Page 24

The cook, a middle-aged man with thinning hair and burst blood vessels around his cheeks and bulbous nose, looked at her with watery eyes. “Aye. But I’ll not be doing all your work for you. Come back and take care of this. If Mistress Mary sees you slacking off, she’ll kick you out.”

Bronwyn nodded. “I’ll be fast.”

She darted away, conscious of the cook rolling his eyes. She darted through the camp, reaching the ladies-in-waiting tent. The ladies were definitely up, for it was noisy, and Lady Morwenna could be heard from outside.

Bronwyn took a breath and went in. Lady Morwenna paced inside her tent. Seeing Bronwyn, she said, “You. You had something to do with this, didn’t you?”

Bronwyn took in the scene. Lady Morwenna sat with Lady Susanna, who looked at her with suspicion. Lady Alice sat nearby, twisting a bit of bedding in her hands.

“You’ve heard.”

“Yes, I’ve bloody well heard. My maid goes and drowns herself in the river rather than serve me.

It is a slight and an insult to my good name, and I won’t have it.

Serves her right for trying to be so stupid as to wade into the river at that hour.

Of course she would die.” Bronwyn stiffened and shut her mouth like a trap.

The woman didn’t spare a thought for her maid dying.

How cruel and uncaring. She wondered if that same lack of concern for others hinted at a great guilt.

Could she have killed Lady Eleanor? “Lady Morwenna, I do not think—”

“No one is paying you to think, baker. Get out. Unless you wish to be her replacement and serve me? I’m sure Lady Alice wouldn’t mind.” Lady Morwenna gritted her teeth.

Lady Alice, who had been sitting quietly, stirred. “I… Bronwyn, let us go outside. There are some things I need to discuss with you.”

She rose and motioned for Bronwyn to go out.

Once they stood outside the tent, they heard Lady Morwenna screech, “And what was she doing in the river so early in the morning? Washing my clothes, I heard. But now they’re gone.

My dresses are gone! As if it’s not bad enough she’s dead, now I’ve hardly got anything left to wear. ”

Bronwyn breathed in noisily and walked with Lady Alice some distance away.

“You heard about Mabel,” Bronwyn said. “Are you all right?”

“No. I’m terrified. What if they come after me next?” Lady Alice bit her nails.

Bronwyn wanted to console her, but she couldn’t. Whoever was behind this might well target Lady Alice next. She rubbed at her nose. It was Lady Alice’s lie that had led to Mabel being targeted. She could at least spare a thought for the dead maid.

“Be on your guard,” Bronwyn said. “Stay with people at all times. Stay by Rupert’s side, or the empress. No one will attack you there.”

Lady Alice nodded. She still wore Rupert’s cloak as if it were a suit of armor, and she wore one of the dresses Bronwyn had cleaned beneath it. “I am lucky, I suppose. You were at least able to wash my dresses and not die.” She looked at Bronwyn. “Do you think it was an accident?”

Bronwyn shook her head. “No. I tried to warn Mabel—but she wouldn’t listen. Didn’t believe me. Rupert was going to talk to her too to try to convince her.”

“You and Rupert? Why both of you?” Lady Alice’s brow wrinkled.

“I told him about the crown and—”

“You should leave him out of this. I don’t want him getting hurt,” Lady Alice said.

Bronwyn gave her a sideways glance. “Lady Alice… We need to talk about something.”

“What? How you’re keen to involve my man in your schemes?”

Bronwyn stared at her.

“Don’t think I don’t know. Lady Morwenna told me. She thinks you fancy him. I told her it’s an utter falsehood because of course, he is allied to me, and you are just my maidservant. She said to watch you, as stranger things have happened.” Lady Alice sighed. “I don’t know what to think.”

Bronwyn said, “Lady Alice.”

“And now I hear that you’re involving him in this plot. Why? Why do you seek to endanger him?”

“He’s a good man and I trust him. And we need help.” Besides , she thought, you thought nothing of endangering me . “We need to talk about our… arrangement.”

“What arrangement?” Lady Alice looked at her.

Bronwyn had her full attention now, and yet Lady Alice looked so lost as she pulled Rupert’s cloak closer around her, Bronwyn felt pity for her. But she had to tell her. “I’m not your servant.”

Lady Alice started as if she’d been struck.

“I’m not here to wash your clothes, or sew your hem, or to clean up after you. I’m here trying to survive, the same as you. I’ll work in the cooking tents and help you when you ask, but it’s because I… I think we are friends, and that’s what friends do for each other. But I’m not your maidservant.”

Lady Alice sat very still, as if she were carved from marble. “I see.” She rose as Bronwyn opened her mouth to say more. “Very well. I’ve heard enough. I clearly misunderstood you and our relationship. I thought we were mistress and maidservant.”

“We’re not. But I—”

“Did I hear right? You two are friends?” Lady Susanna said.

Bronwyn tensed. To whom was Lady Susanna truly loyal? she wondered.

Lady Alice said, “Of course not. This doesn’t concern you.” She waited until Lady Susanna shrugged and walked away, humming off-key.

Bronwyn said, “I only meant to say—”

Lady Alice said, “Don’t interrupt. We certainly are not friends, or anything else, as you’ve made it clear.

I could never befriend a servant like you.

” She swept the cloak around her as if she were a queen in her own right.

“As we have no relationship to speak of, I don’t see the need to talk with you any longer.

Good day, Bronwyn Blakenhale.” Her voice carried.

She turned and walked straight past her as if they were strangers and back into the tent.

Bronwyn stared after her, feeling her cheek warm despite the chilly morning. She sat the tent flap close behind her, and some wicked laughter rang out across the air shortly afterward. Why did she feel so alone, and as if she’d lost a friend?

Bronwyn returned to the kitchen and took up where she’d left off, rolling out balls of dough to be made into soft rolls.

With her absence, they’d started to dry out and get a dry crust on top, so she rolled them out again.

They would be a denser bake, as she’d knocked some of the air out of them, but they would do.

It was no more than simple bread and would do nicely for serving the people in the camp.

Bronwyn did as she was asked and barely spoke a word to anyone, not joining in the gossip.

That day, it swirled around the subject of Mabel’s death.

Some people believed the servant had killed herself, rather than serve Lady Morwenna any longer.

Others who had come across Lady Morwenna’s sharp tongue and rude manner thought aloud that maybe Lady Morwenna had killed Mabel herself, while others thought it had likely been just an accident.

Bronwyn thought it wasn’t an accident. For someone to attack Lady Alice and then have Mabel’s name as a suspect, it couldn’t have been a coincidence that the young woman now lay dead.

It had been murder. And Lady Morwenna was definitely involved, somehow.

Bronwyn was just taking the rolls off the hot stone and set them on a wooden platter when there was a slight cough at her shoulder.

“Bronwyn?”

She turned. It was Theobold. “What do you want?” she asked rudely. She turned back to her rolls. They were dense but would taste well enough.

“I suppose I deserve that,” he said. “I’ve come to talk to you.”

“What for? I’m just a silly, empty-headed maidservant. You have no reason to talk to the likes of me.” She heard a cheerful titter and glanced over. Some of the servants were eyeing Theobold, the young women especially.

One young woman went up to him and asked, “Are you hungry, sir? We’ve just got these rolls fresh from the heat.” She offered him the platter.

Bronwyn made a noise of astonishment. She’d literally just baked those rolls. If she wanted Theobold to have one, she’d offer them to him herself. She scowled.

“No, I’m fine,” he told the young cook. “I would like a word with Bronwyn here.”

Bronwyn turned her back on him, feeling his eyes on her between her shoulder blades. “Excuse me.”

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“The privy,” she said, walking away.

One of the women said to Theobold, “You can talk to me if you like. I’m much nicer than her. And I don’t smell like the river.”

Bronwyn stiffened and kept walking. She did go to the privy, and when she’d finished, she wiped her hands on the wet grass, drying them with her dress. Her clothes were mostly dry now from her running around.

She began to walk back, when Theobold stepped into her line of sight.

She sidestepped him and kept walking, but he stood in her way again.

“Move,” she said.

“Not until you talk to me.”

“I am talking to you. Move out of the way.”

“Not until you listen.”

She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him, her eyes raking along his long body.

He wore long, brown leggings and a plain, dark tunic over that, with a jerkin and a sheathed sword at his belt.

He was handsome—there was no denying it.

Especially when a black curl threatened to fall into his eyes, and she wanted to reach up and smooth it away.

She expected to find him annoyed, but instead, he smiled at her.

A part of her wished to smile back, but she restrained herself.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“To apologize. I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”

She cocked her head. “When you acted like I was a nobody, and just a silly, empty-headed servant.”

“To those men, it’s better if that’s exactly what they think you are.”

“Why?”

He stepped closer, closing the distance between them. “They’re dangerous. All of them.”