Belinda: A Maiden of the Early 1300's

A Plan in Motion

Belinda folded the last cloak nonchalantly and placed it atop the pile meant for the knights. "Milady, do you wish to bestow these cloaks as you did the tunics?" she asked in as casual a voice as possible.

Lady Kendra snorted. "I highly doubt that I shall be repeating that anytime soon. It was your mistake that ruined them and I refuse to pass another's work off as my own. When you are certain the men are not in the barracks, lay one at the foot of each bed." She bent over her embroidery frame, ignoring Lady Anne's outraged gasp.

A lady entering the barracks was almost unheard of, a thing guaranteed to disparage any decent reputation, but Belinda was almost overjoyed! Being in charge of distribution on her own meant that she could smuggle her cloak to her room without being caught. She lowered her head as if being punished and lifted her embroidery frame. "Yes, My Lady. Perhaps in the morning, when the men are drilling with swords?"

It was Lady Anne who answered rather than her mistress. "That will suffice but do be quick about it and be certain each room is empty before you enter so as not to be discovered." Belinda gave no indication she'd heard, not even to wonder how her mother even knew that the barracks might be divided into rooms!

Come morning, when the ladies were just finishing breakfast and preparing to pick herbs, Belinda gathered up the mountainous pile of cloaks. "Oh, get a basket, Belinda!" scolded her mother, espying her daughter's difficult burden. Belinda managed a nod as she left the room. The best basket would be in her own bedroom, of course.

As soon as she was alone in her room, Belinda stuffed her new cloak inside the drawstring bag along with the flask. Anyone who discovered it and asked could be told it was a tribute to her father. Satisfied with her achievement, Belinda piled the rest of the cloaks into a large basket and went on her way to the barracks.

Shelburne's barracks were located along the wall and across the courtyard from the keep itself. The clash of swords told Belinda she was not apt to find anyone inside the long building set with bunks for the guardsmen. Quietly, Belinda entered the low door and set about her task.

Inside, the barracks were divided into two rooms with an open doorframe between the two rooms. Each wall was set with six beds, three on top and three beneath, while a brazier stood in the center of each room. Belinda realized that the doors could be shut in the winter to conserve the heat and opened in the summer in the hopes of a cooling breeze. After a long look, Belinda set about her task, draping a cloak over the end of each bunk so that it was immediately apparent to the bunks' owners that a gift had been made.

"New cloaks! Did you sew them?" A deep voice startled Belinda as she set a cloak on the upper mattress just inside the door of the farther room. She jumped. "My apologies, I thought you had seen me," the speaker said when Belinda had located him in the dim interior of the windowless room. One of the knights was standing just behind the door she'd entered, buckling on his sword belt. His hair curled against his neck in dripping curls but he was dressed in a worn, dry tunic. One of the newer tunics lay in a sodden pile on the floor at his feet.

Belinda recognized him from the hall but couldn't remember his name. "Please, tell no one?" Belinda begged. "Milady cautioned me not to be seen."

He grinned, revealing white teeth set into a pleasant face, neither ugly nor overly fair. "You chose well in your timing, My Lady. Ordinarily you would have found these rooms quite deserted, save that I found the field's only remaining puddle and had need of dry clothing." His tone was amused, faintly self-depreciating in a humorous sort of way and his dark eyes twinkled with merriment.

Belinda had to laugh with him over his misfortune before she blushed, realizing that he'd been changing his clothing all the while she'd been in the barracks! "Perhaps you have a gift for dowsing then," Belinda suggested, teasing to cover her embarrassment. "How sad that you were doused in the process, however."