The Silent Songbird (Hagenheim #7)(39)

“Who did this?” a large man with beefy arms demanded. “Who would put poison mushrooms into the pottage?”





Chapter Fourteen


Chaos swelled as everyone spoke at once. Then a voice rose above the others.

“Someone wants to kill us.”

“It was the new maiden,” a woman said. “The one who pretended she couldn’t talk. I saw her put the mushrooms in the pottage when she thought no one was looking.”

“No, I didn’t know.” Evangeline’s knees trembled and her face started to tingle.

Angry eyes turned on her.

“I saw you,” the maidservant Cecily said. “I saw you put them in the pottage.”

Voices rose so loud Evangeline could not hope to be heard.

“Who is she? Why is she trying to kill us?”

“She’s the one who claimed to be mute! She’s a liar. No one even knows where she came from.”

“She wants to kill us all.”

“Take her out and flog her!”

Hands grabbed her by the arms and shoulders. They began pushing and pulling her toward the door.

“No! Stop!” She struggled against them, trying to pull her arms free, but they only squeezed her harder. Her heart pounded and her vision began to spin. Would she faint? What would they do to her?

Muriel was arguing with them as they dragged Evangeline through the doorway and into the waning light of late afternoon. But they were not listening. Muriel’s voice was lost in the shouting.

They pulled her toward the courtyard. Evangeline’s feet dragged over the ground, and she lost her shoes.

“I’m going to tell them!” Muriel leaned into Evangeline’s face so she could hear her. “I will tell them who you are!”

“No! Don’t! Please!”

“If I don’t tell them, they will fasten you to the pillory and beat you.”

Evangeline’s stomach roiled at the thought of being beaten and at the sight of the pillory looming ahead. She could never fight them off.

Both men and women hurled accusations at her. Some large men, their faces red and contorted, shouted, “Devil’s servant! Poisoning us with Satan’s cap mushrooms! Take her to the pillory!”

God, help me! Please have mercy on me.

The man holding her left arm wrenched it nearly out of its socket as he jerked her up the pillory steps and onto the stage at the corner of the courtyard.

“Halt, I said!” A man’s voice rose above all the others.

Everyone quieted as they looked behind them.

Lord le Wyse strode toward them. Westley was beside him.

Evangeline stood on the wooden stage with the man still holding on to her arm. On her other side was the wooden board that was used to clamp a person’s neck and wrists and hold them long enough to serve their sentence of public humiliation, and sometimes a beating.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lord le Wyse’s voice was a steely scale, weighing the men surrounding Evangeline. “Do you dare seize one of my servants? A woman under my protection?”

“My lord, she tried to kill all of us with poisonous mushrooms in our pottage.”

Westley’s face was like a mask in the fading light of late day, hiding his thoughts as he stood beside his father.

“Let her speak for herself, if she can speak.” Lord le Wyse glared with his one good eye, holding his shriveled hand against his middle.

“I can speak.” The breath returned to her lungs.

“What is your name?”

“Eva, my lord.”

“Can you defend yourself against these accusations?”

“Sabina gave me the mushrooms. She said Mistress Golda told her to bring mushrooms for the pottage, and she begged me to put the mushrooms in the pot for her.”

“Did you know they were poisonous?”

“No, my lord.”

“Fetch Sabina.”

A few men ran off in different directions. While everyone waited for Sabina’s retrieval, Muriel stomped up the three steps to the pillory platform and shoved the men who were still holding Evangeline’s arms.

“Get off her, you fiends!” She slapped at their arms until they loosened their painful grips on her arms and let go.

The people talked low among themselves, sending furtive glances Evangeline’s way. She tried to ignore them. She tried to keep her eyes focused above the tops of the crowd’s heads, but her gaze kept flitting to Westley. Did he think she was lying again, that she had deliberately tried to kill the other servants with poison mushrooms?

Reeve Folsham arrived and pulled Westley aside and spoke with him at the back of the crowd. Then Sabina arrived, walking between two men, her eyes wide and her lips closed. The men prodded her forward, toward the pillory.

“Sabina.” Lord le Wyse’s voice boomed, silencing the already quiet crowd. “Did you give Eva the mushrooms she put into the pottage?”

“Me? No, of course not! Is that what she said?” Sabina turned wide eyes toward Eva.

“I saw her.”

Every head turned toward the back of the crowd.

Reeve Folsham strode through the crowd toward them. “I saw Sabina give Eva the mushrooms and heard her tell her to put them in the pottage.”

Several people gasped.