Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] by Border Moonlight

set her right.”
    He nodded. “Then, whilst you wait for it, you may bear Kit company. I warrant she’ll fall asleep before that poultice finishes steeping, won’t you, lassie?”
    “Aye, sir,” Kit said with a mournful sigh.
    “Get you into the chimney corner now. I’ll straighten the quilt for you.”
    He did so, bade them both goodnight, and adjourned upstairs to the room where he customarily dealt with the castle accounts as his father had before him.
    He sat for a time staring at the accounts by the light of several candles, and wondered if the lady Sibylla had found an effective way yet to tidy herself.
    Although Tetsy would do all she could to help, he knew he had doubtless annoyed his guest considerably by not allowing her to do as she pleased. The thought drew a rare smile from him.
    Sibylla heard Tetsy tell Kit firmly that she had things to see to in the bakehouse. “So you shut your eyes like a good bairn, and go to sleep.”
    Rejoining Sibylla, Tetsy clutched a hand to her throat as she muttered close to Sibylla’s ear, “I tell ye, me heart won’t bang right again till morning, m’lady. I doubt the lassie will hear us pouring water, but we’d best not talk.”
    “What lies the other side of that alcove?” Sibylla asked her just as quietly, pointing to where the water had disappeared.
    Tetsy stiffened and seemed to lose color.
    Putting a hand on her shoulder, Sibylla whispered, “I thought there might be a door in there, but I cannot find any latch.”
    “A door?”
    Tetsy whispered so quietly that Sibylla could barely hear her, but she did not need to. She could see that Tetsy was prevaricating.
    “Do you know of such a door?” she asked.
    Tetsy shook her head hard and pressed her lips together.
    “I expect I was a fool then to think there might be one there,” Sibylla said with a smile. “Help me finish this now.”
    Looking relieved, Tetsy obeyed. They were silent then until she had piled Sibylla’s hair atop her head, wrapped a towel round it, and Sibylla straightened.
    “Prithee, move that stool to the—” Breaking off, she stared in dismay at a lad of about ten summers, who had appeared silently in the archway.
    Following her gaze, Tetsy murmured, “That be our Jack, m’lady. This be the laird’s guest, Jack. She got mud in her hair, and we’ve been getting it out, but ye’re to say nowt. Ye’ve been watching the men dicing in the hall again, have ye no?”
    The boy nodded and moved to the wood basket. Glancing at Sibylla, who smiled at him, he put more fuel on the fire, pulled a narrow pallet to the floor from where it leaned against the wall, and lay down upon it, shutting his eyes.
    Tetsy and Sibylla exchanged looks of amusement, but Tetsy said, “I dinna think we should use the scullery wi’ these bairns here, so shall I fetch more water?”
    Sibylla wanted to rinse every grain of dirt away, but she realized that Tetsy was more nervous than ever about her part in the business and felt increasingly guilty at having put her at risk.
    “Do you worry that he will come back?” she asked, knowing Tetsy would understand that she meant Simon and that they would be giving nothing away to Jack or to Kit if the latter were still wakeful in the other chamber.
    Tetsy nodded fervently.
    “Then you tidy up whilst I rub the dirt off this table and do what I can to dry my hair. We’ll go up as soon as you’ve put everything away,” Sibylla said.
    The fire was hot, but her hair was by no means dry when Tetsy returned.
    “Ye’ll catch your death,” she said.
    “I can plait it and sleep perfectly safely with it still damp,” Sibylla assured her as they passed through the kitchen toward the service stairs. “I have often done it, although I know some people do think—”
    “Be ye going to leave me here, then?” a small, quavering voice inquired from the chimney corner.
    Turning to find Kit sitting with her knees tucked up to her chin and her quilt clutched around her, Sibylla