Diara did. She bolted up from the chair and let him take her from the dais and behind a screened area that the servants used. Once they were there, they were out of the field of vision of nearly everyone in the great hall, and Roi took her quickly to a small door that led outside.
It was misting outside, with the clouds hanging low, and they ran nearly the entire way across the bailey with Roi helping her hold up the hem of her skirt so it wouldn’t get muddy. They made an odd pair, running through the muddy bailey, but moving quickly saved her dress from becoming too wet and too dirty. In fact, the only things that were dirty on her person were her slippers, and that couldn’t be helped. Once inside the keep, they quickly proceeded up the stairs to Roi’s chamber on the family level.
The chamber was dark except for a banked fire in the hearth, and Roi left Diara standing by the door as he went to stoke the fire for a little more light. When the blaze began to perk up, he took a small straw of kindling, lit it, and went over to a bank of candles against the wall.
One by one, he lit the fat, yellowed tapers, before moving to another bank of candles and doing the same thing. Soon, the entire chamber was aglow, and Diara came away from the door, seeing that Roi’s bed looked like something rich and luxurious. It was covered with silk drapes and silk pillows and a coverlet stuffed with feathers, and lying on the corner of it was a garment of some kind.
She held it up in the light.
“A robe,” she said, fingering the elaborately embroidered fabric. “This is beautiful. Is it yours?”
He chuckled. “Does that look like it would fit me?”
She held out the sleeves before shaking her head. “You might be able to get one arm into the main part of it,” she said. “But the sleeves would not fit you.”
“Nay, they would not.”
“Is it for me?”
Roi nodded faintly. “It is from my mother and father,” he said. “While I went to Cheltenham to retrieve you, she went to Hereford and had this made. It’s silk with rabbit lining.”
Diara laid it back on the bed. It was pink, that color she positively detested, with a white fur lining. Truthfully, it was exquisite. It would have been magnificent had she not hated pink so, but she turned to Roi with her eyes alight.
“It’s positively beautiful,” she said. “Your mother was so kind to give this to me.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
She nodded, her smile fading as she looked at him seriously. “It’s strange, truly,” she said. “I have spent the vast majority of my life alone. I’ve never had many friends, as you know, and in my family, I am the only child. In the past few days, I’ve come to know this massive family you have, and it has given me a sense of belonging I’ve never experienced before. It’s a crowded sensation, but a lovely one.”
He went to her, taking the robe from her. “I hope it will become something you are always comfortable with and grow to appreciate,” he said, holding up the robe. “Would you like to try this on?”
Still in her red silk dress, she put her arms through the sleeves, which were big and belled. It was a delightful garment, and she turned to him with a grin, prompting him to wrap her up in his arms and hug her tightly. Their first true embrace as man and wife. It would have been an incredibly enticing moment except for one thing.
They began to hear singing.
Puzzled, they looked at one another to make sure they weren’t hearing things. Clearly, Diara heard it, and so did Roi. They weren’t hallucinating. Roi leaned toward the chamber door, but it didn’t seem to be coming from there. Diara was already moving to the window, and he came up beside her in time to see several men gathered three stories below in the dark, misty bailey.
And they were singing.
There was a farmer and a whore,
A woman who demanded more!
Plow my field, she begged,
Plant your seed and do it again,
And the farmer used his plow on the sow!
They broke down into uproarious laughter at the lewd song, lifting their cups of wine to the married couple over their heads. As Roi waved his hands at them in an attempt to force them to stop, they launched into the second verse.
Aye, the farmer had a plow,
A plow that could topple a cow.
He used the whore, she cried for more,
But his wife came back from the store.
