Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan

Author:Kirsty Logan [Logan, Kirsty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529193527
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2023-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

3

Now She is Whore

The next day’s kitchen talk was of men. All the kitchen girls thought of was getting a husband; there was a much-lamented lack of men, as they were so apt to die in battles and fights and accidents. A woman could bleed every single month and still be strong, but men were flimsier. It seemed to Lux that the girls were fighting over bits of leftover gristle.

They spoke of the pedlar who brought spices. They spoke of the guards at the gate. They spoke of each other’s brothers, whether they lived nearby or not. They even spoke of the man they’d seen in town leading his wife in a branks, which seemed particularly silly to Lux, as he obviously already had a wife. Some of the girls were of the opinion that the branks was a good sign, as it meant he was unhappy with his wife and might be available soon. Why they’d want a man like that, Lux didn’t know; but then again, perhaps there was no such thing as a man who wasn’t like that.

None of the men, in fact, seemed appealing to Lux. But she understood why the girls spoke of them with desire. She’d been hungry before, and knew she’d be hungry again; at those times, even a skinned rabbit, raw on the inside and burned on the outside, will fill you.

They spoke, most of all, of the lord. It seemed that the lord occasionally plucked kitchen girls he’d taken a shine to out of the kitchen and into his private rooms. When the girls returned, they never spoke of the task they’d been summoned to do, but they often had red marks on their throats or arms, which they didn’t try to hide, but flaunted. When they told this, the kitchen girls cast sly glances at Lux. It didn’t take her long to realise that they thought she was the lord’s whore. She wanted to laugh at that; ludicrous to think that the lord would cast an eye at a scrawny whelp like her, when he had the lady in his bed. Besides, she’d never even seen the lord outside of the great hall, and had certainly never been alone with him. But she knew that trying to convince the other girls of that would only make her look more guilty, so she said nothing.

Finally, Amity spoke directly to Lux, though the tilt of her chin made it clear she found it distasteful. ‘Did the lady tell you how many there would be?’

How many dinners for the lord? How many bits of dead saints in the gold boxes? How many more tedious men to discuss? Lux continued to say nothing. If the girls didn’t want to speak to her, then she didn’t want to speak to them.

Hulda joined in with a sigh. ‘How many men, Lux. In the group of mummers. Are they all men or some women too? How old? What do they look like? Do they say nice things? How are their teeth? Are they taller than me?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Lux.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.