“Please excuse the mess.” Elsie seemed flustered when we walked into her kitchen. “There’s stuff everywhere. Kids!”
Her shout seemed to summon a herd of cattle if the thuds from upstairs were anything to go by. Footsteps, I soon realised, as children came stampeding down the stairs.
“Lorien!” Several of the smallest children threw themselves at the man. “You’re back! Did you bring us sweeties?”
“Like this?” He dangled a bulging paper bag before them.
“You need to clean up all this mess.” She gestured to a table covered in books, paper, paint, and toys. “Before you get anything.” Her focus shifted to Lorien. “And only one each or they’ll ruin their appetite.”
“Two it is.” He winked at the children. “Now let’s clean everything away. No, don’t go shoving it in the hall cupboard…”
As he marshalled the younger children, Elsie turned to the older girls. Some boys were sitting down with Barry and Lance, discussing the finer points of swordplay, I’m sure.
“You must want somewhere to freshen up if you’ve been in the saddle all day.” The woman was like a tornado, bustling around the kitchen and filling a kettle from a water pump before setting it on the fire to boil.
“That would be lovely, Elsie,” I replied.
“Ivy, can you show Lady Fern?—?”
Ivy was a tall, slender girl who clutched a leather bound journal to her chest.
“Mum, I wanted to show Dain the drawing I did of Argent.”
“Oh for goodness sakes, Lacey then. Show Lady Fern to the guest room down the end. The nice one with the wash stand and make sure there’s fresh towels!”
“This way, Lady Fern,” a very pretty girl said with a quick bob of a curtsey.
I’d made the mistake of not grabbing my things from Auren’s saddle before she took off, but just washing my face would be a welcome thing. Flying through the air sounded so very romantic, but the reality meant you were blasted by drizzle, dust and even bugs the entire time.
“Thank you, Lacey,” I replied, following her upstairs. As I looked down the hall, I saw many, many doors. “This is quite the house.”
“Mum and Dad…” She looked over her shoulder at me. “They’ve been fostering children since before the war. Some of us are like Kael.” There was a little sigh at his name. “And are by-blows of the old duke. He sent Dad to kill those kids, but he just brought them here for Elsie to raise. Girls like me?”
Her lips pursed, then she turned and opened one of the doors right at the end of the hallway. Light streamed in through a huge window.
“We were orphaned by the war. I was living on the streets and some men…” Her throat bobbed. “They thought that meant I was theirs to use. Dad set them straight and brought me and the rest of the kids here as well.”
“You lost your parents?” I drew closer. “I’m so sorry, Lacey.”
“Lost the ones that birthed me, but…” She undid the curtain ties and drew them across the window, then plucked a pretty jug from the nearby washstand. “Elsie and Barry, they’re exactly what I needed.” I followed her gaze as she looked around the room, taking in the carved wooden bed, the large wardrobe. “Gave me somewhere safe, somewhere to work out what I wanted to do with my life, not forced to make my money on my back.”
“Oh…”
I was aware that some women sold their bodies to survive, but the fact children were coerced into that line of work had never occurred to me.
“I’ll just go and grab you some water,” she said, making for the door. “Be back in a tick.”
Sitting down on the bed, I let out a long breath before pulling off my helmet.
My hair was a mess. Trying to run my fingers through the mats made that clear, then I took a look in the mirror set above the wash stands. Gods… My hands shook as they went to my cheeks, seeing the rings of white skin where my goggles were, the rest ruddy brown from dirt. Then there was my hair. Tangled from riding Auren, bathing in the lake and then spending another day in the saddle, I looked positively frightful.
What on earth did Kael’s mother think when she saw me? I thought. No wonder she suggest I wash up.
And why does it matter what this woman thinks?Auren asked.
Human women don’t like to be seen as dirty and bedraggled as a rule, I replied.
So its not her good opinion you want, but all women’s?
