by Amelia Brown
“Ladislaus, my love, please unhand the lady.” Claudia’s blasé tone merely slowed the man.
“Not this time, my darling.” He turned his head only enough to speak to her over his shoulder. “I have waited too long to get my hands on her.”
Claudia came near enough so that Luveday could see the hard gaze leveled at her. In a sweet tone, the Lady of Briar’s Gate opposed the treasonous earl. “Ladislaus, you cannot harm the lady when we need her to make sure that Lord St. James leaves here with Edward’s men.”
There was a deep growl as Claudia moved to put a hand over his. “To spare her friends, Luveday will tell Lord Benedict that he may leave without her, she had more studying to do, with the new shipment of spices coming in a few days. Benedict will leave after I promise to see the lady safely to court with the first batch of perfumes of the season.” His anger dimmed at Claudia’s calming recitation of this new plan. “What is a few more days here, my love? St. James went with his men and none the wiser to your presence.”
“And after…” He removed his hand to take Claudia’s and kissed her knuckles looking deeply into her eyes as they both took a step away from Luveday.
Steadying herself on her feet, Luveday longed to make some retort, but her instincts, along with Claudia’s cold glance told her to be silent. Swallowing hard, Luveday inadvertently brought his attention to her, and a moment later she was thrown back into the chair by the force of the slap that connected with her face. She couldn’t help the whimper that escaped her or the tears that stung her eyes. Through the pain she tried to listen as the couple left the room, giving orders that she be moved to the upper tower room and put under constant guard.
Chapter 18
Think, In mounting higher, The angels would press on us,
and aspire, To drop some golden orb of perfect song, Into our deep, dear silence.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Leah tsked as she gently applied the healing salve to Luveday’s cheek. Laying still in the bed, she surveyed the canopy above her. The circumference of the tower room was in shadow, except for the bit opposite the one window. The swelling was affecting her vision in her left eye, but more troublesome than the blur was the throbbing in her head. How she wished she had some of that nettle plant to numb the pain if only for a little while. Before visiting Briar’s Gate, only one other time in her life had Luveday seen someone slap another person. Luveday had been present once when a girl at school had backhanded another girl. The bruise and swelling were noticeable for several days after, but then Sarah did have a very pale and delicate complexion. How much worse was this going to be? There wasn’t a comparison between the backhand of a hundred-pound cheerleader and the full force from the blow of a grown man, was there? The pain of her whipping had been worse, but luckily, Luveday had been unconscious for the majority of the first days of healing. She knew there would be no reprieve from this, not if she wanted to survive this ordeal.
Leah sighed, bringing her back to the present.
“Leah,” Luveday had so many things she wanted to ask.
The older woman stopped her, “Now, child. You know I cannot say what our Lady has been about.” Leah finished her task and stepped back. Luveday could see the concern in her expression, but she knew she would have to press her friend. There was too much at stake to be going through this blind. Right now, she was a liability to Benedict, a ruse at best, bait or worse should Sterling have enough men to fight St. James. She could easily imagine that odious man deciding it was better to kill the King’s knights rather than chance it.
Luveday was no fool; she knew that Claudia had only spared her for the moment and she wasn’t sure the act had been entirely self-serving. Still, she couldn’t guess why Claudia seemed to care. The woman hid behind a beautiful mask, and try as she might, Luveday had yet to see the woman behind it.
“Leah,” Luveday tried again, this time taking a direct approach. “Sterling has been denounced after his acts of treason against the King. Lady Claudia is in a lot more trouble than just missing taxes.”
Leah looked shocked. “Missing taxes?”
Eyes widening, at least one eye in Luveday’s case, the lady had thought that that was a major reason for the secrecy around the hall and village, but maybe she was wrong. “Yes, King Edward sent Lord St. James and me to Briar’s Gate to ascertain why Lady Claudia has not paid them for the last three years.” The older woman stumbled and dropped to a stool beside the bed. “You didn’t know about the coin?” Leah pressed a hand to her mouth as she shook her head. “Sir Marcus Reeve is at court asking for the King’s leniency on your lady’s behalf, but the King is not so tolerant as he may wish. His Majesty thought that I might be able to help Lady Claudia and with reason, find a solution acceptable to the King.”
“His majesty sent you, sent you in person.”
“Do you mean, did I see him and speak to him? Yes, he and Queen Augusta believed we might be able to come to terms in such a way as to spare the lady any grief. No one imagined that Sterling would be involved.” Luveday’s mind swam with the complications, or the pain she couldn’t quite tell. “Leah, I need your help, or I fear something terrible will happen here.” Leaning out from the bed, she grabbed the woman’s hand and squeezed. “Please Leah.”
“You will help Lady Claudia?” She fervently asked Luveday, almost pleading.
“As much as the Lady is willing.” Luveday could promise nothing.
Sighing wearily, Leah nodded and considered the rafters a moment before nodding once again. “Lady, how can I help. I cannot take you from the room, she’s told the house and workers to keep a lookout, and if you did manage to flee and she found out ‘twas me, she’d hurt my Artair.”
“Is she so cruel Leah?” Luveday couldn’t understand why Claudia garnered such loyalty, but it seemed to be more that than fear.
“Nay, at least, not until recently…” She harrumphed. “Not before the Lord’s death did I become aware of most of it. Then, I had Artair, and my work kept me busy enough.” Leah looked Luveday in the eye. “She was a good lady, and he a good lord, much better than his father ever was, not to speak ill of the dead, but Titus’s father was a hard man, stern and never pleased. Our Lord was kind, and though his marriage was not one of love, they got along well enough.”
“But that changed?” Luveday prompted when she grew silent. They didn’t have much time, Luveday was sure the guard would call the woman out soon.
“Aye. Lady Claudia’s always had her moods, but most lady’s do.” Leah looked out the window. “She’s cunning, cleverer than most men I’d wager.” Leah smiled at that. “She fought with her husband about the way we make perfume until he told her that if she thought she could do better than prove it.” Nodding and smiling smugly, Leah continued. “Changed almost everything we had been doing for a century, but with her notions and her letters, she found ways to do it better from all over the lands. Made the house richer than ever old Titus thought he could be. A bright future lay ahead for all of us.” Admittedly, Luveday was impressed. She imagined Claudia as the CEO of the medieval version of Dior, or some cosmetic brand. A colossal achievement considering the obstacles she had faced.
“Leah,” Taking her hand again, Luveday drew her near. “Yet many of the workers fear her. Something must have changed.”
She nodded sadly. “The Lord and Lady began quarreling more.”
“About the money or perfume?”
“Nay, more matters between man and wife?”
Luveday thought a moment. Did Lord Titus not like the power his wife possessed? Was he the type of man who couldn’t take the success of a woman where he had failed? Possible, she mused, she hadn’t heard enough about the Lady’s husband to hazard a guess. He was called a good man, but what did that mean? A good knight, a good lord, a good husband or a good human being? Something struck her, and Luveday asked, “They had been married for some half dozen years, but the lady never bore Lord Titus any children?”
Som
ething passed over Leah’s face, only to be replaced by utter sorrow. “There was a babe, five years back, but it was born without the gift of breath. The wee thing was buried in the old churchyard.”
Wondering about the flash of emotion she saw before Leah told of the babe, Luveday felt as she was treading through murky water. There were layers and layers of secrets to this place.
“How is Sterling involved?”
“The Earl and Titus trained as knights together.”
“Sterling? But firstborns…”
Leah shook her head. “Had an older brother, and several sisters, before the lady bore Ladislaus late in life. He was a spoiled child and became more so as he grew into a handsome man.”
Luveday snorted. There was something a little too, well, too evil about the man to be called handsome though she had briefly thought it upon first seeing him. “That explains a few things at least.”
“Not an excuse, but his mother doted on him something fierce.” She nodded. “He has some lands not far from here and stopped by to take advantage of our lord’s hospitality. There was talk of some debt owed to him, for saving our Lord’s life, though I never learned the details.” There was movement heard outside the bolted door, and Leah grasped Luveday’s hand, but after a few moments, they released the breaths they each held.
“What else?”
“That was before My Lord married, but after a visit, well after the Earl got sight of our lady he seemed to make more regular visits.”
“Ah, the lure of a beautiful face.” Luveday wondered if it had started out innocently or had Sterling had darker feelings for another man’s wife? Seeing comes before wanting, or so she had always heard.
“Aye, and I think too, a meeting of minds. As he was still the second son and she a married lady, My Lord let it go a bit farther than other men would, but he was a kind man, and wanted to keep nothing from her that gave her pleasure. At least in the beginning.”
“Before the Lord’s death, were they in good terms or maybe Sterling stood between them?”
Growing thoughtful for a moment Leah answered truthfully, though it was not what Luveday wanted to hear. “Since the babe was lost, they hardly spoke a word to each other and were rarely in my company together. You see, the lord was gone when she went into labor. Some falling out between them and she was go aggrieved that she birthed too early.”
There was something stilted in the way the older woman relayed this that confused Luveday. Here is another secret she thought. Something about the child, she thought.
“Since his death, the lady hasn’t openly supported Sterling’s campaign against the King…” Luveday thought aloud.
“Do you think that is where the coin has gone, lady?” Leah asked earnestly shocked.
Nodding more to herself than her friend, “It looks that way, Leah. There is no sign that she has spent it frivolously or put it to use here at Briar’s Gate. Benedict could find no accounting for it, yet the villagers he questioned assured him the taxes were always collected on time.”
“Aye, we paid in full more likely than not. As I told, the years have been good to us.” Though her words held a touch of pride, Leah was clearly troubled. “Oh, what has the child done?”
Touching her hand, Luveday tried to give comfort. “She is not alone in this; Sterling is to blame as well, I am sure of it.”
“She was such a quiet and clever girl, reminded me of my Ann when she married. I took her under my wing and shown her the working of perfumes. She was so quick. And when she took over, she made me head woman even though I was a widow and not more than refuse to the head man.” Luveday could see that Leah owed her so much.
“Leah,” there was movement outside again. “Leah, I need to know everything you can gather about Sterling and his men. Where they are staying, how many men there are with him. Can you…”
“All right now, what’s going on here?” A gruff man with a sword on his belt entered the room.
“Just finishing with the lady, Sir…” Leah asked.
“Sir Owen of Bryce Castle.” He looked over the simply furnished room. “Out with you woman. The Earl wants this one left alone.” He looked at Luveday’s face and grimaced. Turning away, he held the door open for her and watched as Leah grabbed what things she had brought and left the room without looking back.
He was late. Benedict had said three nights, just three, but five were near to passing, and he had not returned. She knew that he would, but she also knew that something he found might have been worth the delay. Or Sterling could have done something, but the more Luveday thought about it, the less likely that seemed. Her captors wouldn’t be so watchful, or she still breathing if something had happened to the King’s men.
Waiting was growing tiresome. Sterling came to threaten and manhandle her, but the bruise on her face was fading quickly, thanks to her salves, and they wanted her in top form to dupe her companions. Three days in the tower room with nothing to do but think was emotionally, if not physically, exhausting. She had paced, accessed her surroundings, paced, thought up the ten most likely scenarios for what was to come, paced, checked the door, paced, checked the window, paced, checked for hidden passages, paced and paced some more. She supposed she had slept in their somewhere but sleeping and eating were not on the top of her to-do lists. The fact that Sterling could accost her while she slept, or that someone could put something into her food, was not far from her mind, but she also needed to be ready to fight if or more likely, when, the time came.
And now there was only the sound of her pacing and the voices in the courtyard below, and a strange scratching sound but she couldn’t find where it was coming from. Rats, she shuttered, it was probably rats. Finding rodents at your local pet store cute was one thing, but free-range plague carries were something completely different. Luveday’s skin crawled just thinking about it. She plopped down on the bed and pulled her knees up.
Luckily the sound stopped, and she was left to thinking again. Falling sprawled over the made bed she stared at the canopy. Something grabbed her foot as it dangled off the side of the bed, Luveday bolted upright ready to scream but came face to face with a warry looking child. It took a moment to find Artair in the dirt-covered, cobweb-sporting boy.
“Artair?” She asked as the boy threw something at her to land on the bed. A moment later she heard scraping, but by the time she had gotten off the bed, the boy was gone. Looking back, Luveday picked up the missile, which turned out to be a scrap of parchment and read a simple word, men with six lines underneath. Luveday could only assume this was Leah’s way of counting Sterling’s men. So, either there were six altogether or six plus Sterling. With the men of the village and house, there were probably a dozen or so who would fight, but only a few were trained with weapons as the house Knights were still abroad on one task or another. No wonder Claudia didn’t seem perturbed that the hall was undefended, she had Sterling and his men in reserve.
Looking around Luveday tried to spot where the boy had disappeared to, but there was no sign of him. Then again, he had been covered in dirt and cobwebs, so maybe whatever hole or shaft he had climbed was small enough to be unused, and thus no use to her. But now she had a way to pass information; the problem was that Leah had only a basic grasping of writing and reading as she helped keep a tally of who was working and what goods were going in and out. The books were basic row and columns with tally marks to count out each item. Leah says she had memorized the order of items more than she could read the words running down and across the page. What could she ask for that Leah might provide? Luveday sat down. Nothing came to mind. Anything she needed to know would have to be delivered quickly and sending Artair would take time, while putting the boy in danger. “Urgh,” She groaned to herself and fell back on the bed again.
An hour later Artair reappeared looking ready to bolt.
“It’s alright, Artair. I won’t hurt you.” Luveday just smiled at the boy who had appeared from under her bed.
“Momon to
ld me,” he nodded as if agreeing with her, “but Lady Claudia is mean, and I don’t like her. Momon said Lady was nice, but I’ve met only Lady Claudia; so I didn’t know.” Some of the words rolled together, but Luveday clearly understood the boy. Perhaps he was older than he looked, though small for his age. Failure to thrive or something else, she wondered, or perhaps a difficult birth considering Leah’s age. “Take.” He held out another scrap of paper and a piece of charcoal.
“What is this for, Artair?” She asked taking the items.
“Momon said you know letters and to write a message for the Lord.” He looked at her with narrowed eyes. “You know your letters, right?”
“Yes,” she laughed at his doubtful expression. “Yes, I do.” Luveday wrote quickly on the side of the parchment that wasn’t as dirty.
“Do all ladies know their letters?” He asked watching her.
Wrapping up the scrap so that the writing would be protected, Luveday returned it and leaned over to look at him. “No, just some really special ones.” The boy only looked at her thoughtfully before nodding and bending down to disappear beneath the bed.
