The Sword and The Swan Read Online Free PDF Page B

age—you know that. The husband and child are both dead too, but by no means of ours. I will swear that upon my husband's life! You must believe it."
    Rannulf sighed and sagged, more at ease, in his chair. What Maud swore on her life or honor might be doubtful; what she swore on Stephen's life was true. "Dead of what?" he asked with only the mildest interest.
    "The wasting fever. The whole keep was stricken; the whole countryside was sick with it in the south. I thought you must have heard even in Sleaford, the plague was so bad. It was God's will, not ours, Rannulf. More than that, you need have no fear that she carries her husband's seed either, for she was lightened of a seven-months' daughter, who did not live, only three months since—and that was after the husband was buried."
    "She has lost much. It will be bitter to her to be pressed into this new marriage so soon."
    Maud stared attentively at her guest's face, trying to read its expression. Was Rannulf expressing sympathy for the suffering of the woman, or was he merely worrying about her reaction to him under the circumstances? It did not matter. From the way the sentence was phrased, there could be no doubt that Rannulf now intended to accept the offer.
    "Indeed," Maud soothed, "I have lost children of my own and I feel for her grief. Even so, there is no other way. The land must be guarded by a strong man. If she and the property had been taken by Bigod, worse might have befallen her than marriage with an honorable man and she knows it. For her sorrow there can be no cure, but I speak from the heart when I tell you that it may be eased by giving her other children. You need not fear her spite. She has no spite in her, and too, a woman with such losses cleaves strongly to the father of her new young ones."
    Rannulf scowled, but Maud waited without doubt. "Very well," he growled. "I will give you the manor and lands nearest to my western border that you have long craved as a bride-price for her, but nothing more. The lands are great, it is true, but Soke loved his books too well to care for the lands properly. He drained them, too, in Henry's cause. They are doubtless in bad condition and I will have much to do before I can wring a groat from them. Worse, if the vassals fight, they will cost me rather than pay me."
    "Just as you desire, my lord," Maud agreed, meekly but triumphantly. "I am sure we will not quarrel about terms, since it is our desire to please you, but let us leave these matters for the clerks in the morning."

CHAPTER 2

    It had been a particularly mild winter, Catherine thought, shivering and drawing her furred cloak closer around her, but now, in March, it had begun to snow. She stopped pacing and leaned forward over the ramparts to watch the large flakes settle softly on the bare branches of a tree in the courtyard. Soon there was a ridge of white on each limb, for there was no wind at all to sweep the branches clean.
    It would be wonderful, her thoughts continued, if there were a wind that could sweep the mind and heart clean, instead of allowing past sorrows to cover all with a pale mantle. If she could but clear her soul of its burden of grief, perhaps she could understand what the queen was trying to tell her about Sir Rannulf. Even through the pain that dulled her mind, he had sounded a man of whom to be proud.
    "Alas, Lady Catherine, what do you here all covered with snow?"
    Turning her large eyes with their misty blue irises on the speaker, Catherine replied softly, "I do but very little, only breathe the air and look upon the courtyard, Lady Warwick."
    Gundreda, Lady Warwick, looked with apparent compassion on the fair, slender woman before her. "Your state is sad, no doubt, but there is no answer for it in death. You cannot fool the Lord, and to chill yourself in hopes to end your life is self-slaughter as much as to plant a knife in your breast."
    Catherine had a charming habit of looking up at people through a fringe of lashes which,