‘I'll need the keys for the stillroom.’
‘I cannot find them.’ Henrietta was evasive, ashamed of the childish gesture of throwing them aside. ‘Ask my aunt for hers.’
Alice looked amazed. It was inconceivable that the mistress of the house could misplace her precious keys without setting up a hue and cry. ‘Where did you have them last? Shall I look for them?’
‘Leave it be, for pity’s sake.’ Henrietta sat down on
the bed and rested her aching forehead in her hands. She couldn't think, her head was bursting.
Alice drew breath, seemed to think better of speaking, and left the room.
A few moments later Mistress Clifford swept in. ‘What's this, my dear? Dinner will be set on the table in a minute and you are all in disarray. What have you been doing to lose your keys? Alice told me some nonsense about your refusing Sir Matthew. Now, you must take him seriously and not flirt; he's no man to be left dangling like your other suitors… and, child, there's grass on your skirts and petals in your hair.’
‘Aunt, please.’ Henrietta put a hand to her throbbing temples. ‘My head aches so.’
‘It's the excitement.’ Her aunt exchanged a knowing look with Alice who had followed behind. ‘Come, tell me what he said.’
‘Alice, will you please fetch me my tisane?’
Her maid ignored her, turning in an indignant swirl of skirts to Mistress Clifford. ‘I told you she meant it. She says she won't have him, Mistress. She says she turned him down.’
‘Henrietta, can this be true?’ Her aunt sounded horrified as she took in Alice's words and Henrietta's stubborn expression. ‘How can you be so foolish? You must go to him this minute and tell him it was just a silly whim.’ She softened her tone. ‘I know it must have been a shock, my dear, but this is no time for maidenly reticence. He is not a man to be trifled with.’
‘I do not like him,’ Henrietta said, knowing it sounded mulish.
‘That has nothing to do with anything.’ Susan was sharp. ‘And what is there to dislike, pray? He is an educated man of affairs, with a fine house in London, so Lawyer Stone tells me. And a healthy, well set-up man of maturity and sense.’
‘I won't have him. He's a… he's a Puritan.’
‘He's no such thing,’ her aunt retorted. ‘You are pettish and wilful. I must go down to our guests and apologise for your incivility. Think well on what you are refusing, and what will happen to you if you do.’ Aunt Susan swept out of the room, the colour high on her cheeks.
‘I have never seen your aunt so angry,’ Alice remarked a few minutes later when she returned with the infusion, cool from the stillroom.
Henrietta slipped off her shoes and climbed on to the canopied bed, sinking back against the piled bolsters with a sigh. ‘She doesn't understand.’
‘Nor do I understand. What is there against him? Winterbourne will be yours forever, you will never want for anything, and you must marry someone. Why not him?’ She watched Henrietta sip the infusion as if weighing up her words. ‘And he's a fine man, it will be no hardship to take him to your bed.'
Henrietta felt the blush heating her face and took a gulp of the tisane.
‘So that's it,’ Alice muttered and settled on the other end of the bed with a glance at the closed door. ‘There's no need to be afraid. You don't want to heed those silly wenches gossiping in the laundry. Where the man is gentle and knowing there's much pleasure in it for a woman. And that's a good thing, for the wisewomen say it makes for easier getting of a child.’
‘And what do you know about it?’ Henrietta knew she should not encourage such an improper conversation, but her curiosity overcame discretion.
‘Enough to know that with the right man it's a very great happiness.’
‘Alice, have you been bedding with Robert?’
She tossed her head. ‘And if I have? You told me yourself only this morning we should be betrothed.’
‘But you aren't. And what if he were to get you with child?’ There was an uncomfortable pause. Henrietta said slowly, ‘I saw you coming out of Mistress Perrott's cottage yesterday. Why were you there? We were not in need of any herbs, and no one here or on the farm is sick and needing her help.’ There was only one other reason for the women of the village to consult the wisewoman. Her eyes fell on Alice's waist as the truth dawned.
‘It doesn't show yet.’ She was quite matter-of-fact. ‘Robert will wed me before it does.’
It was suddenly difficult to do more than simply stare at her friend. There was no way she could separate Alice and Robert, drag her off to the Low Countries, now she was carrying his child. And how could the steward support a wife and child if he lost his position?
‘Does Robert know?’ she managed to ask when she thought she could keep her dismay from her voice.
‘No, but he'll be well pleased.’ Alice's face flushed with pride. ‘I know he loves me as much as I love him.’