“You didn’t sleep?”
“We slept in the wagon.” Darnay grimaced.
I attempted the same thing a few years ago and did not sleep a bit.
Elise tugged at my mother-in-law’s sleeve. “I’m hungry.”
“I am too. Come, I will find us all some food.” I smiled at Elise and offered my hand. “There were some lovely smells coming from the kitchen when I passed it.”
Elise regarded my outstretched hand with suspicion. I immediately regretted offering it. Doing so had pressed an intimacy she obviously was not comfortable with. Yet, I didn’t feel it was wise to retreat now.
“She won’t hurt you.”
Elise looked up at Anise. “How do you know?”
Anise and I shared a smile. Darnay observed the exchange with a frown. Then he studied me as though measuring my character. My stomach tightened as I recognized Tomas’ habit of weighing people. “I like her face.”
Elise turned identically colored eyes on my face.
“I don’t like her hair.”
“I like it. I like red. It is my favorite color.”
I supressed my laughter. Elise stepped forward and placed her tiny hand in mine. “I like porridge.”
“I am certain I can find you some.”
“If you can’t?”
“I will make you some myself.” I led her toward the keep.
“You cook?” Darnay’s surprise broke through his reserve. “Grandma says my mother never cooked. Father did.” He frowned. “He said he wanted his next wife to be able to cook so he didn’t have to.”
“Then he got his wish.” So Tomas cooked. I would have to ask him to prepare something for me after he returned.
We entered the keep via the door to the kitchens. A few of the servants paused to stare, but generally, we passed unnoticed until we reached the passage outside the great hall.
“My lady, madame.” Jarvin bowed deeply. “Master Darnay, little Elise, it is a pleasure to see you both again.”
“Jarvin!” Dropping my hand, Elise launched herself at the man.
“We didn’t expect you to be here, sir.”
I glanced at Darnay with a frown. The miniature Tomas expression and attitude were back. Jarvin and Anise exchanged concerned looks over the children’s heads. Obviously this odd behavior was new to both of them.
Addressing Jarvin, I said, “Elise has declared she would like some porridge for breakfast. Is there any chance we could have food brought up to my room? I believe it will be warmer there than in the hall.”
“I will see to it personally, my lady.” Jarvin set Elise down, bowed to each of us, tousled Elise’s hair, and then left.
“Why is he here and not with my father?” Darnay asked as I herded them toward the stairwell.
“Your father wanted me to have a friend among all the strangers.”
Thankfully he accepted the explanation without additional questions. I didn’t want to burden him with greater detail. Anise would be a different matter. I would have to find a way to catch her alone and explain the situation. I glanced back, but she was studying the tapestry we were passing.
A fire roared in my fireplace by the time we arrived. Anise and I helped the children out of their layers. Darnay refused to give up his play sword. I dragged the top fur from the bed and spread it on the floor a safe distance from the fire before bidding the children to sit. Anise dropped the bags in the corner and began hanging the wraps on the hook behind the door.
Elise flopped down as though she had just climbed a mountain and lay back with a sigh of exhaustion. “Why are there so many steps?”
“We are high up in the keep,” Darnay replied seriously. He scanned the room. “Where are we going to sleep?”
“We will find that out soon enough.” Anise settled on the fur. “Now sit down.”
Elise lay down and curled up. “Come, Darnay. It is so warm and soft. Ever so much more comfortable than the ground.” She rubbed her cheek along the fur. “I am so glad we are going to be sleeping inside tonight.”
I smiled. “I know what you mean, Elise.” I settled on the rug next to her. “The bed is especially soft and warm. The first night I slept so deeply that I didn’t want to move until spring.”
As I hoped, once he was the only one standing, Darnay sat down. However, he didn’t relax. His narrow shoulders remained squared and he rested his sword across his knees. He was ready to defend himself. I feared he considered me the enemy.
Please help me, Kurios.
A knock on the door signaled Jarvin’s arrival with four bowls of porridge, a carafe of cream, a pitcher of milk, and a bowl of sliced apples. The hunger in both children’s eyes prompted me to immediately pass the bowls of cereal around. Both of them began eating as soon as their hands closed over their spoons. Even Darnay relaxed enough to gobble his first mouthfuls. Thankfully the food cooled adequately in the journey from the kitchen. I poured out milk for both of them and Anise before claiming my own porridge.
“How long have you been on the road?”
Elise spoke around her food. “Months.”
“Three weeks and four days,” Anise clarified.
Darnay frowned. “Not even a month.”
Rolling her eyes at him, Elise made a face.
“My lady?”
I looked up to find Jarvin’s concerned expression.
“I spoke to Farwyn when I met her in the kitchens. She informed me that nurseries are currently unavailable. The former lady ordered preparations for her child. The work halted upon Lord Irvaine and your arrival. The children will have to bed down with the servants in the great hall.”
Elise looked as though she would cry. Darnay’s features tightened to hold back his disappointment. Anise remained silent, her attention focused fully on the food in her hands.
“They will stay here with me. This room will be far warmer, and they will be safer here too. Are there spare mattresses somewhere to use on the floor? If not, they can have the bed. I will sleep on the floor.”
“Nay, my lady,” Jarvin protested. “I am confident I can find mattresses.” He bowed and left.
“I will take the floor.” Darnay straightened his shoulders. “You ladies should have the best.”
I smiled. “Thank you, Darnay, but I don’t think that will be necessary.”
He frowned. “Father says men should take care of their women.”
“That sounds like something your father would say. But I am sure he wouldn’t make you sleep on the floor.”
His brow lowered and his jaw tightened with a slight stubborn lift. “You don’t know my father.”
Praying for wisdom, I scrambled for an answer. “It is true that I don’t know him well, but I look forward to getting to know him better. Perhaps you can help me.”
Dark eyes so like Tomas’ weighed my worth.
Kurios, please soften his heart. Help me to say the right thing.
I smiled warmly at him before glancing at Elise. She had fallen asleep. Head resting on her crossed arms, she breathed evenly. Her bowl, scraped clean, lay abandoned at her elbow. I caught Anise’s slight nod of encouragement before I turned back to Darnay. He yawned so wide my jaw ached in sympathy. Anise and I gathered the breakfast leavings without comment, collecting his bowl last. We took our time arranging everything on the tray. When I finally turned back to the children, Darnay had joined Elise. He cradled his wooden sword to his chest. Even in sleep he looked like a miniature of his father.
I collected two blankets from the bed to cover them. Once confident they were warm and as comfortable as I could make them without moving them, I crept to the door. Anise followed me out, the tray in her arms.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter Fifteen
“Are the little dears asleep?” Rolendis’ voice at my shoulder made me jump. I spun around faster than was wise and almost collided with Anise and the tray of breakfast leavings.
Rolendis eyed Anise for a moment before focusing on me once again.
Her expression oozed concern and sweetness. I resisted the urge to cringe.
“They are sleeping.” My instinct nagged at me that she was up to something.
“Are you going to leave them? I can sit with them if you wish.” Her smile widened into a forced grimace.
“No, thank you.”
“I am going to stay with them,” Anise said before I could come up with a better reason for declining.
Rolendis sniffed at Anise, nose in the air, and looked her up and down. “And you are?”
Tomas’ mother answered in completely reasonable terms. “I am the children’s nurse. We simply stepped outside to speak without waking the children.”
Rolendis apparently didn’t know what to do with the discontinuity of a servant who spoke as an equal.
While she struggled to find the right response, Anise handed the tray to me. “I will remain, my lady.” Without waiting for my reply, she ducked back into the room, closed the door, and locked it.
“Is there anything else you need?” I asked.
Rolendis still stared at the closed door. “Did she bring news?”
“Of what?”
“Irvaine.” She glared at me as though I was being purposefully obtuse. I wasn’t.
There were so many things that we were waiting to hear about: Loren, Wisenvale, Quaren, the battle. I was as eager for news of Tomas’ safety as I was for Loren’s, but there was none.
“He sent none.”
“Not even in the note?”
My head snapped about as I pinned her with a glare. “You were watching me?”
“You were a bit hard to miss standing in the middle of the bailey humbling yourself before children and an old servant woman. From the way you treat her, one would think she was an equal.”
I bit my tongue. Anise told Rolendis she was the children’s nurse, truth, but not the whole. There was no point to giving Rolendis any more than that. The only reason she talked with me now was because she hoped I would give her something she could use. I aimed to disappoint her.
“I must go.” I propped the tray against my left hip and lifted my skirt with my right. “Excuse me.” I pressed past her and down the passage toward the stairs to the kitchens and undercroft.
“Mind you watch that nurse,” she called after me. “The insolent ones poison your children’s minds against you.”
I didn’t look back. But the click of her trying the lock on the door echoed after me as I descended the stairs. She was up to something. Moriah’s warning tugged at me. My eating knife suddenly seemed inadequate protection.
After leaving the tray in the frantically busy kitchen without anyone giving me more than a nod, I headed to the practice yard. About halfway across the inner bailey, I realized that it seemed unusually quiet for the time of day.
Other days at this time, horses and men passed through regularly. Women lingered to gossip, and children ran underfoot. Now, only a single cart full of empty barrels rolled through the gates, lumbering off toward the village. The guards waved it through with barely a glance. A stray cat wandered across the courtyard to sun on the edge of the well in the center.
I slipped through the arch to the practice yard, preoccupied with the change. The yard also lay abandoned. However, I expected it. The guards drilled in a meadow outside the town walls. Only some of Rathenridge’s men and the few Tomas left behind could possibly be about. Most of them preferred to train in the early morning hours. The shadow on the sundial in the bailey had marked it at least midmorning.
I crossed to the armory at a trot, pulling the key ring Horacian gave me from my pocket as I approached the door. But, I didn’t need it. I stumbled to a halt. The door stood ajar. Surely this wasn’t normal.
“Hello, my lady.”
I turned sharply to the right and blinked at the shadows there. He didn’t move, but I could make out his position by the deepening of the shadows from my position in the full sunlight. Beyond that I had to guess.
“Why is the armory door unlocked? Shouldn’t it be locked when no one is around?”
“I am here.”
He moved along the wall toward the door and closer to me. The hair on my arms prickled.
“I was under the impression it was kept locked.”
I couldn’t see his eyes, but the outline of his head seemed to indicate he was looking at me. If the feeling in my gut was accurate, he undressed me with his eyes.
“Excuse me, would you mind stepping into the light. I can’t see your face and wish to know to whom I am speaking.”
“A pleasure, my lady.”
He threw something to the ground and stepped forward. Ash blonde hair caught the glare of the sun. Bold blue eyes assessed my appearance from beneath red-tinged blond eyebrows. A young beard of dark red hair covered his neck and cheeks. He hadn’t bothered to shape and trim it. In contrast to his insolent expression, he wore the garb of a house guard, one of the men I would have expected to patrol the inner corridors of the vargar.
“Are you of Lord Irvaine’s household?”
“Aye, Lady Irvaine. I served the late noble on the fields of battle, and now I serve the man who claims the title after him. Should you need something your new husband can’t provide, I would be happy to serve you as well.”
My eyes focused on his face again. I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly.
“No, thank you.”
Thinking better of entering a room with him as company, I turned back toward the bailey.
“Surely you haven’t found what you sought, my lady. Might I aid you in locating it?”
I wanted a knife, something to defend myself from the likes of him. Now that I faced exactly what I feared, I wished for a sword. If I walked away now, I wouldn’t have another chance to come again for a while. I looked back over my shoulder.
“Are you the usual armory master?”
“Yes. I am here every day from daybreak to sunset. Do you wish for a weapon?”
“My eating knife grows dull. Lord Irvaine said I might have one of the knives from the armory.” I hated the lie, but I didn’t trust the man enough to give him the truth.
“Then let me select one for you. Wait here.”
He ducked through the doorway and returned in a moment. “Here you are, my lady.”
A jeweled hilt glinted in the sunlight and gilt swirled along the length of the sheath. Gaudy and pretentious, it would have been my last choice, but appearance wasn’t its primary purpose. I lifted it from his hand just fast enough to escape his other hand’s attempt to catch my fingers.
I drew the blade. The edge was sharp enough. For all its affectations, it balanced perfectly. It fit my hand well enough. A bit of leather wrapped around the hilt would improve the grip and hide the sparkles. I examined the sheath. I could hide the gilt as well.
“It will do. Thank you.” With a perfunctory bow that left no room for comment, I strode across the practice yard toward the bailey. Head held high, shoulders straight, I tried to add a confident glide into my quick steps. Once I turned the corner into the bailey and was out of his sight, I hitched up my skirts and broke into a run toward the door to the undercroft.
The idea of seeking out Jarvin pressed at me urgently. I needed to be reassured that the rest of the men Tomas left behind were not like the armory keeper. Surely there were some I could trust to defend the women of the vargar, not take advantage of them.
I stepped into the dimness of the undercroft with relief.
“Oh, Vorter.”
A cascade of feminine laughter set my teeth on edge. Rolendis was somewhere just out of sight around the corner at the bottom of the stairs. She giggled.
I turned to leave the way I came, but the sound of my name stopped me.
“Don’t worry about the pretender. Brielle will be getting what she deserves before the night is through.”
“So soon?” The male sounded distracted. I didn’t recognize his voice, but I could guess Rolendis was the reason for his lack of focus. By the sou
nds of it, they were locked in a very inappropriate embrace.
“You said it would take a fortnight to make your plans.”
“Jorndar’s capture pressed us to move more quickly. His men lie in wait for King Mendal even now. If we just free Jorndar and deal with the new Irvaine’s allies here, they will all be neatly trapped.”
“And at our mercy.”
“Rhynan will be ours.” She laughed. Noisy sighs followed, ending with a low chuckle from Rolendis. “Now, now, Vor. You and I both know that is not allowed.”
“If I can’t have you, at least let me be first in line for her. Our new Lady Irvaine is an appealing dish. I want to have my go at her before her spirit is broken.”
“How can you say that? Her hair alone…” Rolendis’ genuine horror hurt despite my efforts to ignore it.
“Jealous?”
“Of her? Never. She is a stuttering simpleton with a face to match.”
“But her figure…” The man made an inappropriate sound.
I gagged. The taste of acid burned my throat. I slipped back out into the bailey. My lungs filled with the icy air and the scent of horse leavings. Carefully closing the door behind me so it wouldn’t betray my retreat, I tried to reel in my floundering thoughts.
Harkening to the urgent need to escape, I walked swiftly around to the front entrance, panic growing with each step. Now the words of the man in the practice yard took on greater significance. He had said he served the man who claimed the title. If he had meant Tomas, why not say so? He must be loyal to Jorndar, the man who laid claim to the title before Tomas. My stomach twisted.
Oh, Kurios, what do I do? I knew what I wanted to do. Run. But that wasn’t an option.
Turning sharply to the left upon entering the double doors, I headed toward a stairwell I had never tread before. Horacian pointed it out the first morning on the beginning of the tour of the vargar. Narrow and dark, blocked off at the head and foot by doubly thick doors, it led down to where the only men I could count on were keeping Jorndar locked up. Letting myself in the top door, I locked it behind me. Musty darkness closed in around me. I climbed down the uneven stairs with only the dim light creeping around the upper door for guidance. Then I pounded on the door at the bottom.
Duty: a novel of Rhynan Page 11
