England, Spring of 1158
Gemma strolled through the great hall and out into the springtime air. The afternoon sun sat high in the cloudless sky. She shielded her eyes as they adjusted to the brilliant light and savored the feeling of the warmth on her shoulders. Her life was finally getting back to normal after the loss of her mother, Andrie de Vere, just one year ago.
Andrie was a sturdy yet beautiful woman, but her body could not take the strain of her final pregnancy at age forty. The stillborn son would have been her fourth child. Gavin was the eldest son, few years older than Gemma. Isabel was the youngest. She would be ten in the autumn.
Her father, Blaise de Vere, still mourned his wife. Their arranged marriage was one that grew into a deep and abiding love. The affection they portrayed in the presence of family and servant alike was inspiring. Gemma projected this image of love into her relationship with Nicholas, believing it would be as long and as enduring. That proved false. He disappeared seven years ago, and her heart still ached if she let her guard down.
The mystery behind his absence did not linger long. Gemma overheard her father speaking of his fate with his seneschal, Oliver de Toeni. From her hiding place, she learned Nicholas and his entire family hid a secret.
What she heard shook her to her core and crushed her innocence. Lord Blaise received a message that indicated the de Reymes family was in allegiance with the Empress Matilda, who believed she was the rightful ruler of the English. Her endless plotting to usurp Stephen from the throne was legendary, and the de Reymes paid the price for their involvement. They vanished in the night without a hint of where they had been taken.
Gemma came to her own conclusions when she heard the news. Her family was loyal to Stephen. Nicholas's parents were not. She no longer knew what to believe, but she had an unshakable feeling something was not right. Had Nicholas used her to give his family unfettered access to Blackstone and her family? The de Reymes' were never heard from again, leaving her question to linger and to then become her belief. She had been duped in the cruelest way.
She spent many nights thereafter crying for her young love and agonizing over her naivety. She kept her secret tucked away near her heart. No one close to her knew of her relationship with Nicholas. Her father never knew she left the castle to meet him, and she never let on he meant anything to her. He became an intriguing story but nothing more. The truth would die with her.
Her heart grew brittle and bitter over the years that followed. She vowed no man would ever use his seductive and treacherous heart to get close to her again. Never again would she be so gullible. Never again would she feel that kind of pain by her own folly. Matters of the heart belonged in the hopes of the foolish.
Seven years passed quickly. She was now nineteen and refused to marry and resisted with such venom her father ceased to bring up the possibility. Phillip Bigod still lingered and still pressed her father for marriage, but Blaise never pushed her. He wanted her for the same reasons as Nicholas. Blackstone was valued for strength and position. She refused to be the unpleasant detail in political games.
Blackstone stood proudly on the point where the River Lea merged with the River Thames. London was less than a day away by horse. Their home began as a motte-and-bailey castle. The de Vere family fortified the lands with gifts from the first King Henry. It grew into a stronghold not unlike the Norman-style castles that dotted England's landscape under the reign of William the Conqueror. Blaise shared stories from his childhood with his daughters of how the walls were erected and the hall constructed.
Gemma shook lingering thoughts of Nicholas from her mind as she carried a wooden bucket toward one of the wells. Leda, the cook, was waiting for water. She loved spending her time learning about how the castle functioned. Often, she helped Leda in the kitchen. Not only did she learn new things, her mind was always busy and fresh. That kept her from dwelling on the past.
As lady of the keep, she spent countless hours learning, and her undying curiosity about everything in her small world blossomed. She was often found in the gardens with Leda studying plants and learning of their uses for medicines and how to preserve whatever grew. Leda made sure she knew all of the types of fish that swam lazily in the stock pond and why bees were more than just pests.
The bucket in her hand dropped with a dull thump to the hard-packed ground near the well, as a shrill warning call from a guard on duty atop the outer curtain echoed off the walls. She stumbled as she ran down the gentle slope toward where her father and some of his troops were running. They raced out of the lesser gate that opened on the River Lea near the point.
Gemma's father glanced at her before he ran out. His voice boomed through the air, "Gemma! Stay within the walls!"
She slowed her pace, but she did not stop entirely. Her father's seneschal, Oliver, stepped in front of her before she could go out through the gate. "Please go find your sister and keep her within the walls with you. We do not yet know what is happening, and you must remain safe."
"Isabel is having lessons with Father Darius," Gemma said with an uncertain stutter. Her mind dredged up all types of horrors, though there was rarely a moment when she truly knew fear inside her home. It had always been relatively peaceful at Blackstone, even when the rest of England had been a mess under Stephen.
It would take a great army to breach the stout, protective stone walls of Blackstone. The de Vere's always felt safe because it was nearly impossible to get close along the outer curtain walls near the rivers, and her father's men were trained to defend their home.
"Do as your father asks," Oliver said. He moved his tall, lean frame from her and walked smartly to the gatehouse to join her father outside the walls. She remained, but that did not stop her from looking for clues. A few more men ran through the bailey to assist her father. Gemma decided there was nothing more she could learn in that moment, so she went back for the forgotten water bucket.
More men came rushing through the gate before she could retrieve her bucket. Panic flared on their weary faces. She kept her green eyes focused on the gatehouse as man after man disappeared behind the wall. As she knelt, she felt around near her feet for the dropped bucket. Finding it with her fingertips, she picked it up, and then dropped it again as her father's men started to file back into the bailey. Four of them came through the gate more slowly than the others, with a linen sheet stretched out between them. Something or someone was upon the blanket. The men struggled to carry it through the inner bailey past the well where she stood. Without thinking, she ran toward the sheet.
"Stop!" her father shouted. She skidded to a halt near the blanket as the men moved toward the stables and the outer bailey. A body with long, black hair twisted around the face and shoulders lay still. The skin was blue, the body was abnormally large and distorted, and the eyes stared at nothing. It was a vision straight out of a terrible nightmare.
"'Tis Minna!" she cried as she fell back from the bloated body upon the sheet. She recognized the ale-master's wife but could scarcely believe what she was seeing.
"I told you to stop," her father snapped. "Go see to your sister, and we will speak more on this later."
Stunned, Gemma did as he asked without argument or hesitation. She spun and ran toward the chapel in the inner bailey. Tears dropped from her eyes for the second time that day. The water bucket was forgotten.
****
Gemma joined her father at the dais for the last meal of the day. The sun set, splashing vivid reds and purples across the western sky. This time was most pleasant for both sisters, as they always had their father to themselves. The hall was never as full as it was for the noontime meal, and they rarely had company. Father Darius often sat at the dais with the family for dinner, but he fasted through supper. King Henry and his court came to stay when Gemma was younger, but she remembered little of it. The evening meals during his visit had been long, loud, and overwhelming. She preferred the quiet meals when she had her father to herself.
Isabel slid breathlessly into her seat next to her older sister. Her green eyes resembled those of both her mother and Gemma, but were rounder and larger. Tonight, they sparkled as if they were keeping a secret.
"Have you washed?" Gemma said, her tone light. Her nine-year-old sister consistently came to supper straight from catching insects and tadpoles down near the stock pond and the gardens.
"Oh of course, you silly," Isabel said with a giggle, "I always wash, right Papa?"
Blaise de Vere shot his youngest a tight smile and returned his attention to the trencher placed before him. He remained silent.
Gemma forgot her table manners and picked at a hunk of cheese as she pondered what could have happened to Minna. The terror of seeing the grotesque form of her friend cost Gemma both her appetite and her peace of mind. She itched to ask her father for details but she knew such talk would upset Isabel.
Her head snapped up as her father finally spoke. "Eat up, children. Let us try to think of good things, like your brother arriving home soon to wed Helena. We shall have a great celebration and shake off the sadness from the year prior."
"Aye," she said. She watched her sister shove a piece of fruit into her mouth and squirm in her seat. "Eat up. Hesse is watching to see if you are finished. I think she probably knows from the stink you are in need of a good soaking."
Isabel wrinkled her nose at her sister and chose one last bite of bread to pop into her mouth. Hesse, the nursemaid who had once cared for Gemma, now watched from a trestle table to their left. Getting Isabel settled for the night was a challenge. The little imp was more like a boy than a girl. She spent her free time exploring and had the muddy hands and clothing to prove it, often collecting things like bugs, rocks, sticks, and leaves she left lying everywhere. Frequently, she presented Hesse with the worms and bugs she had dug up in the garden. Hesse, of course, always instructed her to release the poor creatures at once.
The nursemaid tugged and pulled at her skirt and wrung her hands as she waited for Isabel to finish. Hesse had been in the service of the de Vere's since the birth of Gavin, the eldest son. A rather plain looking woman, she only spoke when she felt the need to say something of importance, and though one might look at her tall, slightly hunched frame, graying hair, and severe nose and think her a shrew, she had a heart of gold. Gemma lost her mother, but she still had Hesse, even if most of the nursemaid's attention was now spent keeping Isabel focused on her studies and out of trouble.
The youngest de Vere regarded her nursemaid as her father waved his hand, indicating she could be excused. She ran from the dais and pulled Hesse up the steps toward the solar. Gemma felt safe enough to talk to her father after Isabel departed. He remained quiet throughout the meal. What was he hiding from her?
"Father," she said lightly, almost as if asking a question.
After a long moment, he raised his gray eyes to meet hers. She studied him in the limited light cast from the dancing flames in the fireplace built into the stone wall beside them. He appeared alarmed and hesitated before he spoke. "I mean it, Gemma. We are to look forward to your brother's return to bring some happiness back to our home."
"But Father," she leaned toward him and whispered so only he could hear her, "what of Minna? What happened to her? Did she fall? How long was she outside the walls? Was she in the water long?"
Her father sighed. "She drowned, but 'twas not like Minna to be near the rivers. Her husband has said she was scared of the water and could not swim. I fear I do not know if her death was accidental or not, but it does not appear to be so. She had marks upon her neck, as if she were choked." Blaise paused. Horror and sadness spread across Gemma's delicate features, distorting her beauty.
"The ale-master has pleaded innocence. Some always believe the spouse is to blame, but I hesitate to believe it was he. I feel he is innocent, but because of the marks upon her neck, I can only assume she was killed. Mayhap she was thrown into the river to cover it up. Had her kirtle not twisted about a dead tree near the edge of the river, she might have floated down the Thames, and we would simply have thought her missing or run away." Blaise put his head down as he finished and said no more.
Gemma sat silently, staring at the back of her hand. Minna died for some unknown reason. Her father did not think it was an accident. Someone harbored a hardened and blackened heart. Did Minna's husband have such a hidden heart, one that would cause him to end her life?
The sounds of pounding feet and shouting permeated the quiet hall. "Blaise, come quickly!" It was Oliver. His voice echoed off of the walls, and everyone stopped mid-motion. An eerie calm settled but only momentarily.
Fear took root in Gemma's brain and shot through to her fingertips. Her body went rigid, and she felt momentarily frozen in place, sitting at the dais with most of her meal still in front of her, uneaten and forgotten.
She tried to stand, but she could not balance. Falling backward, she struggled to right herself before she hit the unforgiving, stone floor. The alarm and urgency in the seneschal's voice flooded her mind with worry. Unable to face another calamity that day, she steadied herself and did something out of character. Instead of following her father, she strode quickly to the steps to join her sister in the solar. For the first time in her nineteen years, she did not wish to know.