A Passionate Magic (30 page)

“There is just one more thing you can do for
me,” Dain continued, “since you claim to have my welfare always at
heart. Tell me everything you know about the feud between Halard
and Udo.”

“I have already told you, over and over, for
years,” Lady Richenda said. “Udo tricked and cheated Halard out of
land that should have been his. Before Halard died of the wound Udo
inflicted, I swore to him I’d see you victorious over Udo’s
heirs.”

“Yet you did nothing to carry out your
promise until this past year,” Dain said. “Why did you nag at me to
reopen the feud now? Why not sooner?”

“You’ll get no more from me,” she said. “I
will tell you nothing, not so long as you harbor two sorceresses in
my home.”

“It is your home no longer. I bid you
farewell.” Dain turned his back on her and stalked away. He did not
call her
mother
, or even
my lady
.

Emma saw the look of outrage that Lady
Richenda cast at Dain’s back, and the way her mother-in-law glared
at Vivienne, and then at her, and she felt a dreadful premonition
that Lady Richenda wasn’t finished with them yet.

***

“I’ll be going now,” Agatha said as soon as
the midday feast was over. “I have neglected my work of late. There
are herbs to be gathered and medicines to be made before winter
comes.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Hermit, rising from
his place at the high table, where they were all sitting.

“Surely you can stay longer.” Vivienne’s
appeal was made to both of her friends, but Emma could see it was
Hermit she wanted to keep nearby.

“You are welcome here,” Dain said to
Agatha.

“I know it,” she responded with a smile, “and
I will return soon, I promise. There is much for me to discuss with
Emma, and with Vivienne.”

“Hermit, will you come again when Agatha
does?” Vivienne asked, regarding him wistfully.

“Perhaps,” Hermit responded rather abruptly.
“Then again, I ought to be on my way. I can’t live in that cave
forever.”

“Please don’t go,” Emma begged, having
noticed the way tears were filling Vivienne’s eyes. “Don’t leave
Penruan, or your friends.”

“I won’t leave until you – and Vivienne – are
settled and happy,” Hermit said. “You have my word on it.”

With that rather vague promise both women
were forced to be content, and Agatha and Hermit departed soon
after.

“Dain,” Emma said, “you and Vivienne will
need time to learn to know each other again. Take her to the lord’s
chamber, where no one will disturb you and you may talk together
without curious stares. I have plenty of chores to keep me occupied
for a while, so I won’t interrupt you.”

“How good you are to me,” Vivienne cried, and
embraced Emma with a warmth that touched her deeply.

“Thank you for your thoughtfulness,’ Dain
said with somewhat strained politeness.

Emma saw brother and sister off to their
private conversation, and then attempted to immerse herself in the
chatelaine’s duties that now fell to her, with Lady Richenda
departed. An hour or so later, while she was supervising the
cleaning and preparation of the bedchamber Vivienne had once
occupied as a girl, and where she declared she would prefer to
sleep over any other room in the castle, Blake appeared, bringing
with him a faint odor of the stables.

“I thought you should know,” Blake said,
“that shortly before Lady Richenda left, she sent a messenger
riding off on an errand. I was in the bailey, helping to load up
the carts, and I saw him saddle up and leave. When I asked where he
was going he cuffed me so hard my ears rang and said the letter he
carried was none of my business.”

“Perhaps Lady Richenda was sending word to
inform her sister she’d soon be arriving at the convent,” Emma
suggested, wishing she could permanently dismiss Lady Richenda from
her thoughts. It wasn’t likely. Dain’s mother had ruled the
domestic side of the castle with a stern hand, and Emma was once
again encountering resistance to any alteration in long-established
habits.

“I don’t think so,” Blake said in response to
her comment. “I noticed how full Wade’s saddlebags were, so as soon
as I had a chance I checked his cot in the servants’ quarters. All
of his belongings are gone. I told Sloan, and he said good
riddance. He doesn’t like Wade. Not many people do. Wade isn’t very
friendly, and he often makes excuses not to do his share of work.
But he was always ready to jump to do anything Lady Richenda asked
of him.”

“Did you say Wade?” Emma repeated the man’s
name, thinking how glad she was that Dain had taken Vivienne off to
become reacquainted with her in private. Vivienne needed no
reminding of Lady Richenda’s manservant, who had been willing to
murder a child at his mistress’s command.

“You know him,” Blake said. “He’s the
scrawny, gray-haired man who looks sour and seldom speaks. Maybe
Sloan is right; maybe it is good riddance if he’s gone. But I
thought both Dain and Sloan ought to know, so when I couldn’t find
Dain, I came to you.”

“It’s probably just an ordinary letter Wade
is bearing,” Emma said, “and most likely, after it’s delivered,
he’ll remain near the convent to attend Lady Richenda, since he is
her servant, not Dain’s. She’s not taking the veil, you know, just
living there, so she will have contact with the world outside the
cloister, and no doubt she will want someone to run errands for
her.”

But the matter tugged at Emma’s thoughts,
mingling with her belief that Lady Richenda wasn’t going to
relinquish her influence on her son’s life. By day’s end a nagging
doubt was firmly lodged in Emma’s mind, so when Dain came to the
great hall for the evening meal she told him all that Blake had
said and the conclusion she had drawn, that Lady Richenda wanted to
keep her manservant nearby.

“You are the third person to carry the tale
to me,” Dain said. “First Blake, then Sloan, now you. There is
another simple explanation for Wade’s departure, which apparently
hasn’t occurred to any of you. My mother has two distant cousins
and a few long-standing friends, all of whom she sees whenever we
go to court. It is possible that she has sent Wade off to one of
them with a letter requesting that he be given a place in another
household. She knows I’d never keep Wade at Penruan after what I’ve
learned about him, so it seems reasonable to me that she would try
to find a new place for a man who has been faithful to her
service.”

“You are too accustomed to trusting her,”
Emma protested.

“I know it, and I will change my way of
thinking. But there is little my mother can do except complain of
me. I doubt if any relative or friend will raise an army in her
behalf to bring her back to Penruan and force me to accept her
presence here. Girls and women are sent off to convents all the
time, and many of them are unwilling. To most men it’s no great
matter. I do thank you for your loyal concern, however.” He paused,
regarding her with a smile in his eyes that did not quite reach his
lips.

”Will you join me later tonight?” she asked
softly, taking courage from the look he bestowed on her.

“No.” His warmth was gone, replaced by a cool
consideration of her features. “Too much has happened in too short
a time. I need to be alone, to think about what I’ve learned of
your magical ability and how you concealed it from me for so long.
I also need to think about Vivienne, and about my mother’s
duplicity.”

“I do understand.” She turned away so he
wouldn’t see how disappointed she was.

Dain did not join her the following night
either, or the night after that. Seeking distraction from her
longing for him, Emma plunged into her daily duties as chatelaine,
and into seeing to the preparations for the coming winter. Harvest
season was full upon them and there was grain to be stored, meat
and fish to be dried or smoked, fruits to be preserved in
honey.

Todd and his men returned to report that Lady
Richenda had made no trouble about entering the convent. When
asked, Todd declared that neither he nor his men had seen Wade.

“He has gone to live elsewhere, just as I
assumed,” Dain said to Emma. “He knows better than to stay nearby
when I know so much about him.”

The days and the lonely nights slowly slipped
into weeks, and still Dain did not return to the bed in the lord’s
chamber. He was consistently polite to Emma, though always a little
distant, and she often felt his speculative gaze, as if he could
not quite decide what to do about her.

Vivienne was far more affectionate. The
sisters-in-law were becoming close friends, drawn together by their
mutual love of Dain, and by the relief each found in the
opportunity to speak freely to a woman who would never betray the
magical secrets they shared.

“Do you find it difficult to live confined in
the castle after so many years of freedom?” Emma asked one day.

Vivienne had been well trained by Agatha in
the healing arts, as well as in magic, and she and Emma were busy
in the stillroom. Emma was shredding dried herb leaves into storage
jars so they would be clean and easily available when needed, while
Vivienne was compounding a salve for a kitchen worker who had
burned her hand.

“I like it here with you and Dain,” Vivienne
said, “though I do miss seeing Agatha every day.” She fell silent,
frowning at the bowl containing rendered goose grease and alkanet,
which she was mixing together.

“What of Hermit?” Emma asked gently. “Do you
miss seeing him? From what you’ve said, you lived in one room of
the cave and he in the next, and you spent a good deal of time
together.”

”We did talk often.” Vivienne gathered a few
dried calendula petals in her fingertips and crumbled them over the
salve. “Yes, I do miss Hermit.” Her voice shook a little.

“Why don’t you return to the cave and visit
him?” Emma suggested. “Or he could come here. Dain has said he’s
always welcome.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. Hermit has
sad memories and conflicts in his past that only he can resolve. I
am no help to him; I only complicate his thoughts. I believe he’s
eager to return to his traveling life.”

“Did he say so? Hermit gave me the impression
that he’s very fond of you. He promised he’d not leave Penruan
until you are settled and happy.”

“I think he meant until Dain and I are close
as brother and sister should be.” Vivienne brushed away a tear and
bent her head over the bowl of salve.

To Emma, that last remark indicated a
conflict within Vivienne’s heart, for the closer she and Dain
became, the more likely Hermit was to forsake the cave and resume
his wanderings. Emma didn’t want to think about Hermit leaving, or
about how empty the beach and the cave would be without him there.
She had grown surprisingly fond of the bearded wanderer.

”You ought to talk to Agatha,” Emma said.
“She knows Hermit well, so she may be able to offer some
advice.”

“Perhaps.” Vivienne looked doubtful.

“I heard Dain telling Sloan that he is
planning to ride to Trevanan tomorrow,” Emma said, “to inspect the
rebuilt houses. You could ride with him. I’m sure he wouldn’t
object. He enjoys your company, and I know he has been taking you
along on short rides, to re-accustom you to horses.”

“You and I were going to the moor tomorrow,”
Vivienne protested, still doubtful of the plan.

“I can take Blake and Hawise,” Emma said.
“They are used to helping me look for wild herbs.”

When morning came Vivienne and Dain left
early for Trevanan. An hour later Hawise made an excuse to stay at
the castle.

“It’s Sloan,” Emma teased her. “You are
spending more and more time with him. Don’t think I haven’t
noticed.”

“Do you mind? Blake is more agile than I when
it comes to climbing on rocks or getting down on his knees to dig
up plants. I usually end with my arms and hands itching. I’m glad
to help you all I can in the stillroom, and you know I’m useful
there, but I don’t like the moor. It’s so empty and windy.”

“You are far more likely to fall into danger
with Sloan than out on the moor with me,” Emma said, still teasing.
She wished there was a similar danger for her to fall into with
Dain. “Very well, stay home if you like. Just be careful what
herbal brews you feed to Sloan.”

Shortly thereafter, with Blake at her side,
Emma rode forth to the moor. The boy was as cheerful and talkative
as ever, chattering on about his sword practice and Todd’s promise
to allow him to join in sentry duty during his next night on
watch.

“Gather as much as you can,” Emma said,
interrupting the stream of youthful male plans. “We may not have
many more opportunities to come here before winter arrives. You’ve
told me how chill and blustery and wet the moor can be during the
winter months.”

There was no sign of unpleasant weather at
the moment. The sky was cloudless, the sea sparkled in the
distance, and a breeze blew gently, chasing away any hint of
mid-afternoon heat. The moor was deserted, the only sign of
humanity being a single horseman cantering along the road from
Trevanan to Penruan. Emma watched him for a moment, thinking the
mounted figure looked vaguely familiar. Then she shrugged and
turned back to her work. The rider wasn’t Dain, so he held little
interest for her.

“It gets dark early in winter,” Blake said,
continuing their conversation. His voice was muffled as he bent low
to dig up a plant. He pulled hard on it and the roots gave way,
sending the boy rolling backward onto the damp ground with the
plant on top of him. Laughing, he dusted himself off and placed the
herb into his basket.

Within a short time all of the baskets were
full, and they began to strap them to the horse’s backs. They were
so busy and Blake was talking so continuously that at first Emma
didn’t notice the soft sound of hooves on the spongy turf. Not
until her horse whickered, acknowledging another equine presence,
did Emma realize someone was approaching. She finished fastening
the last leather strap that held her basket and turned, half
expecting to see Dain. It was the horseman she had watched on the
road just a short time earlier, and now she knew why she had found
him a familiar figure.