Daggerspell - Katharine Kerr [80]
It rained steadily for three days. Life moved inside the tower and centered itself in the great hall, where Lord Maroic drank with his warband and the bard sang to keep them all amused. Much to Cadda’s annoyance, Lyssa insisted on staying in her chambers, giving Cadda no choice but to stay with her. Finally, on the third day, Cadda’s boredom got the better of her subservience.
“Oh, please, my lady, can’t we go down to the hall? We can listen to your lord sing.”
“I’d rather not, but you can if you want.”
“Oh, my thanks!” Gleefully, Cadda threw her sewing into the workbasket. “Are you sure you won’t come?”
“I won’t. All the riders will be there.” Lyssa looked away. “It’s so noisy, and I’ve got a headache.”
Cadda hurried down to the great hall and took a place in the straw in front of the servant’s hearth. One of her friends, Dwlla, was already listening while the bard sang sad tales of love, Cadda’s favorite kind. From where she was sitting, Cadda could see the riders at their tables and Tanyc’s broad back, only a few feet from her, but he might as well have been on the other side of the world. In her heart, Cadda cursed him and wondered how he could be so cold to her. Certainly plenty of other men told her she was beautiful. When Gweran paused to rest, Dwlla leaned over and whispered to Cadda.
“Tanno was asking me where you were. Or where your lady was, but it comes to the same thing.”
All at once, Cadda wondered if it did indeed come to the same thing. Whenever Tanyc came walking with them, he always spoke to the lady, not the maid. He wouldn’t dare meddle with the bard’s woman, she thought, and besides, I’m prettier than her. Yet as she gazed at Tanyc’s broad back, she wondered if any woman every really understood what men thought.
When the next day dawned clear, Lyssa gave Cadda permission to take Aderyn down to the farm and visit her mother. While the lad worked with the herbman, Cadda spent a pleasant hour in her Mam’s kitchen and gossiped about her sisters, who were already married, much to Cadda’s great distress. It just wasn’t fair! She was the prettiest and still unmarried, while they all had men of their own. Brooding on the injustice of it all gave her an idea. She left the house and went out to the herbman’s hut, where she found Nevyn and Aderyn digging up a bit of ground by the wall for an herb garden.
“Good morrow,” Nevyn said. “Is it time for Aderyn to go home?”
“Oh, not truly. I just wanted a word with you about buying some herbs.”
Nevyn took Cadda inside his hut and gave her the stool to sit on while he leaned against the wall. Cadda decided that his manners were ever so much nicer than Tanyc’s. She only wished she could tell Tanyc that and have him care.
“I was wondering if you made love philters,” Cadda said. “I couldn’t pay much, but my mistress gives me a coin every now and then.”
“A maid with your beauty should have no need of such trash, and trash they are. They’re impious things, and besides, they never work right.”
Cadda’s heart sank. Though she didn’t care about the impiety, she saw no need to waste her coin on something useless.
“Come, now,” Nevyn went on. “Is Tanyc as cold to you as all that?”
Cadda wondered if he were dweomer or if she’d simply been obvious. When she decided the latter, her cheeks burned with shame.
“Well, it’s a nasty thing to love a man who’ll never love you.”
“No doubt it is. But Tanno would only make a bad husband even if you got him. He’s a hard man and a cold one.”
“Oh, huh! He’s not as cold to some as he is to me.”
“Oh, indeed? I begin to understand. There’s a bit of jealousy in this.”
“Well, it’s rotten and unfair! There he is, hanging round a woman who’s already got her own man, and besides, she doesn’t even like him.”
“Now, listen, lass. If Tanyc’s the sort of man who’d want a married woman, can’t you see that you could do better for yourself than him? I—” All at once, the old man hesitated, turning to her with an ice-cold stare. “Just what married woman? Your lady?”
In panic, Cadda tried to think of a lie,