Once Upon a Romance 02 - As The Last Petal Falls by Jessica Woodard Page B

dunno what modest means, Mistress, but he sure does help a lot of people.” Vivienne smiled at John’s sincerity. It was a relief to know Fain was a good man, even if she didn’t know the particulars. “ I mean, without him, most all of us fellas would be in jail. “
    “What?” Relief fled, replaced by worry. “Why?”
    Marlplot clapped his hands to his mouth in alarm. “I forgot. I forgot. I promised I wouldn’t forget. Don’t tell anyone, okay?” The young giant was so unhappy Vivi felt compelled to agree, but she brooded as John went back to work.
    In jail for what?
    Once everything was as clean as Vivienne knew how to make it, John went and asked the Shapherd brothers to help him wring out the mattress and spread it to dry. The three men lugged the heavy tub out to the courtyard and drained it, then spent almost half an hour cheerfully abusing each other and the mattress as they attempted to squeeze the water out. The thick, padded cotton was still sodden when they hauled it back up and laid it out on the rope frame. Marlplot gazed at it mournfully.
    “Well, Mistress,” he said, “the room’s clean, but you won’t be sleeping here tonight. That mattress will take days to dry.”
    Sadly, he was right. Vivienne spent both that night and the next with Connelly, trying to sleep through the racket. In between, she spent her hours in the kitchen, helping little Billy Notter scrub down the great tables and acting as a one-handed scullery maid for the Shapherds.
    “Thanks for the help, Mistress Belle.”
    “I fear I’m not much assistance, Billy. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
    “Naw, but you’re awful jolly, and I don’t mind wiping your tables over again.”
    It wouldn’t have been so bad, but she was practically dropping from exhaustion, and she got the impression that her unskilled attempts at cleaning, made worse by only having one useful arm, were amusing to the two capable Shapherd brothers.
    “I suppose you two strapping men have never been injured, or had to learn a new task?”
    “On the contrary.” Matt told her. “We were both hurt when we first stumbled through the doors of this keep. I could hardly keep my feet under me.”
    “More importantly,” Marcus broke in, “he could hardly keep his feet under
me
. I couldn’t walk at all by that point. I was still cracking jokes, though.”
    “You’d have to be dead to stop cracking jokes.” Matt rolled his eyes at his brother.
    “Still might not stop me.”
    “How were you hurt?” Vivienne was intrigued.
    “Oh, just a minor skirmish over some sheep.”
    “Were you… Were you stealing them?”
    “Oh, no. We were trying to keep them.”
    “A minor skirmish with sheep stealers left you wounded to the point where you couldn’t walk?”
    “I’ve a very delicate constitution.”
    “Ah, Belle?” Matt broke into his brother’s teasing. “You’ll need to have another try at cleaning these plates. There’s still gravy on them.”
    She ground her teeth as she went to wash the plates for the third time. She hated being incompetent. Her lack of aptitude helped as she met the keep’s other inhabitants, though. Most of them passed through the kitchen each day, and they allowed themselves to be introduced to Vivi with varying degrees of reservation.
    Nate Tucker was one of the worst. He was all smiles and greetings with Marcus Shapherd, but his face became cold and closed when he looked at her.
    “And you’d be the lost lady, then?”
    “Yes, I’m Isabelle Wellesley.” Vivienne straightened up from shoveling hearth coals. She knew she had streaks of ash all down her cheeks, but she smiled as though she were dressed in silk and presiding over afternoon tea. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of an introduction, sir.”
    “Name’s Tucker. Nathaniel Tucker.”
    “I’m so pleased to meet you, Master Tucker. I hope you don’t find me rude, but I fear I must get back to this fire. I haven’t mastered the trick