Her fingertips were starting to prune.Shestood and stepped out of the tub, toweled herself dry, and wrappedthe towel around her hair.She eyed the woolen stockings Peg hadgiven her and ignored them.It was nowhere near cold enough to wearthose itchy things.She shook out the brown linen long tunic andwas holding it out in both hands when the door burst open andLynette and Myrna sauntered in, their gazes of honed steel leavinga trail of cuts as they razed her unclad body.
“She’s Alyssa’s whelp all right,” Lynettesaid in the Northern tongue as Alina quickly slipped the tunic onover her head and yanked the skirt down her hips and legs.“If hergreen demon eyes weren’t proof enough, her harlot’s body is.”
Myrna smirked.“I remember how the littlestrumpet would strut around, smiling and flirting and temptingevery man who looked her way.”
Alina’s jaw dropped at their naked hatred.She closed it with a snap.Her parents had always been open abouthow her mother had been accused of infidelity by Fenrir and hisyellow beards, of how her father, an admittedly jealous man whereher mother was concerned, had briefly believed them, until they’dbeen proven to be lies.Lies that these women, wives of two ofthose yellow beards, continued to spread.
Lengthening her spine and squaring hershoulders, she met the women’s vindictive glares.“Is there apurpose to this?”she asked.“Whatever this is?”
“We wanted to see for ourselves how alike youare to your mother,” Lynette said, her voice, her smile, drippingvenom.“Our spies tell us that though you look like her, you actmore like your true father than the cuckhold king who’s raised youas his.”
Alina chuffed.“You mean Hamar, thestablemaster, I assume.”The looks on their faces were almost worththe inquisition.Alina laughed, short and harsh.“Did you reallythink my parents would try to keep what happened a secret fromtheir children when the entire royal household witnessed Fenrir’saccusations, as well as the trial where they were proven false?Where his own family admitted he was a lying, schemingmurderer?”
“Admissions they were forced to give uponpain of death,” Myrna spat.“Lies that were sold as truth andcaused our family’s banishment.That took everything from us.”
Roark had told Alina about Myrna’s losing herinfant son on the journey here, about her inability to carry a babeto term since, and she was sorry for her.But not sorry enough tostand here and listen to this.
“You were both there, you know the truth,”she told the women.“Yet you’ve held on to your grievances, basedon known lies for over twenty years.You’ve not only held on tothem, you’ve fed them and nurtured them with your hate until youcan’t see how twisted and pathetic your obsessive need for revengeagainst my family is.”
Myrna stepped up to Alina and slapped heracross the cheek.Hard.“My only regret,” she hissed in the GreenIsles tongue as Alina held a hand to her stinging cheek, “is that Iwon’t get to see their faces when they find out what reallyhappened to you.”She smiled, as thin and cold as ice overtreacherous water.“Though it is a poor trade, an only daughter fortwo sons.”
Cackling like two hens, they left thebathhouse as abruptly as they’d entered.Alina tore the towel fromher head, threw it on the floor, and stormed out after them rightinto Peg.
“Oh my,” Peg said, eyeing Alina’s cheek,which she knew without seeing was red and welting.“Oh dear.”
“It’s nothing,” Alina said, catching sight ofLynette and Myrna as they headed for the manor house.She glancedaround the yard, wishing for somewhere she could go to walk off herstill-seething anger, and saw Roark leading the dapple grey he’dridden yesterday from the stables toward her and Peg.
“What was that all about?”he said in Alina’slanguage, lifting his chin toward Lynette’s and Myrna’s stiff backsas they entered the house.
“Nothing,” Alina said, looking everywhere butat Roark.
He looked to Peg, who pressed her lips tightand shook her head.
“Alina?”He cupped her chin and lifted herhead, cursing as he spied her cheek, which had stopped stinging butstill emanated heat.“Damnation.”A low rumble rose from his chest.“Who slapped you?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Damned if it doesn’t.Roger swore to me thatyou wouldn’t be harmed while here.”
“Apparently his wife and sister-in-law tookno such oaths.”
“Excuse us for a moment, Peg,” Roark said,taking Alina by the arm and walking her and his horse over to thepaddock.He tied the horse off to the fence and took Alina by theshoulders, holding her so that she was facing him.“Tell me,” hesaid.
Alina shook her head and dropped her gaze,embarrassed.She glanced at the manor house, from where she wascertain Lynette and Myrna watched them.
“Alina.”Roark cupped her chin and held hergaze.“Tell me, my lady owl.”
“Lynette and Myrna came into the bath while Iwas naked.They spoke of how I looked and acted like my mother,like a harlot.”
He ran the pad of his thumb along herjawline.“They were—”
“Being bitches, I know,” she said with ashort, harsh laugh.
“What else did they say?”
“Oh, the same old lies about my family thattheir family has been spewing for twenty years.”
“Which one slapped you?”
