Sorry, been away for a while - to make up for it, a bumper lot of chapters .....
Katherine has no doubt that as soon as he is able, Guy will leave and the thought of this causes her so much pain, all she wants to do is lie down and weep.
How things have changed.
She is so lost in this thought that when Martha enters the room, she barely notices. It is only when the older woman starts slamming things down and sighing dramatically that Katherine turns from her thoughts to say, ‘What is bothering you, Martha?’
‘The way he looks at me. Like he’s going to cut my throat for feeding him that purgative. It’s not safe having him here.’ For extra emphasis, Martha pulls a dramatic face. ‘It might be Alice he attacks next.’
'He won't attack you or Alice in such a way. It is me with whom he is angry,’ Katherine replies.
‘You? What for - looking after him, saving him from dying in a ditch?’ Martha sits next to Katherine. It is one of the many liberties Martha takes with her mistress, but Katherine does not object. She likes the closeness of feeling part of a family, even though it is not her own. ‘If that’s why he’s angry, then Satan’s an idiot.’
‘Satan?’
‘That’s what we all call him,’ explains Martha.
Katherine cannot stop herself from smiling.
Martha opens her mouth to launch into all the reasons why 'Satan' is dangerous, when Katherine stops her. 'Martha before you go on, I need to tell you something about Satan … something perhaps I should have told you right at the start. But you must not tell the others, indeed, you must not tell a living soul. If you do you could endanger him and me. Do you understand ..?’
Martha's eyes widen, she loves gossip, is usually the first to spread it.
‘But before I tell you my secret,’ says Katherine, ‘you have to tell me one of yours.’
‘What? Why?’
‘No questions, Martha. Just understand that if you want to hear my secret, you have to tell me one of yours first. And it has to be a big one. You need to know that if you repeat my secret to anybody, I will tell your secret to the very person you least want to know it.’
Martha sucks her teeth for a while, looking at Katherine and once again wonders how her mistress got to be so stubborn, so determined when she sets her mind to something.
‘All right,’ she says at last, ‘Alice isn’t Robert's child ... Stephen is, but Alice isn't.’
Katherine tries not to show surprise. ‘Oh,’ is all she says, before curiosity bites too deep to resist adding, ‘Whose ..?’
'Traveller … stopped at the last place we worked to get a drink of water, some food and, well … I was in the kitchen on my own ...’
‘Oh Martha,’ says Katherine, ‘I am so sorry.’
Martha looks perplexed and then laughs, ‘No, he didn't force me. It was just like lightening, a look, a touch, before we knew it we were down on the floor going at it–’
‘Yes, thank you Martha,’ says Katherine hurriedly, and then she giggles. ‘Martha, really. Tut tut.’
‘I know, wouldn't have believed it. Passion, see. When it hits you … watch out.’
There is silence for a while as both women seem lost in their own thoughts. Martha reliving the events of Alice's conception and Katherine thinking about what Guy had said about passion that day sitting in her room when she had very nearly kissed him.
‘About Satan,’ she begins again and Martha listens intently until Katherine has finished her story. Then there follows a silence during which Martha appears to be thinking deeply.
‘Bl***y hell, ‘says Martha finally, ‘no wonder he’s so damned angry with you.’
Katherine inclines her head in agreement.
'And arrived in that filthy state, stinking of drink,’ continues Martha.
'Yes,’ Katherine says.
‘And rips off anybody’s head who tries to help him,’ Martha goes on.
Katherine sighs.
Martha pauses and then asks, ‘So what's he called then … what's his real name?’
Katherine says the first name that comes into her mind. ‘Hindelford, Sir Guy Hindelford.’
‘Sir, eh?’ Martha whistles and Katherine smiles - she has not told anybody here that she is a member of the nobility too.
‘So this is all about trying to say thank you is it?’ asks Martha. ‘To him?’
‘Yes.’
‘That all?’ Martha asks with one eyebrow raised.
Katherine knows in her heart where Martha is driving this conversation, but in case she is in any doubt, Martha makes it clear - starting with a dirty laugh.
‘He has a hell of a body on him, not bad looking under all that hair. Just needs a bit of filling out – well not all of him, of course. Some of him is quite big enough already. Noticed that when he was leaping around with nothing–’
Katherine raises her hand, ‘Yes, thank you Martha’ she says. ‘What he has or has not got is immaterial … he cannot stand the sight of me now.’
Martha sighs. ‘Well, going from all that, being a nobleman and having all that power, to being a cripple, bound to make you bitter.’
Katherine winces. ‘Yes… of course.’
Martha is quiet for a minute, letting Katherine ponder on what she has said and then she grins, ‘Poor Alice … gave her a real shock the other day, seeing him like that. Put her right off getting married, I shouldn't wonder.’
Martha hesitates for a while, wondering whether she dare say what she wants to say next and decides it's worth the risk. She leans in closer to Katherine, ‘And you think he can't stand the sight of you? Well, Robert said when they hauled him off you it looked like he wasn't trying to strangle you any more, he was trying to kiss you. And he had the most massive–’
‘Martha!’ cuts in Katherine, blushing.
But Martha is not abashed, she simply purses her lips and raises her eyebrows and then despite herself Katherine starts to laugh.
