She had to stop the girls from pulling her laces too tight across her chest and stomach. It was hard to breathe. How did the women work and get anything done in these clothes?
“My, but you look enchanting!” Elia cried out when she hurried back into the chamber a few minutes later. “Mayhap seeing you will make Lord Scarborough feel better. He is in a foul mood.”
Why would Elia think that seeing Kes would make the earl feel better? “Why is he in a foul mood?”
“He did not say,” Elia told her. “But he has many reasons. You will find that he is most often quiet.”
Kes was surprised at what she was hearing. He spoke easily enough to her last night.
“Since King Edward perished, God rest his soul, Nicholas has changed.”
“Changed how?” Kes asked while Caitlyn slipped her feet into soft slippers with leather bottoms.
“Never mind that,” Elia said, glancing at the other women. Perhaps she didn’t want them to know. Kes would ask her later.
The pins in her hair pinched her scalp and she could barely inhale.
“Do you remember anything about your life yet?” the head maid asked her.
Would Kes forget it all? Tears filled her eyes and she bit her tongue to stop them.
“Oh, I would say you were noble born for certain.”
“That’s kind of you to say, Elia.” She thought of her aunt, Eleanor Pendridge. “My distant aunt was the Duchess of Glastonbury.”
“You remember!”
“Only bits and pieces.”
“Well, come. Let’s go find Nicky and tell him.”
Nicky.It was a familiar pet name that almost made Kes envious when she heard Elia say it.
She almost laughed at herself. Who was she to feel possessive of him?
After three steps, she tripped over her skirts and almost landed on her face.
“No, no, dear,” Elia caught her and corrected. “You must loop your skirts over your arm and carry it.”
This must have been the fashion of the day. Kes had seen other women carrying their skirts earlier.
The masses of wool were heavy as she walked down the hall. The stairs were a bit of a challenge, but she managed. Elia led them outside to the separate great hall in the inner bailey.
Kes stepped on a pebble that felt as though it went through her flesh.
By the time she stepped into the hall, two of the pins in her hair popped out and a few strands of hair fell around her temples.
The hall was enormous, with twelve rectangular tables seating at least eight people each. The noise was almost overwhelming. It was like hearing everyone in the world’s voices in her head.
She spotted Nicholas at the head of one of the tables. He held a cup to his frowning lips and looked around. He grumbled something to the people sitting with him at the table.
Elia pulled her closer. “Lord, look who I have found, and does she not look lovely?”
He looked at her loose strands of hair and then at the rest of her with those cool silvery eyes until the backs of her knees tingled. He didn’t say whether she looked lovely or not. In fact, he said nothing at all. Not even hello.
Kes glanced at Elia. She hadn’t been kidding. He really was in a foul mood.
“Well then,” the head maid said with a slight whip to her voice. “We shall leave you alone. Come, Miss Locksley, there is room for us at that table over there.”