Chapter 6: The Pantry at Kettle Hall

I did not sleep that night, and neither did he.

At dawn I made him eggs and he ate them standing at the counter without a word about his mother, and I did not push.

At nine a boy of fourteen brought a summons to my door.

The four hold lords wanted to hear from "the woman Hartigan" at Kettle Hall at noon.

I could attend as a witness.

I could not speak to the motion.

"They want me to sit in a chair and be looked at," I told Hester.

"Yes."

"Why go?"

"Because if you don't, Rolf will say you're afraid." She tapped her stick. "And because I want to watch his face."

Kettle Hall stood on a bench of rock above the river.

It was a long timber house three stories high, with black beams and an old green copper roof.

I had been inside it twice, both times to deliver a baby in the kitchen.

I had never been up the main stairs.

The lords' room was on the second floor.

A long table stood in the middle, and four men in good coats sat along one side of it with their hands folded.

Rolf Lund sat at the center.

He had a silver pocket watch open on the table in front of him, and he did not rise when I came in.

Garrick stood by the window with his back to the wall.

He did not look at me.

I understood that he was not allowed to.

"Miss Hartigan," Rolf said. "Sit."

I sat in the single chair at the end of the table.

It was a hard chair, and it was lower than the others.

"You are a human woman," he said.

"I am."

"You have lived among us for nine years."

"I have."

"You were given a stipend, a house, the Hearth's trust and the king's protection."

"I was paid to be a midwife."

"And in return you took the king into your bed."

The room did not move.

"That's not a question," I said.

"It's a fact."

"Then my answer is that it's none of this table's business."

"The Council will decide what is its business." He smiled thinly.

"A woman who has lain with the king cannot be trusted to refuse his chair."

"Your ladies' stones were cast by women who admire you, and you've used their admiration to bargain."

"I refused the chair in front of four hundred of them."

"A very good show."

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