Susan Spencer Paul

Dedicated with love and thanks to Margot Anne Hoyt. A lot of years have passed since we were eleven, Margot, but during all of them you’ve been a constant source of encouragement and faith. I wouldn’t be writing today if it weren’t for you. I’m so glad that out of all the people in this world, I’m the one who’s able to call you my best friend.

“They might at least have lit the fireplace,” Lillis said, rubbing her arms in a vain effort to warm herself. “Those wretched boys! Putting us in this filthy room as though we were criminals. I suppose they thought we might escape from someplace clean.”

She paced the dark room, careful not to stub her toe on one of the many pieces of furniture there. It must have been a bedchamber once, for there was a large fireplace on one side of the room and a locked balcony and windows on the other. Now it appeared to be used as a storing place for unused furniture. Some of the pieces were covered to keep the dust off and some were left as they were. When Lillis and her maid had first been shoved inside, they had been horrified at the number of rats that ran to their hiding places and at the thick dust that pervaded the room. But they were grateful at least to have chairs to sit in and a table to rest their hands on. There was even an old, lumpy bed on which they could sleep if they needed to, though the rats had done a good job of removing a great many of the mattress feathers.

How many hours had they been locked in here, now? she wondered, rubbing her hands harder to keep from shivering. It had been early morn when those horrid twins had so suddenly leapt out of the woods at them, aiming readied crossbows at the heads of her two guards. Her first reaction had been to scold them as thoughtless rascals who should be greatly punished for playing such frightening tricks on innocent travelers, but when she’d seen that they were serious about what they were doing, the anger had died on her lips. She had been a little afraid of them then, for they certainly must have been demented to have done such a thing in earnest.

By the time they had dragged Lillis and her companion to the castle they were now imprisoned in, however, she had reverted to her original conclusion. The wretched creatures were far from insane. Oh, no, they were worse than that. They saw themselves as righteous crusaders who had captured an enemy. When Lillis made the mistake of informing them that they were being perfectly foolish, that she was Lillis of Wellewyn and that Wellewyn had no fight with them or anyone else, they had simply become happier about what they’d done.

Rotten little beasts.

The worst part of this nightmare was that she didn’t even know where she was. It had been years since Lillis had been home, and she didn’t recognize either the area they had ridden through or the castle she’d been taken to. The twins had refused to tell her and hadn’t let her guards speak, so neither Lillis nor her companion had the slightest idea where they were, or how far away Wellewyn was.

And they’d not had a chance to see much of the castle to which they’d been brought, either. She and Edyth had barely dismounted before the twins had separated them from their guards and had dragged them through the castle and up several flights of stairs to an obviously unused portion of the household.

“You cannot mean to keep us in here!” she’d protested after they’d been shoved inside the filthy room. “I demand to see the lord of this castle!”

“Our brother isn’t home,” one of them stated with obvious satisfaction, “but you may be certain we’ll tell him you’re here as soon as he returns.”

They had gone, oblivious to her pounding on the door and the furious threats she’d shouted at them. Many hours had passed and no one had come, not even to bring them water. Edyth, fortunately, had come across a few old tallow candles and a flint box. The room had been dark to begin with, though a little light made its way through the boarded windows before the sky darkened and it began to rain. By now the room would have been black as pitch were it not for the dim light of the candle, and Lillis tried to be as grateful for that as she could. But they were very cold and very hungry and very frightened. As the hours crawled by she began to wonder if the fiends hadn’t forgotten all about them and gone on to their next amusement. Some months from now, when the lady of the castle needed extra chairs for company at Christmas, someone would come to this room and find two skeletons sitting companionably side by side around the table.

Lillis shuddered and tried to put
that
thought out of her mind. If someone didn’t come by daybreak she and Edyth would simply have to do something drastic. What, she didn’t know, but something. In the meantime she kept herself busy with thoughts of what she was going to say to the lord of this place when she finally got a chance to do so. Yes, indeed, she was going to enjoy giving him a few well thought out ideas she had concerning the respective futures of his two brothers.

She only hoped that, when the man returned from wherever he was, he would immediately put things to right. Surely he would! He was certain to be as horrified at what his brothers had done as she was, and he would be bound by duty to severely punish the beasts. She could almost feel sorry for the poor man, burdened with such troublesome pests. But that was his concern, not hers. What mattered to Lillis was getting out of this place and home to Wellewyn as quickly as possible.

Wellewyn! Lillis clasped and unclasped her hands with anxiety as she took another turn around the room. Her father would be sick with worry because she had not yet arrived. Already they were a day late in getting there, having been delayed by the bad weather, and now they would be even later. Father would be outraged when he learned of her treatment at the hands of a neighboring lord’s siblings. She wouldn’t be surprised if he did indeed go to King Henry and demand their heads.

“It must still be raining.” Edyth broke into Lillis’s thoughts with her soft, sad voice. She sat at the table, sniffling and pressing a tear-soaked handkerchief to her eyes.

Lillis looked at her companion with affection. Poor Edyth! What a terrible ordeal this had been for her. Lillis had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to comfort and reassure her weeping maid. The older woman had been with her for as long as Lillis could remember, and she well knew her to be a timid, easily frightened soul.

“Yes, I believe it must be,” Lillis agreed, still rubbing her arms. “It makes the room very damp, does it not?” She crossed the room and put her hands reassuringly on Edyth’s shoulders. “It will not be much longer, dear. Someone is sure to come and set us free.”

“Do you really think so?” Edyth asked hopefully.

“Why, of course,” Lillis assured her without much belief in her own words. “We haven’t really been here that long. It only seems so because we’ve not had a way to tell the time.” How long had they been there? she wondered.

“Did—did you see the way the people looked at us when we rode through the village?” Edyth asked in a quavering voice. They’d not yet spoken of what had happened to them that day, other than to comment on the unbelievable behavior of the two boys.

“Yes. It was most odd. It was as if they hated us, though God above knows there is no cause.” She paused, then continued thoughtfully, “If only we knew where we were. What kind of place is this that they allow their children to roam free and bring home stray prisoners to lock in filthy rooms?”

Edyth turned to look up at her mistress. “It is strange, is it not? And yet the castle seemed well kept. Everything was so clean and fine.”

Lillis nodded. “Yes, I saw that, too, though we hardly got a chance to notice much the way those two rushed us up here. But it would seem that the castle is well managed. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why any kind of responsible people would allow something like this to happen. It is really quite...abnormal.”

She could feel Edyth’s shoulders stiffen beneath her hands. “Oh, Lillis! We never should have left the convent! We never should have gone traveling with only two men to guard us! What will happen to us now?”

Edyth broke into fresh wails and Lillis did what she could to calm her. She barely had time to quiet her companion before they heard footsteps approaching and saw a light shine beneath the door. Edyth’s crying ceased only because she was too frightened to make any sound, and Lillis struggled to keep her own fears under control. She tightened her grip encouragingly on Edyth’s shoulders and stood as tall and straight as she could.

“Courage, Edyth,” she admonished as a key rattled and the door’s lock turned. “Courage.”

A demon walked through the door to greet them, or so it seemed. It was a large, dark man, girded about in armor, his face hidden in the shadows, who made the first steps into the room. He dripped with wetness, and the light coming in behind him caused him to look more unearthly. Lillis, already trembling with abject fear, watched him enter the room with real terror. He looked like a specter, and after the day she’d already spent she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had announced that he was such.

Edyth wilted beneath her hands and Lillis shook her imperceptibly while the ghostly figure approached. She was thankful that it spoke first, since she had lost her own voice.

“Who are you, lady?”

Lillis trembled at the harshness of his words.

“Who are
you,
sir?” she asked shakily.

“I am the lord of this castle,” the ghost responded, his image now fading into that of a man.

“Oh” was all Lillis could say for a moment. So!
This
was the man she had been waiting for. What a frightening phantom he made! “Sir,” she said more steadily, “I am Lillis Ryon of Wellewyn, and this is my companion, Edyth Lielyn. I fear your brothers have made a serious mistake.”

For the first time she saw that others had entered the room behind him. The man alone came closer, becoming more and more human in the light of the candle.

“Your father is Jaward, Lord of Wellewyn?” he asked, looking at her intently.

At this closer distance Lillis could see the haggard expression on the man’s face, though she could not tell whether he was young or old.

“He is,” she said, and lifted her chin.

It was difficult to tell what his reaction to this was. He stared at her quietly, looking directly into her eyes, and Lillis returned his stare and wished she could think of something to say. This wasn’t how he was supposed to behave. He was supposed to be groveling at her feet and begging her forgiveness for the treatment she and Edyth had received in his home. He wasn’t supposed to be standing there and staring at her as though trying to decide what kind of animal she was.

Those who had also entered the room gathered behind him, their faces eerily illuminated by the glow of torchlight. Lillis was surprised to see a matronly woman among them.

“My lord—” Lillis began, then stopped abruptly when she noticed that the twins were there, standing to the side of their brother, their arms folded across their chests, smiling at her with smug satisfaction.

“You two!” Lillis snapped, pointing at them. “You wretched, miserable fiends!” She looked back to the lord of the castle, who had ceased his thoughtful staring and now looked at her with some amazement. “My lord,” Lillis spoke curtly, “these two misbegotten devils waylaid my companions and myself on the open road this morn and brought us to your castle by force. They have locked my maid and me in this filthy chamber all day and have not even had the human kindness to bring us food or water. I cannot begin to imagine what they’ve done with my two guards.”

“They’re all right,” one of the boys answered sourly. “Sir Alan has them under guard in the men’s quarters.”

“Then they’ve probably received better care than you have spared us,” Lillis informed him hotly. “Did you not think at all about the two women whom you’d locked up all day? Did you not consider that we might be cold and hungry in this miserable place?” She indicated the room with a sweep of one hand.

The twins made no reply, but the lord of the castle said quietly, “You speak truly, my lady. Your treatment at the hands of my brothers has been unforgivable. I promise you they shall be punished.”

“But...Alex!” one of the twins protested.

“Quiet!” the lord commanded, his steely voice bringing utter silence to the chamber. He returned his attention to Lillis and spoke more evenly. “I beg your pardon, my lady, as well as the pardon of your maid.” He nodded in Edyth’s direction. “I have only just returned to the castle, else you would have been released sooner. My aunt—” he indicated the plump figure behind him “—had no knowledge that you were here, and learned of it only now, just as I, and the rest of my castlefolk, did. Had she known, my lady, you would have been well cared for, and never subjected to such as this. I pray you will believe me.”

“We had wondered, my lord.”

He inclined his head. “That is understandable, but all will be made well, I vow. You shall be taken to a suitable chamber to spend the night and all of your needs will be tended to immediately. In the morn we will see what is to be done.”

“I thank you, my lord,” Lillis replied, “but that is not necessary. If you will return my guards and our horses, we will leave this place at once.”

He gazed at her unwaveringly.

“I am sorry,” he said, “you cannot leave tonight. But do not fear for your guards. I will make certain that their comfort, as well as yours, is provided for.”

“No,” Lillis returned firmly. “That will not suffice. We will leave tonight. Please have our mounts made ready and our belongings returned to us.”

The breath that came from him sounded like a sigh, and a weary one at that. “You cannot leave tonight, my lady,” he repeated. “The wind howls outside like the Fiend himself, and the rain pours in rivers. I would be less than human were I to send any lady into such weather, especially in the darkness.” His tone changed slightly, growing more persuasive. “Come, accept my hospitality and we will speak with one another in the morn.”

Lillis tried to control her voice, to force it to speak with an obedient calm. “My lord, I am grateful for your consideration, but pray do not concern yourself with our welfare. The weather will indeed be an inconvenience, but I promise you that we would far rather face it than spend a night enjoying your kind hospitality. We have enjoyed enough of it already this day.”