Read Online Ann of Cambray by Mary Lide - Free Book Online

a hand or foot without their help. The worst part of that convalescence was having them dance in attendance around me. I was washed and groomed and fed like a lapdog whom they half-feared would bite. And although once it was clear that my wound was mended, I sank from favour, yet grimly Lady Mildred clung to the hope that she would yet make a lady out of me. Well, Gwendyth had hoped so, too. We would see who would win at this second try. One thing at least was true. Under her wing, I need have no fear of any new attempt upon my life. She would not have let a man within the room without first rousing all of Sedgemont about his ears.
    When the summons came for me to attend upon Lord Raoul himself, I had not the strength to resist. Yet I had been half expecting it, like a soldier who knows a battle is coming and keeps one thought always to his defence. The messengers waited at the door in their brilliant reds and golds, while the women braided my hair and hastily cobbled up some dress for me to wear. I heard them tell me how to walk and smile and curtsy, thus and thus, to turn my lord’s anger aside, but paid their advice scant heed, too. But before I left I took care to slip the little hunting dagger Giles had given me into my sleeve. Thus armed and ready, I followed meekly while the guards clashed and swaggered through the castle halls.
    Lord Raoul’s quarters were in a far part of the castle which had been seldom occupied as long as I remembered. Now there were fires blazing in the stone hearths and men-at-arms everywhere in the courtyards and on the stairs. I noted too how even the common men went armed, and the guards kept all their accoutrements about them as if ready to march at short notice. It was unexpected, this martial readiness. And yet, looking about me as we went towards his chambers, I wondered which of these fine fellows was so much Lord Raoul’s man that killing of harmless womenfolk was not accounted a sin. Who among them then was so loyal that a bribe would not ease him into betrayal?
    Lord Raoul believes himself safe, I thought, with his armed companions about him, but if there are murderers and villains in the pack, let him beware. They will slit his throat one day, too. When he is alone and out of favour, let him look for loyalty. I little knew how close my thoughts came to the truth later, how close and how far. But that lies ahead. Then I knew only that for all my brave thoughts, I was shaking when I came to the large room where he was waiting.
    ‘Lady Ann,’ he said, ‘you are welcome.’
    His voice, when he spoke in courtesy, still had that timbre of laughter, a vibrancy about it that I remembered from my childhood. It was, I thought, the only attractive thing about him.
    ‘I trust you are recovered,’ he was saying. ‘You are kind to grace our presence.’
    Courtly words. No sign of that anger that they had warned me against. I made him no reply, but curtsied as low as I could, to do Gwendyth credit, although it galled me to make him obeisance. And if I had not come, I thought sourly, no doubt you would have had your guards haul me here by the hair if it pleased you. But I said nothing, kept my eyes downcast, hands folded together, as was fitting in a great lord’s presence. I had been watching Lady Mildred’s maids; I knew humility now well enough to ape it.
    ‘Sit you here, then,’ he said at last.
    ‘Nay, my liege lord,’ I simpered, ‘I had lief stand as it pleases you.’
    ‘Well, stand,’ he said more abruptly. He heaved himself out of his chair and limped towards the open fireplace, leaning against it while he kicked a fresh log into place with the heel of his boot. Two brindled hounds that had been lying close by stretched and padded behind him. In a corner of the room a chest stood open, its contents spilled out carelessly.
    But his war gear, coat of mail, shield, and sword belt were neatly laid upon a bench, and his war