“Bring me the dress and give me no more orders.”
Gavin was being kept inside a room carved out of the base of the tower. It was a dreary place; no light reached it. Its only entrance was an ironbound oak door.
Joan seemed to be well acquainted with the guards who stood on either side of the door. The discipline was lax in the Demari estate, and Joan used this to her advantage. She winked suggestively at one of the men.
“Open up!” Joan bellowed outside the door. “We bring foodstuffs and medicines sent from Lord Walter.”
Cautiously, an old and dirty woman opened the massive door. “How do I know you come from Lord Walter?”
“Because I tell you I am,” Joan answered and pushed past the crone. Judith kept her head lowered, the rough woolen hood drawn carefully over her hair.
“You can see him,” the woman said angrily. “He sleeps now and has done little else since he came here. He’s in my care and I do a good job.”
“Surely!” Joan said sarcastically. “The bed looks filthy!”
“Cleaner than where he’s been.”
Judith gave her maid a slight nudge to stop her from baiting the old woman.
“Leave us then and we will tend to him,” Joan said.
The woman, her hair gray and greasy, her mouth full of rotted teeth, appeared to be stupid, but she was not. She saw the small, hidden woman nudge the other, and she was aware that the nasty-tempered one quieted instantly.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Joan demanded.
The old woman wanted to see the face beneath the hood. “I must get some medicines,” she said. “There are others who are sick and need me, even if this one doesn’t.” When she had a jar in her hand, she walked past the woman who intrigued her. When she was near the candle, she dro
pped the jar. The woman, startled, looked up, giving the crone a brief glimpse of her eyes. The candlelight danced in the lovely golden orbs. The old woman worked hard at not smiling outright. She’d seen those eyes on only one person.
“You are clumsy as well as stupid,” Joan hissed. “Get out before I set those rags you wear to flame.”
The woman gave Joan a malevolent look before she noisily left the room.
“Joan!” Judith said as soon as they were alone. “It is I who will set you alight if you ever treat anyone like that again.”
Joan was shocked. “What does she mean to anyone?”
“She is one of God’s children, the same as you or I.” Judith would have gone on, but she knew it was useless. Joan was an incurable snob. She belittled anyone she didn’t think better than she was. Judith went to her husband, preferring to use her time tending to him rather than lecturing her maid.
“Gavin,” she said quietly as she sat on the edge of the bed. The candlelight flickered over him, playing with the shadows of his cheekbones and his jaw line. She touched his cheek. It was good to see him clean again.
He opened his eyes, the deep gray of them made even darker by the candlelight. “Judith,” he whispered.
“Yes, it is I,” she smiled as she pushed the hood of the mantle back and revealed her hair. “You look better now that you are washed.”
His expression was cold and hard. “I don’t have you to thank for that. Or perhaps you think the wine in my face cleansed me.”
“Gavin! You accuse me wrongly. Had I gone to you with any greeting, Walter would have put an end to your life.”
“Wouldn’t that have suited you well?”
She drew back. “I won’t quarrel with you. We may pursue the matter at leisure once we are free. I have seen Stephen.”
“Here?” Gavin said as he started to sit up, the covers falling off his bare chest.
It had been a long time since the night Judith had been held against that chest. His sun-bronzed skin held her attention completely.
“Judith!” Gavin demanded. “Stephen is here?”