“In case you get hungry again during the night.”
They continued on to the undercroft. At the door she took the warm bundle from his hand. “Thank you.”
Perhaps it was wrong for her to be angry with him for not trusting in her. After all, she was still hiding some rather big secrets. If only she could tell him who she was. But she could not risk it.
“Be careful of that ankle.”
“I will see you tomorrow, perhaps.”
“You will.” He gave her that smile again. She did not like the way it made her breathless, and she especially hated that Sabina was so in love with this man that she would try to get Evangeline beaten or even killed just to make sure Westley would not look favorably upon her. Surely no man was that exceptional.
Evangeline got out of bed before the break of day and hobbled toward the cow barn. She found Nicola already milking one of the cows.
“I thought you were resting today,” Nicola said.
Evangeline took her place under a cow. “I am well enough to help you milk the cows. I did not want you to have to do all the work by yourself.”
Nicola gave her a concerned look over her shoulder. “I heard what happened yesterday. Are you sure you are all right?”
“Yes, I only sprained my ankle.” Evangeline shuddered a little as she remembered her terror and the people’s determination to do her harm.
“Why did they think you were trying to poison everyone? Did you put poison mushrooms in the pottage?”
“It was Sabina.” Evangeline told Nicola everything that happened.
“Sabina.” Nicola was silent for a few moments before continuing. “She would do anything to make you look bad to Westley. I’m so sorry, Evangeline.”
“Don’t worry. She cannot fool me again.”
“I suppose she cried to get out of being punished.”
“How did you guess? She said she didn’t know they were poisonous and sobbed until everyone seemed to feel sorry for her. Why is it that you and I are the only ones who know she was lying?”
“She doesn’t show her true self to most people. She’s sneaky. But you and I have seen it.” Nicola stood and moved her full bucket near the door, then grabbed an empty one and moved her stool to the next cow. “The other servant girls are afraid of her, so they try to please her and do whatever she wants.”
“But you don’t do that.”
“No. And she hates me for it. And she hates you because you’re pretty and Westley has noticed you. Most men aren’t very wise when it comes to women.”
Evangeline knew little about such things, having never been around anyone except the Berkhamsted Castle servants, and they did not share intimate details with her about their love affairs. She had always believed love was what she sang about in the minstrels’ ballads. But life seemed much different from anything in those love ballads.
“Why are men not wise about women? I mean, why would Westley not see that Sabina is not very kind?”
Nicola lifted her head off the cow’s side.
“She behaves much differently around him. Besides that, men become addled by their own lusts. A man’s judgment becomes clouded by a pretty face.”
Muriel had told her something similar before.
“Women think with their hearts, and their judgment is clouded by compliments. A man tells her a few flattering words and she will do anything he wants and will fancy herself in love. That’s what happened to my sister.”
Surprised that Nicola was talking so much, Evangeline waited for her to go on.
“One of the blacksmith’s sons, Hugh, lured her into the woods, telling her she was pretty. She never thought she was pretty, and I suppose she wanted to believe that he loved her. He got her with child and then ran off to join a band of outlaws. Then he got himself hanged for attacking travelers and robbing them. She cried for weeks and weeks, even though she knew he was a knave.”
“That is very sad.”
“But I must say that Westley seems a much more noble young man than most others I’ve known. I hope he is too wise, ultimately, to marry Sabina.”
“I saw him rescue a little girl from a runaway horse once. And he was very kind to me when he thought I was mute. The other men only looked askance at me. At that time I had no idea he was the son of a wealthy lord.” And he had walked her back to the undercroft last night, taken care of her blistered hands twice now, and . . . She should not think about him anymore.
Evangeline finished milking her first cow and then moved on to another one before Nicola finished her second.
“You’re getting faster.” Nicola flashed her a smile.
After finishing the milking, Evangeline walked with Nicola to the servants’ dining hall to break their fast. Her heart thumped nervously. She was about to encounter the same people who had wanted to commit violence against her only the night before.
Chapter Sixteen