He went back to raking.
The kitchens were in full operation and the smell of baking bread was heavy in the air. Juliandra went into the smoky, steamy kitchens where the cook, a big woman with a red face, was making a stew in an enormous pot over the hearth. She was leaning over, tasting her creation, as Juliandra came up beside her.
“Well?” she said. “How does it taste, Aline?”
The woman, who had come with Kevin from England, liked Juliandra well enough. She held out the spoon to her and she tasted it.
“It needs something more,” Juliandra said. “It does not taste well enough yet.”
“Onions,” Aline said. “I need onions for it. And more salt. I didn’t use enough of either.”
Juliandra turned away. “I will get the onions.”
She was already walking towards the stairwell that led down into a vault below the kitchens where most of their foodstuffs was stored, but Aline stopped her.
“Not there, m’lady,” she said. “There are no more down there.”
Juliandra came to a halt. “Where shall I look?”
Aline pointed in the direction of the keep. “In the vault below the keep,” she said. “When we came here, men took sacks of onions and turnips down there because there wasn’t enough room in the kitchen stores for them.”
“I’ve never been down there,” Juliandra said. “Where are the stairs?”
The cook gestured with her hands. “When you pass through the entry, there is a door to your right,” she said. “That will takeyou below the keep. You may as well bring up some turnips, too. Take a few servants to help you.”
Juliandra looked around at the kitchen servants, who were already busy doing something. She waved the old cook off, heading out into the kitchen yard where William was just about done. She was going to punish him yet again by making him haul bags of onions for her now.
“William,” she called. “Come with me.”
William tossed aside the rake, glad to be doing something other than menial tasks. “Where are we going, my lady?”
“Into the vault below the keep.”
She was moving at a brisk pace, but William’s long strides kept up with her. They crossed the inner bailey, which was now devoid of Kevin and the other knights because they had moved into the outer bailey. Juliandra missed the sight of her husband and had to smile at herself for it. She found it both silly and wonderful that she missed the man when he was even briefly out of her sight. But those thoughts were pushed aside to focus on the task at hand as the keep loomed ahead.
It was cool and dark inside. Juliandra had William collect two small torches that the servants always kept lit for light, wedged into iron sconces just inside the door. She took one and William took the other as she opened the heavy oak door that the cook had indicated. Pulling it open, she held out the torch to show the surprisingly wide flight of steps that led down into a black abyss below.
“Shall I go first, my lady?” William asked.
Juliandra brushed him off. “Of course not,” she said. “Follow me.”
She took the stairs slowly because they were stone and slippery in places. The torches cast eerie shadows on the walls as they made their way to the bottom. The smell of earth and mildew was heavy in the air, creating an unsettling ambiance.Once they hit the bottom, they could see that the vault was surprisingly large and, already, they could see sacks of food lined against the wall as well as barrels of grain.
There were other things down here, too. As William collected two sacks of onions and started back up the stairs, Juliandra poked around. It was a vast storage area containing a wide variety of things– broken furniture, chairs, implements for a garden among them.
Juliandra walked around, peering at stuff, getting a feel for what was down here. Being that she was chatelaine, she should know everything about the place she was in charge of. She wanted to know what, exactly, was stored down here.
There were two small chambers off the larger one and she could see more things stored in those chambers. It was quite cold in the vault and she wasn’t wearing a particularly warm dress, so she hastened to take a quick look so she could leave. Lifting her torch, she went into the first small chamber.
It was cluttered with things, but stretched out on the floor in the corner was something covered with a blanket. At least, it looked like a blanket until she took a closer look and noticed something familiar about it.
It was a cloak.
Puzzled, she bent over it, realizing that it wasn’t an ordinary cloak. She recognized a cloak that had belonged to her father. She knew that because a corner of it was flipped up and she could see the red woolen lining.
Lining he’d had specially made for it.
Puzzlement turned to something else. She wasn’t sure what else, but it was dark and bottomless, like a quagmire without end. Her heart began to pound against her ribs as fear took hold. She wanted to know why her father’s cloak was here and she yanked on it to get a better look. But it wouldn’t come off. It did,however, fall away, revealing the ashen, and very dead remains, of Gethin ap Garreg.
