So Great A Love by Flora Speer Read Free Book Online Page A

and rose from
the bench where she was sitting. She left the dais so quietly and
the guests at the high table were so full of wine and heavy food,
and were so intent upon the performances of the acrobats and the
nonsense of the noisy servants, that no one remarked on her going.
No one but Eustace's wife, Gertrude, who also left the table to
trail along a few steps behind Margaret.
    Catherine was waiting at the entrance to the
screens passage. Margaret followed her friend into the deserted
kitchen and then out another door and beyond, to a small garderobe
behind the kitchen that was used by the servants and
men-at-arms.
    “Margaret?” Gertrude called after her
sister-in-law, her voice little more than a frightened whisper.
“Where are you going? Lord Adhemar will be disappointed when he
sees you have left him. You ought not to anger your lord and
master.”
    “If Lord Adhemar drinks much more wine, he
won't know which castle he is in,” Margaret snapped at her, “let
alone who is sitting beside him.”
    She saw at once what a mistake her sharp
words were. Gertrude's pale, watery blue eyes filled with tears and
her chin began to tremble. She was going to cry and the
weak-spirited creature would almost certainly run to Eustace, to
try to curry favor with her unfeeling husband by telling him that
Margaret and Catherine were up to something.
    Gertrude turned, chewing on her quivering
lower lip, and took a hesitant step back in the direction of the
great hall. Margaret's hand reached out to catch Gertrude's sleeve,
holding her in place. Several possible methods for dealing with
Gertrude tumbled through Margaret's frantic mind.
    She could tell Gertrude what she was bent
upon doing and hope Gertrude would sympathize enough to keep
silent. Margaret quickly discarded that idea. Gertrude was so
afraid of her husband that at Eustace's first question as to where
she had been she would almost certainly reveal everything she knew
of Margaret's plans. Margaret felt a deep pity for Gertrude, but
she knew she dared not trust her.
    She and Catherine could push Gertrude into a
storeroom and lock her in there, but that would be unkind to
someone who lived in constant fear and, besides, Gertrude might be
discovered before Margaret and Catherine and their company were
safely away from Sutton.
    There was only one thing to do. They would
have to trick Gertrude. Margaret shot a quick look at Catherine and
saw her friend waiting to follow her lead.
    “Gertrude, we are playing a prank,” Margaret
said, trying to sound merry and lighthearted. “Catherine and I want
to make the men laugh.”
    “Yes,” Catherine said, joining in the
trickery. “It's a Twelfth Night game. Gertrude, you won't spoil the
fun, will you? Just go back to the table and don't say a word to
anyone, and I promise, in a little while there will be a surprise
and everyone will laugh.”
    “You mustn't trick your father and Eustace,”
Gertrude said to Margaret with great seriousness, “and certainly
not Lord Adhemar. It isn't nice to fool one's husband.”
    “He isn't my husband yet,” Margaret pointed
out, speaking in impatient irritation. When she saw Gertrude's face
begin to crumple in the prelude to tears, Margaret exclaimed,
“Eustace will laugh so hard and be in such a good mood!”
    “Eustace, in a good mood?” Gertrude repeated,
looking as if she could not quite believe such a thing could ever
happen. “Are you sure?”
    “Oh, just wait and see,” Catherine said with
a bright smile.
    “Gertrude,” Margaret said, “the timing for
this game must be just right and you are keeping us from putting
the final touches on our prank. Now, go back to the hall and act as
if you know nothing. Be patient, wait for the joke to occur, and in
the meantime, tell no one you have seen us.”
    “If you are sure Eustace will be
entertained,” Gertrude said, sounding as if she were not at all
certain of it.
    “I am absolutely sure,” Margaret told her,
barely resisting the