Rowena strode down the tower stairs, and through the main courtyard. If her husband had turned to look back at her, she’d have stayed. And he started to. He was going to turn. And then he stopped. Maude had made some sweeping gesture and his attention had moved to her, rather than the wife he was leaving behind.
Well she was going to leave him behind too. And that Maude. She was the true source of the trouble. Geoffrey was well enough as a husband, more than well enough on occasion. When that woman wasn’t around he was as sweet and attentive as any woman would wish. But then Maude would need his input on some urgent and important matter, and she’d be left alone. Again.
In truth, Rowena didn’t think Geoffrey saw Maude as a woman at all, let alone a young and beautiful one. Everyone else did though, including Maude. And it was causing trouble.
A few nights before, Rowena had entered the Great Hall for dinner, to find her husband already there, conversing with Maude, who was sitting in Rowena’s chair as if she owned it, and didn’t move an inch as Rowena approached.
It wasn’t until she’d moved to stand between the two chairs, blocking their conversation that the so-called wise woman had simpered like a flirting milk maid and risen. “I’m so sorry, I forget this is no longer my seat.”
Rowena had returned fake smile for fake smile. “I thought my husband had this one made specifically for me.”
He had and Maude did not like being reminded of it. She was even less happy when she realised all other places at the High Table had been taken. She’d had to move to a lower place.
It was Rowena’s only victory since Geoffrey brought her to his home. Maude was simply too embedded in the life and command chain of the estate.
And Rowena was not going to stay where she was not wanted. She called for the housekeeper as she made for her rooms. She was going to Grandmother and she wasn’t coming back until Geoffrey both begged, and got rid of that red-headed leech.
The DNA of Stories 