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To Hastings’s surprise, Severin turned back to her and winked. “Soon,” he said. “Soon we will have this mess cleared up.”
Hastings suddenly remembered when she had first seen him standing in the great hall of Oxborough. He had terrified her with his stillness, his utter control. Ah, but now he was her husband, her lover. He had just scared two villains spitless and he had winked at her.
Her heart swelled.
16
GLENDA WASN’T STUPID. SHE HAD NOT LEFT HER GOWNS IN the lord’s bedchamber. She knew the other servants hated her and thus would steal her precious clothes if they found them. She had kept them well hidden.
When she returned to the great hall with three gowns, several tunics, three shifts, and stockings, Severin merely turned to Hastings, who said, “I suggest, Glenda, that you bring the remainder of your clothes purchased with my lord’s money. If you do not, it will not go well with you.”
It was then that Glenda looked up at Severin, her blue eyes wet and bright with as yet unshed tears. “My lord,” she whispered, “there are naught but two more gowns. Please, my lord, I cannot go naked.” Her voice fell even lower. “I could please you, my lord, more than your lady does. She is a shrew with a loud voice. You wed her only to gain her father’s land and money. All know of the sacrifice you have made. I could ease your trials, my lord.”
Severin didn’t have time to answer. In the next instant, Hastings was on the girl. She grabbed a handful of hair, pulled her head back, and put her face right into Glenda’s. “Don’t you ever speak to my husband like that again, do you hear me, girl? You believe me some dumb cow who will just stand about and be insulted by you? Aye, I am an heiress, but I am not at all ordinary. My lord will attest to that. You don’t know that I am a healer, do you? That means I can also take my revenge upon someone who angers me. I can make your monthly flux never stop. You would bleed and bleed until you were white and drained. You want that, Glenda?”
That was a threat Severin would never have considered. Glenda’s face was already leached of color. She looked terrified.
“Aye, my girl. Never forget that I am a shrew with a loud voice and you will be the first to hear it if you displease me again.” She shoved Glenda away from her. “Go fetch the remainder of the gowns. Get them all or I will see to it that your bleeding begins today.”
Severin watched the girl scurry toward the stairs like the Devil himself was after her. He turned to his wife, who was looking very strange. He expected her to be pleased with herself, but she didn’t appear to be. She was pale, not as pale as Glenda, but still without color. Her eyes had darkened from that pure, soft green to nearly black. He took a step toward her. “What is wrong, Hastings?”
She waved her hands at him. She didn’t want his questions. She just wanted to go bury herself. “It is nothing.”
He drew her up against him. She felt his large hands stroking down her back. “Come, tell me the truth, or I will not be pleased with you.”
She threw back her head. Her face was still pale, her expression pained. “I made a vow to the Healer. I was never to make a threat that I would mean.”
He stared down at her, feeling like a fool. He said very slowly, “And this is the first time you have done it. That means that you would not have given me watery bowels?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how to. Nay, I wouldn’t have done that to you, even had I known what herbs to mix together.”
He cursed. “I don’t even remember now why you made that threat, but you deserved what I wanted to do to you. But then I thought of my bowels and hunkering down next to the pig byre. I let you be. Saint Elrod’s knees, why can I not remember why I wanted to strangle you?”
“Mayhap it is no longer important.”
He frowned down at her, those dark blue eyes of his looking directly into hers. She believed he would no longer chastise her? Did she not understand that she had bent so completely to him, he had not even thought about it, that there had been no need? Very simply she had not displeased him since she’d run into his arms upon his return from visiting his new properties.
Suddenly, she whispered, “I shall have to confess to the Healer when we return to Oxborough. She will probably make my bowels watery as a punishment.”
That made him laugh, but he sobered quickly enough. “Then you really meant what you said to Glenda?”
She lowered her head and nodded. “Not now, but I meant it when I threatened her. She is a sly girl. Sir Roger is besotted with her.”
“He’s a fool.”
“Aye. I only hope that he has not betrayed you because of Glenda.”
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Severin just shook his head, touched his fingers beneath her chin, and forced her face up. “This was some sort of vow you took to have the Healer teach you?”
She nodded, leaning her cheek against his palm. “The Healer has told me since I was just a little girl that I could not harm another person with my knowledge of herbs. She said that if I did, then all my potions would lose their efficacy.”
“Then you will forget that you were serious in your threat. All is still well. You are right, Hastings. Sir Roger is a fool. Ah, here he comes. This should prove interesting.”
Severin knew in his gut that there were coins missing from the thick leather pouch. He could see it in Sir Roger’s eyes, see it in the nervous movements of his hand when he handed Severin the pouch, see his guilt in the sheen of sweat on his forehead. And, he supposed, that is what made up his mind. He counted out the coins on the trestle table and frowned down at them.
“What did you plan to do with the money?” Severin asked, not moving, just standing there tall and strong and dark-browed as the Devil himself.
