Thawing the Master's Heart

It's a girl!

“I’ll go first.” The butler whispered before making his way slowly and cautiously towards the altar. As he reached it he could see the person was not moving. As he slowly stepped up the three wide steps to the altar’s level he came to where he could properly see the body.

He gasped and stared in disbelief for a moment then turned back to where his son and the groundsman waited nervously.

“It…it’s a young woman…” He called out.

His son’s face lit up and he sprinted over, leaping up the stairs with youthful exuberance and gazing down at the face of a beautiful young woman, clearly no older than himself. Her long honey coloured hair was strewn out around her head like an angelic halo. The son tentatively leaned closer, but the butler grabbed his shoulder halting him with a stern silent warning.

“Is she dead?” The son asked.

The butler lifted a hand and pressed his fingers firmly to the girl’s throat for a moment. He closed his eyes in relief as he felt a steady thump of the girl’s heartbeat against his fingers and pulled back.

“She’s alive…” He declared.

He frowned at the huge smile that broke out on his virile son’s face. “She’s clearly not from around here.” The butler added, looking over the unconscious form of the girl, taking in her strange clothing.

“So where did she come from?” The groundsman asked as he finally stepped up and looked the girl over.

The butler looked back at the groundsman with a deeply worried look on his face. “That magic last night could only have been from her.”

“She’s a witch? So she came here through a spell?” The son asked incredulously, backing up a step.

“That is my guess, look at the strange way she is dressed. She clearly does not belong here.”

“So what do we do with her?” The groundsman asked as he absently picked up a lock of the girls hair and ran it through his fingers, studying it.

“We are going to have to take her back to the house and send a message to the Master.” The butler stated watching the groundsman carefully.

“Is that wise?” The groundsman countered, looking up and meeting the butler’s gaze.

“Wise? What do you mean?”

“She has come at a time the Master is not in residence but is due to arrive in a few days…perhaps it is meant to be that he doesn’t learn of her appearance here.”

The butler frowned as the groundsman stared at him solemnly, his own gaze dropping back to the girl.

“I can feel the magic in her…we can’t keep her a secret. It would be treason.” The butler countered.

The groundsman shrugged, dropping his hand, his eyes flicking over the inert girl’s body. “It is your decision, of course, Mr Shaw…but let’s not be too hasty. The Master is due to arrive here in a few days anyway…” The groundsman turned and looked over at the cracked stone slab, as he put his hands into the pockets of his coat. “What if she has been sent here to destroy the Master?”

“Destroy?” The son exclaimed, his fists clenching at his sides.

“I’m not saying that’s a bad thing…” The groundsman turned back and regarded the butler and his son. “Only that if that is the case then surely it would be best to not inform the Master of her presence.”

“You’re talking treason, Matthew!” The butler warned. “And why? We have it good here!”

The groundsman shrugged. “It is what it is…” His eyes were watchful. “Whatever that was that caused the phenomena last night and resulted in this girl appearing here…it could be our salvation from the Master’s tyranny.”

“Father?” The son looked at the butler concerned. The groundsman was making a lot of sense…

The butler scratched his jaw in thought as he stared at the strange beauty lying unconscious before them. Did they dare to try and go against the Master…the powerful sorcerer that ruled this land with an iron fist?

“Let’s get her back and awake and talking before we make any decisions…she may be a witch and we may be in mortal danger, we must play this with extreme caution.”

The groundsman smiled and nodded. “That’s all I’m trying to say…let’s not be too hasty…”

The butler turned to his son. “You carry her back, Toby.”

The son almost leapt for joy and quickly scooped the girl up into his arms.

“Careful!” His father snapped as the girl’s head lolled back, her hair falling back and almost touching the ground as Toby jostled her in his arms getting her in a comfortable position.

The butler grabbed up the golden wealth of hair, pulling it all together and trying to tuck it down beside the girl against Toby’s chest.

“Hair like that says she must be of noble blood.” The groundsman muttered as he watched.

The butler turned to look at him. “Have you ever seen a noble woman dressed like a boy before?”

The groundsman took in the girl’s strange leggings and shoes. “I’ve never seen anyone dressed like this before…”

They fell into a relatively uneasy silence each lost in his own thoughts on the matter as they headed back to the manor.

Half way back the butler appraised his son. “Are you managing okay? Do you need one of us to take over?”

Toby smiled and hugged the girl’s body closer. “No, I’m fine, she hardly weighs anything at all…”

The butler frowned again at his son’s exuberance. “Don’t get attached to a pretty face. For all we know she could be extremely dangerous and have to be killed!”

Toby swallowed hard and downcast his eyes from his father’s fearsome gaze as the groundsman looked on with a sober countenance. They all knew the facts of the matter and that the butler’s words could hold true.

The groundsman laughed suddenly and placed a hand upon Toby’s shoulder, patting it.

“Enjoy being young, young master Shaw!”

Toby grinned and looked back at the girl’s face, she looked like an Angel and he wondered what her name was.

“What do we do with her when we get back to the house?” Toby asked, looking at his father’s grim expression.

The butler and the groundsman looked at each other. “She could be a witch, so we can’t take any chances…we’ll have to lock her in the cell in the basement, we still have magic nullifying shackles down there, right?”

“Right.” The Groundsman muttered.

When they reached the house the butler’s wife ran out to meet them seeing the figure of a young woman in her son’s arms.

“Oh, dear…who is this?”

“We do not know, we found her unconscious lying on the alter table.” Toby explained.

“We’re going to put her in the cell in the basement, I feel magic around her…” The butler said firmly, knowing is kind-hearted wife would disagree.

“No! Look at her, we can’t do that…what if she’s a noble woman she could have us all killed!” She protested. “She could be ill, you can’t put an ill person down there!”

“Did you not hear me, she could be a witch! I am not taking the risk that she is here to kill us all as soon as she wakes up.” The butler argued back.

“I agree.” The groundsman said gruffly.

The butler’s wife downcast her eyes, clutching her apron. “Very well, but that cell is no place for a young lady…let me spruce it up a bit…”

Mrs Shaw had come up with a compromise and then spent a full half day, with her son and daughter helping, cleaning out the cell, placing a small single bed from upstairs in there along with a small side table with a lantern and a vase of flowers.

The butler had tried to tell his wife she was being ridiculous and to stop at that and so it was the girl laid upon the bed, her wrists shackled with iron cuffs covered in etched runes to ward off any powers she may have, a half foot length of chain between them and locked in a small cell dug into the dirt with an iron barred door.