Nightsong Chapter 5
I spent the rest of that evening mostly pacing back and forth in front of an enormous fireplace. The woman who'd taken me to my new room had introduced herself as Lucy and around the time darkness fell, she brought me a tray of food. Most of the foods I didn't recognize and moved to the side, so I mostly munched on brown bread, some fruit, and the watery-wine. I was surprised that the wine was any good; in history class, we'd often been told that most wines were practically vinegar in the middle ages.
I looked at the bed and carefully checked for bedbugs. Even though I didn't see any, I slept on top of the bed rug. I awoke the next morning to the sounds of roosters crowing, people shouting, basically the cacophony of sound that was the middle ages rising up to greet the castle. The room had become chilled and just as I was debating moving from my warm spot on the bed, the door opened and Lucy came in. "Do you have need of the garderobe, Miss?" She asked in her no-nonsense tone of voice.
It took me a moment to remember what a garderobe was. Think, dammit! Oh, the bathroom. "Yes, please, Lucy." I said, and the minute I said it, I felt my bladder begin to ache signalling a great desire to go, NOW! Lucy led me to the tiny room that housed that time period's version of a toilet. She shut the door behind me, knowing that there was nowhere else for me to go. I stared at the little room in disgust. The room stank of urine and things I didn't want to think of. I gingerly sat on the wooden board with it's circular cut out that laid across the great stone shaft. If I remembered my history lessons correctly, these things were rarely cleaned, perhaps once a year or so, and I remembered my history professor telling us that sometimes enemies would try to get into the castle through the garderobes. Ewww! Absolutely disgusting. Now I really didn't want to think of what could be in there.
I finished and searched the room for something to dry myself with but found nothing. Sighing, I simply pulled my underwear back up and reminded myself to find something to bring and use the next time. I opened the door and Lucy stood there, ready to take me back to my room. When we got there, another woman was there, with a slightly younger girl and another maid was cleaning the ashes from the fire and starting a new fire. The woman stepped forward and began to practically yank my white dress off me.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" I shrieked at her. "Helping you to dress, my Lady. Lord Brecken said you were to be treated as the lady you are. We have brought fresh clothes for you to be dressed in." She replied.
"Hold it! First of all, I'm a dirty, nasty mess. I am not putting clean clothes on until I'm clean as well. And secondly, I'm not sure how clean those clothes are, either." I spied a clean looking nightgown-thing in the pile of clothing on the bed. "Someone draw me a bath, and I'll put that on," I said, pointing at the gown, "and you can wash the other clothing. Until it's clean, I'm not wearing it." I said, huffily. The woman looked annoyed, but merely nodded and, mumbling under her breath, left the room, the younger girl following her, carefully holding the gown in her arms. I looked over and found Lucy with a small smile on her face. "What?" I finally asked.
"Now you sound like the Lady of Nightsong Castle." She said. I stared back at her in shock. "I beg your pardon?" I asked, but two strong young men entered the room, carrying a hip bath and buckets of hot water into the room.