The Cup of the World Read Online Free Page B

the coming dusk.
    ‘I've a cousin almost the same age as you,’ Maria said, in a dreamy tone as if she was talking to herself. ‘She has just passed her fifteenth birthday. She was a lovely, happy girl until this summer. Now she is shut up in a room at home, fed thinly and beaten each day, because she says she will not wed the man my aunt thinks it good that she should. And wed him she will, unless he tires of waiting for her spirit to be broken and seeks elsewhere. I hope my father will not use me so, in my turn. But he has ambitions and is waiting for a good chance. And when he has made up his mind, my fortune, rights, purpose, will be my husband's …
    ‘We all marry, Phaedra. Nothing works if we do not. But who? Amanthys already knows whose home it is she will be going to. If she is sharp with us sometimes, maybe she has reason. The rest of us – who knows? We may be scattered widely. I have made good friends here, and it hurts to think that we may not meet again. Some of the others have promised to write to me. I hope you will too.’
    Phaedra looked down at her fingers, which gripped the rim of the bowl. The knuckles were white. Father won't make me marry, she thought. He can't.
    Maria was watching her. ‘When you said that about your mother – was that in childbirth?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Phaedra.
    ‘I see.’ She understood, now.
    ‘I'm sorry’ Maria said. ‘So did mine.’
    Neither of them spoke again for a while.
    ‘I found out what happened after the witch trial,’ said Maria at last. ‘Do you want to know?’
    ‘Yes, please,’ said Phaedra, relieved.
    ‘There was no fight. There was never supposed to be. You were right. The King had agreed to the ordeal to please Baron Seguin, who wanted to do away with that woman, so that he could have her lands. No one was expected to interfere, but of course that dog-knight did. So in the afternoon the King met with Baron Seguin and drove a new bargain. Lady Luguan will keep her life, but will still forfeit her lands to the baron. And diManey is to see that she practises no more magic’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The knight with the hound badge. A hound badge for a dog-knight – very right. It's strange. Yesterday, everyone was sure that woman was a witch. Now it seems they don't know. But they are all furious with the dog-knight, and are running around trying to find out if some rival of Seguin's put him up to it. They are saying he deserved to be killed, and he would have been if the King had not gone out of his way to save him. Both Lady Luguan and he are to be free within the realm, but they are banned with the King's displeasure from his court, his lands and roads.’
    ‘And do you know,’ Maria went on, ‘Barius himself will marry them together! I suppose the bishops and their priests want as little to do with this as possible. But as a royal prince, of course he has the right to perform the office.’
    ‘They're
to be married?’
    ‘Yes. By order of the King. It was a way of solving theproblem of the woman, and punishing diManey at the same time. Poor diManey! Imagine – you wake up as you do every day get dressed, go to the court because everyone else is doing so, and a few hours later you're going to your bed in disgrace, lucky to be alive, betrothed to a complete stranger. A complete stranger, Phaedra – someone you've never heard or thought of before today. And she's a rebel – and worse, probably a witch. And all her lands are forfeit so your marriage has gone for nothing …
    ‘Still, it was a brave thing he did, whatever his reasons. Perhaps he doesn't even understand them himself. I'm glad Barius has invoked his right to bless them – it isn't much, but it's like him, and more than anything anyone else might have done. I suppose … I suppose it's fair to hope, and even dream, if we know there are at least some good men in the world.’
    Phaedra was silent. It seemed to her that even Maria was thinking more of the dog-knight – and, of course,