Page 31 of Katherine the Vixen

Siaspar smiled but in truth, the relief of seeing the man alive and well had made him quite weak. He addressed a mental thanks to Katherine, whose suggestion had allowed him not to sink into despair.

His brother was alive, thank God.

“Join me in the solar, I will tell you what happened,” he answered in Welsh. He would tell him the whole story and swear him to secrecy. Cadell could be trusted to keep a secret. “I think you will enjoy it.”

9

The cry had come from Katherine. Siaspar had heard enough of her cries in the last two months to be in no doubt on the matter. During their various encounters, she had given cries of surprise, of shock, of pain, of desire, of pleasure.

This one was one of frustration—and it made him go to her.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, walking into the storeroom where she had taken refuge. Did she need help?

When she saw him appear in the door frame, Katherine gave a start and the letter she’d been reading disappeared behind her back.

“Forgive me, my lord. I did not hear you come in. I should go. I’m sorry… I only wanted a moment to myself. This won’t happen again, I swear, it’s⁠—”

“You don’t need to apologize to me, Katherine. You have every right to be here anyway, you work here.” He winced at his ill-chosen comment. Why had he said that? It made the distance between them, already vast, all the more glaring. “What is the issue?”

“It is nothing to worry yourself about,” she replied hurriedly, making to walk past him.

Siaspar stopped her with a raised hand.

“It most definitely is, if it made you cry out so. Something is bothering you. What is it?” he asked, gesturing at the letter she had hidden at his entrance. Did she really think he would not have noticed or wouldn’t ask? “Did you receive bad news?”

Suddenly he was desperate to know. After what had happened to him the other day, he knew how devastating receiving bad news in that cold, impersonal way could feel.

“I…I don’t know,” she whispered, bringing the letter in front of her again. “I am trying to read this letter from home but I cannot.”

Something within Siaspar melted. He could tell that it cost her to admit to this failing. He also understood why she had not wanted to be seen in the storeroom. Many people would agree that she should not have hidden to read personal missives when she was supposed to be working in the kitchen.

But he didn’t care. He of all people knew that servants were real people with real lives that mattered to them as much as his own life mattered to him. And if this letter was filled with news from a family she hadn’t seen in months, understandably, she would want to find out what it said.

Except that she could not, because she could not decipher the script.

Katherine was in despair.

The long-awaited letter from her family had finally arrived and she could not make sense of the fanciful script. Unable to write more than his own name, his father would have asked the scribe at the local fair to pen the letter for him but, as a result, she could not read more than the odd word. The few names she recognized only added to her frustration. The letter held news of her loved ones and she could not tell if it was good or bad.

Had they received the money? What had happened to the new baby? And why did her father feel the need to mention Harry? Was he unwell?

Tears of frustration welled into her eyes. Was it bad news?

“I cannot read this. It is too difficult for me,” she said, mortified to have to admit as much to a man who was far more educated than anyone she had ever met.

But instead of mocking her, Siaspar nodded and glanced toward the letter. “May I? Perhaps it is not too difficult for me.”

After a brief hesitation, she handed him the letter. She would trust that her father would not have dared dictate anything too damning to a stranger, knowing that she might have to resort to someone else reading the letter to her. But even if he had been very blunt, she would have taken the risk. She was too desperate to know that everything was all right.

“Thank you.”

Siaspar’s eyes darted over the document, then he smiled at her reassuringly, as if to indicate it was not bad news.

“Your mother was delivered of a healthy boy two weeks ago. A little James. They thank you for the money you sent them as it provided for the midwife they called to assist in the delivery which proved more difficult than anyone had anticipated.”

His voice was soft, his tone neutral. Katherine could see that he was trying to deliver the news in a comforting way. Nevertheless, it was a blow. Because she understood that, had she not agreed to Lady Malpas’ outrageous bargain, her little brother and possibly her mother too, might have died.

The money she had earned by surrendering her maidenhead had saved them both.