Ellowyn’s face twisted thoughtfully. She looked around the room, her thoughts moving from one to another.
“What is your name?” she asked the servant.
“Gilbert, my lady,” he replied.
“Who does the cooking here?”
Gilbert pointed to his right, towards a darkened alcove. She could see an open door at the end of the alcove.
“Servants, my lady,” he replied. “Men servants. They served the duke’s father.”
Ellowyn’s eyebrows lifted. “They must be very old.”
Gilbert simply nodded, both fearfully and eagerly, and skittered after Ellowyn as she proceeded through the alcove and out of the feasting hall.
The kitchen yard was vast, backing up all the way to the outer wall. There were various small structures; chicken coop, pig pen, goats roaming free, sheep penned near the outer wall, a buttery that was made of uneven gray stone and resembled a bee hive. There was also an enormous stone oven that was blazing in the early evening and a fire pit near the oven contained the carcass of a sheep, roasting on the open flame.
Everything was fairly open, unlike the kitchen at Erith that was actually enclosed on the lower level of the keep. There were two big, burly men carting around sides of meat and other things, obviously preparing for the coming meal. Gilbert, a nervous little man, made haste to run them both down and bring them to Ellowyn.
As the men drew near, Ellowyn could see that they were indeed quite old. If they served Brandt’s father, then they had to be nearly ancient. One man was big and bald, perhaps once muscular that had now gone to fat, and the other man had long gray hair, huge hands, and was missing an eye. Ellowyn was a bit taken aback at the “cooks” of Guildford. She had only known women cooks, not two old men who looked more like thieves or murderers.
“I am Lady de Russe,” she said, introducing herself. “I wanted to see who it was that prepares the meals for the duke.”
The two big men bowed to her while Gilbert fluttered at her side nervously. “This is John, my lady,” Gilbert said, pointing to the man with the long gray hair. “His companion is Lune. Lune cannot speak, my lady, but he will understand you.”
Ellowyn nodded in understanding. “I am told you both served the duke’s father.”
Eyeless John nodded. “My father served the duke’s father, my lady,” he replied. “I have served Exeter all of my life. We travel with his army.”
She cocked her head. “Truly?” she said. “I never saw you.”
“We did not go with the duke to Erith, my lady,” John replied. “We came straight from the docks.”
“Ah,” she understood. “Then you were with the group that Arundel sent away.”
“Aye, my lady.”
Ellowyn understood now. She thanked the men and headed back to the hall, still on a quest to find her husband, but she feltas if she were coming to know Guildford a little better. It was to be her home, after all. It was important she understand the workings so she could better oversee the operations.
The hall was starting to fill in with some of Brandt’s lesser knights, whom he had not yet introduced her to. In fact, Ellowyn realized that he had mostly kept her to himself bottled up in the keep for the past three days. Furthermore, whenever she had moved from the keep, he or another knight had been by her side. She had never been alone. Just as she pondered that particular realization, she ran straight into Brandt, who was just entering the hall.
It was a collision of sorts as he reached out to keep her from falling over. Startled, she gasped until she saw who it was. Then, a smile lit up her face even though she saw that he wasn’t smiling in return. In fact, he looked rather perturbed.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded quietly.
She picked up on his tone but wasn’t sure why he was irritated. “I came to look for you,” she said. “The women are working on the keep right now but I need straw for the mattress. There was no one to ask so I came to find you.”
He sighed sharply, looking around at the men milling in the great hall, and took her by the arm. Leading her out into the deepening night, he spoke as he escorted her towards the motte.
“You must never go anywhere without an escort,” he told her. “Too much can happen and I do not want you in danger.”
She looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
He looked down his nose at her. “Do you remember when we were in the garden of Erith?” he asked, watching recognition register on her features. “I told you there are assassins in my ranks. You have seen the evidence with your own eyes. You should have thought about that before you went wandering around without an armed escort.”
She was contrite and defiant at the same time. “So I am to have no freedom at all?”
“You can have all the freedom you want provided you have a proper escort.”
