Betrayal by Fiona McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page B

of hot cakes got her up and out of her bed swiftly. How had she got into this nightshirt, she wondered, as she pulled it over her head and felt the gooseflesh surface on her skin at the chill.
    She pulled back the shutters. A very light drizzle hung almost mist-like, with the sun nothing more than a bright smudge behind a blanket of grey cloud. She shivered and pulled on some warm clothes. They were worn, like all her few garments, but her new good humour prompted her to brush her hair vigorously and tie it up with the one silk ribbon she possessed.
    She remembered the strange but generous old woman who had appeared last evening, andpresumed she must have stayed the night for her father had never learned how to cook. She wondered briefly where he could be and whether she should go looking for him.
    Alyssa would normally find him on the street or in a corner somewhere, recovering badly from the previous night’s carousing. She would clean him up, put him to bed to sleep it off, feed him later when he awoke, listen to his angry sorrows over his meal and then hopefully have him sober and clear-minded enough to tackle his various chores. She sighed. It was a pitiful life they both led.
    Tor edged into her mind but she pushed him away with a forced smile. She would not think of him now. She would try to open the link later. She knew he had to collect Lady soon or his father could not go about his business. Alyssa hurried downstairs, only to feel her good humour evaporate as she saw the woman tying on her bonnet and readying to leave.
    ‘Ah, there you are. You look well, my girl. I’m so very relieved.’ The old woman beamed and pulled on her shawl. ‘I’ll be on my way then, lass. I hope you didn’t mind my staying the night? I just couldn’t leave you in such a state, and so scrawny too. Here, look, I’ve made you some hot cakes and there’s a pot of tea brewing, so get some of it into you and I’ll rest easy.’
    She waddled over and hugged the stunned girl, then turned to pick up her cloth bag. Alyssa ran to the door and slammed it shut. The wild look in her eyes made the old woman exclaim, her hand clutching her throat.
    ‘You…you can’t leave. You can’t leave yet, I mean. I want to talk to you.’ Alyssa fought the tears. ‘Please, I don’t even know the name of the person who has been so kind to me.’
    The old girl studied her and then, to Alyssa’s relief, put down her bag and removed her bonnet.
    ‘My name is Sorrel.’
    She sat down and folded her hands neatly in her lap.
    Determined to hold her longer than the pleasantries would allow, Alyssa quickly poured two mugs of the tea.
    ‘And your name is…?’ Sorrel sipped the tea.
    ‘Oh, I thought I must have told you last night. I’m Alyssandra.’ She offered the old lady one of the hot cakes. ‘But people around here call me Alyssa,’ she added.
    ‘That’s a very lovely name you have.’ Sorrel nibbled her hot cake.
    ‘Thank you. My father made it up. My mother’s name is…er, was Alyssa. She was very beautiful, I’m told.’
    The old woman responded gently. ‘I lost my mother early too. It’s hard on a girl. How old are you now?’
    Alyssa took a sip of her herbal tea and winced. The heat burned where she had bitten her lip the night before.
    ‘Fifteen summers.’
    ‘Ah…this is an age when a girl misses her mother most,’ Sorrel said before switching easily into relating tales of her life as a travelling herbwoman.
    Alyssa found her stories fascinating, particularly as she too had a good understanding of herbcraft. The old woman then brought her story into the present, casually describing her most recent journey into Flat Meadows, where the village was apparently abuzz with gossip that one of its own was off to the Palace at Tal.
    ‘Everyone seemed so proud and excited. I happened to meet the lad—very handsome he is with those strange blue eyes. My, my, those Tal women will steal his innocence within hours of his entering the