“Have you seen your mistress?” Mary asked sharply, having come up quietly from behind.
Startled, Caddy whirled, causing the tray she was carrying to bang hard against the frame of the oak door. Food and drink showered down the wall and scattered a good distance across the corridor floor. One of the two soldiers standing nearby began to chuckle but choked it back, perceiving the fierce looks the two women shot at him.
“Oh, look at what I’ve done,” Caddy muttered to herself, squatting and beginning to pick up some pieces of a broken, stoneware pitcher.
“Caddy,” Mary repeated, putting a wooden bowl onto the tray.
“Now I’ll have to go back to Cook for more food.” The older woman’s face tightened in a troubled frown. “Oh, the tongue in that man’s head.”
“Caddy!”
Caddy straightened her bac
