Page 41 of The Bear's Heart
“I’m tired now and need my bath,” I said. “Thank you for your hospitality, Essylt, but I think I’d like to take it on my own.” The last jug was tipped in. Herb scented steam rose temptingly off the water in the tub.
Essylt came up beside me. “Don’t you need any help?”
I shook my head. “No, thank you. I’ll be fine alone. But perhaps, if you could arrange it, and your father wouldn’t find it rude, I’d like to eat here in my rooms and then go to bed.”
Leaving me to my ablutions, the servants and a reluctant Essylt departed, and I pushed the nagging doubt that had set my senses on edge about her to the back of my mind, as though it were of no importance.
Chapter Sixteen
Imust haveslept through Arthur coming to our bed that night because when I awoke the next morning, an indentation on his side showed me he’d been there but was now gone. Rolling over, I pressed my nose to the hollow, breathing in the faintest aroma of his body, wishing I’d woken early enough to have seen him. But I couldn’t stay there forever. Curiosity and the need to pee, which had become much more frequent of late, got me out from between the covers and over to the leather bucket in the corner.
Feeling much more comfortable, I looked round for my saddlebags and found someone had unpacked them for me. My clothes lay neatly folded on a large oak chest underneath the shuttered window. Having washed myself, and then brushed my teeth with powdered charcoal and dried mint leaves and spat liberally, I put on a loose, long-sleeved gown and my soft leather boots.
Much refreshed after a good night’s sleep, I stepped into the antechamber.
Essylt was sitting at the table eating breakfast. After a moment, I realized it was probably my breakfast.
“Good morning,” she said sweetly, polishing off the last of the dried dates.
I came and sat at the table and took a piece of the bread, before it all vanished, and spread it with some thick creamy yellow butter. Delicious.
“Do you make a habit of stealing your guests’ breakfasts?” I asked, between mouthfuls. I was starving.
She gave a shrug. “Only the ones I like.”
“The breakfasts or the guests?”
She giggled, and I was reminded of how young she was. “The guests.”
I smiled. “You’ve a strange way of showing you like them.”
A bowl of soft cheese caught my eye, but tempting as it was, I didn’t take any, mindful of the warning to pregnant mothers in my old world to avoid listeria-bearing foods. Yet another nugget of vestigial knowledge that had come in handy– like my maths skills with Eigr.
“Do you know what’s happening this morning?” I took a gulp of the small ale that accompanied the meal. “I slept in too long, and my husband’s gone.”
She wrinkled her pretty nose. “Well, my father is in the Cathedral praying, as he is every morning. He’ll be there until midday, and then he’ll shut himself in his office and refuse to come out.” She broke the bread she was holding into pieces absentmindedly. “My brothers are usually at the training grounds all day long. But today, with the army of the Dux here, I couldn’t say where they might be. I think I heard them talking to your husband about scouting parties last night.”
I pushed my seat away from the table. “In that case, I’ll just have to go and find out for myself.”
She jumped to her feet. “I’ll come with you.”
We found Merlin in the stable courtyard saddling his horse. The buildings and yard were conspicuous by their emptiness, with only a few of our warriors visible, mostly the less seriously wounded. They sat in small groups, cleaning their tack, polishing their helmets, sharpening their weapons or just basking in the sunshine.
“Merlin!” I hitched up my skirts and hurried toward him, Essylt in my wake. His head turned, and a smile lit his thin face. He put down the saddle he’d been about to set on his horse’s back and leaned against the animal’s side instead. The sun in the yard held real warmth, and he had to squint against its brightness to look at me.
“My lady Guinevere.” How formal that sounded when he usually called me Gwen. It would be for Essylt’s benefit, of course. A queen commanded the respect of all her husband’s people.
“Where are you off to, and where’s Arthur?” I gestured round at the empty stable yard, ignoring protocol. “And all the men?”
He had the grace to look a bit awkward and embarrassed. “Ridden north at first light. A messenger came in late last night with news of Saxon ships seen making their way along the coast and raiding parties attacking fishing villages. There’s marshes up toward the Humber, but Prince Beli has scouts who know the pathways through them. The Saxons’ll most likely sail up the Humber or beach their ships on the sands and come ashore. That’s what the King and Prince Beli think they’ll do. They want to be waiting for them.”
I felt abandoned. “He went without telling me. I thought he wanted me with him.” A hollow pit of worry started in my stomach, worry that Arthur was riding into danger and I wasn’t there to bring him luck. Even all my twenty-first-century common sense couldn’t dissuade me from superstition, however much I denied it. I’d caught it from the people around me like a common cold, only unlike a cold, it was here to stay.
“He left me to take care of you,” Merlin said, as though it were the smallest matter. “He told me you were too tired to travel with the army, and it was too dangerous. I’d agree with him on that. You only saw that first skirmish because we went straight there with nowhere safe to leave you.”
“I thought I was supposed to be the luck of Arthur,” I retorted. “Won’t the men protest if I’m not with them?”
Essylt was listening to all this in fascination, her eyes flicking from Merlin to me.
