Stubbornly, he did not reply.
Her hiss, between gritted teeth, gave Ivar a shiver of fear.
“The court is a bad influence on you! You still bear a personal grudge against the prince, do you not? That he, a bastard, was given power in the secular world and you were not, is that not so, Hugh?”
With one hand he gripped the cloth of his tunic, folded around one knee; the other lay open, pressed against the floorboards palm down to hold himself up. His breath came ragged, and his gaze seemed fixed on something invisible to everyone else in the room. “That she should go willingly to him when she has spurned me—!”
She extended a leg, caught him under the chin with the toe of her sandal, and tipped his head back so that he had to look at her. “You have gone mad with jealousy.” She stated it in the same way any noble lady might examine her cattle and see that some were afflicted with hoof-rot: calmly, but with a little disgust at her own bad luck. “Your mind has been afflicted by her spells.”
She lowered her foot and stood. “Go,” she said to her courtiers. “Speak of this to the folk hereabouts, what you have heard here—that the girl has bound him with her evil spells. See how she has reduced him. We all know Father Hugh’s elegant manners. This is no natural state.” They scurried away obediently.
“Go heat a bath for him so that we may wash some of the poison out,” she said, and a half dozen servants hurried into the adjoining room. Then she turned to her entourage. “Lord Atto, I haven’t forgotten the matter of the king’s stallion, Potentis. I have spoken with the king myself, and if that bay mare of yours comes into season while we are on progress with the king, you may try for a foal out of Potentis. Go speak with the king’s stablemaster, if you will, to arrange it.”
Lord Atto was all effusive thanks as he retreated, but Judith had already beckoned forward one of her servingwomen. “Hemma, I have considered this matter of your daughter’s betrothal, and I think it a good match for her to wed Minister Oda’s son. But I have it in mind to gift her with that length of fine linen cloth we picked up in Quedlinhame. If you will see to it that it is packed and made ready, I will have it sent with the messengers who are returning east. Then your daughter will have time to sew some clothing out of it for the wedding feast.”