The Knight and the Dove (6 page)

Mic clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll handle her, Eddie.” The younger man started to walk away but stopped. “The peddlers are in.”

“So I see. At least it’s old Elias,” Eddie observed, referring to the man with the dark beard. “He’s fair.”

Mic moved in the direction of the wagon, but Eddie went back toward the creamery. With Pen acting up, he was behind schedule. He decided to brook no more of her high-minded airs or her talk of the kitchens. With a disgruntled frown, he moved inside.

“Thank you, Elias,” Megan told him sincerely. She had awakened a half mile outside the walls of the keep and walked in behind the peddler’s cart with the men, but now she took the time to thank her
rescuers before moving toward the castle. Megan had found them all kind to a fault, and since she didn’t know what kind of reception she would receive from the inhabitants at Hawkings Crest, it was a little hard to leave them.

But as usual Megan was made of stern stuff, and with a smile that encompassed them all, she moved rather stiffly toward the main entrance. It was a waste of time. The guards questioned her without listening to her answer, and Megan, knowing she looked even worse than when the peddlers found her, was not in the mood to argue her way inside.

She moved around the keep for a good 20 minutes, impressed with its cleanliness and order before spotting what appeared to be an entrance to the kitchens. A man, looking less austere than the front entrance guards, stood close by. Megan gathered her courage to approach.

“Will you please take me to Lord Bracken?” Megan asked calmly but felt a fool at the man’s look.

“Be away, woman. Return to your work.”

He gave Megan the cold shoulder, and in disgust she stomped off around the corner of the building. She hadn’t gone ten steps when she collided into something huge, or was it some
one
?

Megan’s eyes slowly rose, and she looked up into the face of the largest man she had ever seen. She stumbled back in fear against a stone wall, her mouth opening and closing in panic.

“Lord, B-B-Bracken?” She managed to stutter, but the giant only stared at her, an unreadable expression on his craggy face.

Megan inched her way along, the giant turning with her, his eyes spearing her. When she had a clear shot, she ran. She never looked back to see if she was being followed, but ran behind the creamery and stood asking herself what to do next.

Megan stayed still for a long time, gaining her breath. It was tempting at this moment to join the peddlers. She was willing to do almost anything to escape this foreign keep and the antagonistic stares of its inhabitants, but she wasn’t welcome at Stone Lake, so where would she go?

Megan decided to circle the building, thinking to inquire of Bracken with someone inside. Before she could open the door, a person came charging out. He was a good-sized man with a harried look, one that didn’t improve upon spotting Megan.

“Why aren’t you inside?”

Megan blinked but managed to say, “I need you to take me to Lord Bracken.”

“Oh, heaven help me!” the man burst out, startling Megan into speechlessness. “Why must
I
be saddled with uppity female servants?”

Before Megan could draw a breath, she was grasped firmly by the forearm and taken inside.

“You must be new, so I’ll give you some time to familiarize yourself. Have you worked the creamery before?”

Rage boiled up inside of Megan, who thought she would not be able to stand one more second of this. She was tempted to stomp on the man’s foot and
then
inform him that she had designed the creamery at the Stone Lake abbey. All she said, however, was yes, she had. Megan figured if she worked for a time, she might better determine a way to get inside the castle. So just minutes later, Megan found herself working over a churn. She worked silently and efficiently, not speaking or looking at anyone, but feeling eyes on her. She also listened. If the gossip around her could be believed, the lord of the castle was not even there.

Megan could have howled with frustration, but refraining, simply worked silently until she thought her arms would give way. It was a tremendous relief to have the man who had grabbed her, the one the other women called Eddie, dismiss them for the day. Megan breathed deeply of the fresh air once she was outside.

She noticed the servants queuing up behind a cauldron of food and suddenly realized she was starving. Without a shred of pride left, Megan joined them. Heads turned to stare at her, but she ignored them. At the moment she would have given up her dowry for a bath, but food in her stomach was the next best thing.

The line moved steadily along, but Megan seemed to be the last, for no one stood behind her. She glanced up at one point to find the giant some ten feet away. He appeared to be staring right at Megan, and for a moment she could not look away from his steady gaze. Just then, the man in front of her sneezed loudly, and Megan dropped her eyes.

That the big man was of some importance was obvious, but he terrified Megan. She heard someone call “Arik” and looked up to see the huge man turn. He towered over the person who spoke to him, as he did everyone. Megan dropped her eyes just before the other man left
and the giant turned his attention to her once again. It never occurred to her to ask him for help; he was too intimidating for that.

At last it was Megan’s turn to eat. She took one of the few remaining bowls, which were carved roughly from wood and a bit greasy, and held it out to the man behind the cauldron. Megan ignored his odd look, so she didn’t see the exchange with the giant behind her. Her bowl was suddenly filled to the top, and where the bread pan had been empty, it now held a full loaf. The man broke a huge chunk off for Megan, who thanked him humbly.

She then moved to a place against the wall and sank down to eat. There were no utensils, so Megan soaked her bread with broth for the first time. She ate like a man starved. Her bowl was over half empty and some of the shakes had left her body when she once again looked and found the giant’s eyes on her.

Megan’s face flamed with the way she’d been eating, and she set her bowl aside. To her surprise, the giant averted his gaze.

Megan’s eyes dropped to her bowl, but when she looked up he was still looking away. Still hungry, she reached for the food again, and this time she finished every bite. The giant was still there, but he was not staring directly at her.

The sun was falling fast by the time Megan was through, and since it was midsummer, she watched many of the castle’s inhabitants make their beds along the castle walls. Megan didn’t care for the idea of sleeping on the ground without a blanket, so she rose slowly and surreptitiously made her way in the gathering dusk across the inner courtyard to the blacksmith’s. The building was empty.

Wishing she could see a little better, Megan entered on nearly silent feet and soon found what appeared to be an empty stall. The hay smelled fresh, and she gingerly stretched out on her side. She was asleep inside of five minutes, and even when the giant of the castle, holding a lantern and ducking his head to enter, came to check on her, she didn’t stir. She also didn’t stir when he settled down for the night against the wall just outside the door.

By Megan’s fifth day at Hawkings Crest, her life had developed something of a pattern. Every night she slept in the smithy’s shop and
ate with the other servants, but she was no closer to getting inside the castle than she had been the first day. Each day she worked in the creamery, but was never chosen to deliver the butter, cheese, or cream to the kitchens within.

Not that it would have done much good. It seemed that Bracken was still away. Megan struggled with her anger nearly every day over the way her mother had dismissed her. Her intended had obviously been expecting her on a certain day, a day her father surely must have known about. Megan’s head told her that her mother, too, had known this all along, but her heart refused to believe it.

The work was just beginning. Eddie came out of the creamery then and found Megan just staring up at the castle. On the first day and even the second, Eddie would have ordered her back to work, but no longer. No servant had missed the way Arik kept his eye on this woman. The lack of comb for her hair and the simple homespun cloth of her dress made it clear that she was just a servant, but there was certainly no harm in this knight losing his heart to a servant girl.

In truth, they were all rather pleased for their castle giant, whose odd ways had caused many of them to wonder at times if he was even human. Arik seemed unaffected by the cold and heat, and few had ever seen him eat. He spoke so few words to anyone that the castle folk were not entirely sure what he saw in this red-haired maid, but they were happy for him nonetheless.

Megan finished her inspection of the castle and would have turned to go back to the creamery but a shout came up from the wall. Although she was in no danger, she stepped back as the gates were opened and a large group of riders came inside. There was quite a stir and it didn’t take long, with the way the castle folk responded, to see that Bracken was among them. He stood out in coloring, height, and breadth, and Megan studied the proud tilt of his head from a distance.

Megan suddenly drew a deep breath. There was now a very real reason to gain entrance to the castle, but how would she do it? With a bit more thought, the inner bailey still in upheaval, Megan returned to the interior of the creamery. The day was early yet; she would find a way.

Bracken scanned the inner courtyard of Hawkings Crest with pleasure. It was good to be home. He spotted Arik at a distance, but something in the man’s stance told him not to approach. He would like to have questioned him as to the keep’s operations in his absence, but Arik could be mule stubborn.

Bracken could see, even from across the courtyard, that he didn’t care to converse, and he knew from experience that nothing would provoke him to do so against his will. With a shrug, Bracken moved to the castle. In the meantime, he would question Barton, his steward, and deal with Arik later.

Bracken gained the great hall. As always his heart swelled with fulfillment. This had been his childhood home. His parents had run the castle well, and now that it was his, he took great pride in the way he had continued to work at its beauty and efficiency.

Many elaborate tapestries hung from the walls, and Hawkings Crest shields graced the stones over both of the massive fireplaces. The trestle tables and benches were of the finest wood, and Bracken knew that his staff could have a feast on those tables with an hour’s notice.