That spoke of his great love forme.
He promised to return,
And gave me hisword,
But the ring was all I would everhave.
The ring was all I would everhave.”
The end of the song was a few strummed chords, tapering off at the end of her sad song. Timidly, she looked to the men around her, who were still staring at her as if dumbstruck, before they broke out in thunderous cheers. Juliandra actually jumped at the sound, startled, but when she realized it was because they liked her singing, she couldn’t help the grin on her face.
Slightly embarrassed, she wasn’t sure what more to sing when they started demanding more songs. The truth was that she knew many songs but, at the moment, she couldn’t think of one.
Her mind had gone blank.
Men began shouting for a song of laughter, which she took to mean a song with humor in it, so she reverted back to her twelve-year-old self who had written a song about a girl who had stolen the eye of the only boy in the entire village that Juliandra thought was handsome. It was rather funny, but it was also cruel. Still, it was the only thing she could think of at the moment.
Quickly, she began to strum the lute in a fast-paced, almost silly manner.
“She was lewd andshrewd,
That pasty wench,
Who walked with bowed-outknees.
Myrtle had a girdle
No man would hurdle
Because she smelled like afish!”
When she abruptly finished, the entire hall burst out in cheers and roars, greatly approving of a song that could be considered quite bawdy. Juliandra started laughing because they were, pleased that her song about Myrtle ferch Bierce was so well received. It was, in some small way, a victory for the boy Myrtle had stolen away from her those years ago.
Now, it was eight years later.
But her silly song brought calls for more humorous songs and Juliandra had heard many over the years, some just plain foolish. But that seemed to be what her audience wanted, so she sang a song about a lost dog with a missing leg, a child who refused to eat his mush, and an old woman trying to pretend she was a young maiden in order to catch a husband.
Every foolish song she could think of was played and her audience loved every minute of it, and she grew bolder with each successive tune. She began to walk a circle around the fire pit, singing her songs, some of which she repeated twice, and all the while men drank and cheered and threw coins at her. At the end of each song, she would rush around the fire pit, collecting the coins, and thanking the men for their generosity. She was enjoying herself quite a bit, and making a good deal of money, until the inevitable happened.
A man made a grab for her.
That was when the frivolity stopped and she screamed, beating at the man to release her and his colleagues jumped in to separate them. As she staggered to her feet, someone threwa punch at the man who had grabbed her. Suddenly, the table erupted in a brawl.
That was Juliandra’s time to exit.
As the entire hall deteriorated, she managed to dodge a few other grabbing hands and make it back to Megsy without any damage being done. The old servant grabbed her fearfully.
“We must get out of here,” Megsy said. “Hurry! Out the way we came!”
“Nay!” Juliandra said. “I came here to speak with Lord de Lara and I am not leaving until I do.”
“But…!”
“This will have been a wasted effort if we go now!”
Megsy wasn’t sure about any of it. She had a good grip on Juliandra, fearful that the woman would run off and leave her behind. But she didn’t hold tightly enough because as the chaos in the hall was going on and knights were shouting at the men to stand down, Juliandra spied a servant and rushed over to the wench, asking her who Kevin de Lara was. The wench pointed at a table next to the fire pit. She indicated the only man that was still sitting at the table.
Evidently, he had been close by all along.
