Luminous

15 - Duty and Atonement

"Noble or commoner, the role of the lady of the house is similar. The only difference is the scale."

Baroness Sylvia laid her spoon beside her emptied bowl of oatmeal and raisins. One of her maids-of-honor, Heloise, brought Meya a water basin and a towel, and Meya washed Beau's slobber off her face.

"Once Coris becomes Baron Hadrian, you'll take my place as Baroness. Coris will take care of his fief and his people. You'll keep his house nice and tidy for him—manage our staff, supervise the scullery, and raise the children, yours and others'."

The Baroness tilted her head at Heloise, who had passed the basin to a chambermaid. She then resumed her place at the tapestried wall with the other maids, squires and pages.

Meya had seen them in the background since arriving two days ago, but now she studied them more carefully. Heloise and the girl with the brown ponytail looked to be Meya's age, but the pouting little girl with black curls looked not a day above seven.

One of the squires looked like the healthier version of Coris. The other squire was handsome, with a serene expression not unlike Arinel. Beside him, a pageboy who looked around ten years old stood fidgeting. He had the brown skin and curly black hair of the Southern Islanders. Even dressed in plain clothes, they were blessed with unblemished skin and well-proportioned faces, and they had the refined air of the well-bred about them.

Girls of noble birth would be sent to serve older noblewomen as training in deportment, whereas boys would become pages and squires to learn knighthood. Say she did become Baroness someday, how was she supposed to raise them? She was a peasant girl who had both parents to raise her, and she couldn't grow up properly herself.

"Whenever Coris is absent, you must take his place. So, it is imperative that you learn the manor's accounts and law as well."

Meya's spirit was further dampened. Accounts and law? Goodly Freda, she didn't even know how to write numbers!

Despite her shivering heart, Meya smiled and gave her a dainty nod. Being a lady seemed to entail much more than providing the lord with children. Meya was delighted to hear that. Overall, it seemed an exciting job, and she was eager to learn now that she had the chance, but how would the Baroness react when the girl who claimed to be Lady Arinel couldn't even write her name?

The Baroness smiled sympathetically.

"Daunting, isn't it?" She clasped Meya's clammy hand. Meya nodded vigorously, eyes wide in desperation. Sylvia laughed, shaking her head and gazing at Meya with growing affection.

"I can only imagine how difficult it must be for you. I myself trained from the age of seven, but thirteen years later, I was still a lass out of my depth when I married Kellis. And you're barely seventeen!"

The Baroness smiled at her husband, who chuckled in fond remembrance. Meya wondered how she could be so affectionate with the man who poisoned her son half-dead.

"Don't worry. You still have time to watch and learn. And, of course, you'll have the staff to assist you." Sylvia nodded towards the long table, where the staff and servants supped with lower-ranking members of the visiting lords and ladies' entourages.

"That's our seneschal, Sir Emery Nethan. He manages the castle's staff."

Meya followed Sylvia's indicating hand to a suave middle-aged man with long, graying black hair in a ponytail. He was engrossed in conversation with a plump man in his fifties, who had a bald patch surrounded by flaxen hair and a magnificent curved mustache. Meya recognized him from her first day here.