“I don’t know.” Severn hesitated. “With his men, maybe. He should have broken the bedroom door down. That woman needs to be taught a lesson.”
Io watched Severn scratching. It had been so good when, for a while, he was clean. “You have nearly got the castle back to the way it was. Your brother is sleeping with his men, and I imagine he is as unhappy as he ever was. I don’t guess he’s smiling now, is he?”
Severn stood and walked toward the window. Zared had said Severn was jealous, and part of him was beginning to wonder if that was correct. Yesterday Severn had won. He’d forced Rogan into publicly denying his wife, into making her retreat from him. And what had he won? The last twenty-four hours had been miserable. He hadn’t realized how much Rogan had changed since he’d married that woman.
The old Rogan had returned in full force. On the training field he was a vicious taskmaster. He had broken the arm of one knight who wasn’t quick enough. He had gashed the cheek of another. And when Severn had protested, one blow from Rogan had sent him sprawling.
Severn turned back to Io. “Rogan is as angry as he ever was.”
Iolanthe could read his thoughts. There wasn’t a malicious bone in Severn’s body—which is one reason why she loved him. But he was like most men in that he didn’t like change. He had loved, worshiped, his older brothers and one by one he’d seen them die until only Rogan was left. And now he was afraid of losing him, too.
“So what are you going to do to get them back together?” Io asked as she couched gold thread onto the needlepoint background.
“Together?” Severn gasped. “Have Rogan lounging about in the solar all afternoon? The place will fall apart. The Howards will kill us in our sleep. They’ll—”
“Rogan is going to kill you with work if you do not rectify your interference.”
He opened his mouth to contradict her but shut it and sat back down in the chair.
“I guess she’s not so bad,” he said after a moment. “And maybe the place did need a bit of cleaning.” He looked at Io. “All right, a lot of cleaning, but she didn’t have to—” He stopped, not knowing what else to say. “She didn’t have to take him away so completely,” he said at last.
“She loves him,” Io said. “That’s a fatal thing to happen to a woman.” She looked at Severn with love, but he didn’t notice. Iolanthe admired this pale, plain Liana, who’d been able to do what Io could not. “Send Liana an invitation to supper, make it from Rogan, then send Rogan an invitation from Liana.”
Severn scratched furiously at his shoulder. “Do you think she’ll have my clothes washed?”
“If you give her back Rogan, I’m sure she will.”
“I will think about it,” Severn said softly. “If Rogan gets worse, I’ll consider it.”
“Does he think he can win me back so easily?” Liana asked Gaby. They were alone in the solar, Liana having sent her other women away. “Does he think that a single invitation from him will make me come crawling back to him? After the way he humiliated me?”
“But, my lady,” Gaby said pleadingly, “sometimes men say things they don’t mean, and it’s been a whole week now. Baudoin said Lord Rogan is worse than he ever was, that he never sleeps or lets the men rest. He doubled the guards on the parapets, and any guard who so much as blinks is flogged.”
“Of what concern is that of mine? He has my money; he has what he wants.” The deep, deep hurt she’d felt at his words had not abated in the past week. She had been lying to herself in thinking that he cared anything about her. He had married her for her money and money was all he wanted from her. Well he had that now and he no longer had to put up with her. She wouldn’t try to come between
him and the peasants. She wouldn’t nag him to allow her to judge the court cases. In fact, perhaps she’d just take her ladies and go to that other castle he owned, or maybe she’d retire to one of the estates of her dowry—if he could spare the revenue.
“You mean to refuse his invitation?” Gaby asked.
“I will pack a bag full of gold plates and put them on the chair in my place. That should satisfy him. Then he wouldn’t have to look at my ugliness.”
“But, my lady, I’m sure he didn’t—”
Gaby kept talking, but Liana didn’t listen. The thought of the gold and her lack of beauty had given her an idea. “Fetch the blacksmith to me.”
“My lady?”
“Send the blacksmith to me. I have a job for him to do.”
“If you will tell me what it is, I’ll—”
“No, this is my secret.”
Gaby stood where she was. “Do you mean to accept the invitation?”
“Oh yes,” Liana said. “I will accept my husband’s invitation and he will get my gold and he will not have to look upon my plain face.”
Gaby still didn’t move. “Sometimes it is better to forgive and forget than to keep on with the fight. Marriage is—”