Cursed in the Blood: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery (18 page)

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Authors: Sharan Newman

BOOK: Cursed in the Blood: A Catherine LeVendeur Mystery
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“I was not dreaming!” Catherine was indignant. “I know quite well what I saw. Come with me and I’ll prove it.”
But even as she spoke, Catherine knew there would be no sign of the prisoner now. She followed Adalisa down to the kitchen and looked as she was shown the room, empty of all but the most innocent barrels and bundles. She should have made Solomon go with her immediately after seeing the man. There was nothing to do but apologize and admit that she must have been mistaken. Margaret had spread the tale of the monster in the mist so that it was easy to add this to her growing list of eccentricities. Catherine could imagine the laughter in the village when the story was told. She just wondered
if they would be ridiculing her insanity or her credulity for being so easily tricked.
Wedderlie was becoming increasingly unsettling. Catherine began to think about taking Willa and James and returning to the protection of the monks in Berwick until Edgar returned.
 
Margaret was extremely proud of her sudden transition from “that child” to a person of importance. It had never occurred to her that the ability to understand both French and English would be of use to anyone. But first Catherine and now Solomon seemed to find her indispensible. It was such a new sensation that she didn’t know what to make of it.
“What if Robert uses words I don’t know?” she asked nervously as they arrived.
Solomon held up his arms to help her down.
“He won’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Margaret wasn’t, but Solomon was an adult and knew how things were done so she could only trust him and hope that she wouldn’t fail when the time came.
She was further disconcerted when Solomon put her hand on his arm and led her to the house, just as though she were a grown lady in jewels and a veil.
Robert’s dwelling was only a few steps in quality above that of his tenants. There was a fence around a yard, where chickens scratched, but no guard. The building itself had two levels, storage on the first and living quarters on the second. As they let themselves in the gate his dog, Lufen, started barking.
Solomon felt the girl’s hand tighten on his arm, but she lifted her chin higher and ignored the dog as it ran toward them. It was the first time he realized that she had something of her father in her, after all. No child of Waldeve would ever dare show fear.
Robert came out when he heard the dog and called it off at once. Margaret’s hand relaxed.
“Tell him we’ve come for a friendly visit,” Solomon asked her. “I was bored and wondered if there was any news from the monks about the trade for wool and spices.”
When she had translated Robert shook his head.
“But tell Solomon that I expect word soon,” he said. “Since you’re here, do you want some ale and bread? I was going out to check the rabbit snares. You can come with me or wait here.”
Margaret opted to wait. “I don’t mind rabbit stew,” she explained. “But I hate to see them wiggling in the noose.”
Robert shook his head at such fastidiousness.
“Lufen!” he called and the dog came running. The two of them started across the garden toward the wood.
Halfway across Robert stopped and bent over. Just as he did the dog pounced on something in front of him, gave a jerk and fell to the ground howling. Robert cried out as if he, and not the dog, had been hurt.
“Stay here,” Solomon told Margaret.
He ran to where Robert was kneeling, trying to extricate the dog’s leg from the teeth of an iron trap.
“Lufen! Lufen!” he cried as the dog snapped at his attempts to free her.
“Thu ert mine heahgesceaft! Hilpst me, Solomon!”
Solomon pulled off his tunic and handed it to Robert.
“Cover her head with it,” he shouted. “Hold her!”
Robert understood his gestures and managed to restrain the dog. Solomon unsheathed the knife he always kept strapped to his arm and inserted the point between the teeth of the trap.
Having ignored his order, Margaret appeared beside him.
“What can I do?” she asked Solomon.
“Tell Robert to keep the damn dog still or she’ll lose the leg before I can release her,” Solomon panted.
“I’m trying to!” Robert said when she’d explained. “My poor Lufen is in agony. She saved me! My beautiful, noble Lufen sacrificed herself for me!”
Finally, the trap eased open enough for the dog to pull her leg out. Robert gathered her up in his arms and carried her to the house. All the way he murmured reassurance to the wounded animal. But Solomon had seen the shattered bone. He knew there was no way Lufen could be saved.
Robert shouted for the guard they had brought with them.
“Ride as fast as you can back to the keep,” he ordered. “Tell my stepmother I need her to come at once. Have her bring some
dwale
for the dog. Hurry!”
The man left at once.
Robert set Lufen in her box near the hearth and went to look for a blanket. Margaret knelt next to the box. Lufen was now shivering and her eyes were glazed with pain. Solomon had followed them.
“Margaret,” he said softly. “Robert isn’t going to try to save the poor thing, is he?”
“He loves Lufen more than anything on earth,” Margaret answered. “He doesn’t care if she only has three legs.”
“But she won’t survive the amputation,” Solomon insisted. “He’ll just put her through more suffering for no reason.”
“If the
dwale
doesn’t kill her, she might survive,” Margaret explained. “Don’t you use it in France? It’s a strong medicine that puts people to sleep so they don’t feel even horrible pain. But sometimes they sleep so deeply that they don’t wake up. Mother explained it to me a long time ago and warned me never to mistake her jar of it for wine.”
Robert returned with the blanket and knelt next to his dog, gently rubbing her behind the ears and murmuring words of comfort.
“You can’t die, Lufen,” he wept. “Aelred is lost to me. If I lose you, too, then why bother living? Be strong, noble heart. Help is coming.”
“Robert?” Solomon had to raise his voice before Edgar’s brother remembered him.
“What is it?” he asked through tears.
“How did this happen?”
Robert never stopped caressing the shivering animal as he spoke. The anger in his voice never reached his gentle hands.
“There was a piece of cloth on the ground,” he said. “In among the vegetables. I reached for it to see what it was, but Lufen leapt at it instead, and … . My poor, brave girl!”
“Why would there be a trap like that in your garden?” Solomon asked.
Robert spoke to Margaret for a long time. When he finally stopped, she turned to Solomon.
“Robert doesn’t use such traps,” she explained. “Only snares for the rabbits. This was put there by someone who knows that Robert has few servants and works his garden mostly by himself.”
“You mean it was intended for him.” Solomon’s forehead creased in consternation. “And, with the cloth fluttering above it, they would expect him to do exactly what he almost did, reach for it and catch his hand in it.”
Margaret nodded.
“And, while he likely wouldn’t have died, he probably would have lost his hand.” Solomon shook his head. “We should send word of this to your father. Whoever killed your brothers must be somewhere nearby.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Solomon wished them back.
“Of course,” he added quickly. “They may also be far away by now.”
The child’s lips tightened, but she said nothing.
 
Since Robert was doing all that could be done for the dog, there was nothing Solomon and Margaret could do but wait. They settled themselves on a log by the main gate to watch for a messenger from Adalisa.
“This
dwale.”
Solomon was intrigued. “I never heard of it. Is it often used on animals?”
“I never heard of anyone doing so,” Margaret told him. “But I haven’t been many places, so I don’t know.”
Solomon smiled. “Where have you been?”
She thought. “I was at King David’s court at Carlisle, once. And I’ve been to Berwick. That’s all.”
She seemed to feel it was inadequate experience.
“Where have you been?” she asked wistfully.
Solomon considered hedging, but she was only a child. What harm could there be? “I’ve been to the edge of Spain,” he told her. “And across into Africa, where the Berbers rule and the land is nearly treeless. I’ve been into Rus, where they still worship pagan gods and eat their meat uncooked. I’ve seen mountains so high that it’s always winter at their peaks and heard spirits in the fog on the ocean trying to lure our ship onto the rocks. I’ve been to Rome and almost to Constantinople.”
Margaret was staring at him openmouthed in wonder. He laughed.
“And I’ve never seen anything as pretty in all the world as you, little one,” he finished, pulling on her braid to show he was teasing.
Nevertheless, Margaret blushed. He smiled. She seemed less nervous now. How stupid he had been to frighten her like that. She was so composed that he often forgot she was only a little girl.
The sound of the hoofbeats approaching made her tense and
grab his sleeve. The hardness of the knife in its sheath reassured her. She was even more relived when the rider appeared and she saw her mother sitting behind the guard, a leather bag hooked over her shoulder.
She slid from the horse and gathered Margaret in her arms.
“Ma douz.”
Adalisa kissed her. “I’ve left Catherine alone at the keep. I want you to go back with Oswin, here, so that you can explain to her what’s happening. I’ve given her instructions so you should obey her as you would me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mother.” Margaret clung to her for a moment. “When will you return?”
“In the morning, I hope,” Adalisa told her. “I’ll have to sit with Lufen tonight.”
“I’ll go back with her,” Solomon offered.
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather you stayed,” Adalisa told him. “Oswin needs to organize the men to guard the keep and I will want someone to help hold the dog. I fear Robert may not be able to watch what I’ll have to do.”
Solomon swallowed. He wasn’t sure he had the stomach for it, either.
“Do you know how?” he asked.
“Yes.”
She didn’t say where she had learned such a skill and he thought it best not to ask.
He hoisted Margaret into place behind Oswin, who patted her hands reassuringly as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
“I’ll not let any harm come to her,” he promised Adalisa.
When they had left, Adalisa took a deep breath and turned to Solomon.
“Is there a fire in the house?” she asked.
“The hearth is cold,” he told her.
“Build one for me, please,” she said. “I’ll need white-hot coals for the cautery.”
He followed her into the house, marveling all the while at her steadiness. Where had she learned to do an amputation? Even on an animal as small as a dog, sawing through the bone required strength and accuracy. It wasn’t something he felt competent to do.
Adalisa knelt and examined the dog while Solomon worked at striking tinder for the fire. She then sent Robert out for a jar of wine and a large bowl.
“Do you think you can save her?” Solomon asked.
“I don’t know,” Adalisa answered. “But if I can’t, at least she’ll die quietly and without more pain.”
She ran her hand along the dog’s side, stopping at the heart. She bit her lip in worry.
“At least Robert remembered to tie off the leg,” she said, “or Lufen would have bled to death by now. Has the fire caught?”
“Yes,” Solomon said, “but it will be some time before there are coals.”
“That’s all right. I need to have her asleep first,” Adalisa said. “I only pray that I can get the dosage right.”
Robert returned with the wine. Adalisa got up and took a small vial from her pack. She set the bowl on a table and poured it half-full with with wine. Then she added only a few drops of liquid from the vial. Solomon watched in fascination.
“What is this
dwale?”
he asked.
“It’s something the Saxons use,” she answered. “Not very often, though, as it can kill all too easily. There’s hemlock in it and poppy juice. It will cause the dog to fall into a sleep so deep that she won’t feel the saw.”
“Amazing!” Solomon said. “And it’s drunk? I’ve seen people breathe in the scent of a potion from a sponge, but to drink it! How long does the sleep last?”
Adalisa didn’t look up.
“Sometimes forever,” she said. “I have to sit with her tonight to watch her breathing. If she gasps and chokes, then I’ll need to try to wake her.”

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