The Silent Songbird (Hagenheim #7)(49)

“She accused him to his face?”

“While aiming a bow and arrow at him.”

Father raised his brows.

“Reeve Folsham was teaching her to shoot.”

“Reeve Folsham? Did she not throw a scythe at him her first day here?”

“The scythe slipped out of her hand and gave the reeve a small cut. But that seems to be forgotten now.”

Father was still staring at him in disbelief.

“I believe she won him over when she saved him from a rolling barrel of ale that fell off a cart and nearly onto his head. And then when the other servants falsely accused her of trying to poison them, he defended her. I think he agreed to teach her because he wanted her to be able to defend herself.”

Father cleared his throat—something he sometimes did when he wasn’t sure what to say.

“I don’t like to think that John Underhill would try to kill me, but I had a strange little flash of a memory . . . a memory of his enraged face and his arm raised. I don’t know if it was a memory or just my mind playing with me. And then his answers to Eva did not ring true. And yet . . . it seems ridiculous to believe this girl over John, especially when she deceived us all.”

They were both silent for a few moments.

“When was the last time you had talked to John, before you fell in the river?”

“He met me one day a few days ago on the path through the woods near the oat field on the north side. He looked angry and he argued with me, saying his father was a good man and that it was our fault the villeins rose up and killed him.” Westley hated to tell his father that.

“You know that isn’t true, don’t you?”

“I tried to get him to remember what a hard man his father was, how he had beaten those two men in the weeks before the uprising before they killed him.”

“John is still angry about his father’s murder. He has found someone to blame in you and me. I am still not convinced John tried to kill you, but if he did, he will probably try again. I don’t want you going anywhere alone, and the same for this servant girl. From now on I want her to work and sleep here at the castle. You will probably regain your memory, and when you do, if Eva was telling the truth, we will need to send for the hundred bailiff.”

His father’s words lowered a heavy weight onto his chest. Thinking that his old friend could kill anyone, especially him, brought home the very unpleasant truth of how much John had become like his father—irrationally angry, suspicious, and violent.



Westley fingered the petals of a red rose as he stood in the flower garden. He should stop standing around, stop waiting to see if Eva would come and read with him.

“Westley!” his mother called to him as she walked out to meet him. When she was still several yards away, she said, “Your father just told me that someone may have been trying to kill you when you fell in the river. Why did you not tell me?”

“I did not know until two days ago, Mother.”

The pained look on her face only made his heart sink a little lower than it already was.

“Do you think Eva is telling the truth about John being the one who struck you?”

“I don’t know.” He sighed, then pulled off a loose rose petal and made indentations with his fingernail in the easily bruised flower’s flesh. “At first I was angry that she would even accuse him. But I don’t want to falsely accuse her of lying either. It’s just so hard to believe that John would try to kill me. Why? He has no reason to hate me.”

“You have not seen much of him the last three years, have you?”

He shook his head, still watching the rose petal grow more limp and wilted in his hand.

“What did she tell you about why she lied about being mute?”

“She said she was trying to avoid marrying someone. I suspect she may have meant the Earl of Shiveley.”

“Oh.” His mother’s mouth opened and her expression changed. “Did you tell your father that?”

“I don’t think I did.”

“Don’t you remember that your father’s cousin was Lord Shiveley’s first wife?”

“I had forgotten that. What was her name?”

“Margaret. It was nearly fifteen years ago. She married him, and for the next few months, every time her mother and father saw her, she had bruises on her face and arms. And then she was dead. We all suspected that he murdered her.”

“Was nothing ever done about it?”

“Nothing. It is difficult to cast suspicion on an earl, especially one as wealthy as he is.”

“I don’t remember you telling me anything about that.” He felt a burning in his stomach.

“Well, you were only a child at the time. We didn’t want to tell you something so sordid and terrible. And you did not know poor Margaret.” Mother’s face was sad as she stared out into the distant trees.

Just the thought of Eva marrying someone so despicable . . . No wonder she was so desperate to leave him, to disguise herself however she could to get away. But again, he did not know if she was fleeing Lord Shiveley. Even so, it was his men who had come after her.

“But don’t you realize? If she was to marry Lord Shiveley, and if she was living at Berkhamsted Castle, she must be . . . the king’s cousin, the one who supposedly sings so beautifully she can enchant the birds out of the trees.”