Page 41 of The Shadow Key

‘Am I disturbing you?’

‘Not at all,’ Linette sighs, turning from the window. ‘I’d be glad of the distraction.’

He comes in, moving as tiredly as she feels, and in that moment she realises how frightfully pale he is. His dark hair is dishevelled, his clothes rumpled; the satchel he carries is scuffed even more than it was yesterday, its handle askew. Linette looks more keenly. Pale, as she already marked, but there is also a tightness to his face and it takes her a moment to realise what it is.

Anger. Unmistakable anger.

‘What on earth is the matter?’ she asks, and the look he levels at her is hard as stone.

‘I had some trouble in the village.’

Linette sucks in her breath. ‘Not another shot?’

‘No, not that,’ and as the physician explains Linette listens with a rising sense of displeasure.

‘I’m sorry,’ she says when he is done. ‘But they were only boys.’

‘Only boys?’ Henry counters, voice pinched. ‘They were old enough to know right from wrong. They wished me harm, even if they hadn’t the compunction to act on it. And,’ he adds, ‘no one came to help. We must have been watched and yet no one came. Is there no discipline here, no compassion? What of conscience? Should their actions not be dictated by that?’

Though he is perfectly justified in his anger, Linette feels the beginnings of hers set to boil.

‘You accuse them of being quick to judge,’ she shoots back, ‘but are you not the same?’

He stares, clamps his mouth, and Linette narrows her eyes.

‘You are a proud man,’ she continues, ‘I see that, but your city ways are imprinted on you like ink for all to see. You’re as unlike them as the sun from the moon. You cannot come here and expect them to welcome you with open arms after only one day!’

At this, Henry’s nostrils flare.

‘While your loyalty to them is commendable, you are also blind to their faults. I’ve never known a people like it. So unwelcoming, so coarse!’ He takes a step closer. ‘My new home is ransacked, someone takes a shot at me, youths harass me in full view, the villagers turn me away from their doors. You claim your tenants are like family, but if these are the type of people you consider your kin then—’

‘Then what?’

‘Only that it makes me wonder what manner of woman you are, if you can so easily mix with heathens.’

Linette stares. ‘Er mwyn y mawredd! You sound just like Julian.’ She stops short as a thought occurs. ‘You’ve been speaking to Julian, haven’t you?’

He does not look ashamed at this. Indeed, Henry looks her square in the eye.

‘Your cousin asked me to take my professional measure of you, yes.’

She would laugh if it were not so galling.

‘Well, then, doctor.’ She spreads her hands. ‘How do you find me?’

Henry hesitates. ‘I don’t know yet.’

‘You don’t know yet? Considering you’ve judged my tenants so quickly I find that surprising.’

He says nothing.

‘Are you Julian’s spy then? Come here to keep an eye on me at his instruction?’

Something flickers in his dark eyes. ‘No. I come here as a physician. That is all.’

Outside, Merlin barks again. Linette hears Geraint spout a long and vitriolic curse and – more to hide her frustration than anything else – she turns back to the window, raises the peeling sash.

‘Merlin, gad o!’ she shouts. ‘Tyrd yma!’

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