Page 25 of No Place in Time

“Like she knew when it was comin’,” the first voice continued. “Always there before the bell was rung.”

Cecily moved on before they saw her.

Later, near the kitchens, she heard it again, different voices, but the same bits of gossip.

“I seen her holdin’ the lady’s hand.”

“Sounded like she prayed somethin’ with her. Maybe it were a chant I heard instead of a prayer.”

“She was alone with Lady Beatrix too often.”

The words struck harder each time, reshaped and embellished as they passed from mouth to mouth.

By the afternoon, Finn found her near the kitchen entrance.

“The entire house is talking,” he said. “About us.”

Her shoulders tensed. “I know. What do you hear?”

“That you were always there,” he said. “That you and I were speaking together last night. Someone said we sounded… pleased that Lady Beatrix died.”

Cecily shook her head. “How can they say such things? Lady Hawthorne was very kind to me, and I grieve her death.”

“I know.” Finn’s voice dropped. “They’re just talking, spreading stories. But the stories are pointing at us, Cecily. I don’t know how to stop it.”

They stood close. She could almost feel the house watching them. Cecily had noticed the way people looked away now when she passed. How a woman she had worked beside all week crossed herself when Cecily reached for the bucket or stacked the pantry.

∞∞∞

That evening, as Cecily carried linens down the passage, she heard a man’s voice she did not recognize.

“No sickness takes a lady so sudden,” he said. “Not unless God wills it, or someone helps it along.”

Another voice murmured agreement.

She turned and nearly collided with two men in the lord’s colors. One wore the badge of the manor reeve. The other carried a staff marked with the parish seal.

“You will come with us,” the reeve said.

“Why?” Cecily asked. “What’s happened?”

“You are summoned.”

Finn was already there when they brought her to the hall where Lord Hawthorne stood. The lord’s stern face was rigid, his eyes narrow.

“You attended my wife,” he said to Cecily.

“Yes, my lord.”

“How often?”

“Every day, when I delivered the linens. And whenever she called for me.”

“You knew her weakness.”

“I knew she was ill.”

“You were present when she took her spells.”