The Brat Page 0,115

the door to get their attention and seemed to slip back inside, never expecting Osgoode would enter with Balan."

"You have lost your mind, my lady!" Cecily said harshly. "I was in the woods with Gatty's daughters, Estrelda and Livith, collecting rushes as you ordered."

"I suspect if I ask them, Estrelda and Livith will say that you wandered off on your own to collect rushes. That you rejoined them only to return to the keep," Murie said. Her mouth tightened when panic crossed Cecily's face. "Aye, that is the way of it, is it not?"

"Nay!" the maid cried, and then repeated desperately, "What would I gain by his death?"

"Aye, that is a question. 'Tis why I kept denying you could be the culprit when the others suggested it had to be you or Osgoode. There was nodding for you to gain - or so I thought," Murie admitted. "But I have been pondering the matter ever since Osgoode described the dress you took ... and the only thing that strikes my mind is Baxley."

"Baxley?" Cecily echoed with alarm. "I hardly know the man. I only met him the one time here at the castle, when he flirted with Estrelda and myself."

"You lie," Murie said harshly. "You met him at court. Emilie pointed the two of you out to me on the morning of the Feast of St. Agnes."

When Cecily stilled, Murie nodded. "She said, 'Oh, look, your maid has a beau.' At the time I just smiled and thought it sweet. I did not know that the man would turn you into a murderous bitch."

"Baxley had nothing to do with this," Cecily snarled, her denials at last become rage. "I am the one who wanted Balan dead. Me. Not Baxley. He would never suggest such a thing."

"Why?" Murie asked. "He has never done a thing to you."

"He married you!" Cecily snapped.

When Murie just stared at her, Cecily threw her hands up in the air. "He married you and brought you to this godforsaken place!"

"What has that to do with it?" Murie asked with confusion.

"Gaynor is a fine castle. It may be having difficulties at the moment, but many castles are since the plague. It will regain its former glory soon. In a year or two or three - "

"I do not have a year or two or three," Cecily said harshly, then shook her head with disgust. "You do not understand. You do not see at all."

"Nay, I do not," Murie agreed.

"Look at me," Cecily demanded. "See me. I am growing old and am still unwed and childless. And 'tis all your fault."

"Mine?" Murie stared at her with dismay.

"Aye. Yours. I had a beau at Somerdale. William."

"The steward?" Murie asked with surprise.

"Aye. We were to marry, but then your parents died and the king showed up and deemed your nursemaid Elsie too old and unfit to travel."

Murie's head lifted slightly. Elsie had been a dear woman, but she had been growing old, and the journey to court would have been hard on her. Murie had forgotten all about it until now.

"I had the unfortunate luck of being in the room when the king decided this, and so he pointed to me and announced that I was to be her replacement. I was to accompany you to court, all without a by your leave. There was no asking whether I wanted to go. He ordered it, and I had to obey.

"I was furious. I had no desire to play nursemaid to some spoiled brat. I was a maid in the great hall, being trained to supervise the other maids. I had little if any interaction with you at all and had no desire to. I went to William in tears, hoping he would find some way to fix things. But there was no way. All he could do was soothe me and assure me all it meant was a delay in our plans. I would go to court with you, he said, and in four or five years when you married as most girls did, you and your husband would return to Somerdale and we could be married then and start our lives together.

"So," she finished with disgust. "I accompanied you to court and suffered the gropings and propositions of drunken lords who saw me in the hall and assumed I was as cheap and easy as the other maids. And a year passed, and another and another, until five years were gone and still you were not wed. And then six,