Having no knowledge of how to respond to that, she simply looked away, looking across the bailey and saying the first thing that came to mind.
“It seems that everyone is workin’,” she said, sounding nervous and hating it. “I can work, too. What would ye have me do?”
Troy could hear the trembling in her tone and he fought off a grin. He made her giddy with kind words and she wasn’t accustomed to them; he could tell. He thought it was rather sweet in a way he’d not experienced in a very long time.
“You have a very big job, Lady de Wolfe,” he said.
She looked at him as he addressed her by her title for the first time. Of course, she’d heard it last night, from others and from his command to the other knight, but it was the first time Troy had addressed her directly.
Lady de Wolfe.
She rather liked the sound of it.
“I am not afraid,” she said firmly. “What would ye have me do?”
Troy’s eyes twinkled at her before he turned to point at the tower and the hall. “All of this is your domain,” he said. “There is a nooning meal to be planned and then an evening meal. Stores must be inventoried and food must be cooked, and then you must do it all again tomorrow. You are chatelaine now and that is the biggest duty of all.”
Rhoswyn stared at him. Then, she looked to the enormous tower, the hall, and she felt a rush of anxiety.
“But…” she said, stammering over her words. “I… I dunna know anythin’ of managin’ a house. I wouldna know where to begin.”
Troy looked at her, seeing that she’d literally gone pale over the past few moments. It was the first time he’d really seen fear in her expression.
“You are being modest,” he said. “Surely you know something.”
She shook her head, her fear growing. “Nay, I dunna.”
“But you said your mother taught you things that ladies should know. Did she not teach you how to manage a house?”
As Troy watched, tears sprang to Rhoswyn’s eyes, tears that she very quickly blinked away. “I was never in the kitchens,” she said. “Me pa dinna want me tae do woman’s work. But… but I can repair the roof of the stable. Would ye let me do that instead?”
Troy wasn’t particularly surprised to hear what must have been a difficult confession. She’d been raised as a son; he knew that. He just didn’t know how deep that training ran. Now, he could see that it more than likely ran very deep and Rhoswyn was either terribly embarrassed to admit it or afraid to admit it. In either case, she was looking a little shaken, afraid that she couldn’t fulfill what he’d asked her to do.
“I do not need you to repair the roof,” he said. “I need you to handle the kitchens and the chatelaine duties. You were truly never taught?”
She shook her head, looking miserable. “Nay. I… I am sorry. Are ye sure there’s nothin’ else I can do?”
Troy felt rather sorry for the woman. Was it really possible that, trained in a man’s world, she knew nothing of a woman’s place in it? It seemed far-fetched, but perhaps not so outlandish in Rhoswyn’s case. He didn’t know a lot about kitchens or tending the house and hold, but he’d seen his mother and wife go about their duties. He supposed he could help Rhoswyn figure it out because, for certain, he didn’t want her doing things that his men could do.
“Rhoswyn,” he said, rather seriously. “I have men to mend roofs and repair walls. I have men to shoe horses and tend the weapons. What I need is a wife who will tend to my house and hold, and make a comfortable home for me. If your father would not let your mother teach you some things, then that was unkind of him. A woman’s place is to please her husband and tend his home. You do understand that, do you not?”
Rhoswyn looked rather lost with his question. After a moment, she shrugged. “I remember watchin’ me ma as she went about her duties,” she said. “But I was always with me pa, learnin’ from him. And after me ma died, the servants took up her duties. I never learned.”
Troy cocked a dark eyebrow. “Then you are about to learn,” he said. “That is where I need you most. I believe you are an intelligent woman and you will learn what needs to be learned. Are you at least willing?”
Rhoswyn looked into his face, thinking that if she wasn’t willing, then it would disappoint him. Yesterday, she wouldn’t have cared, but this morning… she cared. Her father had told her to be worthy of her new husband… but, God’s Bones, she wasn’t. She knew she wasn’t. She only knew how to fight and not how to be a wife. Was she willing to learn? For the first time in her life, she was willing to learn what a woman did. And it wasn’t to lift a sword.
She was embarking into new territory.
“Aye,” she said after a moment. “I am willin’.”
He smiled faintly at her in a gesture that made her knees go weak. “Good,” he said. “I do not know very much, but I think I know the basics of it. Come along with me; let us determine what it is you need to do.”
Taking a deep breath for courage, Rhoswyn followed.
*
“I suppose these are the kitchens.”
Troy said it as if he didn’t quite believe it. They were at the rear of the tower, in a small, walled area, but the entire area was torn up. There were farming implements scattered on the ground and two big iron pots laying in the mud. A couple of chickens were scratching about and there was a nanny goat with a kid nibbling on anything they could get their lips on. Troy scratched his head.
“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “I suppose the first thing to do is to determine what you have to work with. Pots and that kind of thing. Then, you should probably make sure these animals have feed. The feed, I would guess, is in the barn or around here somewhere. Pen up the chickens and see if they’ve laid eggs somewhere. You will need those eggs.”
Rhoswyn was trying very hard not to feel overwhelmed. She looked around at the utterly neglected area, seeing that the goats looked a little skinny. She’d always had a soft spot for animals so she went to the pair before she even looked to anything else, petting the little kid and running her hands over the nanny’s body.
“Poor wee beasties,” she said. “They’re hungry. I’ll go find their feed right away.”
Troy didn’t stop her; she was already disoriented enough so he didn’t want to upset whatever balance she was trying to find. If she thought the goats needed tending first, then he would let her. But he remained in the yard, finding three eggs, while Rhoswyn was off finding something for the goats to eat. It didn’t take her long because she pilfered from the horse’s feed, the dried grass and grains that Troy had brought with him in his provisions wagons. As Troy found a fourth egg in the ruined yard, Rhoswyn came rushing back with a sack of grain in her arms.
“Here we are,” she said as she rushed over to the goats and dropped to her knees, setting the sack to the ground. She tried to rip at the sack but she couldn’t break the seams, so Troy pulled out a small dagger and handed it to her. Smiling gratefully, she slit a small hole in the sack and poured the grain onto the ground. “Eat, wee sweetings.”
The goats began to munch hungrily and Troy herded the chickens towards the grain so they could eat also. With the animals being fed, Rhoswyn set the sack of grain against the wall of the tower, since the kitchen yard backed right up to it, and brushed off her hands.
“There,” she said, as if feeding the beasts was the most important thing in all of this. “Now, what more would ye have me tae do?”
The fact that she would feed the animals before anything told Troy that Rhoswyn had a softer heart than she let on. A little something more he was learning about her. He put his hands on his narrow hips, looking around the yard.
“As I said, inventory what you have here,” he said. “I found four eggs and put them in the hen’s pen over there. That looks as if it can use some repairing, too. Mayhap you could fix that so your chickens do not run away or get eaten by hungry men. Once you have cleaned this area up, find me and we shall determine what needs to be done next.
”
“Next?” she repeated. “How will we even know what tae do next? Although I appreciate yer help, I feel as if one blind man is leadin’ another in this matter. Neither one of us knows much about kitchens. Mayhap I should send tae Sibbald’s for one of the womenfolk tae come. At least I could learn from her.”
Troy scratched his head. “That is a possibility,” he said. Then, he cocked his head thoughtfully. “But I have a better idea; I will send for one of my knights and he can bring his wife. I was not going to bring any of my knights here but, in this case, I think I should. His wife can teach you how to run a house and hold, at least the way I am used to things. Would you be willing to learn from her?”
Rhoswyn looked at him dubiously. “An English lass?”
“She could teach you well.”
She mulled it over, suspecting it might make him happy if she agreed. She’d married an Englishman so perhaps she’d better learn the English way. Therefore, she nodded reluctantly.
“As ye say,” she said. “But… but she willna think me a fool, will she? For not knowin’ what I should probably know, I mean.”
Troy smiled. “She will be very kind and patient with you, I promise,” he said. “Shall I send for her, then?”
“Aye.”
“Good.”
“When will she come?”
He glanced up at the position of the early morning sun. “If I send a swift rider to Kale Water now, she can be here by sup, more than likely. Kale Water Castle is only ten miles to the north.”
It all sounded reasonable to Rhoswyn. She looked around the yard, at the mess around them. It would be a daunting task for anyone. “Ye’d better warn the lass of what she’s comin’ intae.”
There was some dry humor in that statement and Troy grinned. “No warning needed,” he said. “English women are not as weak as you seem to think they are. But until she arrives, you can tend to the animals and repair what you can around here. Then we need to discuss what to do about an evening meal. My men will be hungry.”
Rhoswyn simply nodded. In truth, she didn’t feel so overwhelmed as she had earlier, knowing that help was on the way. If this was to be her lot in life, with a handsome husband she was more than intrigued with, then she was willing to learn. Even from an English woman.
“Then I will do what I can for now,” she asked. “When I am finished, where can I find ye? I mean, where will ye go?”
Troy looked at her. Did he hear longing in her voice? Of course not. He’d known the woman less than a day. It was far too soon to hear anything sentimental like that, even though part of him wanted to hear it. But the other part of him was deeply reluctant, convinced that this would be a civil marriage and nothing more. He didn’t want to feel anything for Rhoswyn. He refused to. Any feelings he had, as he’d told Paris, were for Helene, still. They always would be.
He was firm in that.
“I am not sure where I will be, but it is not a big complex,” he said. “You will easily find me somewhere. Ask one of my men if you cannot locate me; they will know.”
Rhoswyn’s features tensed with some uncertainty. She looked in the direction of the bailey, seeing the English moving around in the distance.
“They dunna know me,” she said. “I am only a Scots tae them.”
Troy shook his head. “You are my wife. They know that.”
She looked at him, then. “And that alone will cause them to respect me? Nay, laddie. I must earn their respect, I think.”
Laddie. She’d said it again. That little term that he rather liked hearing from her lips. “Why do you call me that?” he asked.
“What?”
“Laddie. I’m not a lad, you know.”
She gave him a half-grin. “I dunna know,” she said. “A habit, I suppose.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “You call all men laddie?”
She laughed softly. “Nay, but me pa does,” she said. “’Tis a kind term, I suppose. Pa uses it with the men he likes. It’s when he doesna call ye laddie that ye should worry.”
He could see the humor in her words. He was coming to see that she did have a sense of humor, and he was glad. If she was willing to let it come through, then perhaps she was, indeed, becoming resigned to the situation and the way things were. It was one more step in a series of small steps that she had to take in order to become accustomed to her new life. But she was moving forward, in any case. Troy took a step towards her, leaning down so he was more on her level.
“If ye want tae call me laddie, then I’ll answer,” he said, mimicking her Scots brogue. “I’ll come tae whatever ye wish tae call me.”
With that, he winked at her and headed out of the yard, leaving Rhoswyn struggling to catch her breath again. Oh, what that man could do to her!
And the way he walked… he stalked, really. Long, smooth strides. It was a proud sort of walk. She watched him walk out into the bailey and disappear from sight but, still, she stood there like an idiot, thinking of that wink he gave her. There was that flattery again, something she wasn’t used to but something she knew she could grow to like. It made her feel special in a way that no one ever had.
Laddie. Perhaps that made him feel special, too. As if they were starting to understand one another.
A grin played on her lips as she turned around and went back to work.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kale Water Castle
It was a brisk autumn day as Lady Sable de Moray de Shera sat in front of a warm fire, working on a tiny little tunic. One of the serving women at Kale had just delivered a healthy son and Sable, who was very good with a needle and thread, was finishing up on the warm little garment for the child. She was a thoughtful woman, to friends as well as servants, and well-loved at Kale. She was overwhelmingly loved by her husband, who even after a year of marriage, was as besotted with his wife as he was the day he married her.
With brown eyes, brown hair, and a porcelain face, Sable was exceedingly lovely and possessed graceful manners. Finishing her last stitch, she cut the bits of thread from the garment and held it up, looking at her handiwork. Pleased with it, she considered sewing another one, as she had enough fabric to do so, when the old oak door to the solar pushed open and her husband appeared. Sable smiled at the man as she set the little tunic to her lap.
“Well?” she asked. “What brings you to me? Did you miss me so terribly that you could not stand being parted from me, not even since breaking our fast?”
Cassius de Shera grinned at his wife. A very large man with broad shoulders, dark green eyes, and wavy dark hair, he was a son of the great and powerful House of de Shera. The patriarchs of the family were three brothers who had fought with Simon de Montfort during the tussle for the throne against Henry III. Lords of Thunder, they’d been called for their prowess and power in battle, and Cassius was a tribute to that reputation. He was the bastard son of the middle brother, Maximus, but the family had never treated him as if he was any less because he’d been born out of wedlock.
In fact, Cassius was as well-trained and well-loved as the legitimate offspring, hence his presence here in the north. His father had sent him north to train with de Wolfe and learn the ways of the Scots, part of his broader training as a knight, and Cassius was hungry to learn all he could. He’d come to Kale Water right after his marriage to Sable, about a year prior, so they’d spent their entire married life up here in the wilds of the north.
It had been as wonderful as both of them could have ever imagined.
Which made Sable’s question something of the truth. Cassius couldn’t go for more than an hour without seeing his wife if he could help it, and she felt the same. They were eager lovers, deeply devoted to one another, and he went to her and kissed her on the top of the head as she sat in her cushioned chair.
“Y-You know I cannot stand to be parted from you, in any case,” he said. Cassius had been born with a slight catch in his speech, something he’d worked very hard to be rid of. These days, it was barely noticeable. �
��But I did come with another purpose, believe it or not. A messenger has just come from Troy, bearing great news. The reivers have been chased from Monteviot and the tower is now a de Wolfe holding. William has asked Troy to remain for a time to secure it.”
Sable was looking at him with some surprise. “So they were successful!”
“Aye. T-They were victorious.”
She smiled with relief. “I am very happy to hear that.”
Before Cassius could reply, another big body appeared in the solar door and they both looked over to see Brodie de Reyne filling up the portal, his fair face alight.
“Did you hear?” he demanded. “The armies were victorious at Monteviot!”
Cassius nodded patiently. “Aye, we’ve heard,” he said. “I was just telling my wife”
Brodie was grinning broadly. A tall and muscular man, he was from the prestigious de Reyne family, a very large family that had roots in Northumbria and York. He had a vivacious personality, something that ladies took to quite easily, and he had no shortage of female admirers.
With his blond good looks and bright smile, Brodie de Reyne had quite a reputation as a lady’s man, something that had worried Cassius until Brodie once said something to Sable that she construed as flirtatious and she’d belted him across the mouth in outrage. After that, Cassius worried no more and Brodie was very careful what he said to Lady de Shera. Any daughter of the great Bose de Moray undoubtedly had her father’s fighting skills, so Brodie didn’t push Lady de Shera any more than necessary.
In truth, he was afraid of her.
Therefore, when he came into the solar, it was to shake Cassius’ hand as if to congratulate them both on Troy’s victory, but he made no move to shake Lady de Shera’s hand. She might stab him with her needle, anyway.
“I had little doubt theirs would be a great victory,” Brodie said. “With so many armies converging on that little tower, the reivers never stood a chance.”
Cassius nodded. “T-True enough,” he said. Then, he held up something he’d been holding in his left hand, a roll of yellowed vellum. “The messenger that came from Monteviot to deliver the news of triumph also brought a missive from Troy. It seems that the de Wolfe victory over the Scots was not the only big event to have taken place.”
The Original de Wolfe Pack Complete Set: Including Sons of de Wolfe Page 226