Chapter Seven
Wybren Castle
After a wet night in the wake of a storm that had blown through, the morning dawned surprisingly bright and mild.
Juliandra had been so exhausted that she had slept right through the thunder and lightning.
Even now, as she awoke, she was still groggy and exhausted, staring up at the ceiling and trying to remember how she got there.
Her memory came back quickly.
She was at Wybren.
The day before, and the night before, had passed in something of a blur. There had been the journey to Wybren, followed by the lie, or the semi-lie, that had seen her entertaining the men when her true motive had been to confront Lord de Lara.
Fortunately, she had managed to do both and come through unscathed.
Or, mostly unscathed.
At least, physically. Emotionally was another matter.
She now found herself in the strange position of being both captive and guest of Kevin de Lara, who had not fallen for her charms and had not been sympathetic to her pleas for her father’s freedom.
Instead, he had turned her pleas into a bargain.
If she behaved well, he would release her father.
She had agreed.
Truth be told, Juliandra wasn’t even sure what that meant.
He had said that he wanted answers about the lands he now presided over, as if she held all of the secrets he sought.
Although she had been raised here, it wasn’t as if she knew anything about the military aspects that he would more than likely want to know about.
Her father was a merchant, not a warlord, and she had been clear about that.
But still, de Lara wanted answers.
As Juliandra lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling, she apprehensively wondered if he was going to keep to his part of the bargain if she did not supply him with the military information he sought.
She wasn’t exactly sure how he thought she would know military secrets about local warlords.
Surely the man realized that, as a merchant’s daughter, she would not know such things.
But now, she found herself in a situation she had not anticipated.
Slowly, she sat up in bed, looking at the room around her.
It was a large room and it was not in the keep.
Kevin had been clever about where he put her – rather than put her in the keep, where she would have more freedom to move about and quite possibly even escape, he put her at the top of the gatehouse.
The chamber at the top of the gatehouse had once been the primary chamber for the former Lord of Wybren.
The gatehouse was quite large, three stories tall, and this chamber spanned the entire third story.
There were several windows facing over the road that led into the gatehouse, so the view from those windows was spectacular.
One could see all the comings and goings from the fortress.
There were two semi-circular towers on each end of the gatehouse, one housing the spiral stairs that linked all of the floors, and the other simply being a small chamber that held a badly dented copper tub, a wardrobe, and miscellaneous items like stools and basins.
It was actually quite clever of Kevin to put her there because she could not escape without every guard in the gatehouse seeing her do it, and no one could go up to see her without every guard seeing that, also. Therefore, she was both well protected and well guarded.
She was stuck.
She was also without any of her personal possessions, clothing and toiletries included.
The bed she had slept on smelled as if the linens had not been washed in a dozen years.
It smelled like an old man had slept there, and perhaps had even died there, but she had been so weary the evening before that she had simply fallen into bed without thought.
But now, she had many thoughts about it.
None of them good.
The first thought was that if de Lara was going to force her to stay here, she was going to make sure that her accommodations were clean.
She assumed that someone would come to see to her needs soon, to perhaps bring her food, and then she would demand that the linens be washed and the chamber cleaned of the stench of the former owner.
At her home, The Neath, Juliandra was an excellent chatelaine.
She had a penchant for cleanliness, which is perhaps why this dirty chamber bothered her so badly.
At home, she made sure floors were washed, tables were scrubbed, and linens were washed and dried in the sun.
If there was no sun, the linens were always dried by the heat of a roaring blaze.
Even her clothing was regularly cleaned because she did not like to wear dirty or stained garments.
Whereas most noble ladies were relatively clean and well groomed, Juliandra relished a daily bath simply because it was warm and comforting, and that was how she usually started her day.
Given that her father imported so many fabulous products, she had access to soaps and oils and cosmetics that most women did not.
She loved the scents and the feel of them on her skin. Truth be told, she liked her comforts.
And all of those were back at home.
With a heavy sigh, she climbed out of bed, still wearing the same clothing she had come to Wybren in. There were heavy woolen curtains hanging over the windows that faced south and she pulled them back, inviting the bright, white sunlight into the dark and dusty chamber.
Squinting in the bright light, she peered from the window, seeing many people already entering and exiting Wybren.
That told her that it was relatively late in the morning, and she yawned as she turned to the hearth on the opposite wall, which was an enormous cavern of brick and ashes.
There had been a fire there the night before, but the fire was out, and the room was cold.
Frustrated that no one had come to see to her care yet, she went to the door that opened out into the spiral staircase.
The staircase was dark, but she could hear the soft hum of conversation down below.
Not wanting to leave the chamber for fear of the unknown below, she stood in the doorway safely and called down to whomever might be within earshot.
She figured that she could jump back into the chamber and bolt the door should an angry soldier come her way.
“Is anyone down there?” she called. “Can you hear me?”
There was a long pause before a voice came back at her. “We hear you,” a man’s voice said. “What do you want?”
Juliandra snorted at the rude question. “Food and a fire would be appreciated,” she said. “And hot water to wash with. Where is Lord de Lara? I would speak with him, please.”
There was scuffling going on below as her requests were being discussed and Juliandra quietly shut the door and bolted it, heading back into the chamber.
As she waited for action to be taken, she grew more curious about her surroundings.
There really wasn’t much more to do while waiting for de Lara than take notice of what would probably become her prison cell.
She began to poke around.
It looked to her as if the chamber had not been cleaned out since the death of the previous lord.
There was clutter everywhere, small tables, chairs, stools on end, chamber pots, and everything in between.
In one of the turret chambers, the same one that held the big copper tub, there was a wardrobe.
Curious, and wondering if there would be anything clean in there for her to wear, she went to the wardrobe and began yanking on the doors, which seemed to be stuck in position.
Further examination showed that the iron hinges on the doors were rusted.
But that didn’t stop her.
Juliandra hung on to one of the doors, rocking it back and forth, until finally the iron hinge gave way and the door nearly came off. Startled, she jumped back so she wouldn’t be clipped by the falling door as the contents of the wardrobe were revealed.
Furs and heavy robes were surprisingly neatly packed into the crammed wardrobe. But there was also a basket that contained many wadded-up garments which, upon inspection, turned out to be tunics that were surprisingly fine. They weren’t clean, but the material was quality.
She dug around in the wardrobe for quite some time, inspecting all of the contents, hoping she would find something that she might be able to wear until de Lara agreed to send for her clothing.
The dress she was wearing at the moment was very fine, and she could continue wearing it, but she worried about ruining it because a dress like this wasn’t made to be worn constantly.
At the very bottom of the basket in the wardrobe, she came across a long sleeping shirt.
It had long sleeves and it was large for her small body, but it was shockingly clean.
It didn’t smell like a man like the rest of the garments did, although it was a bit musty.
Thinking it would be a good garment for her to at least sleep in until she had something better, she removed it and shook it out, taking it back into the main chamber and draping it over a chair that happened to be in a stream of sunlight.
She thought perhaps the sun might be able to freshen it up a little.
She was considering jumping back into the wardrobe again when there was a knock at the door.
Juliandra scooted over to the panel, unwilling to open it until she knew who was on the other side.
“Who comes?” she asked.
“De Lara.”
Quickly, she unbolted the door. Kevin was standing on the top step and behind him, she could see a veritable army of servants bearing food and hot water. Throwing the door back, Juliandra readily admitted them into the massive chamber.