Bond of Blood (29 page)

"What?"

"Do I go or stay?"

"You guard her ladyship and attend to her wants."

Another time Giles might have protested this order. It was inconceivable that anyone should wish to hurt Lady Radnor, and as long as she stayed in the house she was safe. On the other hand, Radnor was going into a hotbed of enemies in a mood that was scarcely calm or conciliatory. Nonetheless Giles knew his master. When Radnor's eyes turned in on his own soul, giving that blankness to his expression, it was a warning that even Giles must obey without question.

Giles crossed himself as he turned away. He did not quite know why, but he had always done so. Even when Radnor was only a child, his periodic bouts of looking inward at himself had made Giles uneasy. The soul was God's business and His priests'; a man, in Giles' opinion, should leave his soul to those who understood it and not toy with it himself.

Upstairs, Leah folded and smoothed Radnor's cast-off clothing absently, wrinkling her brow over a new problem. Whom could she send to obtain the directions of Lady Leicester or Lady William? It was just as well that Cain had gone out, considering his mood. He would have been the greatest hindrance, for all her time would have necessarily been spent in soothing him. Her eyes smiled reminiscently. It was a great pleasure to do so, but it would not get the household running, the food cooked, or the bed set up.

She opened a clothes-press and shook her head—dust and broken twigs and leaves of old, scentless herbs. The dust, at least, could be attacked.

"Alison. Bess."

The girls appeared at once, both pale and tired. Neither could ride a horse, and they had, in consequence, been forced to travel in a heavy springless cart. The poor things had been so jolted and bruised that they could not sleep and were deeply regretting their previous desire for adventure and the sight of strange places. Leah was gentle and sympathetic to their complaints, but unrelenting in her demand that every chest be turned out and scoured clean. She would return to help them, she said, with a sudden look of decision, as soon as she had spoken to Giles.

"I hope there will soon be other maids and menservants to help you, and perhaps if you finish quickly we will go to the great market and buy rushes and herbs."

It sounded odd to speak of buying rushes and herbs, but what else could one do in a place where one owned no water and the garden was an overgrown mass of weeds? After seeing the girls set to work, Leah went down the stairs. Her first few steps were bold and firm, but as the clamor and confusion of the men's quarters became more apparent, her steps grew more hesitant. Would these hard men obey her? Her mother had guarded her carefully from her father's men-at-arms, but certain early memories of their cruelty to unprotected women lingered.

"Giles," she called.

Leah’s soft voice, softer even because of her uncertainty, could not carry over the noise. One man near the staircase heard a sound, however, and looked up. With horror in his eyes, he poked another. In a few minutes one could have heard a mouse walking on velvet in that huge room. Leah came down two steps more while the men watched suspended between confusion and terror. Lord Radnor would have every one of them drawn and quartered if he returned and found her there, yet who would dare say her nay or stop her and risk her displeasure.

"Giles," Leah repeated, fear giving a rather peremptory note to her voice.

"Coming, my lady." The old warrior hurriedly pushed his way forward through the paralyzed mass of men and came up towards her. "You should not come here," he said in a low, angry voice.

As the words came out, he wondered how the light of his master's eyes was going to take this criticism. If she were a proud one, there might be trouble between his lordship and himself.

"Oh!" Leah exclaimed with widening eyes. "Is it proper for you to come upstairs? I must ask you something."

Giles' lips twitched. "For me, yes. I am old enough to be your grandfather," he replied as he shepherded her up the stairs again. "For others, no, not unless your lord be with you." He was a fine one, he thought, to be giving lessons in etiquette.

"Oh." There was a little pause. "Then how may I let you know I want you if my lord is gone and I may not come down?"

Giles was jealous of this girl; he could not help it, for he loved his erratic lord and he felt that Radnor's affections were centered elsewhere now. Leah's gentle innocence, however, was having its usual effect on a man unaccustomed to dealing with women.

"Send one of your maids out to the stables to your groom, and he will fetch me up. Now what did you want of me, madam?"

"There is so much to be done that I scarcely know where to begin asking. First and foremost, I must have servants. Cooks first—the men and his lordship must eat; menservants to draw water and chop wood; maidservants to clean and sew. Someone must go to the market—myself, if you think Lord Radnor would permit. We must have food, rushes for the floors, herbs and salt and spices—"

There was a dawning respect in Giles" eyes as he looked down at the girl before him. "True enough. We have never kept house here before, but I will be little help to you. Protect you I can, but no more."

All men were alike, Leah thought disgustedly. Old or young, they had no sense. They could think only of fighting or killing, never of making life pleasant. "I believe that Lady Leicester or Lady William Gloucester would help me. Can you bring me to one of them?"

Lady William was ill, Giles reported after coming out of her house and swinging into the saddle again, but Lady Leicester lived near and they could try her next.

Leah curtsied deeply when ushered into Lady Leicester's presence, but that good dame seemed delighted to see her. She motioned Leah to a seat and sat down herself in a manner indicative of her readiness for a long chat.

"Madam," Leah said urgently when the necessary civilities had passed, "I am afraid I have come here to impose upon you and ask you for a great favor."

Caution appeared in the older woman's eyes. She liked this child, but she was not going to embroil her husband with Lord Radnor over her.

"If I can help you, child, I will."

"Well, I do hope you can, for I know not where else to turn."

"If there is trouble with your husband—" Lady Leicester hesitated, and the girl interrupted her hurriedly.

"No, no. Nothing of that sort. It is only that my lord has taken a house for us, and I know not how to find or employ servants in this strange place. Can you tell me—"

"Do you mean to say that Radnor is here without a retinue? That is impossible. Even he would not travel alone in these times."

"Of course not. He has his household guard with him, but they are not servants. I need men and maids to clean and serve and cook."

Lady Leicester looked stunned momentarily and then began to laugh. "Bless my heart and head, what a man! What does he expect to eat? Where does he expect to sleep?"

Leah could not help smiling too. Ordinarily she resented any criticism of her husband, but this time his lack of interest in mundane matters had really gone too far; they were in an impossible situation.

"I do not believe that he thinks about such things,” she said, smiling. “He is not in the least particular about what is set before him and will eat the same dried meat and grain as the men have if there is nothing better. And I am sure if I told him that the bed could not be set up he would lie down on the floor without the slightest protest. Indeed, he did so once in my mother's house. But it is not fitting that he should be so served. If I had but a few menservants I could contrive, but I have only two maids, and they are young and timid. I do not like to send them among the men-at-arms."

"If that is not like a man—to take a house and then let a child like you struggle to manage it without help. I will help you, my love, even if I must send you some of my own people. Only I am so short-handed because— Wait, I know what we must do. I will send to the Lord Mayor's steward. I am sure that he will be able to find suitable people for you."

A page was dispatched and Lady Leicester proceeded to question Leah about her supplies and furnishings. She was distracted between amusement and horror when she learned that they had come without making previous arrangement for the house to be stocked and that Leah intended to go to the market that morning. She offered, however, between gusts of laughter, excellent advice on prices and hints on how to judge quality, so that Leah was grateful in spite of the amusement at her husband's expense.

By the time the dinner hour was near, Leah was trembling with fatigue at the same time that she glowed with satisfaction. The house was stocked with food for a week and more was ordered; five cooks and three bakers were preparing dinner; all the floors were swept clean and new-laid with fresh rushes; and, finally, her own bed was set up and her room was in perfect order.

Leah looked about. The brilliant red coverlet of the bed gave color to the rather dim room. Facing the one large window at the front of the house, a low-backed chair stood ready before her embroidery frame, and set to the other side was a high-backed chair, its seat and footstool, also covered with red cloth cushions, all ready for her lord to take his ease.

The thing Leah wanted most now was a bath. The question was whether there was time. Lord Radnor had given her no indication of when he would return, and Giles could not help her since he had as little information as she. The best she could do was to tell the cooks to hold back the meat for the high table half-cooked and wait. Then she thought that it would not matter if Cain returned to find her bathing. Surely that would not displease him. It might even occupy him until dinner was ready.

Almost hoping he would come in, for Leah was developing a taste for the pleasures of the marriage bed, she lingered in her bath until the water changed from hot to tepid. She nearly sent the maids for more hot water, but a glance at the woebegone faces awakened her pity and, besides, she did not wish her skin to grow wrinkled with long soaking. Dressed in the coral and grey outfit she had worn on her last day at home, Leah dismissed the girls to their dinner, and sat down to her embroidery, a seemingly endless task. She was very hungry, for the dinner hour was now long past, but she thought she would wait a little longer.

The next thing Leah knew was being startled awake by a hubbub in the front garden. She had fallen asleep, tired out with work and excitement, her head pillowed on the embroidery frame. It was now too dark to make out who had arrived, but Giles' voice, rising above the general clamor, was filled with welcome and relief. Leah hurried to the ante-chamber, a small room into which the stairs rose from below, to send a new little page scurrying off for lights.

Radnor passed through the men's quarters quickly, without a word. He was so tired that he was not even fully conscious of why he was in such a hurry to get upstairs. Simply, something promised rest and surcease from pain there. At his first sight of Leah, waiting in the antechamber with a branch of candles, the first wave of peace came.

Not so for her. She had never seen Cain limp so badly or look so horrid. Deep lines were etched from his nose down to his mouth, and under the weatherbeaten brown his complexion was pasty. His eyes were dull with fatigue, red-rimmed from sixty hours without sleep, and the lid under the scarred brow twitched constantly with the nervousness of long-restrained emotion.

"How tired you are, my lord. Come and rest. Have you eaten?"

Leah tested cautiously for the flash of temper that would make her efface herself as much as possible. The voice that answered her was so low she had to strain to hear it, but it was tired, not angry. The way was open to give comfort, and Leah slid her husband's arm over her shoulder in what might have been merely a gesture of affection but which also provided him help in walking.

"Eaten? No." Radnor sank into the red-cushioned chair, keeping his body rigid to prevent himself from crying out with relief. "I could not eat. I did not wish to eat there. I must break bread with Stephen sooner or later, but the later the better for me."

"I will go and order dinner at once."

"Thank you."

He closed his eyes and allowed his stiffened muscles to relax slowly. There was a cool sweet scent in the room from the fresh rushes on the floor and the odor of lavender that permeated Leah's clothing. Cool air and his men's voices, laughing and cursing as they gambled and talked, drifted through the window. He heard Leah returning and opened his eyes to find her offering a cup. The wine was hot and spiced; the sharp odor of aromatic herbs filled his nostrils and brought a new wave of well-being and comfort.

"Drink, my lord. It will refresh you and enable you to eat. Afterward you can sleep."

Cain sipped the wine and looked around. The candlelight was not bright, but he could not help noticing the excellent order of the room. Nor could he fail to notice the fact that the manservant who brought his dinner and the elderly maid who carried a small table to the side of his chair were strangers. Strangers could be spies—or worse.

"Who are these people, Leah?" he asked sharply.

"Our servants. I have such a great deal to tell you, Cain, but not now. You are too worn out to listen to my nonsense."

Since he made no move to serve himself but continued sipping his wine, Leah cut several slices of roast pork and divided a chicken in half. These she laid on a thick slice of freshly baked manchet bread and pushed within easy reach. Then she started to eat her own long delayed meal.

"I should like to hear now, though. Tell me while I eat. What have you been doing? Where did all this food come from?"

So Leah laid down her barely touched food and recounted her adventures and misadventures until a faint smile touched her husband's lips.

"It always does me good to hear you, Leah. I have used you shockingly ill to set you down in a strange place without help. I am sorry, I never thought about it, but you have done very well." He leaned forward, his smile fading, pushed away the remains of his meal, and rubbed his left thigh surreptitiously.