“We shall make my husband comfortable,” Liana said with assurance. “First we will prepare two bedrooms for tonight, one for my husband and me,” she could not prevent the flush that crept over her face, “then one for you and my maids. Tomorrow we shall start on the rest of the place. Now, stop standing and staring. Go and get those women I saw below. A little work should take the insolence out of them.”
Joice was afraid to move about the castle alone, but her mistress’s manner gave her courage. She was afraid of what lurked in the shadows and corners of the castle. If something attacked, how long would it be before they found her bones among the others?
In the solar, Liana went to the other arched rooms flanking the oratory. The bird droppings were less in evidence here and she could see that under the dirt the walls had once been painted with scenes. Once they were cleaned she could have them repainted, and there on that far west wall she’d hang a tapestry. For a moment she could almost escape the smells of the room, the ominous sound of birds’ wings rustling, and the sound of whatever was moving about under the refuse on the floor.
“They won’t come, my lady,” said a breathless Joice from the doorway.
Liana came back to reality. “Who won’t come? My husband?”
Joice was indignant. “The maids! Lord Rogan’s maids won’t come. When I told them they were to come and clean, they laughed at me.”
“Did they?” Liana said. “Let’s see what they say to me.” She was ready for a good fight. She’d been so obedient and had swallowed so much anger in the past few days that she wanted an outlet for it, and overdeveloped maids who pointed at her and laughed would be an excellent target.
Liana stormed down the steep stairs, across the lord’s chamber, down the outside stairs, and into the loud, dirty courtyard. The two maids she’d seen before were lounging near the well, allowing three young knights to draw buckets of water for them while they brushed their big breasts against the men’s arms.
“You!” Liana said to the first one. “Come with me.”
Liana turned on her heel and started back toward the castle only to realize that no maids were following her. She looked back to see the two maids smiling at her as if they knew something she did not. Liana had never had a maid disobey her before. Always before, she’d been backed by her father’s power.
For a moment, Liana didn’t know what to do. She could feel the eyes of the other people in the courtyard on her, and she knew that now was the time to establish her power as mistress of the castle. But she couldn’t do that unless
they knew she had her husband’s backing.
Rogan was near the far wall of the courtyard, directing the unloading of a wagon that contained several suits of armor that were part of Liana’s dowry. Angrily, she made her way across the courtyard, sidestepping three fighting dogs, overstepping a pile of rotting sheep entrails.
She knew what she wanted to say, the demands she wanted to make, but when Rogan turned to her, annoyed that she was interrupting him, her confidence faded. She so much wanted to please him, wanted to have his eyes change when he looked at her. Now he seemed to be trying to remember who she was.
“The maids will not obey me,” she said quietly.
He looked at her in consternation, as if her problem had nothing to do with him.
“I want the maids to start cleaning, but they won’t obey me,” she further explained.
That seemed to relieve his puzzlement. He turned back to the wagons. “They clean what’s needed. I thought you brought maids.”
She moved between him and the wagon. “Three of my maids are ladies, and the others…well, there’s just too much for them to do.”
“Dent that armor and I’ll dent your head,” Rogan shouted to a laborer who was unloading the wagon. He looked down at Liana. “I have no time for maids. The place is clean enough as it is. Now, go away and let me get these wagons unloaded.”
He dismissed her as if she didn’t exist, and Liana stood there staring at his back and feeling the eyes of every man and, most of all, those two maids on her. So this was what Helen had warned her about. This was what marriage was like. A man courted you until he got you, then you were less than…than a piece of steel to him. Of course, with Rogan, she hadn’t even received the courting.
Now she knew that at all costs she must keep her dignity. She didn’t look right or left but walked straight ahead toward the stone steps and went up them and into the castle. Behind her she could hear the noise of the courtyard resume with tripled force, and she even heard some high-pitched female laughter.
Liana’s heart beat quickly with the humiliation she’d received. Helen had said she’d been spoiled by her power at the Neville estates, but Liana had had no real idea of what she meant. She suspected that few people realized how different other people’s lives were from their own. She’d expected her married life to be somewhat different, but this feeling of being powerless, of not existing, was something altogether new to her.
This must have been how Helen felt at the Neville estates when the servants obeyed Liana and not her. “She felt like this, yet she was still good to me,” Liana whispered.
“My lady,” Joice said softly.
Liana blinked at her maid and saw the fear on the older woman’s face. Liana didn’t seem so sure of herself now as she had before the wedding. At the moment she was too tired to think what she was going to do in the future. For now the immediate needs were for food and a place to sleep.
“Send Bess to find the kitchens and bring up supper—I do not want to eat in company tonight. Then get some of my bedding sent up to the solar.” She put her hand up to stop Joice from speaking. “I don’t know how to accomplish that. It seems that I have no power in my husband’s home.” She tried to keep the self-pity out of her voice, but she didn’t succeed. “And find some shovels. Tonight we will empty two rooms of enough filth to be able to sleep. And tomorrow we’ll—” She stopped because she didn’t like to think of tomorrow. If she had no power, even in directing a maid, she would be a prisoner just as if she were locked in a dungeon.
“Find out what you can about this place,” Liana said as an afterthought. “Where is Lord Severn? Perhaps he could…help us.” There was little strength in Liana’s voice.
“Yes, my lady,” Joice said meekly and left the room.
Slowly, Liana made her way up the circular staircase to the solar. The hawks moved on their perches at the sound of her, then settled again. If the whole castle were not littered with the remains of people’s living, she might have thought the place deserted. It was so unlike her father’s house, with people moving in and out of rooms, people laughing and teasing. Here there were only men, hard-faced, unsmiling men with scars on their bodies and weapons in their hands. There were no children, and no women except for the two bitches who’d laughed at her and refused to obey her.