A SUMMON
The fire crackled in the grate. Amice was in the solar alone, squinting as she worked on a tapestry. Brodgar and Henriette were still in the great hall, Amabel was in her chamber, and Alina had followed her out. Blaine and Chrissie were somewhere in the courtyard. Up here, she could hear aunt Chrissie laughing. Hal was with Broderick on the practice ground.
“At least I have a moment to finish my tapestry,” she murmured to the empty room, reaching for a new skein of silken threads. After all the busy activity, it was a respite. She lifted the needle to inspect it more closely, needing to focus to thread it, and suddenly her focus was interrupted as someone called her.
“Amice?”
“Oh!” Amice put the needle aside cautiously. “Aunt Alina! What is it?”
“I need to ask for your help, dear,” Alina said, coming in hesitantly. Her smooth oval face, only a little lined, was grave and troubled.
“My help, aunt? Of course. What is it?”
“It's your mother, niece,” she sighed. Her face was pinched with worry. “She's not well. She says there's nothing ailing her, but I can see there is. She's not fully recovered from that fever she had earlier.”
Amice nodded. “I'm sure you're right, aunt.” Aunt Alina was a skilled healer. If she said that, Amice believed her. “But what can we do?” Her heart thumped in her chest. Her mother, though robust, was prone to sudden attacks of fever. She had survived them all thus far – but would she continue to do so?
“I'm treating her chest with mallow root,” Alina explained. “And the aches with willow-bark...but that's an aside. What I need you to do is to keep an eye on things. You know how your mother always runs herself ragged with taking charge of everything.”
Amice nodded. “I do know.”
“Well, I want her kept at rest for the next two weeks. So no charging down to the kitchen, no heading out to the gatehouse or the stables. We're going to take on her duties for a while. If we can.”
“Of course,” Amice said, nodding vigorously. That she could do easily! She felt relieved. “I had thought you might need me to do something hard, aunt.”
Alina gave her a strange smile. It was a little sad, almost wistful. “I hope it proves easy, niece.”
Amice felt herself shake, a momentary tremor that was soon past. “Why do you say that, aunt? What might happen?” If Alina said things like that, one took notice of them.
Alina only shook her head. “Likely nothing. Now we should get into action straight away. We have plans for a dinner on Monday. We should check the stocks in the storehouse. And I should see to it that Leona's chamber is aired and made up.”
“I'll go to the storehouse now, aunt,” Amice said quickly. “Since we've already had the banquet for Brodgar, we'll have a good idea of what's left for the rest of the week right now.”
“Of course, niece. Off you go. I'll go upstairs.”
Amice set aside her embroidery and hurried down the hallway. She climbed quickly down the wide, stone steps that led to the courtyard and the outer colonnade, turning right to go down the servant's hallway to the kitchens.
The heat from the kitchen hit her like a blast as she headed down. In the depths of winter, the place was still warm, lit with a ruddy light from the stoves and the fire under the spit, reduced to ashes now as the pot-boys moved from tending to cleaning up.
“Mrs. Brewer?” she called the cook.
“Aye!” the woman appeared, sleeves rolled up to her elbows, arms covered in flour. “Why, mistress Amice! Fancy seeing you here, and all fancy dressed. What's the matter?”
Amice cleared her throat, feeling quite pleased with her new responsibilities. “My mother asked me to oversee the dinner next week,” she said. “I want to go over the supplies and find out what's in the storehouse. Then we need to plan the menu.”
“Oh, of course!” Mrs. Brewer nodded. “Well. We have twelve sacks of flour and eight of meal, we have five rounds of cheese and eight of butter, twelve pounds of oats and a sack of barley, and those onions that came in last week are still here...”
As she rattled off the list, Amice did her best to pay attention. The kitchen was a distracting place, filled with servants stirring brass pots or polishing cookware, and the smells were myriad and delicious. One of the hunting hounds came in from the courtyard and settled by the fire, looking up at Amice with friendly eyes.
“Well,” Amice said as the woman before her finished her inventory. “In that case, we could mayhap...” she paused, “have a stew of leeks and mushrooms, and we need to take down six hams – we're expecting all the guards and their families as well – and if you could use the barley in a broth, and make eight lots of bannocks...”
As she planned the banquet, Amice surprised herself with her own capacity for planning. She had only rarely done things like this before, but it seemed to come naturally. It was a pleasant surprise, since, with such a capable hostess for a mother, she'd always thought she had no gift for it.
It's nice to see I'm not that bad.
She felt a prickle of pride as she headed back up into the castle. She met Brodgar coming up.
“Brother! You look tired.”
“I am,” Brodgar said with a grin. “I've just spent half an hour with Blaine, telling him about the use of battle-axes – these long ones the Burgundians are making so wildly popular. Maybe Conn knows more.”
“Yes,” Amice nodded. He was on the continent, after all, a good deal closer to Burgundy than they were here. In fact, Annecy was not too far from that dukedom's borders, as far as she knew.
“I'm so pleased he's visiting.”
“Me, too.”
They talked a little as he headed up the stairs, turning right toward the solar at the top of the flight.
“I'm pleased Henriette's mother is back at our home in the North,” he added, nodding. “When the baby comes Henriette will be glad to have her mother close.”
“The baby?” Amice stared at him. “You daft man! You forgot to tell me!”
Brodgar went red. “I shouldn't have mentioned it, sister,” he said shyly. “Henriette'll skelp me sorely. She didn't wish for anyone to know. Not for the next month. Says she's not sure yet.”
Amice nodded. “I understand. Well, I won't tell anyone. I promise.”
Brodgar fluffed her hair. “Thank you, sister. What a relief!”
Amice grinned. “Of course, I'll keep it secret, brother. Though you shall have to tell someone soon. Think how Mama...” she trailed off. Her mother would be delighted. The thought made her heart clench with concern. Would her mother be well by the time the baby came? Her cough had worsened in the last month. She'd noticed it but pretended not to, so her mother wouldn't be offended.
“I know,” Brodgar nodded. “She'll be glad to be a grandmother again. I'm so glad to be here now. Henriette needs a rest, and I want to spend time with mother.”
Amice nodded. She knew Brodgar was concerned for their mother too. They had both noticed the pallor of her skin and, likely, Aunt Alina had passed a word to Brodgar too.
“Good. She'll be glad.”
Brodgar nodded, swallowing hard. They walked back to the warmth of the solar together.
As Amice greeted Henriette and sat down beside her at the hearth-side, she couldn't help glancing at her carefully. Was it obvious that she was expecting a babe? Amice knew little of the matter herself – her sister Joanna had a little daughter, but she'd given birth at Lochlann castle with Alina to tend her. Most of her child-carrying had been done apart from Amice, who didn't know how to tell.
“I'm so glad we're here,” Henriette murmured as Amice showed her the tapestry she worked on.
“I'm glad too,” Amice said, squeezing her friend's hand. Close up, she could see a glow to Henriette's skin, a shine to her eye that suggested she was full of health and happiness. She guessed at least part of that was due to the child, part to Brodgar, who shared a special love with her.
As she thought it, she glanced across the room to where Hal sat with Brodgar, drawing some diagram on a piece of leather. She watched him, considering. Was what she felt for Hal anything like the love of her brother and his new wife? She wondered.
When I'm with Hal I feel comfortable. Nice. I trust him. I feel safe with him. We joke and laugh and tease together. But is there...that extra thing? That thing that Brodgar and Henriette share?
As she thought it, she saw Henriette also glance to the table where Brodgar was. Her eyes filled with a softness that made Amice gulp.
No, she thought. It is different to how I feel for Hal. To how I feel for anyone.
At that moment, Alina came in. She looked tense, though one had to know her quite well to read the subtle currents of it in the stiffness of her movement, the one line across her smooth forehead. Amice went to her.
“Aunt. What is it?”
“It's...no matter, niece. Don't fret yourself.” She let Amice fetch her a drink, which showed how distracted she was – Alina was someone who couldn't bear fussing of any kind.
“I organized the dinner,” Amice said helpfully, sitting down on the chest of cloth beside her.
“Good, good.” Alina blew her cheeks out wearily. This close, Amice could see silver in the dense, dark curtain of her hair. “I'm glad my daughter's coming.”
Amice nodded. It would be a relief and a support for Alina to have Leona close. Though Joanna and she were far more alike, Alina had a fondness for her willful and impulsive daughter that surpassed anything she felt for anyone.
“I'm glad too, aunt.”
Alina nodded, and then gave her a weary smile. “You're a dear girl, niece. It's a pleasure having you about too.”
Amice thanked her, then, as the words left her mouth, found herself wondering why Alina had said that. She was always about; the last of her cousins here. Why would Alina say such a thing? Unless she had some sense that I'll go elsewhere?
She cleared her throat, wondering if she could be selfish enough to ask her worried aunt what she had meant, when someone burst in.
“My lady!” the messenger said, his face tense with worry. “We have bad news.”
Alina stood up. With Amabel in her chamber, she was the lady of Dunkeld, wife of the thane's brother. She cleared her throat.
“What is amiss? Tell me your message.”
She looked regal and aloof, and Amice felt a stab of pride in her lovely aunt. The messenger cleared his throat.
“The boat bearing Lady Leona and Lord Conn has been detained. If none come to negotiate their passage, they will be turned back to France.”
Alina reached out and Amice took her hand. She had gone white, and Amice felt a sudden shiver pass through her. Aunt Alina doesn't need any more bad surprises.
“What mean you, fellow?” Brodgar asked, standing. He came over and Amice seized the opportunity to help Alina to her seat. She shook her off, though, standing beside Brodgar as the two of them stared the messenger down.
“Sir, I, uh...” he stammered. “Because of the current...impasse...with certain smugglers, the ship was detained at Queensferry. Some papers weren't in order and the young lord...objected. They are being barred from the place until such papers are produced, or word can be brought to the court, proof of their identity.”
“This is ridiculous,” Brodgar murmured to Alina, who nodded. “Of course Conn is no smuggler. I must...” he trailed off, turning to Amice and, behind her, to Henriette.
Amice saw the look that passed between her brother and his wife, the tenderness, the care. The regret.
Brodgar cannot go now, and leave her! She needs him. Amice found herself clearing her throat. “I will go to Queensferry. I'm father's daughter and there's no call for me to stay here. I'll go.”