care for her.”
Susanna nodded, spooning more pottage into her mouth. “As annoying and headstrong as she can be, she is a good woman with a good heart. She is my friend.”
Achilles watched her for a moment longer until the serving wench appeared with his pottage, crusty bread, butter, and a cup of hot wine. When she walked away, Achilles spoke quietly.
“If we are being completely honest, then Kress has not been himself either,” he muttered, reaching for a knife and scooping butter onto it. “He has spent all of his time in the livery with Samson.”
“Samson?”
“His horse.”
Susanna nodded as she watched the man slather butter on his bread. “Why do you say he is not himself, though?”
Achilles took a big bite of the bread, chewing a few times before speaking. “I have known him for twenty years,” he said. “You must understand the Kress de Rhydian I know… he is a complex man. He is wise and intelligent, and a man of good character. You would never believe that the man could murder in cold blood as I have seen him do in the past and then act as if nothing in the world is wrong. He is as even-tempered as they come, loyal to a fault. If his liege commands it, he will do it, no questions asked. But since we arrived here… his mood is dark and that is not like him.”
Susanna pondered that. “I know of the Executioner Knights,” she said. “I heard what you did a few years ago at St. Blitha Abbey in London. I heard that you killed the corrupt Mother Abbess before she could kill King John.”
“Who told you that?”
“You forget that I have connections to William Marshal and those in his inner circle. I know of the Unholy Trinity.”
Achilles’ gaze lingered on her a moment before returning to his food. “You have only heard the name,” he said. “You do not know what we did to earn that title.”
