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She turned to her husband, who was staring down at his soup. “You do not care for the cherries, Severin?”
He looked clearly distracted. “What? Aye, Hastings. It is tasty.”
“Will you sleep in your own bedchamber tonight?”
He cocked his head at her. “If you are well enough. I did not want to take the chance last night that I would roll on you and mayhap hurt you.”
“I am well enough. Where did you sleep last night?”
“Here in the great hall, wrapped in a blanket, listening to my men snore. Edgar the wolfhound curled up next to me.”
Mayhap he had. Surely he couldn’t have bedded Marjorie with Eloise in the same chamber. She began to feel better.
Eloise said, “I did not sleep well last night with Dame Agnes because she snores too. She’s not like Marjorie. She’s bony and her breath isn’t sweet.”
Hastings saw the great hall, all its people, through a haze of misery. Severin had bedded her. He had bedded another woman as his wife had slept in his bedchamber close by. It was too much.
She feared what she would do. Her fist closed about her knife. Slowly, she rose. Trist mewled but remained on her shoulder, wrapping himself now around her neck.
She said nothing to either her husband or anyone else, just walked slowly across that huge expanse that was filled with laughing people until she reached the solar stairs.
Then she heard Severin call out, “Trist, come back here. You have not eaten enough as yet.”
But Trist didn’t move.
Severin did not come after her.
But Marjorie came. She knocked softly on the bedchamber door. Hastings believed it would be Dame Agnes and called for her to enter. When she saw it was Marjorie, wearing an exquisite gown of saffron wool that Hastings had worn only one time before, she wanted to yell for the woman to leave her alone. But she didn’t. She remained silent, watching her walk gracefully to the bed.
“Are you feeling all right, Hastings? Severin asked me to see you. He is concerned.”
Hastings just stared at her. “Why are you wearing my gown?”
“I did not wish to but Severin insisted. I was not able to bring many things from Sedgewick, and naturally I wanted Eloise to have enough. I had only two gowns and they were both quite dirty. He insisted I wear one of yours. Do you mind? If you do, I will remove it immediately.”
“Aye, I mind. Will you remove it here in my bedchamber, Marjorie? Or will you wait to remove it in your own bedchamber whilst Eloise sleeps with Dame Agnes?”
“Ah,” Marjorie said, as she ran her white fingers through her incredible silver hair. “So that is the reason you left the great hall. The reason Eloise slept with Dame Agnes was because I had a cough that kept awakening her. It was irritating. I wanted Eloise to sleep, not just lie there, listening to me cough and cough.”
Hastings looked beyond her to her grandmother’s tapestry. How clear and vivid the colors still were. She said nothing.
“I will go to my bedchamber now and remove this gown. I am sorry that I did not ask you if you minded. You were sleeping and Severin just gave it to me. I had no idea the gown was so important to you.”
“Aye, it is.”
“Then I will leave you. I will return the gown very soon. I hope you will be well tomorrow, Hastings.”
“Aye, I do too. I did not hear you cough at all downstairs, Marjorie.”
“No, it went away this afternoon.”
“Marjorie! What are you doing here?”
It was Severin, standing in the open doorway, looking large and intimidating, and Hastings hated him more at that moment than she ever had, even when he’d held her down and forced her.
“I am just speaking to Hastings. I will leave now and remove the gown. I will return it shortly.”
“What are you talking about?”
