face. She tried to compose herself, but the man was staring even harder at her.
'I'm sure we've —'
Ma Margot clapped her hands briskly. 'Out, girls, quickly now, I'm sure this fine gentleman is impatient to get on with his fun, he doesn't want you two chattering on, ruining his evening'
She shooed the girls towards the door.
'Now, sir, you'll find everything you need in that cupboard and if there's anything else you desire, I'll have Luce stand at the end of the passage and you can call her to fetch it.' Ma wagged a stumpy finger at little Finch. 'You do exactly what this gentleman tells you or you'll have me to answer to.'
The last thing Elena glimpsed was the child's terrified face as he watched the man cross to the bed.
At the end of the passage, Ma grabbed Luce and thrust her against the wall with a force that made the girl cry out.
You stay there, all night if needs be, case he wants anything— that'll teach you to disobey my instructions. When he's ready to leave you take him straight to the door. Don't let him go wandering around. And if he asks about Holly here, you tell him that she used to work in the market in Norwich till she came here. You got that?'
'Yes, Ma.' Luce nodded earnestly, rubbing her bruised shoulder.
Ma led Elena downstairs and outside, pulling her well away from the staircase to the chambers before stopping again. 'You should never have gone in there. I couldn't refuse a man like him. It would have made him think we'd got something to hide. But if you and Luce had done what I said, he would never have seen you. You know who he is, I suppose?'
Elena was trembling. 'I think he might be. . . Lord Osborn's brother.'
'Yes, Hugh of Roxham. Talbot recognized him at once. Now Hugh knows he's seen you before, but it's plain he's not sure where. How often have you met him?'
'I... I saw him in the Great Hall the first evening Osborn came to the manor, but only at a distance and he never spoke to me. I didn't think he'd even noticed me for there was a crowd of servants.' Elena gnawed at her knuckle. 'Do you think he's come here looking for me?'
'He's not asked about a runaway, and even if he has somehow discovered Raoul came here the night he died, he can't know you were the girl who pleasured Raoul... or murdered him,' she added with a glower. 'There's no reason to think he was looking for anything more than pleasure, and where else would any gentleman come for that but here? Ma Margot's is known far and wide as the best. So if we all stick to the same story, we can convince him he's seen you on the streets in Norwich, that's why you look familiar. It's as well we dyed your hair. You've not told Finch anything about yourself, have you, like where you come from?' Ma grasped Elena's hand, digging her long nails into the flesh. You'd best tell me now if you have.'
Elena winced, but shook her head. Ma searched her face for a long time, then grunted and dropped her hand. 'Go on, get yourself to bed and be sure to keep out of sight till Luce tells you he's gone.'
But Elena didn't move. 'Ma, what's Hugh going to do to little Finch?'
'What he does is no concern of yours,' Ma snapped. 'But you'd best pray that he gets so much pleasure from it that it puts any thoughts of you right out of his head.'
'But he's not going to hurt the boy, is he? He's so very small.'
Ma frowned and Elena shrank back, thinking she was about to lash out. But when Ma spoke there was an unusual gentleness in her voice.
'A little, that's inevitable, but I warned him not to go too far.'
She looked up at Elena, a pained but savage expression in her yellow-green eyes.
'All things pass, my darling, that's what you've got to hold on to. In just a few short years Finch will be a young man. He'll be able to do what he likes then to old men and women too who'll be only too willing to make fools of themselves and lick the ground he walks on just for a smile or a tender caress from a beautiful young man. It'll be them suffering then, not him. Trust me, one day you'll feel