“John! I haven’t seen you in half a year.” A feeling of joy filled his chest at seeing his old friend. But John stepped aside and stood still. Something about the look on his friend’s face chased away the joyful feeling and made the hair prickle on the back of Westley’s neck. “Come, and you can walk with me.”
“You are on your way home, then?” John glanced at Westley out of narrowed eyes. His hand rested on a bundle he carried under his arm.
“Yes. Mother asked me to take some bone broth to a sick family.”
“Such benevolence.” John’s voice was quiet but contained a sneer.
Westley shifted his feet. “You know Mother. She’s always wanting to help someone who’s sick or hurt.”
“Your family always did care too much.” John’s lip curled. “If it hadn’t been for your father making the villeins think they should get such easy treatment, they never would have been bold enough to kill Father.”
“John, that’s not true.”
“Your father gave in to their demands. He—and men like him—are the reason the villeins rose up and killed their lords and masters.”
“John, you are not remembering the facts. The two men who killed your father had been beaten the week before, by your father’s orders. You said yourself that you would never treat people the way your father did, working them until they passed out and beating them for little or no reason. I’m sorry to say these things to you, John, but it’s the truth. Surely you remember—”
“How dare you speak evil of my father! He was a good man. If he beat those men, it was because they deserved it.”
“John, I’m sorry, but—”
“You’re not sorry.” John took a menacing step toward him.
“What’s going on here?” Reeve Folsham rounded the bend in the path behind John. “Is there trouble here? Westley?”
John took a step back. “Of course there’s no trouble. There’s never any trouble in Glynval.”
Westley didn’t miss the bitterness in his voice, especially when he said Glynval.
Westley’s heart was heavy as John turned and stalked away, back toward Caversdown.
John’s father, Hugh Underhill, had always been a harsh man. He’d even given John a black eye once when John and Westley were just boys of fourteen. It hurt to see his friend have such an unkind father when Westley’s own father was so good and wise. Westley had even offered to let John come and live with him, but he had refused.
“Why is John Underhill so angry?”
Westley sighed. “I suppose he doesn’t want to think ill of his father, so he’s remembering the past differently.”
Reeve Folsham nodded and frowned.
Evangeline waited in the entryway. A pretty blonde maiden a few years younger than she called, “Westley! The new servant is here.” She walked away, as if to go find him.
A few moments later, Westley bounded in through the back passageway. “That rude girl was my sister Cate.” His brown hair was calmer than usual, as if he had combed it. “I have a place for us to read. Come.” He motioned her forward with his hand.
She followed him through the passageway toward the back of the house. They passed through a room where some older children were hunched over a chess game, but they did not look up as she and Westley passed.
Lady le Wyse entered the corridor in front of them. She smiled when she saw them. “Westley.”
He kissed her cheek and she patted his.
“Eva. How are you, my dear?”
Evangeline smiled at her.
“How are you doing with your work? I forgot to check on you today. Golda did not work you too hard, I hope?”
Evangeline shrugged and shook her head.
“That is good. Westley tells me you can read and that you wish to read the Bible. It is a noble ambition, to read the Holy Writ.”
Her words buoyed Evangeline’s spirit and dispelled some of her exhaustion.
The back door opened and Lord le Wyse stepped in.
Lady le Wyse’s face lit up as she turned toward him, and Lord le Wyse’s attention was immediately caught by her. He stepped toward his wife with a small smile on his lips. He kissed her briefly and she put her arm around him.
The look they gave each other made Evangeline slightly embarrassed, as if she had peeked in on someone when they thought they were alone, but it also pleased her to see a married couple so obviously in love with each other. Had they married for love?
Muriel should see this.
Westley motioned for her to follow him, and they passed by the lord and his lady, who called, “Don’t forget supper in an hour.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Fine catch of fish,” his father told him as he passed.
“Thank you, Father.”
Soon Evangeline and Westley were out the back door and standing on a flat expanse of green grass encircled by a low hedge. Beyond the hedge was a beautiful garden that fairly glowed in the light of the late-day summer sun.
“This is a spot where my sisters and I come to read sometimes.”
The vulnerable smile on his face seemed to say that he was inviting her to know something personal about himself.
He pointed to the low bench and the cushions on the ground around it, like a comfortable little alcove in the corner against the side of the stone exterior with the bushes juxtaposed against it.