Catherine spent most of the week hiding in her room, which was wise, because neither Isobel nor I was inclined to be charitable. I was used to dressing myself, but the loss of the cook was hard. We lived on sandwiches for the entire week. (The cook and her husband had a very nice vacation in Frithneedle in the nearby mountains and told me all about it afterward.)
Catherine was extremely polite to the servants from then on. But I suppose you’re not allowed to do such a thing to a king’s daughter. Even if it would probably be good for her.
At last the relevant jewelry was found in another box. “I’mgoing riding with myfather,theking,” Snow announced, and swept out of the room.
Oh, thank the saints.I didn’t have to worry about her getting poisoned while in the saddle, certainly not with her father there. I could stand up and walk around until I could feel my left buttock again.
“Right,” said Nurse, once Snow had left. “That’s at least two hours we’ve got free. Clara, hang the clothes back up, then go get yourself something to eat.” Her voice was suddenly much less fluttery, as if someone had pulled the flounces off a nightgown and left a rather more serviceable garment behind. “Healer Anja, will you join me for lunch and some tea?”
“OhSaints,yes,” I said, with real relief.
It was kind of Nurse to invite me to eat with her. My position in the household was still very much in flux. I was not quite a servant and not quite an honored guest. Eating with the king and Lady Sorrel put my rank quite high, but there were ladies-in-waiting in the larger court who could eat with the king and who were treated worse than the lowest scullery maid by the lady they waited on.
This was all important because if I was a servant, the other servants might talk to me, which could be very important—but if I was an honored guest, I could demand things be done in the course of Snow’s treatment that a servant couldn’t. It was all very awkward, and I hated having to think about it. Nurse’s invitation put me on the high-ranked servant side, which was where I’d much rather be.
“So tell me about Snow’s illness,” I said a few minutes later, my pen poised over my notes. The uneaten plate of sandwiches had been passed over to the maids, and another plate had been sent up as well. “She said there’s been some vomiting?”
“Well, yes,” Nurse said, “but I didn’t think anything of it at first. She always was a bit of a puker as a child.” Her lips twisted up. “You know how it is with some children. They get excited, or they forget to eat, or they do eat and then go for a carriage ride immediately afterward…”
I nodded. My sister Catherine would always demand sweets atthe market and then be reliably sick on the ride home. I assume she grew out of that eventually, but I simply stopped riding in carriages with her. For all I know, she does it to her husband now.
“And you mustn’t think she’s doing it deliberately,” Nurse added. “I know some girls do—they take these notions in their heads, and it turns into a kind of sickness with them—but Snow was never like that. Shetriesto eat. When it’s bad, it might take her an hour to eat a piece of toast, but she’ll get it down.”
I nodded, writing this down. I really needed to see a bout of this illness in person. So far, Snow had been pale and listless and easily bruised, but that could have been anemia… Except that the physicians had ruled out anemia. Damn it.
You hate to wish sickness on anyone, least of all a child, but I had a feeling that seeing it in action was the only way that I was going to get much further at identifying the poison, unless I could waylay it as it was being deliveredandit was something I could test for.
I finished my sandwich morosely and realized that I’d lost the thread of the conversation.
“Her sister was a taking little thing,” Nurse was saying. “I don’t say Snow isn’t, but of course she can be willful, right enough. But she’s a good girl at heart.” She gave me a beseeching look.
I had no idea how to answer that. Obviously Snow had been through a great deal and was still suffering the aftereffects. I could be sympathetic to that while still wincing on behalf of the maids.
“A good girl,” Nurse repeated, dabbing at her eyes.
Does she think that I won’t try to stop her being poisoned simply because she’s spoiled?I wondered if I should be offended or not. I thought about saying that I frequently treated criminal addicts, but I had no idea how that would go over. Instead I took another sandwich. Cucumber and watercress, with some kind of spread. It wasn’t bad at all. (Hopefully not poisoned, but the poisoner would have to plan to take out the nurse and the maids as well, and that seemed unlikely.)
“If she only had some kind of maternal figure,” said Nurse witha deep sigh. “But you know about her mother, of course, and old Nurse, well…” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Snow got in the habit of ignoring me not long after she left the nursery. I was in charge of Rose. I’m only here now because after the queen… you know… there wasn’t anyone else. And the king asked, of course, so how could I say no?”
“You couldn’t,” I said dryly, having some experience with that myself.
“Exactly.” She shook her head sadly. “If only there wassomeonewho could take her in hand…”
“Well, the king will probably marry again eventually,” I said encouragingly, and helped myself to another sandwich. Tasty, but it must be said, not particularly filling.
“Oh… well, yes. But that could take years,” Nurse said. “And you know how sensitive girls are at this age…”
I did not actually know this. At Snow’s age, I had been getting the stomachs of dead hogs delivered from the butcher so that I could see how the internal organs were supposed to look in a healthy animal as opposed to one that had been poisoned. (The cook made a lot of tripe in those days. I think everyone was glad when I turned thirteen and was allowed to witness human autopsies.)
I did not say this out loud either.
“If only there was someone the king trusted, who Snow could look up to…”
“Mmm,” I said. What was in this spread? Some sort of cheese, of course, but with something else mixed in. I could taste mint and… tarragon? “Have you asked Lady Sorrel for advice? She seems very sharp.”
“She says that she’s too old to deal with spoiled children that she didn’t spoil in the first place,” said Nurse grimly.
I barked with laughter, tried to cover it, and ended up spraying crumbs into my napkin. Nurse gazed at me, clearly annoyed but too polite to say so. “Sorry,” I said, once I’d recovered my voice, if not my dignity. “Of course you already thought of that. I’m afraidI don’t know anyone in court at all, though, so I’m the wrong person to ask.”
