Ann of Cambray by Mary Lide Page A

or to anyone else. And Maneth’s power has grown overfast since the Earl of Gloucester’s death for me to hold him as detached observer of the borderlands. I do not remember that he played an important part in the last struggles.’
    ‘He is a good fighter,’ fretted Sir Brian, ‘better on our side than the other ... It might be wiser to have granted his request.’
    ‘Well, so be it.’ Lord Raoul sounded more impatient again. ‘I refused him. Let it be sufficient that she will live. I thought her cut in twain.’
    ‘But there are other wounds, my lord,’ said the soft, older voice. I knew who spoke now: it was the castle leech. We had ever been on good terms with him and he had always held Gwendyth’s skill highly. In truth, she had not had the same confidence in him, but I think she misjudged him, for he spoke kindly of her. And of me, as he now proved. Silence followed his remark.
    ‘God’s teeth, what mean you?’ Lord Raoul said. ‘Will you handy words with me?’
    ‘My lord,’ said the old man again, ‘this only. Have you thought what has become of her all these years while you have been away? She has grown from childhood.’
    ‘Why should his lordship wonder?’ Sir Brian spoke sharply. ‘He has had cares enough without thought for a half-breed wench. And my lady wife has been here to befriend her.’
    ‘Patience, good sir,’ Lord Raoul said, ‘let the fellow speak.’ 
    ‘I meant only, lords,’ he said, ‘that you have been gone overlong and she has had no one to check or guide her if you did not, as her liege lord and guardian. I speak out of turn, but she and that old woman who was killed lived as poorly as the serfs out in the fields. If she has acted rashly, it was for lack of guidance surely.’
    ‘Then why stayed she not with the Lady Mildred and the other women in the bower?’ Sir Brian asked. ‘Why set she up her own household, God save the mark, as if she were a princess of the blood? Why came she not under our protection as she should?’
    ‘I mean no harm, my lord, no harm.’ The old voice quavered at Sir Brian’s anger, yet went on, good, kind, old man. ‘God forbid that I should speak against you. The Lady Mildred has held this castle well and all within it safe. But look you, my lords, if the Lady Ann and her servant have lived as servants themselves, perhaps you should know of it. l or pride perhaps she lived so, not wishing to be beholden to your lordship. I know not. No one will say it was your prime concern . . .’
    Lord Raoul broke in at that. ‘Judas, I have been battling across a country to keep a king on the throne; I have had little time for what concerns the women in their bower at Sedgemont.’
    ‘True, true, my lord,’ the voice went on soothingly, ‘but things beyond all men’s control have made her no man’s care. The Celtic lords may remain firm but they will not be pleased to know their kinswoman is nigh starved of hunger and ill of neglect.’
    ‘You speak out of turn, old man,’ said Raoul. ‘You tempt me to harsh reply.’ But his voice was not harsh. ‘Those are not easy words, to be taken lightly.’
    ‘Then see for yourself, my lord,’ said the leech. ‘Is this a sleep of exhaustion? Faintness and pallor like this come not from flesh wounds.’
    A sudden movement gave me warning, time enough to turn my face aside and close my eyes. I could feel the light upon my hair now, and beneath my lashes, sense rather than see how Lord Raoul came close to the bedside. But it was Sir Brian who spoke first.
    ‘God save the mark,’ he swore, ‘but how that hair flames red as Hell. And yet, my lord, it is an unusual face. It may be men will make a bid for her and take the burden upon themselves no doubt. They say her mother was the fairest of her race. So may she be if she be true.’
    His words were blunt enough, not cruel so much as detached. He might have been speaking of Lord Raoul’s horse.
    ‘Nay, look,’