Chapter Five #3
It was the second time she had mentioned harsh treatment from the lady of the house. “My lady, I promise that no one will beat you or become harsh with you for an accident,” he insisted. “I am not sure why you think that she would, but you are a guest. Most certainly we do not punish guests.”
Alessandria pulled her gaze away from the tub, looking at him.
She seemed confused by the concept of an unpunished transgression.
“I did not mean to intimate that your mother was cruel,” she said quickly, hoping she had not offended him.
“ ’Tis simply that… well, I fostered at Orford Castle prior to my tenure at Newington and the lady of the keep had little patience with accidents.
Or with me, in fact. That is why I was sent to Newington – because Lady Orford’s daughter and I did not get on well. ”
“I cannot imagine that you did not get along well with anyone,” he said. “You are not a disagreeable creature.”
She shrugged. “It was not me who was disagreeable,” she said. “Lady Orford’s daughter was disagreeable enough for the both of us. She invented new ways to bring her mother’s wrath upon me and Lady Orford was not hesitant to take a willow switch to my backside. The beatings were fairly regular.”
Chad didn’t particularly like the sound of that. “The woman beat you?”
“Whenever she could.”
He was appalled. “Did you write your father, then, and ask to be removed?”
She shook her head. “Lady Orford wrote to my father and told him how terrible I was,” she said.
“My father had me quickly removed and sent to Newington. I told you that I had no love for my father… he took Lady Orford’s side against me.
He never even asked me what had happened.
He simply sent a man to Orford Castle who escorted me all the way to Newington, nearly as far away from my father, and home, as I could go.
The man drank heavily on our trip south and he told me, more than once, that my father wanted no hint of the sight of me.
Then my father’s man made advances against me and…
forgive me. That is more than you need to know. ”
Chad frowned deeply. “He tried to molest you?”
Alessandria was somewhat embarrassed that she had prattled on so, but Chad was easy to speak to. It had all come out before she could stop it.
“He tried,” she said, sheepish. “But he did not succeed. Because of my resistance, he only took me as far as Rochester and then told me to find my own way on to Newington. A kindly merchant took pity upon me and escorted me the rest of the way.”
It was quite a story, one that had Chad genuinely outraged.
This petite, beautiful woman seemed to have a bitter and cold past, something he found difficult to accept.
She was intelligent and kind; he had spoken to her enough to see that.
He believed she had a good heart. But it seemed she had been treated abominably in the past, only finding peace at Newington until he came along to brutally yank her from her haven.
Now, she found herself an unwilling pawn in Henry’s political game.
That understanding, of her sorrowful past, lit a fire in Chad.
The de Lohr men, historically, were do-gooders, men hoping to change the world and protect the weak, and Chad was no exception.
He had that innate sense in him. What he saw before him was a woman who needed protection, but it was more than simply protection against Henry.
It was as if she needed to know that there were genuinely kind people in the world, people that would treat her with respect.
He wanted to be one of those people. He wanted her to know that not everyone was lecherous, or careless, or mean.
There were men of honor still left in the world.
She needed someone to be kind to her and he wanted that kindness to come from him.
Pondering the situation, he was distracted when servants began heading back into the knight quarters with buckets of hot water and also empty buckets to remove the red-tinged water from the tub.
He started to stay something to Alessandria but she heard the servants, too, and her easy manner fled.
She grew nervous again and pulled the linen cloth around her as tightly as it would go, covering everything but her feet and head from the servants, several of whom were male.
Chad watched her back away from them, standing over by the wall as they moved around the chamber quickly and efficiently. He thought about going to stand with her, simply to make her feel less nervous about the strangers in the room, when he heard his mother entering the knight quarters.
Liselotte came bustling in through the entry door, speaking to Veronica, who was coming in behind her.
Both women had linens and other items in their arms and Veronica raced past her brother, arms full, and on into the room where Alessandria was practically cowering over against the wall.
Chad watched as his sister went to Alessandria, making the woman feel comfortable again, but he was distracted from further observation as his mother tugged on his arm.
“We will take good care of the lady now,” she said, her gaze moving over her eldest son. “You look tired, Chad. Go inside and have a meal and rest, and I will send for you when the lady is ready to go.”
Chad cocked a serious eyebrow at her. “It must be very soon, Mother,” he said. “I must remove her while Henry’s knights sleep from their long night.”
Liselotte smiled knowingly. “Not to worry about them,” she said, lowering her voice. “I had the servants slip a poppy draught into the wine they are drinking. It will put them to sleep until tomorrow, at least. You have time.”
Chad looked at his mother in shock. Then, he chuckled. “You did that?”
“I did.”
“You drugged them?”
She shrugged, almost defiantly. “Your father suggested it,” she said. “It will not hurt them, but it will buy you time. Now, go inside and eat and rest. I will send for you as soon as the lady is ready.”
Chad continued to chuckle at his parents’ devious ways as he put his arms around his mother and kissed her on the head.
“I adore you,” he said before releasing her.
Then, he sighed as if suddenly feeling his exhaustion.
Now that his mother had worked her poppy magic with de Serreaux and the others, he did, indeed, have time to rest a bit.
And, God only knew, he was desperately tired.
“If I do not hear from you in an hour, I shall be back.”
Liselotte pushed him towards the exit of the knight quarters. “Two hours.”
He kept walking, nearly stumbling as his exhaustion caught up to him. “One.”
“Three!”
He simply grinned at his mother, waving her off, as he quit the structure.
The opportunity to rest was entirely unexpected and the closer he drew to the keep, the more weary he felt.
By the time he hit his chamber on the third floor next to the stairwell, he was dragging horribly.
Stefan was on another bed in the chamber, snoring away, but Chad didn’t give his noisy brother a second thought.
All he could see was the bed before him.
He remembered throwing himself onto it, but little after that.
Two hours later, a servant awoke him from a heavy sleep with a message from his mother and he bolted back for the knight quarters.