Royal Feud

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

elena raised her head when she heard the knock on the door and stilled her hands on the lute strings. After Delvin left, she had retreated to his soothed her, but this morning she was too restless and fretful to enjoy the music. "Come in," she called.

Lucy entered and closed the door behind her, giving Hermione a smile. "My dear,

since you are now the lady of the castle, Tis time for me to turn the chatelaine over to

you.

Hermione stood and laid down her lute as Lucy removed the ornament from her belt and handed it to her. Made of gold, the chatelaine was elaborately decorated with amethyst, aquamarines, and lapis lazuli stones. Several keys here attached to the gold chains hanging down from the oblong head.

"Gavin's mother gave this to me after we were married, and now I am passing it on

to you."

Hermione accepted the chatelaine and stared at it a moment, before raising her eyes to Lucy's face. Lady Dorothea trained me in the management of a household, but I have never supervised one by myself before. Ishton Castle is so much larger and grander than either Bamchester or Morefy. I am afraid I will not know what to do."

"Do not worry, my dear, I will not abandon you. I will be happy to instruct you in

all the duties you will now be assuming."

"I would appreciate that, Mother."

"I thought I would give you a detailed tour of the castle and show you which key is for which storeroom and introduce you to some of the servants." "That sounds like a good idea."

Lucy led her down the gallery, showing her the key to the ladies' solar. "I usually lock this door at night," she explained, "since we keep all our furs and fabrics in here. I leave it unlocked during the day so Clare and Elizabeth can work in here."

Lucy led the way downstairs and to the southwest corner of the hall to a door Hermione had never noticed before. She took the rushlight from the holder next to the entrance and descended the spiral staircase. Hermione carefully followed, holding her hand on the winding handrail for support. It was noticeably cooler on the ground floor of the donjon. Wood pillars were strategically placed to support the wooden floor of the great hall above.

"Renwold also has a key to the door as does Delvin," Lucy explained. "There are only the three keys. We maintain tight security on the ground floor, as most of the castle provisions are stored here. Renwold guards the door whenever he has the servants bring in supplies or take them out." She held the rushlight up high so Hermione could see. "We store the grain here in this first row. Wheat." Lucy walked along the row. gesturing at the neatly stacked barrels. "Barley. Oats. All of which are grown by the villeins on our lands."

Lucy turned to the next row and proceeded to walk back toward the door. "In this row we have vinegar, honey, and ale." She pointed to the butts as she named their contents. The casks of ale were by far the most plentiful and were stacked closest to the door.

"We keep the wine along the south wall." Lucy pointed out the barrels used to

store wine. A series of wooden shelves were placed along the wall beyond the wine

barrels, on top of which were arranged several small silver caskets. "We keep our more costly spices and herbs here, as well as the ones we need to purchase, such as saffron, aniseed, pepper, and cinnamon. The common spices and herbs that we grow in our garden are kept in a storage room next to the kitchen. As you can see, we also store loaves of sugar and salt here, as well as our cheese." Lucy turned and walked toward the northeast side of the basement. Again, she

raised the rushlight high so Hermione could see the carcasses of meat hanging from hooks attached to the ceiling. "We store bacon, ham, salt pork, and mutton in here. In the winter we try to rely

on the game the men hunt, but we do smoke and salt pork, beef, and mutton in case

the weather is too harsh for the men to hunt, or they fail to find game."

Lucy turned back to Hermione. "Let us go back upstairs now and get our cloaks so

I can show you the kitchen and the outer buildings."

After donning their mantles, Margarer and Hermione exited the hall through a door at the northwest corner and passed under the wooden pentice, walking to the stone kitchen constructed twenty feet from the donjon. The contrast of the hot, stuffy kitchen to the cold, crisp air outside struck Hermione like a slap in the face as they stepped inside the open door.

The kitchen was a hive of activity as the servants prepared dinner. A huge stone oven, twelve feet in diameter, was built into one side of the kitchen. A man slowly turned the spit over one of the smaller fireplaces lining the other walls. Several men worked at wooden tables in the middle of the floor. One man glanced up and gave them a half bow, before laying the circle of dough he had rolled out on top of a meat pie. He instructed one of the other men to put the pie in the oven, then wiped his hands on his apron before coming over speak with them.

"Good morning, my ladies," he said, bowing. "Hermione, this is Laurence, our chief cook," Lucy said. "Laurence, this is Lady

Hermione, Countess of Ishton. I am showing her around the castle this morning. We will come back either later today or tomorrow so she can talk to you and let you know what she will expect from you and your workers." "Very good, milady." Laurence regarded Hermione openly but respectfully. "I'll look

forward to that. Would ye please excuse me now, milady? I've a lot to do still before dinner." "Certainly, Laurence," Hermione responded.

Laurence bowed again, then returned to work. Lucy led Hermione through a doorway into the scullery. The kitchen and the scullery shared one interior stonewall. Several scullions, both men and women, were hard at work washing dishes, pots, and pans. Large stone sinks were built into one side wall. Water flowed to the sinks through pipes along the wall from a cistern on the scullery's roof and then drained away from the sinks into a ditch near the garden outside. The other three sides of the scullery were lined with shelves stacked with clean dishes, cups, and goblets.

Lucy and Hermione exited the scullery to the outside. "During the spring and summer we have a kitchen garden here." Lucy indicated a patch of ground near the curtain wall, directly outside the scullery door. "Of course, the garden is barren now since it is winter. Planting is usually done at the end of February, so we will start that about three weeks from now. Let us go through the gate, and I will show you the dairy and the livestock pens."

They passed through the northwest gate into the outer bailey. The dairy was located in a wooden structure built against the wall. The two women working inside looked up from their tasks and gave the visitors a quick curtsy. One maid churned butter as another poured off whey into a bowl. As they watched she added salt to the curds, then loaded them into a press. They left the dairy and went to the stables next door.

"Gavin came up with the idea of having separate stables for horses and for livestock," Lucy explained as they stood in the doorway. "Most of the cows, sheep, and pigs are raised on outlaying farms. Once a week in the summer Renwold sends to different farms to gather up enough animals to feed the castle for that week." "I am surprised you have the dairy and stables located in the outer bailey," Hermione

commented.

"Ishton Castle has never been besieged," Lucy said. "Its position on this hill gives it a natural defensive advantage. Even so, given the width of the moat and the location of the stables next to the inner curtain, they are well outside striking distance of archers."

They didn't linger long at the stables, since the odor was pungent. They went back into the inner bailey using the same gate. Lucy guided Hermione to the brewery, built along the west wall of the donjon. The stone building had several fireplaces where cauldrons boiled over roaring fires. The alewife stood next to a tun, mixing oats into the crushed malt. When she finished, she motioned for her assistant to bring over a pot of boiling water. The lovely smell of warm malt filled the brewery as the two women poured the boiling water into the mash tun.

"We brew about ten hogsheads of ale every week," Lucy commented as she explained the brewing process to Hermione.

After watching the alewife work for a bit, Lucy led Hermione back into the hall and over to the herbarium located along the east side of the first floor. "This is my favorite place." Lucy remarked as she unlocked the door and stood aside for Hermione to enter. "The herbs we grow in the garden are dried and stored in here."

"I often helped Lady Dorothea in her herbarium," Hermione said. "She taught me

several recipes for treating aliments." "We will have to compare recipes. I am very interested to see if Lady Dorothea

knew of some I do not have."

"Aye, I would like that."

"Next door is where we spin our yarn."

Lucy opened the door and stood aside so Hermione could enter. The five spinsters paused their conversations, but not their work, when the two women entered the room. "Do not mind us," Lucy said. "I am just showing Lady Ishton around the

castle."

The buzz of the women's conversation gradually resumed.

"In here we have several looms," Lucy opened the next door along the east wall. "This is where we make and store the fabric used for table linens and clothes. Hermione, this is Mayda, our master weaver. Mayda, this is Lady Ishton."

"Milady," Mayda said, getting up from the loom and dropping a curtsy.

"Mayda designs our most intricate weaves," Lucy explained.

"Your work is beautiful, Mayda." Hermione touched the fabric stretched tight over the

loom.

"Thank ye, milady."

After leaving the weavers, Lucy and Hermione went to the ladies' solar, where Lucy outlined the duties for which the lady of the castle was responsible.

Dinner the next day was unnaturally quiet. Tension seemed to grip the castle inhabitants as they waited for news from the siege. Even Lucy seemed to be affected by it. She had not said more than a few words while they ate.

After dinner was over, there was a commotion at the doors. A soldier strode purposefully through the hall, stopping when he came to Hermione. He took off his helmet and bowed to her. "Milady, I have a message for you from the Earl." He handed a folded piece of paper to her.

"Thank you," Hermione said. Deciding it was time she got to know the men who served Ishton, she asked, "What is your name?"

"Tis John, milady," he replied. "Thank you, John," Hermione said.

He bowed to her. Hermione glanced around, aware that the eyes of all those in the hall were looking at her. She broke open the seal on the letter and read Delvin's short message.

"All is well," she announced in a loud voice. "Morefy has surrendered his castle without a struggle. There was no fighting, and no one has been injured. Lord Ishton expects that he and his troops will return by the end of the week." There was general sigh of relief and excited chatter, as the atmosphere in the hall

lightened.

"Milord, may I have a word with you?" Langston asked.

"Aye," Delvin replied.