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asked.
“Aye,” Hastings said shortly. “Here, Eloise, try a bit of the bun.”
But the child backed away. Even Trist at his most charming didn’t move her now. Hastings could feel her retreating even though she was standing very still now.
“I cannot. Beale is right. Mama will look down from Heaven and curse me.”
So be it, Hastings thought. She said matter-of-factly, “Then what would you like to eat? Surely your mama would not want you to starve.”
“Bread and water. That’s what Beale said I should eat.”
“Why?”
The child hung her head. She twisted her foot about in the rushes. “Because I am not good.”
Hastings looked at Severin. He was staring hard at the little girl. She saw he would speak and shook her head. She smiled at Eloise. “Very well, I shall have Alice fetch you some bread. But the milk is better than water, particularly Gilbert the goat’s milk. After you drink the milk you will feel very virtuous. I remember Father Carreg told me that.”
Eloise blinked up at her.
Trist mewled. He stretched out a paw toward the child.
But Eloise didn’t move. She swallowed. “You are right. Trist is very beautiful. My mama said that beauty was sinful.”
“Trist is not beautiful,” Severin said. “He’s an ugly varmint.” He rose. The marten looked up at him, stretched again, and leapt gracefully onto his arm, scurried up to his shoulder, and wrapped his thick tail around Severin’s neck.
Severin said to Hastings, “I know not what has been done to the child but I do know that Richard de Luci was an animal. You will fix it, Hastings.”
He nodded to the little girl and strode from the great hall, Trist’s tail swinging around his neck.
“Ah, here is your bread.” Hastings added, “Eloise, this is Alice. She is very virtuous. You will like her.”
Alice enjoyed the men-at-arms, and surely that must hold virtue for she made them smile and sigh.
Hastings waited with Eloise until she had eaten a thick slice of MacDear’s bread smeared with butter and thick honey. She thought to leave her and work in her herb garden, but she chanced to see the woman Beale standing in the shadow of the solar stairs. No, she wouldn’t leave the child to that horrible creature.
She held out her hand. “Come, Eloise, Lord Graelam is going to leave. I wish to say good-bye to him.”
Very slowly, faltering, Eloise finally put her small hand into Hastings’s.
Graelam looked down at the little girl, drew off his gauntlet, and laid his huge hand beside her cheek. “You will be a good girl. Hastings will take care of you. When you are older, perhaps you can come to visit me in Cornwall.”
Hastings watched this with a smile.
She also noticed that Eloise was too terrified to move. She stood there, her eyes wide with ill-disguised fright on the warrior who was leaning over her. It was as if Graelam noticed it as well. He sighed, smiled, patted Eloise, and straightened.
He said quietly to Hastings, “Her father brutalized her. Her mother evidently treated her like she was the spawn of the Devil, which she is, I suppose, but it isn’t her fault. Several of the servants told me Lady Joan had the child on her knees for hours every day before her prie-dieu. The Sedgewick people are glad their master is dead. I could see very little mourning for Lady Joan either. Did her husband poison her so he could kidnap and wed you? There is no doubt. But that is all in the past now. I don’t think Sir Alan will have any difficulty with any of the servants or the men-at-arms. Severin probably told you that there were several cheers when the people realized he was to be in charge. Even some of the farmers were cheering. Richard de Luci was a despicable man.”
Severin said as he strode up to them, “I have tried to find where they buried Richard de Luci. No one could or would tell me.”
“That seems odd,” Hastings said. “Since the Sedgewick people had no love for him, why would they not tell you? Why would they care?”
Severin shrugged. He looked down at the little girl who was, in truth, a scraggly little crumb. When she grew up he imagined she would be the kind of heiress a man would have to take to wife to gain her holdings. Unlike Hastings. He frowned at that. “You will send me a message when the king decides what to do with the child?”
Graelam nodded. He hugged Hastings, saying against her temple, “Be patient, Hastings. He is young. You will help him become as he should be.”
“And what would that be, my lord?”
“A man who cherishes his wife, a man who looks upon her and sees peace and love and lust.”
