“I’m sure you are.”Bertatore off a piece of bread and held it out to Lara.“Eat this.It’llsettle your belly.”
The thought of food still made Laraqueasy, but she took a bite to appease Berta, and then another, andanother, her belly growling for more.Berta handed her a cup ofwarm, mulled cider and removed the trencher of sausage and eggsfrom Lara’s sight.
“Thank you,” Lara saidafter she’d finished off the thick slice of bread and a pear.“Ifeel much better now.”
“Good.”Berta continued towatch as Lara splashed water on her face from the washbasin anddoffed her nightshift.
“Do you know whereTalon…where the captain is?”Lara asked as she donned one of herold under tunics and gowns from the chest beside hercot.
“Aye, dearie.He andPhillipe and a few of the other men rode over to Oloron Manor witha missive meant to reach the count and his son, wherever they are.What it says, I’m sure you have as good an idea as I.”
Lara didn’t know the exact words ofthe missive, but she knew the general gist of it would be to leaveher in peace and good health or suffer the consequences at the endof Talon’s sword.
“I don’t know where youtwo were all this time.”Berta set the trencher of sausage and eggsdown for Wolf, who gobbled it up.“Wherever it was, I swear thecaptain’s gained a stone or two around his middle.”
“I discovered he likesberry cobbler,” Lara said with a grin that had Berta muttering asshe fussed around the chamber, though she was head cook and therewere chambermaids to do the tidying.
“Gone the better half of amonth, don’t let anybody know if they’re dead or alive, and he’sgot holes in his side and leg, and she’s talking berry cobbler.She’s yours all right, Sophie the Sixth.And just as mysterious asyou ever were about taking off for a time and showing back up allfat and fine.”
Lara heard every word, as she wasmeant to.Berta had always taken it as a personal insult thatSophie’d never told her best friend about the Hollow, even thoughSophie had explained many times that it was for Berta’s safety asmuch as theirs.A plan Lara meant to stick to.
“I’m off to my place, tocheck on Denys and the house,” she told Berta.“I’ll stop atPatience’s too.I’ll be back in time to help withsupper.”
“There’s no need for youto help in the kitchens,” Berta said.“You’re not thecaptain’slidianymore, you’re…”
Lara waited as Berta searched for thewords to describe Lara’s presence in the keep now.In the captain’sbed.
“The captain’slady.”
Lara gave Berta a kiss on her cheek,thankful for her kindness.Not everyone in the valley would be sokind.She told herself it didn’t matter what others called her.She’d been called names her whole life by those people.Bastard.Witch.Whore.She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin as sheentered the stables.Let them.She knew who and what she was, andso did those who truly cared about her.Those names had neverstopped the people of the valley from seeking her out as a healer,and she didn’t think they would now.Of course, she could mitigateany consequences by refusing to stay at the keep and returning tolive in her own house, but her time with Talon was limited, and shedidn’t want to miss any of it.Especially not to mean-spiritedgossip.If her reputation was tarnished by her living openly asTalon’s mistress, well, it’d never been shiny in the firstplace.
She’d rather have Talon while shecould.
Shadow put up such a fuss when shestarted to ride Gaea out of the stables, she let him out of hisstall to follow her home, where Denys had taken such good care ofthe property and the livestock, all she had to do was walk aroundoutside and admire the shape of things.
Lara pushed open the door to the houseand walked in.Denys had stayed in the antechamber built in thebarn for him and had only gone into the house when necessary.Asshe stood in the middle of the common room, she understood why.Astrange, uneasy quiet thickened the air.A quiet that no longerheld Sophie’s presence.
She turned to walk right back out ofthe house when Patience burst in, Wilric squirming in herarms.
“The captain said you’d behere.”Patience hugged Lara until Wilric let out a howl at beingsquashed between them.
“I see his lungs havegrown apace with his cheeks.”Lara admired Wilric’s roundface.
“The captain said almostthe same thing this morning when he stopped by on his way to OloronManor.”Patience tucked Wilric into his sling and searched Lara’sface.“We were all so worried about you.Phillipe said the captainhad gone after you, that as long as you two were together you’d befine.But you were gone for so long, and now you’re back, alive andwell and in one piece.”
“It wasn’t for lack ofthem trying to kill us.”Unsteady on her feet, Lara plopped down onone of the chairs at the table.The table where Sophie had lain instate.She took a shaky breath and promptly burst into tears.“I’msorry.I, I don’t know what’s happening with me.”Her breakfastthreatened to come up, and she swallowed hard and managed to keepit down, barely.“I threw up this morning in front of your mother,and I’ve been so tired the past few days.I must be coming downwith something.”
“Aye,” Patience said.“Unless I miss my guess, it’s called pregnancy.”
Lara’s belly lurched.
“Are your breasts swollenand sore?”Patience asked.
Lara nodded dumbly.She’d thought themtender from her and Talon’s play, which had only advanced tointercourse seven days ago.Still, she’d tended other women whoswore they became pregnant one night and threw up the very nextmorning.
“When was your lastmenstrual flow?”
Lara tried to think.It had beenbefore market day, before the Hollow, over a month ago now.Shelooked at Patience, who stood rocking Wilric with a sympatheticsmile.
