Chapter Twelve #3
Thor could see simply by the woman’s arrogant stance that everything Caledonia had said about her was true.
All of it. There was no remorse, no hint of understanding, no clue that her reign of terror was over and she was no longer in control.
Though he hadn’t been particularly brutish with her, as he simply wasn’t the type to be brutish with a woman—any woman—it was difficult for him to keep from becoming angry with her.
Once he was enraged, anything could happen.
Therefore, he kept his composure.
“You are not allowed to do anything, not anymore,” Thor said evenly. Then he looked to his sister, who was watching the scene with a good deal of surprise. “Nica, go back to the carriage and find the sergeant. You know Alastair, don’t you?”
Nicola nodded hesitantly. “Aye, Thor.”
“Find him and tell him to send me four soldiers. Hurry now.”
Nicola was gone, scurrying back the way they had come.
Thor then turned to Madam Madonna, still sitting in the dirt, and reached down to pull the woman to her feet.
As this was going on, Caledonia turned for the keep and bolted inside, off in search of children she’d not seen in a very long time.
Children she hadn’t been allowed to see alone.
Not ever. Her visits had been supervised by the old woman in dirty robes who was now standing in front of Thor, her head down in submission. But now, that barrier was removed.
Once and for all.
She had to find her daughters.
*
“What is that child doing?”
The question came from Darius. He’d just come from securing the de Lucera knights in the vault and now he was sweeping the upper bailey, per Thor’s command, so he could send every Stafford soldier down to the lower bailey where they were being gathered.
He had two royal soldiers with him, both of them older, seasoned men he’d served with for a few years, so he trusted them. He knew them.
His question was directed at them.
But they didn’t have an answer. They were in the kitchen yard, which was quite large and cluttered, and directly ahead of them were three little girls.
One was sitting at the edge of what looked like a fishpond, her feet in the water, while the smaller one seemed to be eating dirt.
But the third one, who was probably eight or nine years of age, was standing in front of a corral of goats and speaking loudly to them.
Words Darius and the soldiers recognized.
“I… I think she is preaching, my lord,” one of the soldiers said. “She is reciting something from the Bible. I’ve heard it before.”
Curious, Darius stepped into the yard with the soldiers alongside.
The girls at the fishpond noticed him. The one with her feet in the water, who was probably six or seven years of age, even waved to him, but the youngest one, who was no more than three, was still stuffing dead grass and dirt into her mouth.
“For I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand upon the earth,” the oldest girl was saying to the goats. “It is important to do the will of God, to know… know what he wants. He wants us to obey him. Like you will obey me when I tell you to do something.”
The goats kept eating. The girl tried to force a couple of them to look at her but they were more interested in their feed, so she moved her position so she would be in front of them.
In doing so, she caught sight of Darius and the soldiers and, after a moment of surprise, followed by a little fear, curiosity took over and she walked over to them, focusing specifically on Darius.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“My name is Darius. Who are you?”
“I am Jane,” she said. “Darius, did you know that Christ loves us all?”
As Darius gazed down at the girl, who was quite pale and slender, he began to suspect who she was.
She looked very much like a woman he’d traveled with recently, one with white hair and dark eyes who had married Thor.
Truth be told, Darius only knew that Caledonia had children at Stafford because Nicola had told him, so he didn’t know much more than that.
He was fairly certain he had found them.
“I’ve heard that He does,” he said, gesturing to the pair around the small fishpond. “Friends of yours, my lady?”
Jane looked at the girls he was referring to. “My sisters,” she said with disinterest. Then she reached out and took Darius’ hand, pulling him with her. “They do not believe in God. They are not going to heaven. Come, and I will tell you about God.”
Darius found himself being dragged away by a small girl so he had to be gentle about refusing her because she seemed most ardent.
“My lady, I would like nothing better, but I have duties to attend,” he said. “Mayhap… mayhap another time.”
He tried to walk away, but Jane wouldn’t let go of his hand so he ended up pulling her with him. “Where must you go?” she asked. “Why are you here?”
Darius was forced to peel her hand off his, as carefully as he could. “I have come with the Earl and Countess of Tamworth and Stafford,” he said. “Your mother, I believe. Are you not the daughter of the Countess of Tamworth and Stafford?”
Jane looked at him as if she didn’t quite understand what he was asking. “Madam Madonna is my nurse,” she said. “I have no father or mother.”
Darius wasn’t quite sure why the child would say such a thing, but the truth was that the subject of Caledonia’s children had never really come up.
The entire trip north had been spent supervising the army, and he’d spent little time with Nicola.
When he did, the last thing he wanted to talk about was something other than the two of them, so the child’s response was strange.
He looked at the pair around the fishpond.
“Can you tell me their names?” he asked Jane. “And I do not think it is very good for the youngest child to be eating dirt. Mayhap we should stop her?”
Jane shrugged. “She always eats dirt.”
“Why?”
“Because Madam Madonna tells us we must suffer.”
That sounded quite strange to Darius. He didn’t know who this Madam Madonna was, but he was fairly certain that a young child shouldn’t be eating dirt. He began to look around.
“Where is Madam Madonna?” he asked.
Jane shook her head. “I do not know,” she said. “Will you not come with me so I can teach you the word of God?”
Darius realized she had found his hand again and was holding on to him with a death grip. “Not now,” he said. “As I said, I have duties… Mayhap you should come with me so that we may find your mother. She has arrived.”
“No need, Darius.”
The voice came from the keep, and Darius looked over to see Caledonia standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen yard.
But she was simply standing there, not moving, and although Jane looked at her, the child didn’t seem to care that her mother had returned.
At least, she didn’t react as if her mother had returned.
But she walked over to the doorway and gazed up at a woman she resembled a great deal.
“Would you like for me to teach you the word of God?” she asked.
At the sound of her eldest child’s voice, Caledonia’s eyes welled. It was such a magical moment, something she’d thought would never happen, but here it was. Here she was.
She still could hardly believe it.
“Greetings, Jane,” she whispered tightly. “You’ve grown so much since I last saw you.”
Jane was looking at her mother with some confusion. “Who are you?”
“I am your mother.”
Jane blinked. Then she stumbled back and held up her hand to Caledonia. “My… mother? But I have no mother!”
“Aye, you do. It is me.”
That seemed to terrify the girl. “You will come no closer!”
Caledonia didn’t look surprised by the child’s reaction, though Darius was. He watched with some concern as Caledonia came out of the kitchen door and faced her daughter.
“Don’t be afraid,” Caledonia said as gently as she could. “I promise that my appearance is a good thing. I will not hurt you, I swear.”
“Nay!” Jane cried. “The… the devil is within you!”
“The devil is not within me,” Caledonia said steadily. “If Madam Madonna told you that, it was a lie. She has been lying to you.”
“Don’t say that!”
“I am sorry, Jane, but she has,” Caledonia said, realizing that she was only seeing a hint of the damage that Madam Madonna had caused. “She has been lying to you all along so you would not love me.”
Jane slapped her hands over her ears. “The devil is speaking to me!” she shrieked. “Go away, devil! Go away from me!”
With that, she fled the kitchen yard through the postern gate, running out behind the keep.
Caledonia didn’t try to stop her. She simply stood there, looking at the gate as tears streamed down her cheeks.
With a heavy sigh, she wiped off her face and turned back toward the fishpond where the girl who had her feet in the pond was still sitting, now looking at Caledonia curiously.
The other child was still eating dirt.
Two more lost waifs, manipulated by the evil that was Madam Madonna.
Caledonia knew she had an uphill battle ahead of her, which had been shockingly evident with her eldest. Jane had been exposed to it the longest. But now…
now, she was facing her younger daughters, who didn’t seem as terrified of her as Jane had.
She took a deep breath, composing herself.
She wondered how badly she was going to frighten child number two.
“Greetings, Janet,” Caledonia said to the girl with her feet in the water. “You have grown a good deal, too. Do you know me?”
Janet de Tosni stared at her mother for a moment before taking her feet out of the pond and standing up.
She was dressed like a servant, in dirty clothing that was torn.
She wore no shoes, nor were there any around that suggested she might have taken them off to put her feet in the pond in the first place.
The child was so skinny that surely a strong wind would have blown her away.
“Mother,” she said. “You’re Mother.”