Suzanne Robinson by Lord of the Dragon

Author:Lord of the Dragon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Vervain

Vervain was thought to be good for the stomach, liver, and lungs, or externally for the bite of venomous beasts. It was used against fevers, and all poisons. If a man kept vervain in his clothes in battle, he would escape from his enemies.

• Chapter 12 •

JULIANA RACED ACROSS THE BAILEY. SHE turned a corner of the new hall and ran inside past dozens of servants setting out the trestles and benches in preparation for dinner.

Marry Gray de Valence, by God. Once she would have welcomed it to the depths of her soul. If only he’d been so attentive and seductive the night she’d treated Imad, or the next morning when she’d been as full of timid excitement and infatuation as a lady in a troubadour’s song, ready to give her favor and her heart. But she knew better now. She wouldn’t be fooled again. She wouldn’t be hurt again.

Clutching her ripped overgown, she blew strands of hair out of her face and stopped to ask the butler overseeing the work in the hall where her mother was. Then she charged out of the hall, down an inner stair, and into one of the large storerooms beneath the structure.

Hardly pausing to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim candlelight, she hurried over to her mother, who was inspecting food supplies. Laudine was counting bags of flour while Bertrade sat on a barrel with quill, ink, and the inventory list.

“Mother, you must do something!” Juliana paused beside a barrel of vinegar, leaned on it, and panted.

Havisia stopped counting jars of oil. “What have you done now?”

“Naught,” Juliana said as she gulped in air and patted her brow with the torn edge of her overgown. “Father says I have to marry that corrupt spawn of the devil, and you must prevent it. Yolande won’t have him, so he’s trying to—”

“By the Holy Mother,” Havisia said. “Are you saying Gray de Valence has asked for you instead of Yolande?”

Laudine clapped her hands and laughed while Bertrade let out a sigh and gave Juliana one of her beatific smiles. Juliana nearly growled at them, but persevered with her mother.

“He’s worse than Edmund Strange. He’s not been here a week and he’s cast aside the lady he was wooing before everyone.”

“But you’re the one who didn’t want him to have Yolande,” Laudine said. “And now we know why.”

“You be quiet. Go count dried fish. Mother, I’ll not be enslaved to the prince of rooster knights. Since we met he’s run me into a mud hole, thrown me over his saddle, and tossed me into a washtub.”

Havisia sighed and rubbed her temples. “I fail to understand you, daughter. Are you saying Gray de Valence has asked your father for your hand?”

Not wishing to reveal the lurid circumstances that precipitated the tangle, Juliana only nodded vigorously.

“Even though you’ve behaved in a most discourteous and insolent way toward him? And don’t deny it, Juliana. I saw you throw butter in his face and beat him with a joint of beef.

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