“I can hear you thinking, Margaret.” “I can hear you thinking, Margaret.”
The duchess held her breath; she thought she’d successfully pretended sleep. She sighed and turned over to face her husband. The lighted candle beside the bed was a small star in the vast dark room.
“I cannot sleep, Charles.”
The duke smiled faintly. “Conscience, perhaps?”
For a moment Margaret couldn’t find words and her heart filled her mouth.
“Conscience? No. Too much of the last marchpane subtlety. You know how greedy I am for sweet things. Perhaps it’s a sign I’m breeding?”
The duke sat up against the bolster and looked at his wife. “You’re shameless, Margaret. I know she’s gone. And I also know what you did with Bishop Odo.”
There was a moment’s charged silence before the duchess forced her tongue to move, forced herself to find words. “But… Aseef cannot talk or—”
The duke nodded and his amused expression became severe. “Or hear. You are correct, my dear. But Aseef was my servant before you were ever my wife. True, he has no speech and he is deaf, but he can write quite well; I had him taught. It is one of the reasons his loyalty to me is so strong. I gave him the means to communicate. Ah, you didn’t know that?”
Margaret closed her eyes. “What will you do, Charles?”
The duke got out of bed, pulling a fur coverlet around his naked body, and hurried over to the chimney breast, cursing under his breath at the cold. The fire was nearly out. Energetically, he set about rebuilding a blaze.
“Charles? Don’t play with me.” The duchess sat up, fear sharpening her voice.
“Do? I shall do nothing, wife. You have done what I could not be seen to do. And saved me a very difficult decision, on two counts.”
The relief was astonishing. It washed through Margaret’s body as if her blood had been replaced by sherbet. Tingling, shivering, she joined her husband by the fire, wrapped in a heavy blanket hauled from the gigantic bed. The blanket trailed behind her over the rushes on the floor, whispering, as if it had a secret to tell.
“Two counts?”
“Yes.” The duke smiled at his wife. “Come closer to the fire. Warm yourself.”
Margaret held up her palms to the flames; her hands glowed from the flickering light behind them. Her husband measured his fingers against hers: both their hands shone blood scarlet now.
“Aseef told me that Odo died from a fit. Is that true?”
Margaret nodded. “Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“And you made Aseef take the body away. How did he avoid being seen?”
Margaret shook her head. That night—only a day since—was a blurred nightmare. “It was very late and the palace was asleep. We stripped the body, Anne and I.” She shuddered as she remembered the filthy, lice-ridden undergarments; the fat-larded body; the weight of him, and the stench of flesh unwashed for years and years, as they moved the corpse to undress it, then clothe it again. “I dressed him in some of your clothes. They were all I could find quickly. Old ones, I promise you”—she added the detail defensively—“but they were too small. We had to rip them up the back. We wrapped him up in a cloak. Then Aseef carried him out, over his shoulder, as if he were too drunk to stand.”
“Where did you put the body? Aseef has not told me. But then, I haven’t asked him.”
The duchess shrugged guiltily. “I remembered the crypt beneath the great chapel.”
The duke nodded. “A judicious choice. Who would think to disturb the sleep of my ancestors looking for a missing bishop?”
The duchess was close to tears. “I didn’t know which tomb to choose. It was very dark, but one had a damaged lid and we put him inside that. It made a terrible noise when we moved the top aside. The loudest sound I’ve ever heard in my life and the worst—I can hear it now.”
The duke picked up Margaret’s free hand. “What happened then?” In the semi-dark of the bed chamber it was impossible to read the expression in the duke’s eyes. The duchess shrugged unhappily. She was ashamed and frightened.
“It was necessary to make the guard think he’d seen the bishop leave. My body maid, Estella—”
“Ah yes. It seems her loyalty to you is very great. She entertained the guard?”
The duchess nodded. No point lying now. “Yes. He’s very young, Charles, and gullible. And I don’t want him punished. She kept him as long as she could. In the end, Aseef returned to Anne only a moment before the guard himself came back.” She swallowed. “Anne dressed Aseef in Odo’s clothes. He put the cowl up and… walked out of there.”
The duke guffawed until tears streaked his face. “But… he’s… black. He’s a blackamoor! Ah, this is too much.” That set him laughing again.
The duchess was defensive. “Well, it was very dark in the passage so the guard couldn’t see properly. Estella had taken the torch.”
“Estella took the torch, did she? Of course.” The duke sighed happily. “You really don’t understand the concept of obedience, do you? I must see what I can do about that, wife.”
Margaret truly relaxed for the first time in this long day. She leaned against her husband’s broad chest. “Well, you shouldn’t have married a Plantagenet, should you, if you’d wanted obedience?”
He laughed again and kissed her, held her close. They stood together, watching the flames.
“What did you mean, Charles, that I saved you two difficult decisions?”
Charles was caressing Margaret’s naked waist.
“I had to let Odo see Anne. We couldn’t have an accused witch in the city without the Church having its say on the matter. But I couldn’t work out what to do next. How to get him away from her. How to get her out of the city. You solved that for me. But now…”
The fire was raging, sending out real heat. Margaret looked up into her husband’s eyes. “Yes, Charles?”
The duke dropped the fur coverlet from his shoulders and stood naked in front of her. “Now, I want to forget all about Anne de Bohun, the bishop, and how we’re going to deal with all of this. Until tomorrow.” In one swift moment, he pulled the blanket from around his wife’s shoulders and she was in his arms, nothing between his skin and hers. “And you’re going to help me do that. It’s your first lesson in obedience.”
“And shall I need many, many more if I’m to subdue my rebellious nature, husband?”
“You shall indeed. And I shall enjoy teaching you your proper place. Beneath me, here and now…”