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“Come on, you miserable hag. Why do you not start screaming now, you mad old woman?”
17
WHEN SEVERIN WAS AT HIS MOST FURIOUS HE LOOKED AS calm as King Edward’s chancellor, Robert Burnell. He walked into the chamber, saw Glenda jerk about to see him, saw her face freeze. She slowly moved away from his mother. He said nothing, just smiled at his mother, walking straight to her.
“You are lovely, madam,” he said, leaned down, and kissed her.
She looked terrified. He continued to smile at her and lightly stroke his fingertips over her pale cheek. He called over his shoulder, “Glenda, come here.”
His mother paled even more. “I don’t want her here,” Moraine whispered. “Please, Severin, do not let her come close to me again.”
“Ah, but I do want her to come here, Mother. Please do not worry. I want you to trust me.” He turned to the young girl who was standing there beside him, her arms folded beneath her breasts, shoving them up and forward, for his pleasure, he supposed.
“I was standing outside the door. It was cracked open. I heard what you said to my mother.”
The girl didn’t move. She merely smiled up at him, clearly disbelieving him. “I just told her how very lovely she looked. I told her that it would give me great pleasure to sew more gowns for her. Surely this is what you heard, my lord.”
“My man Gwent hates cheats. I hate liars.” He calmly grabbed Glenda’s hand and dragged her to him. He stripped off the clothes she was wearing, new clothes, clothes she had not given over to Hastings the day before. He stripped her to her plump hide. He even pulled her out of her stockings and shoes.
“Now,” he said, “I believe there is something for you to wear in my mother’s old trunk. If you don’t wish to wear the rags you made her wear, then you may travel from Langthorne naked. It matters not to me.”
“My lord, you cannot mean this. Surely, I cannot go out of here naked. The men would ravish me, they would—”
“That is likely,” Severin said, sounding bored. “Do what you want, Glenda. I just want you gone by the midday bells.”
He watched Glenda scurry from the bedchamber. He turned to his mother and smiled. “No one will ever torment you again. No one. I give you my oath on it.”
Lady Moraine was wringing her hands. “She is cunning, Severin. Sir Roger had no chance. He did not know that she dragged me from Langthorne and left me to die in the forest.”
“He should have known. He is a man. He is responsible for Langthorne and all its people. A man must be responsible for his actions. I will send Hastings to you. I wish to see color in your cheeks.”
Not only was Glenda gone by midday, but Sir Roger was also, the pouch of coins gone as well.
“Shall I find them, my lord?” Gwent asked, and rubbed his gnarled hands together.
“Aye, Gwent, find them, take the pouch, then let them go. I fear Sir Roger will not be long pleased with his actions. I rather believe he deserves what will happen to him. I think it more a punishment than simply killing the fool.”
“It is an idea that had not occurred to me, my lord,” Gwent said. “There is the feel of a never-ending pain for Sir Roger in it. Aye, it’s good.” He strode from the great hall.
Severin turned to see Hastings walking slowly, her head down, toward him. She frowned as she kicked dirty rushes out of her path. And he saw her clearly thinking that she had forgotten the rushes. Then, when she saw him, she stopped and turned red in the face.
He raised a thick black eyebrow at her. “What have you done, Hastings? Worry not about the rushes, you will change them quickly enough. It matters not.”
She stared at him and suddenly she was again as clear to him as Edgar the wolfhound. He laughed. It was too much, she ran at him, pounding her fists against his chest, which gave him no pause at all. He continued to laugh until he realized that his men were looking at him, utterly bewildered. He brought her fists down in his large hands and held them at her sides. “What is wrong, sweeting? Has someone offended you? Why did your face turn red when you saw me?” Then he said, very close to her ear, “Ah. I plan to take you in a very different way tonight. I want you to think about it, Hastings. All the ways a man and a woman can come together. We will do all of them and I vow you will like them, each and every one.”
She whispered against his chest, “But my bottom was in the air.”
“Aye, I just wish there had been some more light. All I could do was feel you. A lot of soft, extraordinary flesh, Hastings. Your bottom pleases me. I told you that it did, do you not remember?”
She groaned, then pulled back in the circle of his arms. “You will mock me until I will want to kill you, Severin. Now, I heard what Gwent said. I think you are wise. As for what you did to Glenda, I trust you did not enjoy it as you stripped her.”
“Not at all,” he said. “I have scarce ever been so angry before in my life, except those times with you, of course.” And she knew it was true because he was looking toward Thurston, thoroughly distracted. “Go, my lady. I have much to do before our meal.”
It was one week later that Lady Moraine, not quite so pale and thin now, said in a clear, crisp voice, “I know who Thurston must marry.”
Knives and spoons clattered to plates. There was utter silence in the great hall. Severin wasn’t yet used to his mother being with him in her mind, but she had been, with no relapses since Hastings had begun giving her the Healer’s potion. She drank a bit of it every morning.
“Who is it, Mother?”
