Free The Winter Mantle by Elizabeth Chadwick

reproach.'
    It was Agatha's turn to raise a knowing eyebrow. 'You have never been so charitable towards the sick before,' she said. 'You seemed very concerned for the wellbeing of Simon de Senlis.'
    'He was injured in my sight. Of course I was concerned for him,' Judith said irritably. 'I still am, for I do not think he will ever walk a straight course again.'
    'And it had nothing to do with the English earl's visits to the boy.'
    Judith sprang to her feet, unable to bear being near Agatha a moment longer. Her cousin was a bitch. 'Of course it didn't.' Her sudden movement dislodged the silk basket and spilled a riot of colourful hanks on to the floor. With a hiss of exasperation she stooped to pick them up and untangle them.
    Agatha was silent for the course of several stitches but there was a satisfied curl to her lips. 'Waitheof has a mistress in

Fècamp you know,' she announced spitefully. 'She's a brothel whore from Madame Hortense's near the harbour.'
    'I suppose Edwin told you that too.' Judith kept her back turned so that she would not have to bare her expression to her cousin's scrutiny.
    'No,' Agatha said. 'It was my brother Robert. He went there with some of his friends and saw Waltheof with her. He says she's got the reputation of being willing to consider all manner of unnatural deeds for a silver coin… and that she has hair just like yours.'
    Very carefully indeed, Judith set the basket of silks back on the bench. 'And I think that you would say anything just for the pleasure of casting a stone in a pool and watching the ripples,' she said glacially. 'The Earl of Huntingdon's private affairs are of less interest to me than they are to you, Agatha. You weary me with your prattle, and I will listen to no more.' Head held high, she walked across the room to join her mother and sister who were sewing a tunic for her absent stepfather.
    Adelaide gave Judith a thoughtful look but said nothing and merely handed her a seam to stitch. Judith was glad of the silence, which gave her time to compose herself. Agatha's gossip was unsettling. Men seldom made permanent mistresses of girls they met in brothels, she knew that, but they did make regular assignations. The mention of Waltheof's whore having dark braids had been made deliberately by Agatha to disturb her, but Judith wondered if Waltheof's choice had been deliberate too. Did he imagine that he was bedding her when he paid for the whore's services? She reddened at the thought, torn between embarrassment, anger and a shameful melting between her thighs.
    The silence was broken by Adelaide, who sighed and laid down her sewing. 'You may as well know that a messenger arrived from your stepfather this morn,' she said. There was anxiety in her light brown eyes. 'I was wondering whether to tell you, but I can see no point in keeping it to myself. It will be common knowledge soon enough. There is trouble in England.'
    'Mother?' Judith's needle poised between stitches. Adela looked up. Neither girl was particularly close to her stepfather, but he was family, and they both felt a jolt of fear.
    'Lawless thieves and rebels are banding together and causing dissent. Your stepfather says that the men your uncle William left to govern the country are hard pressed to keep order. He says it is like sitting on the lid of a boiling cauldron.' Adelaide pressed the palm of her hand over the fine linen fabric of the garment she was stitching as if by smoothing it she could make everything well. She would not say aloud that she feared for her husband's life, but Judith could sense her alarm.
    'Uncle William will send aid,' Judith said quickly.
    Adelaide nodded. 'He is already making plans to cross the water and put an end to it once and for all.' Fierceness glittered in her eyes. 'He will make them pay dearly.'
    Judith moistened her lips. 'Will my uncle take the hostages with him?'
    'That I do not know, although I hope so. They do naught but drink us dry and live lavishly off our tables. I