Free We Speak No Treason Vol 1 by Rosemary Hawley Jarman Page A

yes, it’s as you say.’ She nodded grudgingly. ‘Men gorge themselves on forty, fifty courses, and think naught of it.’
    ‘I fear Agace cannot attain such heights,’ I said. ‘Will the Earl be here for Christmas? We must order more provisions.’
    She shook her head. ‘I know not what his plans are. Her Grace begs me to come to court for Yule.’ (She gave the holy season its ancient name.) ‘But I fear with this malaise I’ll be unfit for the journey.’
    A strategy so beautiful that it made me tremble began to form in my mind.
    ‘I will have you well, Madame, I promise,’ I murmured tenderly. Gyb stretched out a paw, talons spread, as I tucked the covers about his mistress. ‘I will prepare you a posset myself. And I swear you will be recovered. Right speedily.’
    The old eyes flickered in my direction. She looked surprised, and in my conceit, I thought, gratified. ‘You are a good child,’ she said, not for the last time.
    Returning to the kitchen, I rudely pushed Agace away from the fire.
    ‘Give me room, dame,’ I said. ‘I am to brew a simple to have my lady on her legs again before Christmas.’
    The cook gave me a shove equally strong.
    ‘What are you meddling with?’ she demanded. ‘I don’t want her up! Certes, we have more peace while she’s abed.’
    ‘You will have peace aplenty, Agace,’ I said, smiling a secret smile. I crushed herbs between my fingers. Already I knew what would cure a chest cough and the sniffles. I had some powdered dandelion, too, for her lost appetite. The cook peered slyly into my face.
    ‘By the look of you, you’re brewing more besides a posset,’ she said. ‘And it’s no secret how you lust after the court. I’ve not forgotten how you bawled when the Queen left you behind! And she gave you all her old dresses!’ she added enviously.
    I stirred away, red-faced from the fire. ‘I had liefer gone to court in my shift than remain in this place with a score of dresses.’
    My thoughts turned round and round with the ladle. Tangy as the smell of boiled dandelion, they rose and hung above me in a secret cloud. Though I had never been an actual cozen of the Duchess, at no time had she shown signs of dislike. Now here she was, under our roof again, her will doubtless low-ebbed from sickness. Mine to approach in servitude, but in a servitude passing kind. I thought of my destiny as a ship, drifting anchorless. But if I, through stealth, could blow a strong breeze, hold back the tide, bend the gale—then might I come into the slack water of my heart’s desire, and sail towards London, the city of gold.
    ‘All the sisters went to court,’ I said, half to myself. ‘The cousins, and their cousins’ cousins, a legion. And they went in a gilt coach. I would go in a cart.’
    ‘Mistress,’ said Agace slyly, ‘you aren’t the Queen’s kin.’
    ‘Is it my fault,’ I demanded, ‘that I have no royal blood?’
    Agace had one black tooth-stump. It showed as she howled with laughter.
    ‘Christ in Glory!’ she said, wiping her eyes. ‘Have they? Better than you or I, mistress, but common, none the less, common as English earth. Hence there’s so many ducal tempers aflame!’
    I knew naught of ducal tempers. I knew only that the Woodvilles were apart from me now, by reason of rank and greatness; aeons distant. Yet there was one close at hand, growling with the grippe, one who would like to be petted; that I knew well. I drained the posset into a jug.
    ‘I will go up, Agace,’ I said.
    ‘Coddle her well,’ the cook mocked me.
    At the door I said: ‘I did but think Bess Woodville would go to court as the King’s leman. Not as Queen of England.’
    ‘So did we all, mistress.’ She started to laugh again. ‘I can read you like a pack of cards. Do you have your way, speak, I pray you, for me also, and the stable churls. For it’s as likely I should dance with the Duke of Clarence in Greenwich Great Hall, as you should accompany the Duchess to