In the Shadow of Midnight - By Marsha Canham Page 0,86
manage on my own. Thank you.”
He offered an exaggerated bow and strode away to rejoin the others in front of the budding fire. Ariel waited until he was too far to hear the words she mouthed under her breath, then turned and plumped herself down on a low, three-legged stool.
Robin had heard quite clearly and stood staring, a bundleof clothing in one hand and a goblet of mulled wine in the other.
“Have … you and Eduard argued?”
The again was unspoken, but loudly implied.
“Your brother does not argue,” she snapped. “He prefers to exchange insults.”
“My lord brother has never been a man to say twenty words where one is sufficient, and so he sometimes seems more … brusque than he really intends to be. He does have a great deal on his mind.”
“We all have a great deal on our minds,” she countered. “But we do not all walk around acting saddle-galled, as if parts of our bodies were held in a constant crush.”
Robin’s mouth trembled as he tried unsuccessfuly to contain a grin. “If he appears impatient at times, it usually means he is impatient with himself.”
Ariel accepted the wine goblet he offered and sipped at the spicy-sweet contents while she glared at the three shadowy figures in front of the fire. FitzRandwulf’s silhouette was unmistakable with his long legs braced wide apart and his shoulders blotting out a fair portion of the view.
“At any rate, it is better than the black moods he used to suffer.”
Ariel dragged her eyes away from the fire. “Black moods?”
“Oh aye, my lady. He used to have dreadful nightmares. Horrible ones that left him white and shaking in the mornings. Even now, you will notice, he does not sleep overmuch. An hour or two at a time, rarely any longer. It … had to do with what happened to him when he was younger. When he lived in England with the man he thought was his father, and where he was beaten and tortured. Why … he bears a scar this long” —Robin held his hands a foot apart—“where the Dragon thrust a knife into Eduard’s thigh and tried to make him betray our real father. And his mother … !” Robin shook his head like someone who has never known anything but absolute love and respect. “Biddy told me she was the most malefic woman who ever lived. She bathed in blood and used to torture people for the sheer fun of it. She laughed while the Dragon cut into Eduard’s flesh. She laughed and entreated him to stab again, and again. Biddy saw it all. She was there. And so was my mother, Lady Servanne, and Lady Gillian, and Sparrow, and Friar …”
He stopped, for he could see his credibility was beginning to drain away along with the wine in Lady Ariel’s goblet.
“It is true,” he insisted quietly. “You could ask Eduard himself, except that he tends to blacken eyes and break heads at the very mention of the name Nicolaa de la Have.”
Ariel lowered the goblet slowly from her lips. Even in as remote a place as Milford Haven, the name of Nicolaa de la Haye was synonymous with death and evil. Mothers invoked her spirit to frighten their children into obedience. Bards cast her as the witch or the sorceress or the bride of the anti-Christ when they retold tales spawned in the dark mists of Lincolnshire. Ariel had not thought someone so hellish had actually existed.
“Nicolaa de la Haye was Lord Eduard’s mother?” she asked in a fascinated whisper.
Robin glanced over his shoulder and showed the first signs of reluctance, as if he might have said too much already. “Aye, my lady. He bears the scars of her motherly affection to prove it. You … will not tell him I told you? You will not say anything …?”
“No. No, of course not, Robin. Ease yourself. I will say nothing.”
“Thank you, my lady,” he murmured, not sounding the least convinced.
“Robin …” She waited until he looked over at her. “I swear it on our friendship: I will say nothing. In fact …” She straightened and set the goblet aside. “I have forgotten it already. What were we talking about? Oh yes, I have it now. Blankets. You were going to fetch blankets so I could change out of these wet clothes before I freeze to death.”
Robin smiled gratefully. “Yes, my lady. I shall fetch them right away.”
While Robin was kneeling over one of the saddle packs, Ariel’s eyes strayed back