'Then I must do something else, and my bones would ache more. But I would you would make my cousin Rochford ask the Archbishop where they have hidden the Sacred Blood of Hailes, that I may touch it and be cured.'
The old knight frowned very slightly.
'I have told thee to wrap thy fist in lamb's-wool,' he said. 'A hundred times I have told thee. It is very dangerous to meddle with these old saints and phials that are done away with.'
Lady Rochford sighed gently and hung her head.
'My cousin Anne, that was a sinful Queen, God rest her soul ...' she began.
Sir Nicholas listened to her no more.
'See you,' he whispered to Katharine. 'Peradventure it is best that Cicely have gone. Being a madcap, her comings and goings are heeded by no man, and it is true that she resorteth daily to the Bishop of Winchester, to plague his priests.'
'I would not speak so, being a man,' Katharine said.
He smiled at her and patted her shoulder.
'Why, I have struck good blows in my time,' he said.