Lord Liar Part 10

There were many times when she was nowhere to be found. She frequently came back with gra.s.s stains on her kirtle after these times, and Aldyth had a.s.sumed she had a lover, probably one of the st.u.r.dy serfs whose wattle and daub hovels stood near Sherborne's walls.

Aldyth had not found it in her to punish the girl, though as her mistress she had the right, for she had seemed so happy, and Aldyth was in any case so self-sufficient that she seldom needed her services. She only hoped that if the cook's daughter became with child, her lover would marry her, for if Maud bore a b.a.s.t.a.r.d she would be labeled a wh.o.r.e, fair game for any lecherous man.

Now, however, Maud's gaiety had evaporated as if it had never existed, and the girl was more sulky than before. As Aldyth marshaled the keep's women in the myriad tasks necessary to prepare for the wedding, she noticed Maud hanging back, avoiding her whenever possible. Her gaze, when she met Aldyth's eyes, was hostile.

Aldyth a.s.sumed Maud had had a falling-out with her lover and, though she was sorry for her, breathed a sigh of relief that her tirewoman's waist seemed no thicker than before.

Perhaps she had thought to be wed and is envious as she sees me st.i.tch upon my wedding dress, Aldyth thought compa.s.sionately, and resolved to be patient and understanding with her servant.

It was the eve of the wedding. They dined in great style at supper, for the guests of most prominence, the Earl and Countess of Kingsclere, had arrived and sat in the center of the high table, with the soon-to-be-wed pair on their right and Sir Nyle and Gundreda, the bridegroom's mother, on their left.

G.o.dric had come with his liege lord and was in high good spirits. He had taken her aside upon his arrival and told her how pleased he was at her choice of Turold.

"A.

good Englishman," he had enthused.

"The salt of the earth. He'll be good to you, Aldyth."

Warin, however, was not there, though he had sent a message of congratulations, and Aldyth could not help wondering if it had anything to do with his master's feelings about the wedding.

Aldyth and Turold were a handsome pair, everyone agreed, the groom a perfect example of English yeomanry, clad in a fine tunic of crimson-dyed wool, his fair hair gleaming. He sat erect and st.u.r.dy next to his bride, his demeanor proclaiming, What man would not be proud to marry such a maiden?

Aldyth wore a bliaut of dove gray, covered by a matching pelisson lined in squirrel fur, which kept out the mild draft on this early December day. Her chestnut braids were bound in gold cord, but on the morrow she would wear it loose, as befitted a maiden becoming a wife.

Turold's eyes were often upon her, his gaze warm. He was the picture of the ardent bridegroom-to-be antic.i.p.ating the delights of the morrow. The castle folk seemed eager to antic.i.p.ate them too, for one bold manservant shouted a demand that Turold kiss his bride-to-be.

Aldyth allowed herself to smile and shyly offered up her lips as Turold kissed her possessively, drawing a cheer from the crowd. It was but the foretaste of many such cheers tomorrow, she knew, for as the guests at the wedding feast drank the bride ale, the toasts would become bawdier, daring the groom to attempt further liberties with his bride until at last, mercifully, the bride was put to bed. Aldyth told herself she was ready, even eager for her wedding night with Turold. She loved him, of course. Who could not love a man as well favored and kind as Turold?

With such a man, the ending of her virginity held no terrors for her, she was sure.

Looking up from the kiss, she saw that Gundreda was eyeing her and her son with smugness. Well, perhaps that was a step up from mere acceptance.

Glancing to her other side, she caught sight of the Lady Nichola studying her. The countess hastily smiled and raised her cup in salute, but not before Aldyth had seen the troubled element in those cornflower blue eyes.

The countess had often told Aldyth she was like a daughter to her. Had Lady Nichola guessed that Aldyth had been in love with her son? If she had, had she favored a match between them? And if that was so, what must she think of Aldyth now, about to wed another man? Did she guess that Aldyth had tried to reach out to Ranulf, only to find him sunk beyond redemption by his own choice?

She turned back to Turold, training her gaze on his merry, round face framed in golden hair and resolutely pus.h.i.+ng from the edge of her mind a very different visage made of lean, hard planes and hungry, dark eyes.

Aldyth had retired early, pleading a need for rest, a request her smiling groom was pleased to grant.

"Rest well, my betrothed," Turold had said, and added in an intimate whisper, "for tomorrow you will not rest alone!"

The door, well oiled at its hinges, creaked only slightly as it opened.

"My lady..." came the voice from the doorway.

"Oh, there you are, Maud," Aldyth said in a welcoming voice, trying not to show her disinclination for company.

"I.

did not see you at supper. "

"I... I did not come, lady." It seemed as if the girl were determined to hug the shadows that lined the entrance of the chamber. She stood in profile to Aldyth, clutching the heavy oaken door.

"Oh?" Aldyth said encouragingly. She looked up from where she had been combing her hair by the fire.

"Come in, Maud, do. It's warm over here--surely it's drafty so near the corridor. I'm glad you've come. I worried when you did not come to supper, especially since you've seemed so quiet of late."

"I did not come because Turold forbade me, lady," Maud said, coming forward from the shadows.

Aldyth gasped when the tirewoman's full face became visible. Her right eye was swollen shut, and the blue gray bruise was echoed in one lower on her chin. In addition, her lower lip was puffy and crisscrossed by a pair of small lacerations.

Aldyth jumped up and went to examine Maud's face more closely.

"Turold forbade you? What do you mean?

And who beat you, Maud? "

The girl shrank away as Aldyth came near, but she thought perhaps Maud was just afraid of her mistress touching her tender bruises, and was careful to lower her hands.

The girl raised her face to Aldyth, her tone as defiant as her gaze.

"Turold said I wasn't to come to supper, and that I was to stay in the charcoal buruer's hovel until he and ye was safely away t'Swanlea. But I thought ye should know, lady."

"Know? Know what? Who beat you, Maud?"

The girl seemed almost proud as she spat the words at Aldyth.

"Who beat me? Why, Turold, o' course! Turold, the man who's been my lover for months now! The man ye're going t'wed on the morrow."

At first the words didn't make sense. Then, as she played them back in her mind, she stared at her fire woman feeling her mouth drop open. There seemed to be a ball of ice, steadily growing colder, in the pit of her abdomen.

"Turold was the man you went to meet? Turold was your lover?" she gasped at last.

"Is my lover," Maud corrected her archly.

"We coupled only last night."

As she came closer, Aldyth could see that a tooth was missing from the front of Maud's mouth, just behind the spot where the lip was most swollen.

For a moment, she refused to think of the betrayal that her servant's words represented. She felt compelled to ask, "You made love, and then he beat you?"

"Oh, aye--but I suppose I deserved it for being' jealous of ye. I thought the wedding meant the end fer us. But it don't, he made me see after he punished me for my sauciness." Such a bald declaration.

"It don't--doesn't?" Aldyth echoed.

"And then he told you to stay out of sight, so that I would not question your battered appearance and learn of your relations.h.i.+p?" Aldyth asked with a calm she was far from feeling. The cold within her was building to an icy rage.