Conquering William by Sarah Hegger

Author:Sarah Hegger [Hegger, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Too tired for much else, Alice sat and stared at the kitchen hearth fire. Tarnwych had long since settled for the night, and Cook and her boys snored from their pallets close to the warmth. Above stairs, Sister needed Alice to return with Ivy’s poultice for her wounds. Over the hearth, Ivy steeped yarrow in a large pot with Ivy alone knew what else. All day Ivy had battled by her side to bring Sister’s fever down, but the lashes on Sister’s back had become fouled, and the fever ate at her frail form.

The old scars beneath the fresh lashes disturbed Alice more. Sister’s back bore the scars of a lifetime of whippings. Why? What sin did Sister seek to flay from her flesh?

“Here”—Ivy put an earthen mug before her—“drink this. You must be tired.”

She must be tired? Alice nearly laughed aloud. Aye, she was done in, but Ivy worked just as tirelessly. Alice accepted the mug with a smile of thanks.

Ivy sat on the bench on the far side of the table, her hands clasped around a similar mug. “We need to wait for the yarrow.”

Alice nodded. Yarrow would draw the infection from Sister’s body and halt the bleeding, Ivy had told her. “How did you learn about healing?”

Ivy sipped her warm milk and placed the mug on the table. “When I came to Anglesea, Nurse took me under her wing. Some of this I learned from my mother when I showed I had a knack for it. When I was younger I always tended the animals about the farm or the other children.”

Ivy’s dark hair lay braided down her back, her bliaut unadorned dun linen. If she had met her on the street, Alice would have judged her a farmer or craftsman’s wife.

“You can ask,” Ivy said.

Alice’s face heated. She had been staring, and both of them knew it. Weariness rid her of any idea of dissembling. “You do not look like…what you were. What they say you were.”

“A whore?” Ivy tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“That is a horrible word.”

A delicate snort escaped Ivy. “It is a horrible profession.”

Alice giggled. Indeed, a horrible profession, and Ivy joined in her laughter. Ivy’s smile transformed her face into breathtaking. No wonder William forever made Ivy laugh.

Their laughter cleared the air. “Is it true?”

“Aye.” Ivy rolled the base of her mug on the table. “My father sold me to a man named Rudd when I was fourteen.”

There was naught funny about that, and Alice sat straighter on the bench. What an awful thing for a father to do. Except…

“I was a little older when my father married me to my first husband,” she said. “Although it is not the same, as he was but one man.”

Ivy propped her chin on her palm. “One man. Many men. Women are sold as chattel to further a man’s ends.”

True enough. What a depressing thought. Alice sipped the warmed milk and honey Ivy had prepared for her. “How did you come to live at Anglesea?”

A look of distaste crossed Ivy’s face.

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