Free The Maiden Bride by Rexanne Becnel Page B

also far too warm despite their efforts to cool him. She feared he was more likely to die than to live, though she would admit as much to no one. Mayhap her grandmother’s prayers and Beatrix’s would pull him through.
    Where was Beatrix right now? she wondered.
    She stretched her back and rolled her aching neck from side to side. Maybe her grandmother would know. “Stay with him at all times, and send for me should he awaken or begin to sweat,” she told Frayne. “I’ll come back later, though I hope to prevail upon this de la Manse to allow Maynard to be nursed in his own bed.”
    Frayne did not reply but only glanced warily at the two men who guarded his master. No doubt she should have held her tongue as well, Linnea castigated herself as she and Norma made their way back to the keep. She was three times a fool to speak her mind too plainly in front of his men. But she was too tired and too cross to be cautious.
    “’Tis more as it should be out here,” Norma remarked as they came into the bailey. Indeed, as they stared about them it was true. Most of the army and its accoutrements no longer filled the yard to overflowing, though their presence was plainly felt. Still, Iron James worked in the open shed of the armory, sharpening swords and other weapons as he often did. A pair of knights instructed several squires in hand-to-hand combat, and the laundress and her helpers worked over their large wash kettles. A half-grown pup romped good-naturedly behind a furiously hissing cat.
    Linnea rubbed her tired eyes. It was almost as if nothing had happened here yesterday. As if her life had not been shattered apart in one tense afternoon.
    Would that it had all been a dream.
    But it was no dream. Rather it was a nightmare come fully to life, she realized. For striding along the wall-walk toward the gatehouse was none other than the author of this disaster. Axton de la Manse. He of the two clawing bears. And now he and that awful boy, trailing him like a flea-bitten bear cub, were up there inspecting her family’s castle, with Sir Hugh and two other men accompanying them.
    It was an outrage! Worse, though, there was nothing she could do about it—at least not at the moment.
    But in the end, once Beatrix was wed to someone willing to challenge de la Manse …
    “St. Joseph’s bones,” Norma murmured. “He makes himself quickly to home, doesn’t he? Oh, milady, ’tis hard to think that you and he—”
    Linnea cut her off with an impatient oath. “Then don’t think about it. And for mercy’s sake, don’t speak of it, least of all to me!”
    Then Linnea sighed. She was behaving like her grandmother, blaming everyone around her for things not within their control. “Forgive me, Norma. You’re in no way to blame for this and I’ve no call to be so sharp with you. Please, let’s just find the Lady Harriet. I won’t feel better until I know Bea—till I know Dorcas is safely away from here.”
    Lady Harriet and Lord Edgar sat at an empty trestle table in the hall, taking a late morning meal alone while the servants prepared for the midday meal. When Linnea and Norma joined them, Lady Harriet gestured impatiently for Norma to take some food and then leave. Linnea she drew to sit beside her on the bench.
    “He shames us before our own people!” the old woman hissed, though not loud enough for it to carry. “Eating here, below the salt!”
    “Is Dorcas well away from here?”
    “Father Martin journeys to Romsey Abbey tomorrow. The maid will accompany him,” Lady Harriet confirmed.
    “Thanks be to God,” Linnea breathed.
    “Yes, and thanks be to me for devising such an escape for her.”
    “’Tis a very good plan,” Linnea agreed. That her grandmother did not give Linnea credit for the idea galled her, but she buried any resentment beneath her relief that her sister was safe.
    “Now,” Lady Harriet said. “We must be agreed. Should word of another daughter of de Valcourt be raised, we will say she has