She tried to laugh, but it caught in her throat. “You speak of yourself, Graelam. This is very different. I am not Kassia, and Severin is nothing like you.”
“I see similarities. At least between Severin and me. As I said, be patient. You might consider holding your tongue on occasion, just to surprise him and throw him off guard. For the most part, a man needs a woman’s sharp tongue. It keeps him in good form.”
This time she did laugh. She hugged him. She didn’t want him to leave. Graelam was known to her, loved by her, and now he would leave and it could be years before she saw him again. She felt tears swim in her eyes. “God go with you, Graelam.”
“Aye, God and my man Northbert.”
Hastings, holding Eloise’s hand, watched Graelam and his men ride out of the inner bailey, Severin and several of his men riding with them.
“It is time for her prayers.”
Hastings turned slowly to face the woman Beale. “What did you say?”
“It is time for Eloise’s prayers. She must pray for three hours before she can eat her evening bread. It is what her mother wanted. Come, Eloise.”
The child was leaning one way and then the other. It took Hastings but a moment to figure out what was wrong. “First, Beale, Eloise must visit the jakes.”
It was in the jakes that Hastings saw the raw sores on the child’s knees.
“Hold still, Eloise. This won’t hurt. Indeed, it will make your knees feel cool.” Very carefully, Hastings laid the soaked bramble blossoms on Eloise’s raw knees. She hadn’t felt such anger in a very long time. Well, she had, but this was a very different anger from the sort she felt at Severin. She wanted to hurt someone. She wanted to hurt the child’s dead mother. How could a mother do such a thing to her child? Severin had said it—Lady Joan believed her own daughter to be the Devil’s spawn.
Eloise didn’t make a sound. Hastings wrapped her knees with strips of soft white wool. “There, you will be doing no praying on your knees for a good long time. Try not to bend your knees so that the bandages will stay tight.”
“But I must pray. My mama said I would go to hell if I didn’t purify myself each day.”
“What did your mama say when she saw your knees?”
The child hung her head. “She didn’t know. I never told her. She wanted me to pray, she wanted it so much.”
“Beale must have seen them when she helped you to dress and bathe.”
Eloise just nodded, her face still down. “Beale told me it was God’s punishment because my heart had black spots on it, black spots from my wicked father.”
Hastings turned at the sound of her chamber door opening. Beale was standing there, peering into the room. “The child must be at her prayers, my lady. I have come to get her. We will be in the chapel.”
Hastings slowly rose. “I don’t think so, Beale. I have seen Eloise’s knees. I have treated them. They will heal but she will do no kneeling for a very long time.”
“You have no say in this, my lady.” Beale came closer. The black mustache on her upper lip quivered. “I am the child’s nurse. It is I who must see to her soul now that her mama is dead, poisoned by that devil. Eloise carries his blood and his foulness. She will be cleansed. It matters not if her knees are a bit scraped.”
Hastings turned to see Eloise standing tall and straight beside her. “I will come with you, Beale. I don’t want Mama to suffer if I am wicked.”
“Your mama is in Heaven,” Hastings said. “She suffers no more.” She turned again to Beale, who was looking at the child as if she would beat her. “No, Eloise, you will stay with me. I will teach you about herbs. You will learn how to use them to help people. Beale, have you ever considered that Eloise is Lady Joan’s child, that she has the goodness of her mother and not her father, that she has no need for all this purification?”
“She looks like him, just like him, with those sly blue eyes and a tongue that twists with lies. She must be purified or she will become like him, evil and remorseless. She will die and none will mourn her.”
That did it. Hastings said even as her hands fisted in the folds of her gown, “I have decided that you will no longer tend to Eloise. I will see that you are returned to Sedgewick.”
“You cannot do that, lady! Your lord said I would see to her as I always have. He will see that you do not go against me. All know that he had to marry you, that he had no choice in the matter. He will protect me.”
Would Severin turn Eloise back to this wretched woman? If he even considered it, she would simply have to talk him out of it. “You will leave tomorrow morning, Beale. Your very presence offends me. You will have no more sway over Eloise. God doesn’t wish for children to be tortured.”
“God allowed my sweet lady to die in agony. God allowed her swine of a husband to murder her.”
“That is quite enough.” Hastings turned to Eloise. “ Listen to me, here is Dame Agnes. I wish you to go with her. She will show you my flowers and my herb garden. You can meet Gilbert the goat. You can help feed the chickens. She will show you the armory and you will meet Giles. He will make you a bow and arrows. I will teach you to shoot.”
Dame Agnes didn’t wait. She strode like a conquering warrior into Hastings’s chamber, took Eloise’s hand, and led her out. The child was clearly uncertain. She looked up at Beale. The woman said, “If you do any of these godless things, you will burn in hell, Eloise. Your mama will see to it. God will show you no mercy, for He will listen to your mama. God will listen to me. God always listens to me.”
Hastings waited until she heard Dame Agnes’ and Eloise’s footfalls on the solar stairs. She then walked to the woman and slapped her hard, making her head