Chapter Six

CHAPTER SIX

Felkington Castle

"D id you see how those knights looked at her?" Flora asked. "Did you see how the one with the strange eyes looked at her? The de Velt son?"

Meadow and Flora were burning hemp in the tower room where they always burned such things. It was high enough above the castle that the smell of the smoke, a sickly sweet smell, floated skyward and didn't fill the castle below. The two of them would pile the dried leaves from the henep , or hemp plant, into a brazier and light them on fire. The smoke would fill the tower chamber and they would inhale deeply, bringing about a sense of calm and relaxation to them both. Sometimes, they'd spend days in the tower room, simply inhaling the smoke.

Like today.

Two days after their return from Berwick, they were holed up in the tower room inhaling smoke and had been ever since they'd buried Amaury at St. Paul's Church, the tiny parish church in Felkington where Meadow's husband and son were both buried. Once Amaury was put in a crypt in the corner, a stone box that had been emptied of the lord who had once been buried there, Meadow and Flora retreated to the tower room and sat in a haze of blue smoke.

After two days of burning the weeds, they were down to the last of the hemp. The food that the servants had been bringing to them on an hourly basis during the day was mostly gone as they awaited the morning influx of sustenance, but Flora, who hadn't spoken much since their return, now seemed to have something to say.

That sweet-smelling smoke had her thinking.

At times, that could be dangerous.

"Did you hear me?" she said to her sister. "Wake up and listen to me."

"I am awake," Meadow said, her eyes half-lidded. "I did not notice anyone paying Lista attention. What did you see?"

Flora was laying on a cushioned pallet, staring at the ceiling. Her mind was so much mush but, in a sense, it was also heightened. The smoke from the hemp was potent and gave her thoughts that were often profound and enlightening. At least, she thought they were.

Most of the time, however, they were nonsense.

"Lista is meant to help us," she mumbled. "The Wu has spoken to me, Meadow. He tells me that our opportunity has come. Lista is our opportunity."

Meadow was staring into the room, dazed, but her sister's words had her turning to the woman questioningly.

"What do you mean?" she said. "What opportunity?"

Flora sat up, unsteadily, and leaned over the brazier, inhaling the smoke deeply. Since it would soon be gone, she wanted to inhale all she could.

"There was a time when we were in the top social circles," she said. "Our mother's father was an earl and connected to King Henry, and Papa was a great knight. We spent our youth at court with Henry and his mistresses, and then with John when Richard was absent. Do you remember those days, Meadow?"

Meadow closed her eyes, nodding faintly. "I remember."

"Do you remember when we were powerful and beautiful?"

"We were never that powerful, Flora," Meadow said. "We simply followed the crowd and did as we were told. We carried food, we mopped piss at times, and if a nobleman wanted to put his hand up our skirts, we let him. We were nothing."

That had been the reality of court life for them but Flora refused to acknowledge the truth. In her muddled haze, she only remembered the moments that made her feel powerful and bold.

"We were powerful and we can be again," she insisted. "Marry Lista to a knight with ties to the king and we can regain those days of our youth. Don't you see?"

Meadow's eyes opened. "Is that what you wish?" she said, incredulous. "To marry my Lista to a man for power?"

Flora focused her bloodshot eyes on her sister. "The de Velt knight is interested," she said. "The de Velts are very powerful. They are a major family in the north and not only do they have ties to the Earl of Northumberland, but also to William Marshal. The name de Velt opens doors all over England. Should Lista marry into the family, we would have influence over her and, consequently, over her husband, a de Velt heir. Do you understand that?"

Meadow nodded. "For what purpose?"

Flora's gaze was intense. "What do you think, stupid?" she hissed. "We could return to court again. Young Henry is upon the throne, but surely his wife would appreciate our experience and guidance since we knew court in the old days. No longer would we be useless here at Fuckington. I hate this place and these gray, dreary walls. We could regain that which we deserve– power and prestige. We could be on top again!"

Meadow was following her sister for the most part. Flora had always had ambition, so this was nothing new, but she hadn't seen her ambitious streak in quite some time. With a knight from a prestigious family paying attention to Lista, that had apparently changed.

"We have never been on top," she finally said. "We were the lowliest ladies-in-waiting in court."

That wasn't what Flora remembered. "Men gave us coinage," she growled. "Men kissed us and gave us coinage. I took a few to my bed, powerful lords, and received more money because of it."

"And then you married one of those men you took to your bed and that was the end of it."

Flora was teetering on a rage. "It does not have to be," she said. "Meadow, think on it– we can be back where we used to be. Mayhap there are men looking for wives for companionship, not foolish young things who want home and hearth."

Meadow didn't want to hear anything about a new husband. She wasn't over the death of the only man she'd ever loved and the son she mourned daily. "Cease," she hissed, putting up a hand. "You have dreams of grandeur and now you are involving my daughter. Lista has been of marriageable age for some time but you have never spoken of an advantageous marriage for her before."

Flora lay back down on her makeshift bed. "Because no man has looked at her before," she said. "Lista is pretty enough. She could be beautiful with the right clothing. She does not even have a maid to help her most of the time. She needs a proper lady's maid and more beautiful clothing if we are to entice the de Velt knight."

"All of this so you can regain your position at court?"

"Lista must marry. Why not a knight who can do us all some good?"

She had a point. Meadow thought on her daughter, so responsible when she herself was not. Lista fostered at Richmond Castle and then at Bamburgh Castle, and she'd learned from the finest tutors. She was quite intelligent, but she seemed to be more focused on taking care of Felkington, her ancestral home, than in finding a husband. Or friends for that matter. Meadow hadn't even concerned herself with that until now. Her daughter wasn't the frivolous type who dreamed of something better. As far as Meadow knew, Lista had no dreams at all, which was sad for a woman her age.

Perhaps Flora was right. Perhaps the introduction of the de Velt knight might change that.

It couldn't hurt to have her daughter married to a powerful knight.

"The de Velt son is here," she said after a moment. "He escorted us home. What if I tell Lista to go into Berwick and find a seamstress? She can have the knight escort her and they can spend that time together."

Flora waved her off. "Berwick?" she said. "Pah! Tell her to go to Newcastle."

Meadow looked at her in surprise. "But it is two days there and two days back."

"Exactly," Flora said firmly. "Four days with the de Velt knight. That means two nights or more. Mayhap he will seduce her and then he must marry her, so it is a perfect plan."

Meadow wasn't convinced. "Do you think so?"

"The Wu declares the plan to be perfect," Flora said, closing her eyes and imaging the emperor from the Far East speaking to her in dreams. "Lista must marry, Meadow. And we must find ourselves a respected part of the nobility again. You will tell your daughter tonight that she is to depart for Newcastle on the morrow and insist the de Velt knight take her."

Meadow wouldn't argue with her sister. Flora was the only one who understood her grief and turmoil, so she didn't want to disappoint her. Flora often saw things that Meadow didn't and being related to the de Velt family and privy to their political and social station was indeed something that shouldn't be overlooked. Lista was indeed of marriageable age, so it was time to do something about it.

But perhaps it wouldn't take a journey to Newcastle.

Perhaps it would be as simple as speaking to Kellington, who promised to visit soon. From one mother to another, perhaps she could convince Kellington that Lista would be a perfect wife for the woman's son. She didn't even know his name but she would remedy that.

Meadow was going to find her daughter a de Velt husband.