Eat the Poor

IV

On his cot in the servants' quarters, Geoff slouched with his temple pressed to the wall.

A man the others called Roggar, notable for the missing index finger on his right hand, had finished removing the last dart from King Philip III's degraded drawing. "Well, boys," he said, "the day has come at last." The men hollered and cheered as he tore the parchment in half and tossed it into the air.

"Oi, look at that, he's falling!"

"Aah!" One man swung his arms as if off-balance. "Help me, help me! Someone catch me, I only weigh fifty stone!"

"Weren't enough ink to capture his true likeness..."

Geoff's bleary eyes closed momentarily. "Hope you lot enjoy your laugh," he muttered, voice scratching. "Don't be surprised when the next King takes the throne and your miserable lives stay miserable."

"He'll be taking a mighty wide throne, aye?"

A chorus of hollering.

An elderly man smiled from the back of the room. He looked to be at least twenty years older than anyone else. "A laugh or two can be forgiven, wouldn't you say?" The leathery skin of his jaw creased as he spoke. "With this death, even God has mocked the man."

The mad gambler with the terrible mustache sat rocking on the ground between Geoff's and my legs. "You'll show us the way-" His hand flapped against Geoff's knee. "Show us the light!"

"What light?"

"The light of salvation!"

In the center of the room, the men were still carrying on. "I propose" - laughter ensued - "they slit him at the belly, and watch his innards spill! There'd be enough inside to feed us for a year!"

Roggar's wheezing cackle brought a sharp pain to my ear.

On impulse, I bumped Geoff in the shoulder. "Let's go outside."

He stared at me with dull eyes, his complexion pale like he hadn't slept in days. "What for?"

I gave him a small smile. "Because the stench in this air has us both ready to suffocate."

His eyes flicked around, perhaps looking to see if anyone would react, and then he got to his feet and followed me to the door.

"This way," Geoff whispered with a grin when I started toward the kitchen. I let him lead me in the opposite direction, further down the servants' hall than I'd ever been. It opened into a wide room with high ceilings and a long wooden table - a real table - in the center. "The lowest dining area," he explained. "For the butlers and grooms and pages to take their meals."

Despite the jarring events of the morning, women bustled in and out of the many arching doorways on all ends of the rectangular room. They carried woven baskets spilling over with linen on one hip.

"The laundress and chambermaids," he said. "The laundry vats are down that hall there." He pointed it out.

"How do you know all this?"

"Tucked away, I have a decorative coat I, eh... acquired from a Baron some time ago," Geoff told me quietly. "At times I wear it and walk about the castle, any part I please. I always act as if I have somewhere to be. By now I've gotten the whole lower half committed to memory. Next, I plan to venture upstairs, but the voyage surely promises danger." His eyes twinkled as he spoke. "Perhaps you'd care to join me."

I laughed. "And if we're caught?"

"Flogging, surely." The idea seemed to excite him more.

We crept out of the dining area and took a spiral of steps up to another stone archway. Instead of leading into the courtyard, it looked out at an expanse of fresh grass. Someone had started a little wall of stones in the center and evidently given up.