Read Feud for Free Online

worried. “My word,” he said. “I never saw it was you, my lady.” And he bowed to her.
    Lady Horsley nodded kindly at him. “No matter, Ned. It is you I came to see, really. How is the henbane of Peru answering to reduce your phlegm?”
    “The tabaca? I must say, now I've got used to drinking smoke, I quite like it. And when I think what my old dad paid to put a chimney in the house!” Ned shook his head and chuckled.
    “It was recommended me by Dr. Nuñez, who is avery learned physician,” said Lady Horsley. “I'm sure it will help.”
    “Why don't you go and take a pipe now, Ned?” said Mrs. Teerlinc.
    “I think I will, thank'ee, ma'am,” he replied, wiping his fingers carefully before he left.
    Mrs. Teerlinc waited patiently until we could no longer hear his footsteps and then she nodded at Nick, who shook his head good-humouredly and came over. He shook his head again when he saw old Ned's canvas and then took a small bendy knife and started scraping off nearly everything Ned had done.
    “His eyes are no better, you know,” said Mrs. Teerlinc to Lady Horsley.
    “The smoke-drinking may help if it truly is a problem with his phlegmatic humour, as Dr. Cavendish says, but I suspect not … ,” Lady Horsley replied sadly.
    “No?”
    “I've seen the trouble before,” she continued, shaking her head. “The milkiness is in the eye itself, and in the end he will go blind.”
    “He nearly is already, my lady,” said Nick sadly. “Look at this mess.”
    Where old Ned had been working, the paintingwas all blurred and smudged as if seen through a dirty glass window.
    “I expect that is what he sees,” said Mrs. Teerlinc. “It's a pity he will not retire. The Queen would pay him a good pension, of course, but he says he would have nowhere else to go and nothing to do with himself all day without painting. But this cannot go on. I must think of something we can do for him.”
    Sarah sighed again and shifted.
    “My lady,” said one of the limners. “Please will you stay still?”
    I hastily started reading again—I'm not sure when I stopped, perhaps when they were talking about henbane of Peru, which is supposed to be a powerful medicine. I wonder if it would help Carmina. I read right up to the end of the chapter until my throat was quite sore with it. Then Mrs. Teerlinc told Sarah she might go and change since all the colours used so far needed to harden.
    “Why?” I asked.
    “It is a mystery of the trade,” she said, and then smiled when I looked disappointed. “You see, some colours fight with others and blacken in a year or two. So if one must be laid next to another, the firstmust harden and be varnished over a little, to protect it from the other.”
    I tried to imagine colours fighting each other on a canvas with little swords and spears, which was a very odd thought indeed. I looked at the beautiful yellow colour that Nick was putting down on Ned's picture—the lining of the Queen's Robe of State— and sighed. Then I saw Mrs. Teerlinc and Nick exchange a knowing look.
    Nick smiled at me. “Come and try your hand at this, Lady Grace,” he said.
    “What?” I gasped. “Painting?”
    “Of course, painting,” he laughed. “I would need you to instruct me in embroidery. Come and try it.”
    I rushed to him as quickly as I could in case he changed his mind. I carefully took his brush, all laden with that wonderful, bright yellow paint. Mrs. Teerlinc tutted, swept over, took the brush out of my hand, and put a big canvas apron over me. Then she smiled and gave me the brush back.
    “Now,” said Nick, “see how you get on with the yellow ground here. Just lay it on in the shape I have done in charcoal. Have no fear if you make a mistake, for I can take it off again with my palette knife.”
    I squinted my eyes a little and started dabbingcarefully. Sarah came back from changing into her own clothes and I never even noticed. I barely saw her leave, but I heard her saying something about