Lord Liar Part 16

Very well, come with me, for there's work to be done. You may fetch your belongings later. The holy relics must be kept immaculate, even if his grace the king never bothers to look at them." He turned and walked back into the scriptorium as Aldyth strove to conquer her urge to giggle.

Rolling her eyes at the mused Warin, she followed the shuffling old clerk.

Osbert seemed not to require any food, or to think that those who a.s.sisted him might need to eat. He kept Aldyth busy right through the midday meal, dusting and rearranging the many ornate containers that held the relics of long93 dead saints. As they handled each piece, he told her with pride the name of each saint and what the box contained. A few held sc.r.a.ps of cloth, others locks of hair, and there was a jeweled vial purported to contain a drop of the Virgin's milk. One elaborately gilded and velvet-lined reliquary, Osbert told her, held a splinter from the True Cross. Still others contained yellowed fragments of bone. Preferring not to dwell on their contents, Aldyth instead took delight in the loveliness of the carved wood, silver and gold boxes decorated with pearls, garnets, amethysts and sapphires.

After she had dusted and moved everything to Brother Osbert's satisfaction, he said,

"Come along to the scriptorium now, Edward. Lady Vivienne tells me you are able to read and write, and if I judge that to be true, we shall make use of you there, as well." They entered another room, where there were several clerks, all seated at desks, scratching over parchment with quill pens and ink, inscribing the king's writs.

A lad clad in a rough brown tunic, who was scrubbing the floor at the clerks'

feet, looked up curiously when she came in behind Osbert.

Aldyth's careful hand pleased the clerks, and she was given a writ regarding a grant of land to copy out. This took her the rest of the afternoon, but she found it interesting enough to copy the elaborate Latin legal phrases from the original copy to the one that would be sent to some baron in Dorset.

Finally, as the light coming through the chamfered windows was beginning to fail, her stomach growled loudly enough to be heard through the entire room.

The clerk in charge smiled.

"Edward, you have done well. You may go to the hall and get your dinner."

"Thank you, brother." With luck Lord Ranulf would not have returned and she would find Warin and eat with him.

The great hall was crowded with diners eating in long rows at tables set at right angles to the high table, but she was in luck, for she found Warin seated with Lady Vivienne. "How went your first day as clerk's a.s.sistant?"

inquired Lady Vivienne, inviting Aldyth to join them with a graceful gesture.

Aldyth gave a rueful smile.

"I. et us say it does not tempt me to take minor orders, but 'tis peaceful enough work. I thank you for helping me, Lady Vivienne."

"" Twas naught. Have some of the venison with pepper sauce, Al--that is, Edward. "

For a few moments Aldyth contented herself with filling her stomach.

"The hunters have not returned?" she inquired casually of Warin, not trusting herself to use Ranulf's name in front of his mistress.

"Nay, though we had word they would arrive tonight," Warin said, gnawing with relish on a capon leg.

If her luck held, she would have eaten and returned to the scriptorium before Lord Ranulf arrived.

"Brother, your manners would disgrace a serf? Aldyth said as Warin took a particularly large bite.

"Edward, you sound like a peevish older sister," Warin retorted, then grinned at her discomfiture.

"Don't worry, no one heard you, but you would do well to ape me, not criticize me. Boys don't eat so daintily."

Just then a trumpet flourish announced the arrival of the king.

Nicknamed

"Rufus" since childhood for his florid complexion, he strode in, an unkingly, thickset man with long blond hair and a potbelly. His hunting companions, still attired in short, belted tunics and cloaks, followed him.

Aldyth could not keep her eyes from immediately searching out Ranulf.

He was easy to find. In his tunic and matching cloak of russet, his dark hair windblown, he was like a magnificent wild fox in the autumn woods. He was laughing at some jest of the king, his head thrown back, his white teeth gleaming in the torchlight.

Then he caught sight of Lady Vivienne and waved, and instead of following his king up to the high table, he changed course and started threading his way between the rows of trestle tables toward them.

"I have to leave!" she whispered to Lady Vivienne, panicked.

"Nay, stay, Aldyth," whispered Warin.

"He'll be all the more apt to spy you if you try to dash out."

"Just keep your head down and likely he'll never notice you," added Lady Vivienne, speaking to her but smiling in Ranulf's direction.

She froze, bowed over her trencher, feeling very much like a rabbit who hoped to escape a fox's notice by her stillness.

"Good even, my lord," she heard Lady Vivienne greet him.

"Was there good hunting?"

"Good even, my comely sweetheart," came his answer, just above Aldyth's head.

He was standing right behind her, speaking to Lady Vivienne, who sat next to Aldyth.

"Aye, the king got a magnificent stag," he said, reaching casually over his mistress's shoulder for a ripe red apple in a bowl of fruit.

"I sense there is more to this story," Lady Vivienne murmured eneouragingly.

Out of the corner of her eye Aldyth could see the Norman woman lean against Ranulf's body as Ranulf laid a hand cares singly on her shoulder.

The sight of them was an arrow piercing Aldyth's heart. Beneath the table she clenched her hands into fists, wondering how long she could endure this.

"You're so perceptive, my sweet," he said.

"The king made an excellent shot, but mine was better. I was the one who slew the wild boar that suddenly charged out of the undergrowth at the king when he dismounted to gloat over his kill."

"So his grace is pleased with you?"

"Aye. And you, my sweet? Shall you show me later how proud you are of your mighty hunter?"

The c.o.xcomb, the braggart! Couldn't he trouble himself to lower his voice while uttering sweet words to his leman?

There was a child present! She darted a look at Warin, but his brother appeared unfazed by the flirting, merely impatient to get Ranulf's attention.

"Aye, 'twould be my pleasure .... " "And who's this angry lad with Warin who looks as if he would kill me with his glare?" Ranulf said suddenly, interrnpting Lady Vivienne, his dark eyes suddenly fixed on Aldyth.

"Ah, that is Edward, my lord, of" -- "He's my cousin, Lord Ranulf, from Pevensey!" cried Warin, a little too shrilly.

"He's--he's come to serve at court and" -- "The pup likes me not, 'twould appear," murmured Ranulf, his gaze piercing.