Ruby - Book 1 (Daughters of the Dagger Series) (16 page)

“Enough,” he told her, tired of being
laughed at by everyone today. He didn’t need it from his own sister
nor from his wife.

“To this day he won’t eat rabbit,” Linette
broke in, not able to resist herself.

“That is funny,” said Ruby, laughing with
her, and Nyle had about all he was going to take.

He noticed the handmaid at the back of room,
having just came in with a bag in her hand. Tibbar started fussing
and Linette reached out for him. “Oh, I see Ascilia is back, so
I’ll just have her take Tibbar to my solar for a nap.”

“Nay,” said Nyle, stopping her. “I’m sure my
wife would like to do that. And the baby will be staying in our
solar now where I can keep an eye on him.”

“Well, let me call a nursemaid over then,”
said Linette.

“Nay. I want only Ruby, myself or you to
care for the baby, is that understood? No one else.”

“Why not?” asked Linette.

“Let’s just say, I don’t trust anyone else
with the baby right now, and please don’t ask questions.”

“But I was planning on finding the armory as
I have not yet seen the rest of the castle nor your demesne,” Ruby
told him. “Locke offered to show me the barracks and the mews as
well.”

“You will not be going anyway near my
garrison dressed like that,” he told her.

“Then I shall change first, and then go,”
she said, getting up from the bench. “Besides, I have no idea how
to make a child take a nap who is fussy.”

“Then let me show you,” he said. “It’s not
hard. And if you can make a quintain from scraps and figure out how
to give your husband a black eye on the first day of being married,
then I think you can figure this out as well.”

He stood and grabbed Tibbar from the table
and held the boy to his chest and rubbed a gentle hand over his
back. In a matter of minutes the boy settled down and closed his
eyes, his thumb in his mouth as he drifted off to sleep.

“You are amazing!” She looked at him in
wonderment and it helped him to forget about the way they’d all
laughed at him earlier.

“Aye, I’ve heard that on more than one
occasion from you now,” he said with a wink that wasn’t missed by
his sister.

“Mayhap I should take the baby for his nap,”
Linette said. “As I am guessing you two may want a nap of your
own.” She held her hands out for the baby but he just shook his
head.

“Actually, dear sister, I think I will take
Tibbar as I am feeling drained from that rambunctious sparring with
my wife in the practice yard earlier.”

“Did you want to spar again?” He almost
laughed when he saw the hope in Ruby’s eyes. He wondered how her
father had put up with her antics all these years. And he knew if
he did nothing soon to help her, she would never learn to be a
lady. And in order to do that, he needed his sister’s help.

“I’d love to spar with you darling, but not
until later tonight in the privacy of our bedchamber. Right now,
I’d like you to go change into a gown. And Linette, if you’d please
take her to the ladies’ solar and teach her to sew I’d be every so
grateful.”

“Teach her?” Linette looked at Ruby as she
got to her feet. “Sewing is the first thing a lady learns when she
is just a girl.”

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, my wife is a
little different than your normal lady. But with your help mayhap
she can learn to do what is expected of her now that she is Lady
Sheffield.”

“I don’t sew,” Ruby reminded him.

“I believe if you go up to the ladies’ solar
you’ll find my cloak there,” he told her. “You do remember the one
you stepped on and tore and threw in the mud puddle the day we
met?”

“Oh,” she said, looking a little sheepish.
“So you know about that?”

“I know that since you were the one to rip
it, you would want to fix it for me too, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so,” she said.

“And when you are done, Linette can take you
to the kitchen and teach you how to instruct the kitchen servants
in preparing the meal. Linette can tell you what I like to
eat.”

“That’s right,” his sister said, then smiled
devilishly. “Just as long as it is not rabbit.”

“Go!” he instructed, and both the women
walked away laughing and talking. He saw the handmaid follow them
as they went down the corridor. He was happy to see Ruby getting
along so well with Linette. It did both of them good, as it was
helping to get Linette’s mind off of the loss of their father. He
would have to convince his sister to stay a few extra days in order
to teach his wife the duties of the lady of a castle. Besides, he
liked having Linette around again, even if she did tease him.

He kissed the top of little Tibbar’s head,
feeling like he never wanted to let the boy go back to King Edward.
But if Ruby didn’t start acting her part as a mother to this child
soon, he knew the guise would never work. She didn’t seem eager to
take care of the baby and this concerned him. She would rather be
out on the practice field like one of the men. And even if she
wasn’t fond of watching this child, he could only hope when they
had children of their own her heart would warm toward them.

He knew Tibbar’s mother had basically
abandoned him, only interested in bedding men and luring them into
giving her everything she wanted from jewels to fine clothing to
coin. But he wanted the mother of his children to be nurturing,
loving and caring. He was fond of Ruby but didn’t know if she would
ever be the wife and mother he wanted her to be.

* * *

Ruby sat in the ladies’ solar with Nyle’s
cloak on her lap. After she’d changed into a gown, she’d spent most
the afternoon sewing and chatting with the other women. She hadn’t
thought she’d enjoy it, but being around some of the other women in
the castle was actually just what she needed. She missed her
sisters immensely and this seemed to help fill the void.

While the work was tedious and her fingers
had fumbled with the needle more than once and she’d stuck herself
until she bled, she’d managed to learn from Linette how to mend
Nyle’s cape. All the ladies of the solar were very skilled at
stitching and even weaving and it made Ruby feel like a very
incompetent wife. She knew Nyle was right in saying that she needed
to learn the skills of a lady. And she wanted to work her hardest
at pleasing him.

The needle came unthreaded and she couldn’t
seem to get the thread back into that small hole. She knew Linette
was busy on the other side of the room and felt bad bothering her.
Then she saw the handmaid just sitting there staring at her and she
motioned for her to come over.

“Ascilia,” she called. “Please help me with
this.” She held it out to the woman, but she seemed hesitant to
take it. Then she finally did, but was no better at threading the
needle than she. Odd, she thought since a handmaiden needed to know
everything about taking care of a lady, including sewing.

“I . . . can’t do it,” she said, throwing it
down onto Ruby’s lap.

“Why not?” asked Ruby. “I’ve never known a
handmaid who couldn’t sew.”

“I just . . . don’t see well anymore,” she
said, straightening her wimple and pushing some strands of hair
back underneath that had come loose.

“Oh,” said Ruby. “That’s fine, then.” She
finished on her own and folded up the cloak and went to talk to
Linette.

“I will meet you in the kitchen,” she told
her. “I just want to drop off this cloak in the bedchamber
first.”

“Of course,” said Linette with a smile. “And
you did a fine job sewing, Ruby. I am sure Nyle will think so
too.”

“Do you really?” she asked. “Because I have
the feeling he is upset with me, and I want to learn some skills so
he can see that I can do more than just fight.”

She headed down the corridor with the cloak
in her hands, inspecting her needlework as she walked. Not bad, she
thought. That is, for her first time. Had her mother still been
alive when Ruby was growing up, she was sure she would have taught
her these skills. But since she’d been raised by her father and
tried to please him by acting like a son, she had really missed out
on a lot, she realized. But she planned on making up for all that
now that she was married.

She pushed open the door to their solar and
entered, stopping in her tracks as she looked up and saw the most
precious site. There on the bed was Nyle, lying on his back without
his tunic, his black eye covered with a wet rag. Little Tibbar was
curled up in his arms with his head lying against Nyle’s chest.
They were both sleeping.

Ruby felt a warmth in her heart, and a tear
came to her eye. Nyle was such a good father, even if the baby
wasn’t his. She didn’t know for sure, but neither did it matter.
She just saw another soft, loving, caring side that she didn’t
think her hardened warrior husband would possess. Her opinion of
him since the first day she met him at her father’s castle was
changing drastically.

They both looked so precious, and she
realized that they really did look like father and son. The same
dark hair, the same cheekbones and slope of the nose. She knew in
her heart now Tibbar truly was his son. She felt jealous in a way
that this wasn’t her son too. And she also felt angry that any
mother would just abandon her baby and not try to get it back, no
matter what the circumstances.

She heard a noise behind her, and turned to
see Ascilia standing in the doorway, her eyes fastened on Tibbar
and Nyle upon the bed. Ruby put the cloak down quickly, and
escorted the handmaid out of the room, not wanting to wake Nyle and
the baby from their peaceful slumber.

Once out in the corridor, she closed the
door and whispered to the handmaid. “Isn’t that precious?” she
asked. “Nyle really loves that baby. He is such a good father,
isn’t he?”

“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Ascilia instead
of answering. “There is a new cook there who has something special
planned for dinner.”

“Oh, good, as I really want to learn to cook
so I can impress my husband. I am so excited, I can barely
wait.”

“Neither can I,” said the woman with an odd
bitterness to her tone. “Neither can I.”

* * *

Ruby was eager to learn to cook, and this
surprised her more than anyone. But after spending time with
Linette, she realized that learning to be a lady really wasn’t so
bad after all. She was actually starting to enjoy learning new
things and she thought in time she could learn to master the skills
of a lady as well.

“So tell me,” said Linette. “Why is it you
never learned to cook?”

Ruby plucked the feathers off a chicken as
she spoke. “I guess ’tis just because with three sisters I never
had to do it. Or sew, or even manage a household. They were all
proficient at these skills and I let them do the work while I spent
the time with my father.”

“Doing what?” she asked.

“Oh, riding and hunting and actually he even
let me play cards and dice with the garrison up on the battlements
on the nights I couldn’t sleep. The men were bored on night watch,
but with me there it made their time go quickly.”

Linette took a pestle and mortar from a
kitchen maid and started to grind herbs. “Well, don’t let Nyle
catch you playing dice with the garrison because I don’t think he’d
like it.”

“Probably not,” she said. “Linette, I saw
him sleeping with the baby on his chest up in the solar. It made me
realize that I want to become a lady and bear Nyle heirs some
day.”

“Then you’d better start taking care of
Tibbar, because I can tell Nyle is frustrated with you where that
is concerned.”

“But . . . I can’t,” she said.

“I can teach you what to do if that’s what
is worrying you.”

“I know,” she said. “But it’s more than
that.”

“Then what?” She stopped grinding the herbs
and looked to her with a questioning brow. “Do you not like Tibbar?
Because I can’t see how anyone couldn’t like such a cute baby.”

“That’s not it,” she said. “It’s just that –
I’m not really the child’s mother and I can’t stop thinking about
who she may be.”

“Why don’t you tell me what all the secrecy
is about?” she asked.

“I really can’t belie my husband’s trust,”
she said.

“Well, I think the baby looks just like
Nyle. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was his.”

“Do you really think so?” asked Ruby.

“Well, even if it was, would it matter to
you? You are his wife now, no matter who may have birthed him that
baby. So if I were you I’d start acting like a mother to little
Tibbar. You could use it as practice for when you two start having
babies.”

“There is something else,” she told her.

“What is it? Linette grabbed the chicken and
plucked a few last feathers and handed it to the big man with the
sharp knife. He slammed the knife into the wooden table, lopping
off the head of the chicken and looked at Ruby and smiled. It sent
a chill up her spine for some reason.

“Well, Tibbar reminds me of the baby brother
I lost,” said Ruby. “I was very young at the time, but I do
remember his dark head of hair.”

“You said he was stillborn?” asked
Linette.

“Yes. And my father thought he was a demon
and the cause of my mother’s death.”

“Do you really think your brother was a
demon? That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You are right,” she said. “And I think I
would like to get to know Tibbar. Mayhap he could take the place of
the baby brother I lost.”

“Now, that is a good idea.” She picked up
the mortar and pestle. “I need to bring this to the cook making the
stew I will be right back.”

As soon as she left, Ascilia came over to
Ruby.

“Cook needs you to help him in the larder,”
she said, nodding toward the man.

“Me?” Ruby looked over to the big man who
had chopped off the chicken’s head and shivered slightly. There was
something about him she just didn’t like. “Can’t you help him?” she
asked.