Reasons for Silence

New Name

Chapter Two – Serefina

          I hadn’t exactly been planning this particular situation.

            I let out a hiss when the man applied more pressure to my neck.

            “It shouldn’t take too long to get back to the manor,” the man’s voice was deep and thick, there was an eerie edge to it, “then we can get you washed up, you smell rancid.”

            The actually enticed me. I don’t think that I’d had a proper bath in over a year, and I don’t think that my mother and I ever owned soap – that was one of those so call luxuries. This man – I was sure – owned soap. I could smell it, oranges mixed with something that smoothed it out neatly.

            I struggled to stay alert but I had already been traveling since dawn slowly making my way to the palace. I wondered suddenly what kind of trouble I was going to be in when I didn’t show up.

            The man let go of my neck once we got to a horse. I wondered just how far away his manor was but I knew that I was not going to make it on foot. I sucked in a couple of short breaths.

            The man’s hands were suddenly on my waist and I couldn’t keep a surprised “oh” from escaping my lips as he lifted me onto the horse. In a flourish of movement he mounted behind me. I didn’t know if this was typical or a-typical behavior, whatever it was it sent a cold feeling down my spine. His right arm was wrapped tightly around me.

            The horse started up in a gallop and it was enough to keep me awake for the meantime.

            By the time we arrived at the man’s manor the moon hung high in the sky.

            I couldn’t make too much out of my surroundings, whether because of my sleepiness or the dark I couldn’t tell.

            Once off the horse the man took me by the back of my neck again.

           

            The man left me with two women who ushered me into a dim room. There was a bathtub in the center of the room, half of the floor was carpeted – something I had never actually seen before.

            The women grumbled something about having too much work to do as it is without having all these extra tasked piled on them. They helped me out of my dress and into the tub.

            The water was cold but far from freezing.

            The process seemed to take forever, whenever I thought that they were done, there would be something else.

            “Alright you can get out now,” one of the women said.

            I did.

            She threw a towel at me and I wasted no time in drying off. Before I was prepared the other woman threw a white undergarment over my head and quickly it was laced up.

            Soon enough I was dressed in a simple blue dress, fitted snugly at my waist with straps that joined together to make a neckline that was slightly lower than anything I’d ever worn. It was still tasteful.

            “Kneel,” one of the women said.

            I was confused but I complied.

            She stood behind me and started pulling at my hair – braiding it. All of it was securely in a place, none fell in my face.