Chapter 5.6

The others turned to look at me. Then one of the younger ladies called out, “Good brother – come scrub my back!”

I paused, then hurried to the task. Absolute service was the creed of the Silent Monks, though I had thought that they would never attend a lady at her bath unless she were infirm. Still, I would have to do their bidding or risk shattering my disguise.

I bent to my task, keeping my eyes to her well-shaped back. Her shoulders were smooth and round, and curved down in a perfect line to her perfect breast, creamy white and shaped... I saw Elise in my mind’s eye, impatiently tapping her foot, and remembered my job. Finishing quickly, I blessed her and moved back.

“Now me,” cried none other than the Lady Victoria.

Following her bidding, I set to work. I did not feel quite so guilty about admiring her charms, having seen them displayed so brazenly in the greenhouse.

Another woman, almost a child, moved to sit beside her. She spoke quietly, beneath the chatter of the others. “How are things going with that Bard of yours?”
She giggled. “Quite well, m’lady. What he lacks in substance, he makes up for in style.”

My opinion of the Lady Victoria fell a bit more, to as low as it could go.

“Other than that,” the other woman said dryly, “does he believe what you tell him?”

“Every word, I’m sure. He’s told me that he’s written several ballads on the grisly deeds of the evil Lord Reinard, and he said he’d show me tonight his song about the babe in your belly.” The Lady Victoria giggled.

I glanced at the other woman, who I now assumed to be the Lady Laurice. The flatness of her stomach and the tightness of her breasts argued against the presence of a baby.

“I think I’d like to hear it before he plays it for the world,” said Lady Laurice. “If I sneak into the greenhouse with you – but not tonight. Can you hold him off until tomorrow night?”

Lady Victoria blew out her breath. “I could. But I hope you won’t ask me to continue this for much longer. He’s been fun – but there’s a knight I’d like to try, before he rides off.”

I was wrong. My opinion of the Lady Victoria could go much lower.

The look of shock on Lady Laurice’s face showed that I was not alone – I thought. “Come now – we must keep him for a month longer. I’d like the news of the babe to hit Lord Reinard’s ears at the time that the birth should happen, so that I can explain it away as an accident of childbirth. But that’s three long months away.”

Something here is very wrong, I thought as I glanced again at the taut belly of a woman who was supposed to be six months along.

“Monk, monk!” cried a dried-up voice from the other side of the pool. I hurried over to a pair of shoulders which were more bone than flesh. Loose skin moved easily beneath my fingers. I could still hear Lady Laurice and Lady Victoria, if I strained.

“I hope this works. He was to be married to Aunt Lyrica, but Peter’s birth put him off.”

That was something I hadn’t heard, that Lord Reinard had been engaged to someone else. And secrets did not stay hidden at Songless Castle.

“She entered a convent, did she not? In shame and disgrace?”

Lady Laurice snorted. “In joy and celebration, more likely. The man is a murderer. He burned his own wife and any music-maker he could put his hands on.”

Bard, not music-maker. There is a difference. Then I paused, suddenly realizing that she spoke of the Old Lord, not my Lord Reinard.

Did she not know the difference?

But then, when the Old Lord died, there were no Bards to sing him to rest and carry the news of his death to country folk – and the women in high, hidden castles. He had died in the silence he brought on himself. It was as he deserved – but as there had been no one to sing him out, there had been no one to sing my Lord Reinard in. For all Lady Laurice knew, she was to be married to an old, malicious husk.

The conversation continued as I thought. I cam back in a lady Victoria spoke. “But if I wait a month to release my Bard, he may be caught in the winter snow. And then I’ll have to serve him all winter. I’m starved for muscle, m’lady. Muscle and...” She raised her hands and held them a distance apart.

The other fine ladies in the pool laughed with her.

“If you stoke the fire properly,” advised the elderly lady beneath my fingers, “he’ll walk glaciers barefoot for you. What’s a little wind and cold when you’re already sending him to certain death?”

“He’s smart enough to stay out of Lord Reinard’s clutches, isn’t he?” Lady Laurice paused. “Tell him to go in disguise.”

From the look on Lady Victoria’s face, however, I guessed that Sharp’s falling prey to the bard-killer would solve her problem of his affection. It was a pity that she could be so ungrateful for the gift of affection he gave her.

With that, I slipped back from the circle of women and crept up the stairs. I had learned enough to save Lord Reinard’s marriage, should he be willing to battle a few rumors. And still foolish enough to bring women like the Lady Laurice and the Lady Victoria into his castle.