Chapter Five #2
Tristan wasn’t hard-pressed to agree. Standing up from the chair he’d been planted on, he ran his fingers through his thick hair. “I will find the woman and see if she has everything she needs,” he said. “I will see you at sup.”
He left Addax in the solar as he headed up into the labyrinth that constituted the upper floors of Wrexham’s keep.
Even if Carr refused to see to his daughter’s welfare, that didn’t mean Tristan wasn’t going to be a polite host. But he had to admit that seeing Carr’s reaction to his daughter’s arrival had changed his opinion of the man.
He’d never known him to be one to shirk his duty, but in this case, Carr seemed to have little inclination toward his own daughter.
With a sigh, he took the steps toward the upper floors.
*
It was enormous.
Wrexham Castle was the biggest castle Andromeda had ever seen, with enormous stone walls and a keep that seemed to stretch right up to the sky.
Planted right in the middle of the eight-man escort, she was riding a little gray palfrey, one that plodded over the lowered drawbridge and through the gatehouse as hundreds of men parted way to welcome the escort.
Gates opened, portcullises lifted, and men shouted around her as these things were accomplished.
Through the gatehouse she went, following her escort into a bailey that was as large as a small village.
All of it awe-inspiring.
William brought the escort to a halt, bellowing orders to the mounted men, who began to dismount and hand their horses over to the grooms in wait. De Wolfe and the knight she’d been introduced to as Addax Al-Kort split off, leaving Tristan, the garrison commander, to take charge of her.
Not that she was sorry about that.
She’d gotten a good look at him back at the tavern, and he’d been riding off to her right as they’d headed to Wrexham, so she’d been able to steal glances at him now and again.
He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was very well built from what she could see, with a handsome face buried beneath a reddish beard that had been neatly trimmed.
His hair was red—dark red, glistening around the temples as if preparing to turn silver in that very spot.
He kept it short, but not so short that she couldn’t see the curl in it.
And his eyes… They were a soft shade of brown, a common enough color, but somehow his was more intense.
As if he could see right through her. He had a bit of a big jaw, square and masculine, and the one time she saw him smile, all she could see were big white teeth. She thought him quite handsome, indeed.
And here she was, looking like a bit of street rubbish.
Perhaps that was why her father looked so strangely at her when they were introduced.
She recognized Carr when William brought him out of the gatehouse, and she was prepared to jump into his arms, but he looked at her as if he didn’t know her in the least. She might as well have been a complete stranger for the way he reacted to her, but when he finally acknowledged their association, he seemed almost outraged at her appearance.
There was no warmth there, only shock. He made no move to kiss her or touch her, though she hardly blamed him, given the way she looked.
And smelled. But she had been hoping for something nicer than a polite but cold greeting.
Truthfully, it had hurt her.
They’d simply stood there in awkward silence.
Mercifully, Addax had sent for a couple of the kitchen maids, women who worked solely in the keep, and they had appeared about the time the silence truly became uncomfortable.
It was Addax, the knight with the long, dark braids against his skull who had suggested that she retreat into the keep to bathe and eat, giving both father and daughter the opportunity to become reconciled to each other’s presence.
Addax muttered something to the maids, who appeared the least bit uncertain at first, but soon realized they had a charge to take care of.
In a castle full of men, there simply wasn’t anyone else to do it.
Andromeda was led away by the two kitchen maids, straight into the keep.
And that was the last she’d seen of her father.
Forgetting about him for the moment, she could see very quickly that the keep itself was positively enormous, and there were many corridors and chambers.
It had a musty, dusty smell, like a tomb.
She followed the servants up the stairs, and they were tight and narrow steps, ending up on a landing that had a low ceiling and limited natural light.
Branching off either side of the landing were two small corridors with three doors each.
The servants were moving quickly, whispering and hissing to one another, as they took Andromeda to the very last chamber on the right.
It was then that she noticed that it was one large chamber that had two doors, a second door she had mistaken for an additional single chamber.
However, once inside the chamber, she could see almost immediately that they were faced with a problem.
The chamber was empty.
Puzzled, she turned to the servants.
“If you wish for me to sleep on the floor, I would at least like a blanket,” she said, turning to look at the chamber once more. “It seems quite… empty.”
The servants seemed nervous. “It is empty, my lady,” one woman, with very rosy cheeks, said. “We must find a bed for you from the leavings of the previous lord.”
Andromeda cocked her head curiously. “What leavings?”
“After the battle, my lady,” the other servant said.
She was tall, with bad teeth. “There was a great battle here a year ago. The Welsh took the castle from Lord de Gresford, and then the English took it back from the Welsh. There are many things left from that time, so we’re sure we can find you a mattress if my lady will give us time.
We would have had it ready had we known you were coming. ”
So the place had a history. Andromeda looked around the room, noting pieces of wood here and there, a broken stool near the hearth, but little else. As she’d first observed, it was quite empty. And almost… sad.
“Where is the chatelaine?” she asked. “Sir Tristan told me that he is the garrison commander. What of his wife? Does she not manage the keep?”
The servants shook their heads. “He’s not married, my lady,” the rosy-cheeked servant said.
“He and his knights sleep in the keep and have use of the solar, but that is all. No one else does anything in the keep, so the rooms they do not use are dusty and empty. There are only men at this place, and men do not care what condition the keep is in so long as they can sleep in it.”
That explained quite a bit, at least enough that Andromeda was starting to get a picture of her situation.
She’d never been one to sit around and lament her situation, as evidenced by the fact that she’d found a position in a tavern to earn money after her escort abandoned her.
Lady de Courcy would not allow her or her daughters to be idle or lazy, so being productive was what Andromeda knew.
Looking around the room, she saw a need, and the servants seemed to want direction.
They seemed upset and confused. If she was going to have something to sleep on this night, perhaps she needed to contribute to her own comfort.
“Very well,” she said, looking between the servants. “What are your names?”
“Flora, my lady,” the rosy-cheeked servant said. Then she indicated her companion. “This is Aldis.”
Andromeda nodded. “We have work to do, do we not?” she said. “Can you show me where the things are that were left behind? Mayhap we can find something salvageable in them.”
Flora and Aldis were more than willing to show her. They went back into the corridor, taking her to a smaller stairwell that led to the floor below. That was where they found a room of yesterday’s treasures.
And what a trove it was.
Everything left behind by the English and subsequently the Welsh had been brought to this chamber.
Anything that had been scattered throughout the keep or pieces of furniture had all been piled in this room.
There were buckets, stools, pieces of furniture both whole and in pieces, as well as fabric.
There was a great deal of fabric, either in tapestries or cushions or even coverlets.
Because it was dusty and deteriorated, it was difficult to tell what, exactly, some of the fabric pieces were part of, so Andromeda had the servants pull out some of the items that looked as if they might have been a mattress or a coverlet at some point.
Methodically, the process began.
Andromeda had something of an analytical mind.
She wasn’t afraid of hard work, and she had been well trained.
It looked as if some of the furniture was kept relatively intact, so they were able to find a bedframe and a mattress quickly.
There was an enormous wardrobe back against the wall, a fine piece of furniture that was painted and polished, a surprising thing in such a dingy place.
For some reason, that wardrobe caught Andromeda’s eye, and she had the servants pull away the junk that was blocking it.
Once they were able to clear away stuff from in front of one of the doors, they were able to open it up.
What they found was quite surprising.