Chapter Two #3
Susanna merely snorted, a clear sign of disapproval, but said nothing more.
With the conversation ended, Yerik rushed back towards the cloister, passing through the old iron gate where he had so recently sold the indecent cards.
Cadelyn tucked her money away as Susanna, weary of the entire venture, began to head back towards the livery one street over.
“Come along, Lady Dark,” she said, somewhat sarcastically. “Let us return to Lady Summerlin with a lie as to why we had to come to Lynn today in the first place. She would not believe that you have come to St. Margaret’s to pray, so what are you going to tell her?”
Cadelyn caught up to Susanna and her long strides, pulling Lily-Elsie along. “I am going to tell her the truth,” she said. “I am going to tell her that we came to town to the paper broker and purchased more writing supplies, which I will prove to her when I show her what I bought.”
Susanna cast her a long glance. “Writing supplies for your coming journey?”
Cadelyn’s good spirits fled as swiftly as a breath blows out a flame. Just like that, it was gone, and her stomach began to twist in knots.
“I told you not to speak of it,” she said quietly.
Susanna knew her feelings on the subject but, in her opinion, it was foolish to resist one’s duty.
“I must speak of it and you know it,” she said.
“You have an escort coming from London any day now to escort you to Chester. You have not even packed your trunks, Cadelyn, and you act as if a journey is not imminent. If Lady Summerlin discovers you are not prepared, she will become angry.”
Cadelyn didn’t care about Lady Summerlin’s anger. Furthermore, she didn’t want to be reminded of what was coming. Traveling to St. Margaret’s on this day had caused her to forget, however briefly, about the future that had been dictated for her.
A future beyond her control.
At the moment, she couldn’t push the reminder aside and she allowed herself to feel the familiar angst of an unwelcome destiny.
It was fear and disappointment all rolled into one.
God, she didn’t want to go. Castle Rising was her life and the secretive role of Lady Dark had finally taken flight.
She’d worked for it, all of it, and now it was to be taken away from her because of some foolish betrothal dictated to her by men she didn’t even know.
Men who were using her for a political marriage to seal an alliance between the country of her birth and an English earl.
Country of her birth…
A country she didn’t even know.
A country she didn’t want to know.
“Not another word, Susanna,” she said firmly. “Let my last days here not be marred by something I cannot prevent. It only makes the pain of my lost future worse.”
“Ignoring it will not change things,” Susanna said with surprisingly gentleness. “And what of your business partner, Yerik? Does he know that soon you shall be gone forever?”
Cadelyn’s jaw was ticking as she glanced at her friend. “He knows,” she said. “He knows and he has agreed to come with me so that Lady Dark can continue, even if it cannot continue here in Lynn. It will continue in Chester.”
Susanna’s eyebrows lifted. “You intend to take the cleric with you?” she said, shock in her tone. “And just how do you plan to explain his presence to your new husband?”
“I am allowed my own private priest, aren’t I?”
“The man is not a priest.”
Cadelyn had enough. “No one need know that if you do not tell them, Susanna. Just keep your lips still about things that do not concern you.”
Susanna kept calm. It was one of her greatest traits, this innate coolness she displayed in any given situation, even in the face of her lady’s frustration.
“I do not intend to say a word,” she said.
“But when Lady Dark’s poetry shows up in Chester, coincidentally at a time when you arrive, it is possible people will notice, even your husband. ”
Cadelyn had no real answer for that. Susanna made sense, but she wouldn’t admit it. She was determined to remain confident in a situation where she was trying to maintain some control.
“With any luck, he’ll not notice me at all,” she said, the pain of the unwanted betrothal suddenly reflecting in her eyes. “Say no more, Susanna. I do not wish to hear it.”
With that, she abruptly turned down an alleyway that led to the street of the merchants, winding her way through dirty little alleys and across an old yard used by the bakers before emerging into the fairly busy district of High Street.
Susanna and Lily-Elsie were right behind her, rushing to keep up.
Unfortunately, in her haste to escape the conversation, she wasn’t watching where she was going and immediately moved into the path of several large war horses.
Had it not been for Susanna pulling her out of the way, a knight on a muscular gray stallion would have pounded her right into the ground.
But in that life-saving grab, it disturbed the purse at her waist and all of Cadelyn’s illicit coinage went scattering all over the avenue.
After that, it was chaos.