Chapter 22: Marwood Hold

Linnet's POV

I rode through the low gate of Marwood Hold at noon, and nobody came out to meet me.

The yard was full of people.

They stood in clumps by the stables and the well and the kitchen door.

They watched me get down from the grey mare without a sound.

I had carried their slops and washed their bowls for twelve years.

I did not know if they would bow or spit.

The steward stood at the top of the steps with his arms folded.

"Mistress Linnet," he said.

"Alpha Linnet, now," said one of the king's guards behind me. "By the court's word."

He did not move.

"The Alpha of Marwood is Aldous," said the steward. "A letter from the court is not the Hold's word."

"Then let's hear the Hold's word."

I walked up the steps and stopped one below him.

"You burned my book," I said.

"I did as I was bid."

"By whom?"

"By the Alpha, in a letter."

"And who brought the letter?"

His eyes slid sideways.

"A rider," he said. "From Lady Odessa."

"Did you read it?"

"I don't read, mistress."

"Then you burned a book you couldn't read, on the word of a girl you knew had been struck from the roll."

The yard had gone very quiet.

I turned and looked at them all, the grooms, the shepherds, the women with their sleeves rolled to the elbow.

"I'm going to ask this man one question," I said. "And then I'm going to ask each of you the same."

The king's guard shifted.

"What happened to you here, in the time I was gone?" I said.

The steward blinked.

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