Phillipe let out a wry chuckle.“I’vegood news, then.”He pulled a parchment out of his tunic pocket andhanded it to Talon.“We march in a month’s time.”
“Good.”Talon patted theBlack’s flank, anxious to shake the rust off the both of them.“Thesooner we get to it, the sooner we get back, the sooner I can claimmy prize.”He grinned for the first time in over a month, thinkingback on a certain conversation between himself and Lara.“An oldjest,” he explained to Phillipe.He glanced at his scarred palm.“And well worth the price.”
“What price?”Phillipeasked.“For what prize?”
“My blood and my sword forCrossroads Keep,” Talon told him.“I’ve decided on it as the landCharles promised me, once this campaign is over.”
“It is a nice piece ofland,” Phillipe said.
“It is.”
“With a well-built,comfortable manor house and a stable to rival thekings.”
“It has.”
“What do you plan to do onyour nice land in your comfortable house?”
“Raise fat babies andsleek foals.”
“Need a partner?For thefoals, I mean.”
Talon considered it.“The more maresbought and covered—”
“—the more foals to sell,”Phillipe finished.
Talon offered Phillipe his hand, andthey shook on it.
“Odds are Anglbert willwant in on it too,” Phillipe said.“The old miser has more coinsaved than the pope and hasn’t quit bemoaning the lack of Berta’scooking since we rode out of Oloron.”
“Well then.”Talon shutthe gate to the Black’s stall shut.“Let’s go find Anglbert andCharles and stake my claim.”
***
Lara
By February, Lara’s belly had stoppedsending back half of what she ate, and by March she was eatingtwice what she normally would.By April her belly was noticeablyrounded and the acrobat in her womb was turning somersaults on adaily basis, and by May, she had no more material in the seams ofher gowns left to let out and had added side-panels of linen fromSophie’s old gowns to make room for her growing belly.
It was the last market day of May, andshe set her wagon up alongside Willem and Patience’s, laying outher baskets of herbs and dried flowers, wheels of cheeses, bars ofsoaps, and vials of tinctures, including a dozen of Sophie’s lovepotions.
“Spring is always a goodtime to sell love potions,” she said as Patience eyed thedistinctive vials renown in four provinces.She laid a hand overher taut belly and grinned as the babe moved under her palm.“Hopefully, I’ll sell enough of them to buy a bolt of fine linenfrom the tinker to start making some baby gowns with.I’ve alreadymade two dozen absorbing cloths from what’s left of Sofie’sgowns.”
Patience nodded her approval.“You’llneed at least six infant gowns,” she said.“One to wear, a cleanone to change into, and four drying on the line at alltimes.”
“Lovely.”
Patience was still laughing as a groupof village women walked by and waved, their baskets swinging.Patience and Lara waved back.Though most of the people hadresponded to Lara’s pregnancy as a natural matter, there were somewho turned their noses up at her and whispered behind their hands.Not that Lara had expected any different.
“How many vials did yousell Marta?”Patience asked as Marta and Denys strolled past, armin arm, gazing at each other as if they were the only two people inthe square.
“None.”Lara gave anindulgent smile to the young lovers.“She didn’t need any.Theyfigured it out all by themselves.”
“Aye, once Marta realizedthe captain was taken by you, which, by the way, she figured outmuch quicker than you did.”
“Everybody figured us outquicker than I did,” Lara said with a rueful grin.Ravenna sashayedtoward them across the square, her arms linked with the stewardRoumel’s daughters.The same two who’d thought to snare Talon withthe vials of potion Ravenna had bought for them.“Well,” she addedwith some satisfaction, “not everybody.”
Count Nithard and Ravenna had returnedto Oloron Manor right after the new year, without Ranulf orLothair, neither of whom had shown their faces in the valley sincethe attack on Lara and Talon.Lara had caught glimpses of Ravennaand the count as she made her healer’s rounds of the villages andtoths, but today was the first time Ravenna had come within fiftypaces of her, walking over to Lara’s wagon and staring at herbelly.
“So,” Ravenna said with asnide smile.“It’s true.Thelidiis with child.How common.”