Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter VIII (Part II) - Into the woods

Now that I had nothing more to dread, I found myself enjoying Anne's company. She preceded to take me first on an excursion around the castle's interior and then later we toured its immediate grounds, amidst the commotion and bustle of the morning's activities.

Though we viewed most of the castle's chambers, she was unable to show me each and every one of the thirty-five private state rooms; but I found that most of the them looked much the same as mine. We did, however, inspect the service areas without, as was her daily habit, such as the larders, with their hooks of hanging meats, shelves and vegetables. From thence I was taken to the undercroft, the dairy, the buttery where the beer butts were kept in the cellars below, the pantries, and then finally the outside scullery before we headed to one of the most important areas in the castle.

Anne lead me next along a covered arcade to the kitchens where the fires had already been lit for for the day's elaborate meal preparations. Everywhere I happened to look, people were in motion — the kitchen staff were turning spits of various roasts, the cooks were shouting orders and waving their cleavers or tasting their sauces, and the cauldrons were even now suspended from hooks over the open fires, bubbling with heavenly, aromatic stews and soups. All was a blur of activity and restless energy as Anne stopped a moment to confer with her the head cook.

My tour continued for hours, but I reveled in the excitement of what was, to these people, merely commonplace and not worth the awe it all inspired in me. The grooms were sweeping out the stables, the smith was at his forge, and the knights and their squires were practicing fencing in the tilting yard abutting the smaller courtyard to the south.

My eyes drank of every detail — the pantler cuffing a kitchen boy over the head for some mild transgression, the cook scalding his fingers, the moss growing up along the side of the chicken coop, the dovecote with its brick-domed, cylindrical tower, and the hounds baying in their kennels; all this I absorbed in wonder. But where was Nørrdragor's master? And where was his son? No doubt cloistered away in the solar's suite of apartments, meeting with the steward, the officers, and making ready for their voyage on the morrow. All was as it should be.

My favorite, of all the areas that Anne took me to, was the large garden occupying a vast area near the main kitchen. There were a medley of fruit trees, mostly apples and pears, a separate little herb garden, a fishpond and a multitude of flowers and vines: roses, lilies, violets and daffodils. It was all an intense explosion of rich and colorful clusters no matter where I looked and I was loathe to leave the garden, for here was where I felt the most at home and, were it not decidedly unseemly and frowned upon, where I would gladly opt to sleep the rest of my days.

Alas we could not stay. The dinner horn rent the air with an almighty blast, at around noon, to summon the castle inhabitants to the great hall for the main meal of the day. I now knew there to be three dining halls, two of which were public, but the smallest was the family's private dining chamber and located in the private wing.

"Come, Aria. This is the quickest way to the great hall," said Anne. And, taking my hand, she led me thither.

I had entreated her to call me by the shortened version of my name and she now happily obliged me. I doubted whether Godwin would be as easily persuaded to do the same; however I was not likely to request it of him.

"Good gracious child, you are rather tall for your age! I'll need to have longer gowns made for you!" Anne was looking aghast at my slippers and bared ankles, having only just noticed how visible they were beneath my kirtle, as we entered the hall.

I was soon seated beside Anne, who sat next to her husband, at the raised dais where the family and all the illustrious personages were at liberty to sit; therefore I was rather surprised to see Carac on the bench at Godwin's elbow — where a family member might sit — and also delighted to note the absence of Lucian and Caine from the main meal.