“Ah, me!” sighed the princess.
“What troubles you, o fair and gusty maid?” Jack asked.
“Oh, Foo Nckql, I wish my father would let me choose a husband of my own liking,” the princess said. “But that will never happen, will it?”
“More likely that a fool marry a beautiful princess royal,” Jack replied. . . .
—from LAUGHING JACK
Mouse was barking.
Melisande winced as Suchlike set a pin in her hair. The sound was muffled, true, because it came from three floors below. Vale’d had the dog locked in a little stone storage room off the cellar. Mouse had begun barking shortly after he’d been locked in. Probably when he realized that he wasn’t going to be let out again right away. Since that time—late this morning—he’d barked steadily. It was evening now. Once in a while, he’d stop as if listening for a rescue, but when none came, he’d start up again. And each time the barking seemed louder than before.
“Loud little dog, isn’t he?” Suchlike said. She didn’t sound particularly put out by the racket.
Maybe the household wasn’t as affected as Melisande thought. “He’s never been locked up before.”
“Do him good, then.” Suchlike set another pin and then stepped back to eye her handiwork critically. “Mr. Pynch says he’ll go stark raving mad soon.”
Her lady’s maid sounded as if she’d relish the valet’s insanity.
Melisande arched an eyebrow. “Has Lord Vale returned?”
“Yes, my lady. A half hour or so ago.” Suchlike began to tidy the dressing table.
Melisande stood and wandered across the room. Mouse’s barking stopped suddenly, and she held her breath.
Then he began again.
Vale had forbade her from going to the dog, but if this lasted much longer, she didn’t know if she could stay away. Mouse’s distress was terribly hard for her to bear.
A knock sounded on her door.
She turned and stared. “Come.”
Vale opened the door. He may not’ve been home long, but from the dampness of his hair, he’d had time to wash and change his clothes. “Good evening, my lady wife. Would you care to accompany me on a visit to the prisoner?”
She smoothed down her skirts and nodded. “Yes, please.”
He stood aside, and she led the way down the stairs, the barking becoming clearer the nearer they got.
“I’ve a boon to ask, my lady,” Vale said.
“What is it?”
“I’d like you to stand back and let me handle the dog.”
She pressed her lips together. Mouse had only ever responded to her. What if the terrier tried to bite Vale again? Her husband seemed a gent S seipsle man, but she sensed that the gentleness was but a surface layer.
“Melisande?”
She turned. He had stopped on the stairs, waiting for her answer. His turquoise eyes seemed to gleam in the shadows.
She nodded jerkily. “As you wish.”
He descended the last steps and took her hand, leading her back to the kitchens.
The hallway became more dim as they entered the servants’ domain until they reached the kitchen. The room was huge, dominated by a large arched brick fireplace at one end. Two windows at the back of the house let in light, making it a bright room during the day. At the moment, candles supplemented the fading light from outside.
The cook, three scullery maids, several footmen, and the butler were all in the midst of dinner preparations. At their entrance, the cook dropped her spoon into a pot of simmering soup, and everyone else stilled. Mouse’s barking echoed from below.
“My lord,” Oaks began.
“Please. I don’t wish to interrupt your work,” Vale said. “I’ve just come to deal with my lady’s dog. Ah, Pynch.”
The valet had risen from a chair by the fireplace.
“Did you find a scrap of meat?” Vale asked.
“Yes, my lord,” Mr. Pynch said. “Cook has most kindly given me some of the beef from last night’s supper.” He proffered a lumpy folded handkerchief.
Melisande cleared her throat. “Actually . . .”
Vale looked down at her. “My heart?”
“If it’s for Mouse, he loves cheese,” she said apologetically.
“I bow to your superior knowledge.” Vale turned to the cook, who was hovering near her soup. “Have you a bit of cheese?”
Cook curtsied. “Aye, my lord. Annie, fetch that round of cheese from the pantry.”
A scullery maid scurried into a room off the kitchen and reappeared with a wheel of cheese nearly as large as her head. She set it on the kitchen table and carefully unwrapped the cloth about it.
Cook took a sharp knife and cut off a slice. “Will this do, my lord?”
“Perfect, Mrs. Cook.” Vale grinned at the woman, making her thin cheeks tinge a light pink. “I am forever in your debt. Now if you will show me your cellar, Mr. Oaks?”
The butler led the way through the pantry and to a door that opened to a short flight of stairs leading into the partially underground cellar.
“Mind your head,” Vale admonished Melisande. He had to bend nearly double to descend the stairs. “Thank you, Oaks. You may leave us.”
The butler looked greatly relieved. The cellar was lined in cold, damp stone, the walls stacked with shelves holding all matter of foo S malood and wine. In one corner was a little wooden door, behind which Mouse had been imprisoned. He’d stopped barking at the sound of their footsteps on the stairs, and Melisande could imagine him behind the door standing with his head cocked to the side.
Vale looked at Melisande and put his finger to his lips.
She nodded, pressing her lips together.
He grinned and cracked the cellar door. Immediately a small black nose peeped through the opening. Vale squatted and pinched off a bite of cheese.
“Now, then, Sir Mouse,” he murmured as he held out the cheese in long, strong fingers. “Have you thought over your sins?”
The nose twitched, and then Mouse took the cheese very carefully from Vale’s hand and disappeared.
Melisande expected Vale to push into the little cellar room, but he simply waited, still squatting on the stone floor as if he had all the time in the world.
A few seconds more and the black, twitching nose reappeared. This time Vale held the cheese just out of the dog’s reach.
Melisande waited, holding her breath. Mouse could be terribly stubborn. On the other hand, he did adore cheese. The dog nudged the door open with his nose. Dog and man eyed each other a moment, until Mouse trotted out and took the second piece of cheese from Vale. He immediately retreated a few steps, turned his back, and gobbled down the cheese. This time Vale held the cheese in his open palm on his knee. Mouse crept forward and hesitantly took the cheese.