Part 19 (1/2)
”Then I shall ask her sister's name and suggest a visit,” he said simply.
”Evelinde told me the name,” Merry murmured, but then paused. The sound of the great hall door opening had distracted him, and Alex was glancing toward it, a scowl claiming his lips as he saw who entered. Merry followed his gaze, her eyebrows rising slightly as she saw that it was G.o.dfrey. The lad hadn't attended the sup and she'd thought he must be on a ch.o.r.e for Alex. Judging by her husband's irritated expression as he stood to meet the lad, if he had been on a ch.o.r.e for him, G.o.dfrey hadn't been quick enough about the task.
”What the h.e.l.l took you so long?” Alex asked irritably as the boy came to a stumbling halt before him. ”I sent you to the village shortly after noon. You should have been back hours ago.”
”I am sorry, my lord,” G.o.dfrey said quickly, and then, shamefaced, admitted, ”I met a courier on the way, got turned around in the woods, and lost my way back. I have been wandering for hours. I-Here. He gave me this letter to bring to you.”
Alex scowled, but took the letter and barked less angrily, ”You missed the sup. Go to the kitchens and get yourself something to eat.”
”Aye, my lord. Thank you, my lord.” The boy hurried off, disappearing into the kitchens as quickly as his legs would carry him, probably more in a rush to escape his lord's angry glare than an eagerness to find food.
Merry's gaze slid back to her husband as he untied the ribbon around the scroll and then unrolled it. ”What is it?”
”'Tis just a letter from his father, checking on how he is faring,” Alex said. ”He frets about the boy unnecessarily. I think 'tis because he is so small for his age and looks so much younger than he is.” He paused to glance at her and then added with a grin, ”I hope our own sons inherit their size from me.”
Merry smiled faintly, her mind immediately moving to ponder their possible children and what they might look like as she asked, ”How old is G.o.dfrey?”
”Sixteen. Near a man, really, and much older than most boys are when sent away to squire, but as I say, I suspect his size and young looks have made his parents overprotective,” Alex murmured as he turned back to continue reading the missive.
Merry's eyes widened with surprise. ”G.o.dfrey is indeed small and young-looking for his age. I would ha'e guessed him to be no more than twelve or thirteen. He barely has any meat or muscle on him.”
”Aye, well, he's stronger than he looks,” Alex murmured, setting the letter on the table. He then gave her a quick kiss even as he got to his feet to move toward the kitchen. ”Excuse me, wife, I forgot to ask him how he fared with the task I'd set him. We can continue this discussion about sending Edda away later in our room where prying ears will not hear.”
Merry nodded her understanding and watched him head to the kitchens before moving to join Edda by the fire as she'd promised.
”Alex looked annoyed,” Edda commented as Merry took the seat across from her and began to poke through the endless mending that needed doing. ”Is G.o.dfrey failing in his position of squire?”
”Nay. Well, I do not think so. Alex apparently sent the boy to the village after lunch and expected him back much sooner, but G.o.dfrey got lost on the return journey.”
”From the village?” Edda asked with a bark of disbelieving laughter. She shook her head. ”That boy is forever getting himself lost. He needs a couple of lessons in navigating ere he's let loose again, else he'll find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and beset by bandits.”
”Aye,” Merry said, and decided she would mention as much to her husband this evening when they retired to their room.
”I need a refill on my mead, Merry,” Edda announced suddenly, setting her sewing aside. ”How about you?”
”Nay. I am fine, but I can fetch it fer ye, if ye like,” Merry offered, eager for an excuse to escape the mending. It was not one of her favorite tasks.
”Nay, nay, that is all right,” Edda said, getting to her feet. ”My fingers are sore and stiff from sewing and I could use the chance to stretch my legs. You go on and get started, I shall return directly.”
Merry watched her go and then glanced down to the braies in her lap and grimaced. She really wasn't in the mood for sewing, but it had to be done. She set to work, her thoughts wandering as she sewed, and then glanced up eagerly when the kitchen door opened once more and she saw Edda returning.
”I have decided I am rather weary tonight, Merry,” the older woman announced, pausing beside her chair. ”I think I shall retire early and finish this tomorrow night.”
”Oh, all right,” Merry murmured, and then offered a smile. ”Well, good sleep then, Edda.”
”Thank you, dear. And you, too. See you in the morning.”
Merry nodded and watched her head off, then glanced back to her sewing once more, but managed only one st.i.tch before restlessness had her setting it aside and wandering to the trestle table. She thought she would wait there for her husband's return and then suggest they, too, retire early. She was not tired herself, but was bored, and they might as well retire to their rooms where they could discuss Edda in privacy and decide how they were to approach her on taking a visit with her sister.
Merry settled at the table and began to toy absently with the letter from G.o.dfrey's father, rolling the scroll around on the tabletop as she waited. After another moment's pa.s.sing, she then unrolled the scroll for something to do and glanced over the contents with a bored eye. It was exactly what Alex had said it was, a letter from G.o.dfrey's father asking about his welfare and how he was working out as squire. It wasn't until her eye slid to the signature that Merry's ennui died an abrupt death.
”Lord Alfred Duquet,” she breathed the name aloud, her mind suddenly in an uproar. Evelinde had said Duquet was the name of Edda's sister's husband. G.o.dfrey was Edda's nephew? Surely Alex would have mentioned it, she thought, and then recalled his saying that he'd forgotten Edda even had a sister and could not recall her name. He didn't know, she realized. And neither G.o.dfrey nor Edda had mentioned it. Why?
Not for any good purpose, she decided with grim certainty and headed for the kitchens. This was something she needed to talk to Alex about at once. If G.o.dfrey was Edda's nephew, he might very well have been the one behind the attacks on their journey, she thought, and suddenly recalled that he was the first person she'd run into on bringing Alex back from the waterfall. He'd claimed-and she'd believed him when he said-that he was coming from camp to relieve himself, but now she wondered if he hadn't been checking to see if his attempt had succeeded and his lord was dead. He certainly hadn't continued on with his ch.o.r.e to relieve himself that she knew of.
Merry didn't like to believe the thoughts now crowding her head, for she liked G.o.dfrey, but this news placed suspicion firmly on his head...and Edda's, she realized unhappily, suddenly sure the kind woman who had been so welcoming to her since her arrival was just a facade. Evelinde had been certain Edda could not have changed, but Merry had been sure she was wrong. Now, however, she tended to think her sister-in-law might be right. It still didn't all make sense, but with this new bit of information perhaps she and Alex could sort it out. Or at least question the pair of them and get to the bottom of matters, she hoped, pus.h.i.+ng the kitchen door open and peering around the busy room for her husband.
Her mouth tightened with displeasure when she didn't spot either him or G.o.dfrey, and then her gaze landed on Una chatting with the old servant, Bet, and she headed in her direction.
”Una? Have you seen Alex?”
”Aye. He took G.o.dfrey up to the tower.”
”Whatever for?” she asked with surprise.
”Well, he was in here asking G.o.dfrey about something he'd sent him to the village for when Edda came in and teased the boy about his complete lack of direction. She said only a fool could get lost on the way back from the village, or someone completely ignorant of navigation. She then asked Alex had he not taught the boy to navigate by the moss on the trees during the day and the stars at night.” Una grimaced and muttered, ”The cow. She was making like 'twas all teasing, but she was criticizing him for all that.”
Merry felt her mouth compress, knowing Edda's words had probably felt as sharp to Alex as her own insult to his sense of responsibility when she'd suggested it was not well done of him to plan a trip to Donnachaidh without first tending to his men's fighting skills here.
”I thought he'd snap at her, but no such luck,” Una said glumly.
Merry raised an eyebrow at the disappointment in her voice. Una's comments made it more and more obvious that not only was she not warming to Alex's stepmother, but instead she seemed to be growing a stronger antipathy to her, but Merry had no idea why that was. Even the maid could not explain it, claiming 'twas just a feeling she had about the woman.
”Anyway,” Una went on, drawing her attention back to her explanation, ”yer husband decided he'd teach the boy what he could tonight and ushered him off up to the tower to train him in how to navigate by the stars.”
”I did not see them pa.s.s through the great hall.”
”Nay, he used the back stairs.” Una turned and gestured to a stairwell in the back corner of the room. ”It meets up with the stairs from the second floor about halfway up.”
”Is there a guard on that tower?” Merry asked sharply, a bad feeling flowing through her.
”Nay. Well, there was, but he came down to find a warm drink just as Edda entered, and when Alex decided to take G.o.dfrey up there, he said he'd keep an eye out and suggested the guard give his legs a stretch. He's going to send for him when he's done.”
”Then he and G.o.dfrey are alone up there?” she asked with sudden alarm.
”Aye,” Una answered, and then asked, ”What is it? Ye've gone all pale.”
”G.o.dfrey is Edda's nephew,” Merry muttered, and rushed for the stairs, suddenly sure her husband should not be alone with G.o.dfrey.
chapter Sixteen.
M erry was perhaps halfway up the winding tower staircase when Edda suddenly stepped out of the shadows a step or two above her. The woman's appearance brought an abrupt halt to her headlong rush, and Merry eyed her warily and pressed a hand to the stone wall to steady herself.
”Edda,” she greeted, managing to keep her voice polite.
”Why, Merry dear, wherever are you headed in such a hurry?” Edda asked lightly, gracing her with one of her sweet smiles.