The next morning, the hall was nearly empty by the time she dragged herself downstairs. She sank into a chair beside Isabella near the hearth and picked up the needlework she’d left there.
“Ye missed breakfast again,” Isabella said.
She had lain in bed missing the warmth of David’s body next to hers and risen too late.
“Ye should go down to the kitchens and get something to eat,” Isabella said. “While you’re there, ye can give your new cook instructions.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Alison should become acquainted with the new members of her household Brian had brought from Hume Castle to replace the servants David had sent away. Not long ago, she would have relished training new servants, but she let Isabella do it for her because she simply did not care.
“Blood for blood is a sacred duty here in the Borders,” Isabella said. “David could not hold his head up as a man, and certainly not as a laird, until retribution was exacted.”
“I understand that now.” Alison stifled a sigh. Isabella had said that so often in the last days as to be a trifle tedious.
They stitched in blessed silence for a time.
“Ye do know he has a mistress at Hume Castle?” Isabella asked.
Alison felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her in a hard fall and could not draw breath.
“At least, Geliswashis mistress,” Isabella said, continuing with her stitching as if this was nothing. “I imagine she’s still there. Waiting.”
“You’re speaking ofDavid’smistress?” Alison said, her mind slow to accept what she was hearing.
“David’s not the sort of man to go from bed to bed,” Isabella said.
Never once had Alison heard of him disappearing with one of the serving women, though more than one had given him the eye. She had taken his fidelity for granted.
“So naturally, he kept a mistress,” Isabella continued. “Same one these past two years.”
“He wasn’t married at that time,” Alison said.
“Aye. Did I say her name is Gelis?” Isabella tied a knot and bit her thread. “Can’t say I like her much, but she has the sort of curves that leaves men with their tongues dragging on the floor, if ye know what I mean.”
Alison felt as if a blade had been stuck in her heart.
Isabella gave a small sigh. “I assume he’ll take up with her again now.”
“He wouldn’t,” Alison said.
“A man has needs,” Isabella said, giving Alison a sideways glance, “particularly avigorousyoung man such as David.”
The thought of David touching another woman,vigorouslyor otherwise, made her feel sick to her stomach.
“What are ye going to do about this?” Isabella’s voice broke into her thoughts.
“What can I do?” Abandoning the pretense that she was stitching, Alison tossed her needlepoint across the floor.
“Well, the first thing ye can do is not leave him alone with that Gelis,” Isabella said.
“David ordered me not to leave the castle,” she said, blinking back tears. “The last time I did, it ended verra badly.”
“A wife must have the good sense to know when to ignore her husband’s orders.”
“David doesn’t want me. He wouldn’t have left if he did,” Alison said. “And he’llnevertrust me.”
“He told me he cares for ye,” Isabella said. “And God knows that’s not something David would admit to lightly.”