Read Online The Betrothed Sister by Carol McGrath - Free Book Online Page A

Elizaveta with a smile playing about her mouth. The princesses had the grace to look away. Ingegerd raised a haughty eyebrow and said, ‘She learns our ways very well, Mother.’
    â€˜And Thea is a lovely young lady, always gracious.’ Elizaveta frowned at her stepdaughters. ‘I am sure you can learn much from Thea too.’ Dutifully the girls nodded. ‘Yes, my lady,’ the eldest of them said, speaking for them all. Thea managed her most gracious smile at them, though she did not feel in the least courteous.
    The princesses were to demonstrate a dance for the ambassadors and they would present gifts to them. Thea knew that in this she could excel. She could outdance them all and if they were asked to play music, Padar had taught her an intricate and haunting tune on the flute. She asked her grandmother if she would present a gift too. ‘No, Thea, but I shall on your behalf and it will be a great gift. I shall present them with a relic for the Patriarch of Novgorod.’
    Thea wondered if the countess had stripped the Exeter minster of all its precious relics. When she asked, Gytha replied, ‘Only the three that I had given to the Exeter minster. I had no intention of them ending up in a Norman cathedral.’
    â€˜May I comb out your hair, Lady Thea? I think it is almost dry,’ Gudrun was saying, lifting a comb from Thea’s little table.
    â€˜I think you may, Gudrun. I shall sit on your stool so that you can reach.’ Thea replaced the silver and sapphire fillet and gossamer-thin silk veil carefully on her bed as Gudrun scrambled from her seat.
    The royal family attended midday prayers. When afternoon arrived, Thea felt her heart hammering against her ribs. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. The royal princesses swept from the chapel and entered the porch that opened into the great hall, led by their governess, Lady Eleanor, a strict woman just returned from France, where she had remained all summer with her own noble family, attending her mother’s funeral, helping her younger sisters by settling two of them in a nunnery and the third into a marriage with an aging widower who kept the neighbouring lands. Her only brother was young and her father was surely dying, she told them with sadness in her eyes.
    On her timely return, order filled the sewing room. Under her strict rule the princesses behaved with decorum. The preparations for the girls’ appearance in front of the ambassadors had proceeded pleasantly. Lady Eleanor had warmed towards Thea and during the few days preceding the presentation, Thea had relaxed. ‘It’s actually enjoyable now we have Lady Eleanor with us,’ she had confided to Gudrun.
    Gudrun laughed and said to her, ‘Well, is it because the princesses have been so unkind to us or is it because you want love that you wish to win this prince, my lady?’
    She had replied solemnly, ‘I want to be loved, Gudrun, and I think I shall love him with all my heart.’ She had bitten her lip and tasted the salty flavour of blood. I can’t be sure of that though, she thought to herself. Nothing in my life has ever been sure. Those who once loved me are gone from me. I only have grandmother, maybe Gudrun and possibly Padar. How long will they remain in my life? My brothers will leave me too, but one day, I will have my own beloved companion to share my life and he will love me back.
    Lady Eleanor was flat-chested and dressed simply as became her station. She was swathed from head to foot in pale linen which did not become her pasty complexion, or what could be seen of it, because her wimple tightly framed her face, making it look grotesquely shrunken. Her gown was girdled by a silver belt from which dangled a small bunch of keys, a pair of golden scissors and a purse. Thea supposed Lady Eleanor’s presence would give the impression that her charges were serious young women, well-educated and carefully schooled in