Read Shadows and Strongholds for Free Online Page A

it's some cloth for a new dress,' Marion predictably suggested as she flicked back her hair. The strands shone like a field of barley, pale gold and silky under the breeze.
    Hawise shook her head, her own thick curls glowing like dark wine. 'I thought of that, but Papa's not interested in clothes or buying them.'
    'A puppy then,' Sibbi offered.
    Hawise thought about that. Her papa had several large hunting hounds that followed him around the keep and slept across his chamber door. Their mother would pat the beasts in passing but, although she was kind to them, was largely indifferent to dogs. She probably wouldn't object if worn down by pleading. 'No,' she concluded with a regretful shake of her head, 'because Papa would have brought a puppy with him and he wouldn't have asked her about it.'
    The girls mulled the problem over in silence for a while,

Sibbi sitting in contemplation, hands folded neatly in her lap, Hawise casting and dropping her juggling balls, and Marion stroking her already smooth hair with the antler-work comb that Joscelin had brought her from the fair.
    'Perhaps he wants her to have another baby,' Marion said at length. 'That would be a surprise.'
    Hawise dropped the balls and Sibbi's head jerked up. Both girls stared at Marion.
    'Yes.' Marion nodded decisively. 'They don't have a son and everyone knows that boys have the best claim to family lands.' She continued her grooming like a cat washing itself, her air feline and knowing.
    'They would have had one sooner than now,' Sibbi said doubtfully.
    Marion shrugged. 'Ask them. I bet it's true.'
    'All right, I will.' Hawise dropped her juggling balls, scrambled to her feet and ran into the main chamber.
    Marion's eyes widened as if she hadn't expected quite so immediate a result.
    Hawise found her mother putting away her sewing. Sybilla had removed her wimple and hairnet. Her curly hair was tamed into two thick braids, the sable-black winged and stranded with silver. She had changed from her ordinary dress of brown wool to the crimson one with the deep neckline broidered in gold. It was Hawise's favourite of her mother's gowns, and her father's too, for she had often heard him say so.
    'I was just coming to kiss you goodnight,' Sybilla said, and then her gaze sharpened. 'What's the matter?'
    'Marion said that Papa wants you to have another baby'
    Her mother straightened. A look of complete astonishment crossed her face. 'Where did she get that notion?'
    'Papa has a surprise for us, and Marion said that was it.'
    'It certainly would be a surprise,' Sybilla said with a shaken laugh. 'I think, failing a miracle, we can safely say that Marion is wrong.' She latched her sewing basket and, taking Hawise by the hand, turned towards the small anteroom where the girls' beds were arranged.
    'He said that he had to talk to you first.'
    'Well, it won't be about babies, I can promise you that.' She brushed Hawise's red curls tenderly with her palm.
    Later, when the girls had been kissed and settled and the lantern snuffed, Marion's mattress rustled. 'Well, if it's not a baby, then it'll be a betrothal,' she whispered knowingly. 'One of us will be given a husband.'
    'Go to sleep,' Hawise hissed, 'or else I'll tell Mama, and she'll be cross this time.' Hawise had already been unsettled by Marion's talk of babies and wanted no more threats of disruption to the security of her life.
    'Tell her, I don't care,' Marion said, but fell silent after that.
    Hawise closed her eyes and, as she waited for sleep, wondered what the surprise was, her previous anticipation now tinged with more than a little apprehension.
     
    Sybilla moved quietly around the bedchamber, tidying clothes, pouring wine into two cups, lighting the beeswax candles that for thrift had been left until now. Joscelin sat in the cushioned window-seat, watching the first stars prick the twilit sky. Now and again, he cast his glance to her work, but he said nothing and the silence between them was