Page 30 of The Silent Songbird

He brushed on the healing salve as carefully as possible so as not to inflict any further pain on her, first on one hand and then the other.

His mother always followed any application of her healing salve on one of her children with a kiss next to the wound. What would it feel like to kiss that delicate spot on the inside of Eva’s wrist?

What was he thinking? After all the times his parents had warned him not to take advantage of female servants in any way, he should know better than to allow such a thought into his head.

When he finished applying the salve, she just sat quietly, but he was very aware of her watching him. He picked up the roll and wrapped the cloth bandage around her hand. He cut it and tied it off, then repeated for the other hand.

“Not too tight, is it?”

She shook her head, then picked up the wax tablet and stylus, holding them awkwardly in her bandaged hands.“Thank you,”she wrote.“No other lords in England could be as kind as you.”

“Perhaps it makes up for some of the unkindness done to you.”

She nodded and ducked her head. Perhaps she wanted to read.

“I’ll let you get started. It’s a long book, and you may not be able to finish it before supper.”

She seemed to appreciate his weak jest, as she smiled up at him.

She opened the book with great care to the Acts of the Apostles and started reading.

He went for a walk in the garden, examining the rosebushes and tearing the leaves off a small limb that had fallen out of a tree. A butterfly flitted in front of him, and he was reminded of how joyfully Eva had chased the butterflies on their trip from Berkhamsted Castle. He’d thought her so childlike and full of life. But since coming here, she did not seem quite so unbridled in her joy. In fact, she had seemed horrified and sad, more than once. And no wonder, with being forced to work until her hands bled. Perhaps she would hate it here and she and her friend would leave.

That thought made his heart sink. He didn’t want her to go. He didn’t want anyone mistreating her. He wanted to keep her safe. But perhaps that was foolish. She had only just arrived here. He was not responsible for her. He did care about her, though. No one deserved to be mistreated, least of all someone who had already been so mistreated in her life, someone as innocent and fair of form and face as Eva.

When Evangeline reported for work at the manor house the next morning, Mistress Alice pulled her aside. “Someone told me you were injured. Rest your hands for today and we will examine them again in the morning.”

Evangeline worried about not being useful to the household for an entire day, and she ended up wandering through the meadow where some sheep were grazing, past the pigpen.

All day and no work to do. If only she could read some more in the Bible, but she did not have the courage to ask Lord or Lady le Wyse. She might be brave enough to ask Westley if she were to find him, so she walked toward the river. Perhaps he had gone fishing.

She wandered along the bank. She smiled to think that Muriel would warn her away, afraid she would fall in, if she were here. The water made a pleasant rushing sound in the still morning air. Even the birds were quiet here. Trees grew right up to the edge of the bank, and it truly was a peaceful place, more beautiful in its wildness than the cultivated and perfectly trimmed bushes of the gardens of Berkhamsted Castle.

Finding a large, smooth rock, she sat down. Wildflowers grew everywhere in Glynval, around the rocky places as well as the open meadows, a whole new world of beauty and wonder. Such a pity that Muriel wanted to go back to her old life.

Evangeline took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If only Muriel could be content here in Glynval. But it was unfair to expect it of her. Poor Muriel. Evangeline had only been thinking of herself, and now, what would the king do to punish Muriel when she returned to Berkhamsted? Of course he would force her to tell where Evangeline had gone.

How could this adventure end well for either of them?

Something caught her eye. By her foot a small frog crawled forward, then leapt away. An ant walked up a nearby tree trunk. And in the water below her, unseen, swam fish and eels, countless water beings full of life. What was it they wanted? What did Evangeline want?

The memory rushed in, of Lord and Lady le Wyse the previous night, how they had hurried to touch each other, to speak to each other. After all the years they had been together, all their children birthed and nurtured, they still looked at each other with love in their eyes.

“That is what I want,” Evangeline whispered.

Her own parents had not been able to enjoy each other like that. Her mother died shortly after she was born, and her father soon after that. She was supposedly born outside of marriage, but she liked to think her parents did end up marrying secretly before she was born. Perhaps they intended to make their union known but died before it was possible.

She had never been privy to a married couple and their relationship. But she very much suspected that true married love looked similar to what she saw between Lord and Lady le Wyse. She closed her eyes, crossed herself, and clasped her hands.Please give me a love like that, God.

A sound caught her attention. Not wishing any of the other servants to see her doing nothing, she made her way off the path and hid in the trees and bushes, staring out through the leaves.

Two men walked past. One was carrying a short but heavy-looking block of wood. He was blond and dressed in a fine linen shirt with a finely worked leather sleeveless tunic—much too fine for a servant. She caught a bare glimpse of the other man, noting his dark hair.

Evangeline left her hiding place and followed them from a distance. Ahead, she heard them talking, gradually realizing they were speaking with a third man. As she drew closer, she saw that the third man was Westley.

Suddenly the blond man raised the block of wood and struck Westley in the head, then pushed him off the bank into the river.

Frozen, unable to breathe, Evangeline watched as the two strange men ran in the other direction.