Read Online The Sumerton Women by D. L. Bogdan - Free Book Online Page A

over them so that a great tent with several different little “chambers” had been erected. In it they drew out the caterpillar’s house while two dozen of the little creatures squirmed and wiggled about in someone’s goblet they had taken from the table. To ensure the caterpillars would not escape, Cecily covered the goblet with a plate from the same unfortunate guest, who likely had to scope out new dining ware.
    In their pavilion they drew and giggled and eventually fell asleep cuddled on one of the bearskin rugs. Brey held Cecily in his arms that night.
    “I’m so glad I’m marrying you,” he told her as they drifted off.
    “Me too,” said Cecily, and she meant it.
    Despite anything else that would transpire, she didn’t doubt that they would have a good life.
     
    Hal entered Grace’s chambers after Father Alec had departed. Hopefully the priest has shamed her into sense, Hal thought, anger flushing his cheeks as he pushed the door open with trembling hand.
    Grace lay in her bed, blond hair about her shoulders in a wavy cloud. Angelic, Hal thought. How contrary to her display! He shook his head in wonderment as he beheld her.
    He stood for a long while, one hand on his hip, the other roving through his hair over and over in an involuntary gesture of nervousness.
    At last Grace sat up. Her tear-streaked face was stricken. “Oh, Hal ...”
    “Don’t.” Hal held up a silencing hand. “Please.” He sighed. “Oh, for love of everything holy, Grace, why? Whatever you feel for me, why? We are ruined now. We will not recover from this. And what’s worse is that Brey’s chances may be ruined as well.” He shook his head. “Do you know at all what you have done?”
    Grace’s eyes made their appeal. “I do, Hal, I do,” she whispered. “I cannot say what came over me. It was like a devil ... I just knew I couldn’t bear it anymore. I couldn’t bear any of it and I wanted it to go away. I remember the feeling of tearing at my clothes—in that moment there was a strange freedom.” She regarded Hal, her eyes lit with the peculiar pleasure of the memory.
    Hal shook his head again in disgust. “You enjoyed it, didn’t you?”
    “Yes. For one moment I enjoyed it,” she said. “I was unfettered. I was free of all of it, all the pain and the constraints. And then I saw all the faces... .” Her voice broke. “And I knew I could never be free, not of the pain, not of anything. I knew then what I had done, how shameful it was. I did not plan to do such a disgraceful thing, God knows I would never have planned it. And I know what it has done to us.” She paused. “We—we have to protect Brey. Perhaps when he and Cecily marry they can be sent away to court—”
    “Do you think the king would receive him after he learns of the goings-on in our household?” Hal retorted with a bitter, joyless laugh.
    “As if his goings-on are any more dignified!” Grace railed. “You know he plans to marry the Boleyn woman. There’s even a special court being convened to set aside the queen! He’s hardly one to—”
    “It doesn’t matter!” Hal cried. “He is the king and the biggest hypocrite in the land! Convenient for him to be one and the same. If he finds our son unworthy based on the scandal you created—”
    “The scandal I created!” Grace seethed. “Who is the hypocrite now, Harold?”
    Hal bowed his head. He hated this, confrontation, arguing. The pain was strangling them both. He drew in a slow breath.
    “We must go on, Grace,” he told her. “Somehow. We will keep to ourselves. We’ve no choice now. And after a while, perhaps it will fade away... .”
    He turned from her. He did not want to lie to her face.
    Such things never faded away.

4
    S ummer passed, fading into autumn. Time did nothing to alleviate the pain permeating every pore of the Pierce household. It seemed to ooze forth from the very castle itself, chokingly pungent as the pus of a plague sore.
    A year passed. Then another and