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Lady Alice traced her hand gently against the horse’s side.

“Lady Alice?”

She swallowed. “I gave him Mabel’s name.”

“Mabel, Lady Morwenna’s servant?” Bronwyn stepped back.

“Yes. I didn’t want to give him your name. Then he’d come for us both. So I told him she’d taken it, and I didn’t know where it was or what she’d done with it.”

Bronwyn stared. “But, Lady Alice, he might come after her next.”

“I know.” Lady Alice looked down at her feet. “But I didn’t know what to do, or what to say. It just came out of my mouth. I was so scared.” She shuddered. “It was terrifying. He said he’d come back for me if I was lying, and he left.” She hugged her arms. “I’m so cold. It was so frightening, I…”

“Bronwyn? Lady Alice? A maidservant said you were looking for me. Is everything all—” Rupert made a loud ooof noise as Lady Alice flung herself into his arms.

“Oh, Rupert, it was so frightening. I was so scared.” Her voice shook and she teared up all over again.

“Shh, what happened? Why are you spooking the horses?” he asked, holding her.

Bronwyn’s nostrils flared.

Lady Alice crumpled in his arms, weeping. It was as if the human touch brought her to tears again.

“There, there, tell me what’s happened. Did you have a bad dream?” he asked.

Lady Alice looked up at him, posture stiff. “No. I didn’t have a bad dream . I was bloody attacked, that’s what.”

His eyes widened. “Tell me everything.”

Bronwyn stood by as Lady Alice relayed her tale again but omitted any mention of the crown or giving Mabel’s name. It didn’t sit right with her, Lady Alice giving Mabel’s name to her assailant. And the fact that the assailant had seemed to know her suggested they were acquainted.

“How did you escape?” Rupert asked.

“I… He heard some people and ran off. But it was terrifying. I was so scared.” Lady Alice clutched at his arms.

As Rupert held her close, Bronwyn asked, “Lady Alice, what did the man look like?”

“I couldn’t see his face. It was too dark. But…” She paused. “He smelled like onions and sour wine. Not the cheap drink the fighters and men like to drink. Good wine. The sort we ladies drink with the empress.”

“Was he slight? Tall? Stocky? Thin or fat?” Rupert asked.

Lady Alice shook her head. “I think he was stocky, but I couldn’t tell.

It all happened so quickly, and he took me by surprise.

He shoved me in the dirt and now I’ve got mud all over my dress.

” She frowned and looked at Rupert. “Give me your cloak. I can’t wear this.

I’m covered in mud. I’ll be a laughing stock and someone will take me for a servant. ”

Rupert complied and gave her his cloak. Lady Alice put it on, turned away, and slipped out of her dress, tying the cloak closely around her before handing her muddy dress to Bronwyn.

“Can you wash this for me? Now I’ll have to change dresses.

Honestly, whoever is behind this is ruining all my clothes.

” She wore a simple, white shift and turned, clasping the cloak around her chest.

Rupert eyed her, then averted his gaze.

“What?” Lady Alice said. “Oh.” Her mouth curved into a grin. “Why, Rupert, are you blushing?”

“No.”

She laughed.

He blushed more. “I’ll escort you back to your tent,” he said, looking at the ground.

Alice beamed and curled her hands around his left arm. They walked away together without another word.

Bronwyn let out a breath and walked in the opposite direction, her cheeks warming.

Part of her felt bothered by the fact that Rupert and Lady Alice were together, and that Lady Alice had found time to give her orders while making eyes at Rupert, but she had too much to think on now, and she had agreed to wash her dress.

She didn’t want to fall into the role of Lady Alice’s maidservant again like she had before, but a part of her realized she already had, and there was a blurring of their relationship that needed figuring out.

Were they lady and maidservant, or were they friends?

She needed to figure this out. And to warn Mabel to be on her guard. But first, to wash two of Alice’s dresses. The one just now and the one that Lady Morwenna had torn earlier.

Bronwyn slipped away in the darkness and snuck out to the tree, digging amongst the roots until she found the crown.

The dirt covered her hands and the roots bruised her skin, but she didn’t care.

She heaved a sigh of relief as her fingers curled around the hard, metal circlet.

Pulling her kerchief from her head, she tied it around the crown, and stuffed it in the dirt and gnarled tree roots with Lady Alice’s soiled dresses.

No one would think to look there. But it was too dark to see easily, so she joined the other women by the campfire and found herself a spot nearby.

She’d wash the clothes at first light, when it was safe to see.

She slept poorly again, worried about the crown.

But even if it was found, no one would know that the kerchief and apron it sat bundled in the gnarled tree roots were hers.

But if they found Lady Alice’s dresses, they would both be accused.

She sat up, body aching. Rising in the dawn’s early light, Bronwyn crept to the tree, retrieved the dresses, and went to the riverside.

She carefully walked down the bank to wash Lady Alice’s dresses, coming to stand at the water’s edge.

In the early hours, the water looked dark, like glass.

She rinsed and washed the dresses carefully, working the mud out of the stiff, woolen cloth with her fingers.

But it was cold and her fingers soon felt numb.

She needed to warm up. She blew on her hands and rubbed them together, stamping her feet and jumping up and down.

The air was still chilly and her breath was visible as she warmed her body.

After a few more minutes of washing and freezing her fingers, Bronwyn aired out the clothes and shook them in the air to dry.

They would be slightly damp but were cleaner than before, and at least Lady Alice would have something to wear besides her bare shift.

The young woman must have been freezing, even if she also wore Rupert’s cloak.

It had been clever of Lady Alice to ask for it.

She wore it like it was a prize possession, or a mark of the fact that she and Rupert were together.

As the sun rose and Bronwyn shielded her eyes from the golden brightness, she turned and, with the dresses in hand, made her way carefully back up the riverbank.

She dried the dresses and went to return them, then remembered she was meant to repair a tear in one of them, thanks to Lady Morwenna’s spiteful footing back in the ladies’ tent.

She took the slightly damp dresses with her as the sun properly rose and the camp came to life.

When the other women she’d slept near woke up, she was sat by a log, mending the tear.

A short while later, she met Lady Alice coming out of her tent.

“Oh, Bronwyn. Good morning. I see you have my dresses.”

“Yes. Here you go.” Bronwyn returned both dresses. “I sewed up the tear as well.”

“Brilliant.” Lady Alice took the dresses with rosy cheeks. “Oh, Susanna wanted me to give this to you. She didn’t need it anymore.” She handed Bronwyn an old, purple dress.

It was dull, worn and needed washing and mending, but it was pretty in the light. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. You can thank her yourself.” Lady Alice gave a happy sigh.

“What is it?” Bronwyn asked.

“Oh, nothing. Just…” Alice giggled. “When Rupert walked me back to my tent last night, after I was so horribly attacked, well… He wanted to make sure I got back here all right and then we ended up saying goodnight…” She hugged the dresses to her chest. “We kissed.”

A pang of hurt struck Bronwyn’s chest like an arrow. “Oh.”

“Yes, it was wonderful. I mean, I don’t go around kissing every young man who pays attention to me, but Rupert is different somehow. He’s noble. I have no doubt he’ll be made a knight soon.”

“And then?”

“Then we’ll find a way to marry, of course. One has to think ahead about these things. I can’t very well waste my time on a young man with no prospects.” She nodded. “Thanks for these.”

Talk was rife that within a day or two, the camp would pack up and move on to Gloucester. The empress had men installed back at Lincoln, so now she had no reason to stay, not when she had her own castle to which to return.

Bronwyn returned to the cooking tents, the dress in a small bundle in her hands.

Her shoulders slumped. Lady Alice and Rupert, married.

She’d never imagined Lady Alice would be thinking along those lines so soon.

Stepping into the cooking tents, she set aside the dress beneath the worktables and began helping where she could, hardly saying a word unless asked a question.

She wanted the work, any work, to busy herself.

Anything was better than thinking about the possibility of Lady Alice and Rupert together forever.

She set to work quickly, taking a bit of fish and arranging it on a platter to serve.

“What is this?” a loud voice demanded from a few feet away.

Heads turned to see. It was the head cook Mary, who looked down her pointed nose at Bronwyn. Her eyes danced, her mouth in a nasty smile, and Bronwyn knew she was in trouble.

Mary came to stand by her and poked at the fish she was arranging. “What, pray tell, is this?”

Bronwyn looked at the offending platter. “It’s what I was working on, mistress.”

“I must say I’m surprised. I thought you knew how to cook. Didn’t you say your family ran a bakery in Lincoln?” Mary’s eyes danced again, filling Bronwyn with dread.

“Yes, they did.” Her cheeks warmed.