King's Dragon (Crown of Stars 1)

“Liath!” Hanna ran to hug her, then pushed away. “You smell like the pigs, Liath. The frater was by, to say he’ll be gone for—What’s wrong?”

“Perhaps you should take Liath outside and sit a moment, the both of you, drink a bit of warm milk.”

Hanna looked startled. “Why, yes, Mama.” She grabbed Liath by the wrist and dragged her quickly out of the front room. “Before she changes her mind.” In the pantry she got down mugs and filled them from a pitcher, talking all the while. “She’s never so generous when it doesn’t bring coin with it. What’s happened?”

“She’s just told me that the whole village knows that I’m to be Hugh’s mistress, and that the whole village approves it, and she’s just discovered that I don’t, and I’m not, and I won’t be.”

“Ah. Come outside. We’ll sit on the bench.” Hanna led Liath outside to the stable yard. The broom and rake leaned against the side of the house and a large swathe was raked clean, parallel stripes marking the beaten-down earth. The two girls sat on a bench in the sun. “You’ve never had time just to sit with me, not since the auction—except that week he was gone to Freelas and I came to visit you. I’ve seen how he never lets you out of his sight.” She glanced toward the inn and lowered her voice. “Do you really mean he hasn’t bedded you yet? Everyone knows he intended—”

“Hanna!” Liath laid a hand on Hanna’s arm to silence her. “What happened to the book?”

“The book?” Then her face lit. “I thought you’d come mad. Don’t tell me you went looking for it?”

snorted. “I’m sure he’ll never marry, not wanting to risk Their displeasure or, to more point, that of the skopos. What has that to do with you? There’s those who say a man’s not a true man without his beard, and that the churchmen are but men pretending to be women, but it’s a rare man, even sworn to the church, whose feet do not tread on the earth. Are we to expect them all to lack the appetites of men?” Then her expression changed, as if she had at that instant come upon a new thought. “Or were you thinking that he might forsake his vows to marry you?”

“I wasn’t! I never said that!”

“Listen you to me, girl. You and your father came from far parts into these lands, and you with that coloring and accent and he with his fine educated ways. Anyone can see that you’re not like us, landbred and freeborn, but of another place entirely, though I know not what that place might be. I’ve heard no talk of kin coming to rescue you, and you told Marshal Liudolf yourself that you have none. You’re too handsome a girl to be on your own with no family to protect you. Frater Hugh will take care of you, if he’s a mind to, and he comes from a powerful family with a noble mother. Ai, lass! Think before you cry out against injustice. You’ll not do better than him.”

Goaded beyond bearing, Liath lost her temper. “He beats me!”

“With that temper, I’m not surprised. He bought you. Whatever you may have been before, wherever you have come from, whatever kin you left behind, if there is any, you’re a slave now. Hugh’s slave. If you’re smart, you’ll see that he comes to value you. Perhaps in time, if you are obedient and useful, he’ll write a manumission and free you from his hand, but until that time comes, you are lower than the least poor freeholder who farms in these hills. You’re a proud girl, and I think you do not realize that yet.”

Liath fought down several savage retorts. Ai, Lady, but weren’t Birta’s words the simple truth? At last, her voice strangled by anger and grief and a real fear of losing Hanna by antagonizing her mother, she choked out a reply. “Forgive me, my wretched tongue. You’ve been nothing but kind to me, Mistress, and I’m sorry if I’ve been rash and impolite.”

Birta laughed uneasily. “You’re a good girl, Liath. You must learn to make the best of what Our Lady and Lord have given to you. There’s many a girl in this village who’s looked longingly at our handsome frater. For all that the church teaches us that men sworn to the church have forsaken congress with women, it’s a rare churchman who can say he’s done so with a clean heart.”

Liath could not stand to think that people already spoke of her as Hugh’s mistress. “I never—!” She stumbled over her own words, furious and flustered. “And I never will!”

Mistress Birta sighed and smiled sadly. Then, to Liath’s immense relief, Hanna entered from the stable yard.

“Liath!” Hanna ran to hug her, then pushed away. “You smell like the pigs, Liath. The frater was by, to say he’ll be gone for—What’s wrong?”

“Perhaps you should take Liath outside and sit a moment, the both of you, drink a bit of warm milk.”

Hanna looked startled. “Why, yes, Mama.” She grabbed Liath by the wrist and dragged her quickly out of the front room. “Before she changes her mind.” In the pantry she got down mugs and filled them from a pitcher, talking all the while. “She’s never so generous when it doesn’t bring coin with it. What’s happened?”

“She’s just told me that the whole village knows that I’m to be Hugh’s mistress, and that the whole village approves it, and she’s just discovered that I don’t, and I’m not, and I won’t be.”

“Ah. Come outside. We’ll sit on the bench.” Hanna led Liath outside to the stable yard. The broom and rake leaned against the side of the house and a large swathe was raked clean, parallel stripes marking the beaten-down earth. The two girls sat on a bench in the sun. “You’ve never had time just to sit with me, not since the auction—except that week he was gone to Freelas and I came to visit you. I’ve seen how he never lets you out of his sight.” She glanced toward the inn and lowered her voice. “Do you really mean he hasn’t bedded you yet? Everyone knows he intended—”

“Hanna!” Liath laid a hand on Hanna’s arm to silence her. “What happened to the book?”

“The book?” Then her face lit. “I thought you’d come mad. Don’t tell me you went looking for it?”

Liath grabbed both of Hanna’s hands. Her heart pounded wildly. “You have it?”

“Ow! Let me go! Yes! I buried it where you said, but then I thought that wild animals or young Johan’s pigs, or even one of the children out looking for eggs might get to it, so I moved it. When were you up there?”

“Yesterday. I thought Hugh had gone.”

“You went up there the same day he left? I thought he looked angry when he came by. You idiot. I could have told you to wait a day or two, to make sure he’d gone. If he wants that book so much—”

“I know. I know. I didn’t think. But he’d gone before. I thought it was safe. I just have to see it, Hanna.”

Hanna looked furtively around the stable yard. She got up, ran over to the cookhouse door, and peered inside, then looked into the back room of the inn. Finally, with a wordless sign, she led Liath into the stables.

All the way back, past the stalls and the sheep pen and the pig trough, back where straw and hay drifted lazily down from the loft above, spinning in sunlight streaming through the windows where the shutters had been thrown back. Up in the loft her younger brother was kicking at nothing, legs dangling.