Hedyn gave him a smile that seemed to indicate he found Ranulf’s question rather naive. “There’s a few—the lazy ones—would grumble if they had to get out of their beds, but most of ’em like having something to do and knowing when and where to do it. Idleness makes ’em cranky, and it seems her ladyship is a pleasant sort of mistress. Gave Tecca a new scarf for doing agood job getting her bedchamber ready. The lass was so excited, you’d think she’d been made Queen of the May.”
“Didn’t that upset the other serving women?” Ranulf asked, curious as to how female servants behaved. He’d spent his years among knights and soldiers; he could guess how they’d react. Female servants were more of a mystery.
“Well, if they envied her, it’s made ’em that much more keen to impress Lady Beatrice with their efforts. I hear she promised them all a new gown if they got the whole castle clean and ordered to her satisfaction. And the children—Lord love you, they think she’s the next thing to a fairy queen! She gives any that want them little jobs to do and sweetmeats when they finish.”
Ranulf remembered the children sprinkling herbs on the rushes. They certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. Nor would kindhearted Bea ever chastise them for getting nearly as many herbs on their clothes.
“I tell you, my lord, she’s going to make some lucky man a fine wife.”
Ranulf decided he needed to clarify still further. “I have no intention of marrying Lady Beatrice.”
“No? You seem a goodly age to be married, my lord.”
“Perhaps, but not to that lady.” Since there was no reason to linger, Ranulf got to his feet. “As you’ve nothing new to report, I’ll head back to the castle and wait for the morning patrols to return.”
Hedyn rose and detained the castellan with a hand on his shoulder. “I loved a girl once, my lord, and she loved me,” he said quietly. “But her father took a dislike to me and I was too stubborn and proud to go to him and ask for her hand. So I lost her. She took up with another, and there wasn’t a day went by I didn’t think of her and wish I’d crawled on my belly to her father, if that’s what he wanted, and begged for her hand.”
Ranulf’s hazel eyes gazed steadily and impassively back at the Cornishman. “I’m sorry for your misfortune, Hedyn, but my situation is not the same. And in future, should I require your advice on matters of the heart, I shall ask.”
SOME HOURS LATER, a dryer but no less disgruntled Ranulf stood on the dais of his hall that was now free of dust and cobwebs. Instead of smoke and cheap tallow, it smelled of fresh herbs, straw and beeswax. The tapestries had been beaten free of dust and the tears mended. The lord’s chair sported a bright cushion from Tregellas, and so did the chair where Bea usually sat; it was, at present, conspicuously empty.
Tapping his foot, Ranulf gestured for Maloren to come closer. “Where’s your lady? The meal’s ready.”
“She’s gone to the village, my lord.”
“Why?”
“To see Wenna, my lord.”
Gawan’s widow? “Why would she do that?”
Another serving maid, the young one, stepped forward. “Wenna’s time’s come, my lord,” she explained with deference, and after glancing a little nervously at Maloren. “She sent a lad to fetch Eseld. The village has no midwife now and Eseld’s attended more births than most of the women in the village, so Wenna wanted her to come.”
“Lady Beatrice went with Eseld?”
Both women shook their heads, momentarily confusing Ranulf, until Maloren spoke with her usual peevishness. “That Eseld’s a drunkensot. She’s sleeping in the stables, where she’s been since breaking the fast. When my sweet lamb found the woman half-gone from drink, she offered to go in her place.”
“Lady Beatrice isn’t a midwife,” Ranulf noted with a frown. “What use would she be?”
“My lambkin’s better than no one,” Maloren declared. “She’s learned a lot from Aeda and she talks to the apothecary every chance she gets, so Wenna could do worse—a lot worse. Despite whatsomepeople think, my lady’s a clever girl who knows a lot about medicine.”
Ranulf had often seen Bea chatting with the apothecary when he visited Tregellas, but he’d always assumed she was being more of a nuisance than anything else. It had never occurred to him that Bea was learning something from the man, or that her presence in Constance’s chamber when she gave birth had any other motive than cousinly concern.
However, and despite Bea’s urge to help, the weather wasn’t favorable for dashing off to the village on a mission of mercy. “She went in this rain?”
Maloren frowned even more. “My blessed girl didn’t want the boy to go back without help.”
“How long has she been gone?”
“Howel came after the noon meal, my lord,” Tecca said.
“How many soldiers went with her?”
Tecca flushed. “None, my lord,” she finally ventured.
“She wentalone?”
“Not alone,” Maloren defensively replied. “I was going to go, too, but she told me to stay here and make sure that idiot of a cook prepared something other than fish for the evening meal. That Myghal said he’d take her.”
