“If you like rabbits. The only way I can tell which one she is is by the color of her dress. Is today Thursday?”
“Yes,” Severn answered. “And we’ll be home Saturday night.”
“Ah, then,” Rogan said softly. “I’ll not have rabbit for dinner on Saturday.”
Severn turned away and went to sleep while Rogan lay awake for another hour. His memories in this spot were too strong to allow him to sleep. His mind was filled with plans of what he’d do with the Neville gold now that he had it. There were war machines to build, knights to hire and equip, food to be purchased for the long siege ahead, for he knew that regaining the Peregrine lands was going to take a long, long time of warfare.
Not once did he think of his new wife, who waited for him on the opposite side of the camp.
The next morning Liana’s temper was not the best it had ever been. Joice came to her mistress with a stream of complaints from the maids. The Peregrine knights had been harsh in their lovemaking and two of the maids were bruised and sore.
“Better bruised and sore than well and comfortable,” Liana snapped. “Bring me the blue gown and headdress and tell the women to stop complaining or I’ll give them something to complain about.”
Liana saw her husband through the trees and once again choked her anger down. Were all marriages like this? Did all women suffer one injustice after another and have to bite their tongues? Was this truly the way to love?
She wore a blue satin gown with a gold belt set with diamonds. There were also small diamonds on the tall padded headdress she wore. Perhaps today he’d look at her with desire. Perhaps last night he had been shy about lying with her when his men were about. Yes, perhaps there were reasons for his behavior.
He didn’t greet her that morning. In fact, he walked past her once and didn’t even look at her. It was as if he didn’t recognize her.
Liana mounted her horse with the help of a knight and once again rode in the middle of the men, behind the dust and horse manure.
Toward midday she grew restless. She could see Severn and Rogan at the h
ead of the line talking earnestly and she wanted to know what interested them so much. She reined her horse to the side.
“My lady!” Joice said in alarm. “Where are you going?”
“Since my husband does not come to me, I will go to him.”
“You cannot,” Joice said, eyes wide. “Men do not like forward women. You must wait until he comes to you.”
Liana hesitated, but her boredom won out. “I will see,” she said, and kicked her horse forward until she rode beside her brother-in-law, Rogan next to him. Severn glanced at her; Rogan did not. But neither man gave her a word of greeting.
“We’ll need all the grain we can get,” Rogan was saying. “We’ll have to store it and ready ourselves.”
“And what about the fifty hectares along the north road? The peasants say the fields won’t produce and the sheep are dying.”
“Dying, ha!” Rogan snorted. “The bastards are no doubt selling them to passing merchants and keeping the coin. Send some men to burn a few houses and whip a few farmers and we’ll see if their sheep keep dying.”
Here was a place where Liana felt at home. Discussions of sheep and peasants were what had occupied her life for years. She didn’t think of “obeying” or of keeping her counsel to herself. “Terrorizing peasants never did any good,” she said loudly, not looking at either man. “First we must find out if what they say is true. It could be many things: The land could be overused, the water could be bad, or a curse could have been put on the sheep. If it’s none of these things and the peasants are cheating us, then we banish them. I’ve found that banishment works as well as torture, and it’s so much less…unpleasant. Once we get there, I shall look into it.” She turned to smile at the men.
Both of them were staring at her with their mouths open.
Liana didn’t understand their expressions at all. “It could also be the seeds,” she said. “One year a mold destroyed all our seed and—”
“Back!” Rogan said under his breath. “Get back to the women. If I want an opinion from a woman, I will ask,” he said in the same tone as he might say that he’d ask his horse about the grain before he asked a woman.
“I was merely—” Liana began.
“I will tie you inside a wagon if you say more,” Rogan said, his eyes hard and angry.
Liana swallowed more anger as she turned her horse and went back to the women.
Severn was the first to speak when they were again alone. “The water? What could be wrong with the water? And a curse. Do you think the Howards put a curse on our sheep? How do we get rid of it?”
Rogan was staring straight ahead. Damned woman, he thought. What was she trying to do, interfere in men’s work? Once he’d allowed a woman to interfere. Once he’d listened to a woman, and she had repaid him in treachery. “There is no curse. Merely greedy peasants,” Rogan said firmly. “I’ll show them whose land they farm.”
Severn was thoughtful for a moment. He was not possessed of the same hatred of women that his brother was. There were many things that he discussed with Iolanthe, and he often found her answers were wise and useful. Perhaps there was more to this Neville heiress than he’d thought when he first saw her.