Keepers of the Moon

Chapter 4. The tapestry (2)

The warm knitted fabric was soft and fitted my body perfectly, it had the colour of a dark and ancient forest and smelled like fresh roses. My trousers were practical, still warm and with plenty of pockets. Erin murmured that they were the ugliest things she’d ever seen, but I could catch her stuffing her pockets full with necessities. They were practical, ugly maybe, but practical. Erin was a woman somewhere in her late thirties or early forties and had soft hazel eyes. Her hands were calloused and showed that she was working with them for as long a she had been able to. She worked tirelessly, never slowing down but taking plenty of time to teach me everything I needed to know. She was both gentle and stern and almost felt like a mother teaching her adolescent daughter how to deal with life. I could get used to her and I knew that if I worked hard she would approve me for a long-term contract.

We were sweeping the room of Sir Macintosh who was the head of this castle, at least that’s what I was told. Though I felt that there was a ‘but…’ in every sentence involving him. Like he was supposed to be the chief around here, but wasn’t really. Reading people was never my strongest suit however and I could be completely wrong about this.

His room was nice and neat though, not much cleaning needed to be done. We opened the windows and emptied the laundry basket. In there was the ugliest yellow jumper I had ever seen with red wine stains all over the sleeve.

‘Oh, poor Brian. He really loved that jumper, but we won’t be able to salvage this!’ Erin stuffed the yellow monstrosity into a garbage bag and emptied the rest of the bucket into our laundry cart.

‘I thought his name was Sean?’ I was still trying to remember everybody, but Brian was a name I hadn’t heard before. I was almost certain Sir Macintosh was named Sean and not Brian.

‘Oh yes, Sir Sean Macintosh and Brian Macintosh are married. Brian could’ve been a lord! For goodness sake, but he refused! Can you believe that? If a lord wanted to marry me, I bet your ass that I would take that title and be out of here!’ Her voice echoed through the room and a door swayed open.

‘No you can’t leave m’dear! Who would take care of Sean’s filthy socks?’ A man far in his forties walked in, he was unspeakably handsome and had a perfect set of dark curls rolling on his head. He was lean and tall and was rocking a purple tuxedo with bright blue sneakers. It looked both ridiculous and stylish.

‘I am not touching those things ever again when I’m a lady and I’m going to boss you around.’ Brian walked over to Erin and placed a kiss on her cheeks.

‘Good luck with that m’dear. Sean has been trying for years!’ Erin honed but I could see she was enjoying herself. Somehow everybody in this place seemed to be friends with one another.

‘And who I this lovely young lady?’ He walked over to me and placed three kisses on either cheek. A little taken aback I just smiled.

‘Brian, this is Indigo. She is a bit shy, but we’ll fix that in no time! She’s our new worker here and she is doing a great job.’ My face became redder by the minute and I tried to hide from both of them by tying up the garbage bag. Brian however had none of this and started asking questions.

‘Where are you from? You look like someone from Pictia. Or maybe northern Alba?’

‘Oh no, I am not from Caledonia. I was born and raised in Nova, I came here with my daughter. Well not my daughter, but my friend’s daughter I adopted her.’

‘You are from Nova? Oh you poor unfortunate soul! Such a nasty place, you will be much better of right here.’ I couldn’t agree with him more, though hearing him say this stung. It was still the place where I was at home, where all my friends lived. It was still the place that made me who I was.

‘It must’ve taken a lot of courage to come here all on your own. Were your parents okay with it?’ He stared right into my eyes and peeled away layer after layer of protection. He wanted to know everything about me, I could sense his apprehension and genuine curiosity.

‘Yeah they’re fine with it, they were glad that I found a way out of the city.’ This was an outright lie, I never knew my parents. Like none of us did. The guilt was back, bigger than before and ever gnawing on my conscious. He just nodded, made no accusations, but knew I was lying.

‘It’s okay, if you even need someone to talk to, you know where to find me. I’ll throw Sean out when he starts sulking, which he does quite a lot actually. So I could use the company.’

‘Are you wearing this to the gala?’ Erin asked in an effort to change the subject.

‘I most certainly am! Do you like it?’ I grabbed the opportunity and nodded vigorously. Luckily this time I didn’t have to lie.

‘I love it!’

‘Have you already picked something, Erin? I still have a lovely, blood-red dress in the back.’ She backed away instantly her hands raised in front of her chest. There was a playful smile on her face, though her eyes were very serious. She obviously didn’t want him to dress her. I laughed.

‘No thank you! I have something in mind already!’ Brian pulled up his upper lip in resentment.

‘And you m’love? Maybe I can help you out.’ I shook my head and laughed. I was a cleaner, I was nowhere near allowed in such a high end gala. The King himself would be joining. A street girl like me didn’t belong in such company.

‘Oh, I’m not invited for sure. Just a cleaner.’

This time both Erin and Brian looked shocked, as if I was saying something very stupid.

‘Are you kidding me! Everybody who works in this castle is invited, whether you clean the toilets or are part of the King’s inner circle. I’m sure your invitation is on its way, as is the invitation for your ‘not-daughter’.’ Erin had her hands on her hips and it felt like I was getting lectured on something very basic.

‘We don’t do formalities here, we all are human beings on this small patch of green. And you should never, ever take crap from anyone because you are ‘just’ a cleaner and you can tell them off. Even Mo Bhean na Mara.’ Brian had taken a hold of my shoulders and shook me. His words were sincere and he was very adamant that I should fight for my place.

‘She’s most likely to scold you though, if you think less of yourself because of your job,’ Erin added matter-of-factly. They both laughed. I wasn’t sure who this Mo Bhean na Mara was, but she had been mentioned before. People always spoke highly of her and she was very much respected. And from the things I had heard about her, I couldn’t blame them.

‘Well the good news is, I get to dress at least one of you!’ Brian clapped his hands and looked very pleased with himself. I was still too busy to process the fact that I would be attending a royal party, that I barely heard what he was saying. Suddenly all my doubts and fear had come back. I knew I didn’t deserve these people. They were all embracing me, like I was one of them, but I wasn’t. And I would never be able to tell them the truth. It would break them, it would break their country. And yet secretly I asked myself the question: ‘did they unknowingly know my parents? Had they lost a daughter? Would this be the life that I had missed growing up?’

‘Well you can discuss this after work, we still have a room to do.’