Free Boadicea's Legacy by Traci E. Hall

father’s knights are out on patrol on the other side of the forest. This isn’t good.” Ela turned, catching the scared yellow aura of her maid. “You’ll be fine.”
    â€œHow so?” Bertha squeaked.
    â€œI plan to sneak past Father and offer myself in sacrifice to Os before he tears down the manor.”
    Bertha stopped short. “Oh? The last time ye thought to sacrifice yourself, ye got into a heap of trouble.”
    Ela strode faster around the room. “Yea, but this will be different. It will be glorious and an adventure worthy of one with my wild reputation.”
    â€œBut miss, ye’re an innocent!”
    â€œI’m a virgin, Bertha, not naïve.” Ela huffed andswitched Henry to her other shoulder. “And what better way to stop a curse than to find Boadicea’s grave site and demand an end to the torment with her own spear? Hmm? Just think—an end to my nightmares. You know, they’ve just been getting worse.”
    Bertha made a sympathetic sound at the back of her throat.
    As the weeks had passed since Beltane eve, she’d grown more and more exhausted. Meg refused to help her with another spell, saying it was too dangerous to play at magic. Ela was unable to get a decent night’s sleep because her dreams were of detailed battle scenes—or Osbert. It was as if Boadicea herself wanted answers, and Ela was charged with finding them. Her gifts to heal had remained, as had her ability to see auras.
    Only Os had been veiled to her, and she wanted to know why.
    When she wasn’t fighting the Roman army in her sleep, she was dreaming of Os’s face—his lips, eyes, his cool demeanor, his surprised laughter. He was a complex man, filled with honor. She was sorry that her father had thrown him from the manor.
    Os never would have left her to spend the night in a boar pit.
    She sighed. “The Earl of Norfolk is bound to know more about Boadicea than what Osbert does. I will go and see what I can.”
    A chosen few of the Montehue servants knew the Montehue secrets, and Bertha was one of them. “Aye, my lady. But becareful … you’ve not been far from home before. And Sir Osbert is a handsome man, eh?”
    Her face flushed. “I don’t recall.”
    Teasing, Bertha said, “A strong knight such as that could make a woman fall in love.”
    â€œLove?” Ela huffed. “There is more to a match than that.” She paced the floor.
“Love
. If I hadn’t seen Gali and ‘Tia have it, then I wouldn’t believe in it at all.”
    â€œNot just your sisters, my lady,” Bertha chided. “But yer folks too.”
    Tense, Ela fed Henry a piece of chicken left over from her morning meal. “All right, let us be clear. I am surrounded by fools in love, and yet I’ve never felt the spark. It is not meant for me.” She thought of Osbert’s dark gold hair and blue-gray eyes and sighed. He was handsome, but he would never suit. Not if he was afraid of witches.
    â€œBut what about children, my lady?”
    â€œThere’s the problem with the curse, see? This is why I must end it with me. I would marry for children alone, but I lose my powers if I don’t wed for love. Pah. I would wed to gain Father security—but then I lose my abilities that make me
me
. It is a ridiculous curse, and I am tired of it.” She snapped her fingers to Bertha’s pity-filled gaze. “Stop looking at me like that.”
    Henry chittered and then jumped from her shoulder to the bed.
    Ela took a deep breath, patting her pockets to make sure her small knives were there, and then her leg, whereshe’d tied her short sword to her garter. “It is time to go before Osbert and my father start fighting in earnest.”
    Taking the stairs down two at a time, she peered out over the window casement. She expected to see her father and Osbert negotiating terms, since the battle between