hand gently on Helen's shoulder. This time, when Helen reached up to nudge her hand away, Nell caught her fingers and held them firmly. "You must try to stop."
"No," Helen moaned, trying to pull her hand free. "This rash is driving me mad."
Nell's mouth tightened, and she was silent for a moment. To Helen it seemed that she was listening for something. She understood what when Nell said, "You are wheezing, girl. Are you having trouble breathing? Damn! I should have told Ducky to have the others bring up a fresh bath. We should be trying to wash the posy essence off you." Releasing Helen's hand, she whirled away and hurried out of the room.
Helen promptly resumed scratching herself. She knew she shouldn't, even wanted to stop, but she felt as if her skin were crawling with hundreds of spiders, their little legs tickling across her flesh.
It seemed like hours that her aunt was gone, though in reality it was probably only moments. The woman returned with a battery of servants bearing Lady Shambleau's own private tub and fresh bathwater.
Ducky was hard on her heels, leading the old woman from whom she'd gotten the scented oils.
The healer took one look at Helen and rushed to the bed to grab her hands and hold them. "No," she said firmly when Helen tried to struggle. "Don't let her scratch," she ordered Ducky. The maid rushed forward to take the healer's place, but it required Nell's added strength to restrain Helen enough so that the healer was free to begin mixing her salves and ointments.
"Try not to remove the smell," Helen ordered spitefully, writhing so that the fur would scratch her back since she could not use her fingers.
Joan turned an exasperated glance on her, but it was Nell who spoke up: "Surely you do not think he will try to consummate the marriage now?" she cried in disbelief.
Helen's thoughts at that moment were more along the lines of revenge. She could no longer discern the foul stench clinging to her. She was positive it had killed her ability to smell. But she could tell by the reaction of the others that it was still strong upon her, and as she lay there, desperate to relieve an all-over body itch that would not be relieved, she was thinking that she and her husband should spend a lot more time together. Should get better acquainted. She was going to cling to him as English ivy did a wall, she decided grimly.
"Just try to not remove the smell," she hissed when she realized they were still waiting for her answer.
Shaking her head, Old Joan tossed aside the herbs she had been mixing and started afresh.
Hethe crept down the hall, mostly feeling his way in the darkness. The sun had not yet risen, though he had spied the orange and pink streaks of dawn on the horizon from the window of the small, cold bedchamber he had been given. It had not been a comfortable night. He had shunned the bed so as to avoid the fleas and had again slept huddled in the cracked chair by the cold fireless hearth. Even so, it had been better than sleeping in the room his bride had poisoned with the odors of posy and stinkweed.
Dear God, just the idea of returning there now made him wince. But it must be done. Lord Templetun had retired directly after he and the other men had seen Hethe to his bridal bed. At least, the man had not been below when Hethe had gone down to find Lady Shambleau and his wife's maid. Templetun had also apparently managed to sleep through the disturbance that had followed the bedding ceremony. That being the case, the man was ignorant of what had gone on last night, and Hethe was hoping to keep him that way. Which meant that when the king's man arrived to demand proof of the consummation, Hethe would provide it. He doubted if his bride was in any state to do so. From all accounts, she had had a rough night.
There would surely be hell to pay if the king's man wasn't provided with proof and Hethe had had just about enough hell of late. So, as the first streaks of light peeked over the horizon, he'd ripped a strip of linen off the top of the bed - as far from where the flea-ridden fur had been as possible - shook it out, then tied it around his face