The Merchant's Daughter Read online

  Durand gasped. “An indentured servant? Mother, not I. You know I’m sick. I get fevers, chills. I can’t do it. I wouldn’t last a week. That kind of hard labor would kill me.” He sniffled and wiped his nose with his hand.

  “Well, I don’t think we have to worry about it.” Edward casually glanced down at his hands and then brushed off his sleeve, as though ridding himself of a speck of dirt.

  Mother and Durand stared at him with open mouths.

  “It will all be taken care of. Bailiff Tom will speak to our lord today and pay our censum for us.”

  “Why would he do that?” Durand asked.

  “Because Tom wants Annabel, and I’ve given him permission to marry her.”

  Annabel watched her mother’s face, waiting for her to protest and say that such a thing could never be. But she didn’t say a word.

  “Will Annabel marry the bailiff?” Durand looked not doubtful but hopeful. It seemed he wanted to sell her to the bailiff as much as Edward did. Mother, please say no. Say you won’t let them do this. Besides, Edward didn’t realize the enormous fine the jury had set against the family. The bailiff could never pay such a fine. In fact, Tom must have known the fine would be extreme and lied to Edward so the family would force Annabel to marry him.

  “What choice does she have?” Edward’s voice was hard and forceful. “She has to marry the bailiff, or one of us will be forced to indenture ourselves to the new lord.”

  Mother returned her sons’ gazes and sighed. “If Annabel will marry him, it will smooth things over, if not solve our problem, and raise our status with the villagers. But she may refuse.”

  A stabbing pain went through Annabel’s stomach. She only half listened to the rest of their conversation. Oh, God, I wish Father were here. She thought about what her father would say and how he would protect her.

  Other things were said before Edward gestured with his arms, angrily slashing the air. “Don’t look at me. Can you see me as a servant? Preposterous! Doesn’t everyone know our father’s family was nobility, that our grandfather was a knight? I won’t do it.”

  “Nay, son, of course not,” Mother muttered.

  Mother couldn’t defy their lord. They would be thrown out of their house, and who would give their mother shelter?

  But Annabel realized the jury had given her a way out, another choice besides marrying Bailiff Tom. She could go to Lord le Wyse and offer herself as an indentured servant. Her brothers would still have to do the boon work and the other days’ work required of them, but they could go home every night, and most of their days would be their own. Annabel would be bound as a servant to the manor house and to Lord le Wyse’s household, sleeping at the manor, eating at the manor, working alongside his other servants without pay.

  As much as she dreaded serving under the fierce new lord who had accused her of throwing herself in front of his horse, it was preferable to marrying Bailiff Tom. If she hadn’t fought back and gotten away from him at the butcher’s shop, he might have succeeded in … She didn’t want to think about what.

  The villagers resented the Chapmans as idlers, too proud to work, but Annabel would prove that she was not, and she would prevent her mother’s home from being taken from her. She tried to imagine Mother sleeping outdoors, with no food and nothing to protect her from the rain or cold or wild animals. What a sin it would be if she and her brothers allowed that to happen to their mother.

  But her brothers would run off, abandon their demesne village to join a band of outlaws before they would become indentured servants forced to do the most menial tasks, carting dung and herding sheep and geese at the lord’s manor house.

  Edward was the oldest at twenty-two, and so should be the one to go. However, besides keeping his personal appearance tidy — his black hair cut and combed, his face shaved and clean — all he did was sit around all day and drink ale with the miller’s sons. Now that a crisis had come their way, could Edward not play the part of a man this once?

  She looked again through the crack in the door. Durand clutched the back of his neck, emitting a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper. He was always fancying himself ill and expecting to be waited upon. Father had not become a wealthy merchant by refusing to work, but her brothers couldn’t seem to grasp that. They’d expected to have wealth dropped into their laps and could not accept that their father’s riches had disappeared forever the moment his ships were destroyed.

  “I’m afraid Annabel won’t marry the bailiff,” Durand said, sinking down in a chair and covering his eyes. Then he suddenly lifted his head, almost smiling. “Perhaps she would agree to become the lord’s servant for three years.”

  Edward snorted. “Even if she did, we’d still have to work in the harvest fields.”

  Durand’s bottom lip poked out like a petulant child. “You’re all healthy and strong, not like me.”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake, Durand!” Edward took a menacing step toward his brother. “Do you expect us to feel sorry for you when we’re all in the same predicament?”

  Durand cringed, as though afraid Edward would strike him.

  Edward walked away from his brother and stared out a window. “We’ll just have to convince Annabel to marry Tom. It’s the only way.”

  Annabel backed away from the door, already planning what to do. She would leave early in the morning before anyone else woke up. And that vile Bailiff Tom would never touch her again.

  For the rest of the day her brothers tried coercion, coaxing, and manipulation to convince her to accept Bailiff Tom’s offer, and even her mother tried to tell her all the reasons marrying the bailiff would benefit her. Annabel said very little, allowing them to think she was wavering. But secretly she was vowing she would never marry the vile bailiff.

  When her family wasn’t badgering her, Annabel’s mind churned, skittering back and forth between thoughts of her family, the villagers, Bailiff Tom, and Lord le Wyse. Evening encroached, and Annabel collected her belongings — a few books her father had bought for her long ago, clothing, a comb, and a coif and veil to wear to church — and stuffed them into a bag.

  The thought of leaving home and living at the manor house, being at Lord le Wyse’s mercy, tied her stomach in knots, but she had little choice. He was as scarred and disfigured as everyone had said he was, but it was his ferocious manner that made her nervous.

  She would have to avoid him and not make him angry. But would that be possible? She had seen his outrage at his own bailiff for pushing her. The episode in the village had shown that Lord le Wyse had an ill temper — though it could also show his desire to protect women. But he hadn’t seemed very chivalrous when he accused her of throwing herself in front of his horse. Perhaps he was simply … fierce.

  She’d heard the rumors about a nearby lord, young like Lord le Wyse, who regularly took advantage of the young maidens of his village and then bestowed a “dowry” on them, which amounted to paying someone to marry them. Was Lord le Wyse capable of doing something so vile?

  She pictured him again, forcing Bailiff Tom to apologize to her. The eye patch gave him a sinister look, and while his fine clothing made him look sophisticated, the beard was strangely out of place. Nearly all the men of the village were clean shaven. He had looked like a bear of a man while holding Tom.

  Tom.

  Her hand stopped in the middle of placing a dress in her bag. Since Bailiff Tom was Lord le Wyse’s bailiff and worked directly for him, he would be at the manor house — with her — skulking about every day. He would look at her, speak to her, could manage to get her alone …

  The noise of a thousand bees filled her ears. Dear God, how can I do this? How could she work so closely with the bailiff? See him every day?

  She couldn’t do it.

  But what choice did she have? If she didn’t become the lord’s servant, Tom would still remain a problem. Even if she told her brothers that she was afraid of Bailiff Tom, even if she told them exactly why, it wouldn’t be enough for them. S
he imagined Edward, his face twisted in that intense way of his when he was agitated. She knew what he would say: “And what did the bailiff do to you?” If she told him the whole story, how the bailiff had grabbed her, what he intended to do to her, her brother would shrug and say, “Well, I did tell him he could marry you.”

  He would see the issue as resolved. And Durand would say the same thing, that she should simply marry the bailiff. He would think her objection nothing compared to his sickliness.

  As always, her brothers would fail her.

  She had no choice. She had to go — but she also had to find a way to protect herself.

  Annabel got up early after sleeping very little. The black of night still cloaked her window, but rather than lighting a candle, she groped until she found her second-best dress and slipped it over her head. Her heart pounding, she grasped her cloth bag and tiptoed down the hall into the kitchen. A sliver of gray light was now illuminating the room enough that she was able to see, on the table, their sharpest cutting knife. Her hand closed around the smooth handle. She took a piece of leather and wrapped it around the blade, then slipped the knife into her skirt pocket.

  Her hand lingered over the knife, pressing it against her thigh. The bailiff would surely see her at the manor, would quickly learn of her servant status. Would he be able to catch her alone, away from the other servants? Would he finish what he had started yesterday? The thought of him touching her again almost made her heave.

  Could she truly use the knife to do harm to Bailiff Tom?

  Yes. She could. She would.

  Clutching her bag, she went out the back door and stepped into the goat pen. Dawn gave a glow to the sky and revealed a foggy morning. The little garden seemed fresh and waiting, shimmering with droplets of dew. I hope someone will remember to pick the peas. What would her family eat if they didn’t tend the garden?

  She couldn’t worry about that now.

  She rubbed the goat’s head. “Farewell, Dilly.”

  I shouldn’t feel so sad. I’ll be coming back in three years. But a feeling of finality came over her, a sense that she would never live in her family’s home again.

  The gray manor house, a plain, rectangular building, emerged out of the mist, its large yard empty of all the people who had witnessed her family’s reckoning yesterday. A rooster crowed, and a boy appeared from behind the dovecote, herding a flock of geese. He yawned so big she wondered if his jaw would come unhinged. The fog that obscured the sun and surrounded the manor and its grounds lent the scene before her a dreamlike quality. The dewy grass had soaked her feet, and her worn-thin shoes squeaked with each step.

  Annabel fought to gain control of her thoughts before she reached the manor. I am no longer a merchant’s daughter. I must accept my plight and forget the hopes and dreams I once cherished. The other servants would hate her if they thought she expected any sort of preferential treatment. She must show that she was strong and capable, not a girl mourning the loss of home, comfort, and security.

  There was another reason she couldn’t allow herself to appear weak. Bailiff Tom would no doubt be nearby and would sense her fear and be emboldened toward her.

  She straightened her back and shoulders, determined to face whatever dangers or indignities awaited her. Anything was better than marrying Bailiff Tom.

  Annabel climbed the stone steps to the upper hall and took deep breaths to calm her racing heart, praying with all her might that the bailiff wasn’t in the upper hall with Lord le Wyse. Of course, the bailiff didn’t know she was coming to offer her services to the lord. No one knew.

  She reached the top and knocked on the tall, rounded door. It opened and a hefty older woman stood with a broom in her hand. “Yes?”

  “Good morning. I’m Annabel Chapman.” How to explain? “My lord, Lord le Wyse, is expecting me — that is, I’m to serve …”

  “Come in. Annabel, is it? Call me Mistress Eustacia. I’ll tell Lord Ranulf you’re here.”

  Mistress Eustacia stepped back, and Annabel entered the dim room. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed a few people engaged in various tasks around the large hall, a single room encompassing the entire upper floor of the manor house. A dairy was set up at one end of the room, where two young women were churning butter. Some people she recognized, including the bailiff’s daughter, Maud, who was stirring up the fire in the fireplace and adding more wood. Another maiden was sweeping cobwebs from the walls, as the building hadn’t been occupied for as long as Annabel could remember, except for occasional visits by the old lord’s steward.

  By the confident way she handed her broom to a passing maid, Eustacia must have been the head servant. She shuffled to the back of the chamber, where a large tapestry screen hid a portion of the room. “My lord? Someone is here to see you.”

  “Who is it?” The voice on the other side of the screen boomed louder than necessary, probably cross at being disturbed so early in the morning. Help me, God.

  The stranger who almost ran her over with his horse the day before appeared around the side of the partition, fully dressed. Just as Margery had reported, and as he had done when he addressed the villagers in the street, he held his left arm crooked at the elbow and resting against his midsection. If she read his stance and the tilt of his head correctly, he was vexed.

  Mistress Eustacia continued. “Begging your pardon, my lord, but a maiden is here saying you were expecting her. Annabel Chapman.”

  “A maiden?” He sounded even angrier. “Chapman? Come here.” He beckoned Annabel with his good hand.

  Annabel’s knees turned to mush as she stepped forward.

  Recognition flickered across his brow. “So you’re Roberta Chapman’s eldest?”

  “Nay, my lord. Her youngest.”

  “I’d expected her to send her eldest.” He stared hard at her with his one brown eye.

  Annabel didn’t know what to say.

  “So you have brothers and sisters?”

  “Two brothers, my lord.”

  “Are your brothers married, then?”

  “Nay, my lord, they are not.” He no doubt would have preferred Edward or Durand and wondered why she had come instead of one of them. She fervently prayed he wouldn’t question her as to why she offered herself, why one of her older brothers had not come in her place.

  Several moments went by while he frowned at her. “So you are prepared to serve here, to stay at the manor house, for three years in payment for the three years of work your family shirked?”

  “Yes, my lord, I am.” She looked him in the eye, highly aware that the other workers in the room had grown quiet.

  “Very well, then. Eustacia has much need of you in the kitchen, with all the extra workers here. But today we begin the harvest. You will join the rest of the villagers in the barley fields.”

  “My lord, begging your pardon.” Eustacia lowered her voice to a whisper. “Perhaps she should stay with me today and work in the kitchen instead of the fields. She doesn’t look strong. Too skinny.”

  “Doesn’t look strong?” The question was a shout that echoed through the hall.

  All activity ceased. Annabel felt everyone’s eyes on her, but the most intimidating one was Lord le Wyse’s. She could feel the contempt in his stare. As the silence lengthened, the others in the room began whispering, probably reminding each other who she was. A Chapman, synonymous with lazy. She felt her cheeks begin to burn, but she continued to stare him in the eye.

  Lord le Wyse growled, “Are you strong?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Good.” He strode past her, thus ending the conversation.

  “My lord.”

  The voice echoed through the room. Annabel turned to see Bailiff Tom with his hands on his hips, facing Lord le Wyse.

  “This maiden is intended to be my bride. Her brother has arranged for her to marry me in exchange for paying her censum.”

  She’d been right: he might pay her censum and her fine, but he wouldn’t help the rest of he
r family, and either Edward or Durand would end up indentured to Lord le Wyse.

  Lord le Wyse turned on her, his lips a dangerous, thin line. “Is this true? Did you promise yourself to this man?”

  “Nay, my lord, I never did.” Her face heated again as she realized all the people who were listening to this exchange. But at least she would have witnesses to her refusal.

  The bailiff stared at her with murder in his eyes.

  “Are you willing to marry him?” Lord le Wyse’s voice was hard, and he squinted his eye at her, as if she was suddenly even more distasteful to him.

  “I am not, my lord. I want to be your servant, to pay for my family’s neglect.” She made sure everyone could hear her, even as her hands shook.

  He turned back to Bailiff Tom. “She will not have you, apparently.”

  A low titter of amusement erupted around the room. As Lord le Wyse resumed walking toward the door, he muttered gruffly to the bailiff, “Count yourself fortunate.”

  His words felt like a slap. A couple of gasps went around the room at the insult as Lord le Wyse exited and Bailiff Tom followed him out.

  As the rest of the workers went back to their tasks, Eustacia frowned but didn’t seem surprised by the lord’s rude behavior. “Pay no heed to the master. He’s grumpy this morning.” Her focused gaze started at Annabel’s feet and slowly took her in, all the way to the top of her head. “You don’t want to go to the fields in that dress, that’s certain. It’ll be mussed from here to Lincoln. Put on your worst clothing and tie up your hair. Come.”

  Eustacia took Annabel’s bag and walked to the far corner of the large, open chamber to a much smaller partition than the one around which Lord le Wyse had appeared. “You can change behind here.” Eustacia smiled, revealing a broken front tooth.

  Annabel ducked behind the screen with her bag while the mistress spoke to her on the other side.

  “Not much privacy here now, which makes the master a bit quarrelsome, but once he gets his new castle built, that will change.”