Bondmaiden (18 page)

‘You did, very much,’ she said, and popped a kiss on his stubbly cheek.

As they bade farewell to the blacksmith and cautiously crept from the forge, Lia discovered that Elfrida had another major surprise for her, for she started off in the wrong direction.

‘Not that way!’ Lia hissed, keeping her voice low. ‘It will take us back from where we’ve come!’

‘Exactly,’ Elfrida said calmly. ‘That’s where I have to go.’

‘But you can’t!’ Lia protested. ‘You’ll be caught!’

‘Perhaps so; but that’s not important. What’s important is that I help Baran if I can, whose welfare is infinitely more important to Attland than my own. That’s why we’re going back, to help Baran and my mother and Magdalena. If it’s my fate to be captured or killed, so be it.’

Nothing Lia said could dissuade her, so back they went, dodging Osburg men along the way, all the while heading, Lia was convinced, to their doom.

The castle walls looked forbidding, and though Elfrida’s wish to help her family was commendable, Lia did wonder how in the name of all the saints they were supposed to get in and achieve that.

They were hiding behind a pile of garbage just as close to the postern gate as they could safely get. They’d already crept close to the main gate but found it just as heavily guarded as before, so the small postern gate still seemed their best bet. But Lia remained deeply unhappy about it all, remembering the sacrifice Velda had made to get them out; an unnecessary sacrifice it now seemed, with Elfrida so determined to go back in.

They waited and waited, and though the princess grew increasingly frustrated and impatient she agreed they could hardly walk up to the door and knock. Finally it opened, and Kerta came out lugging two big buckets. Lia couldn’t imagine why the laundress should be taking out garbage, for that was a kitchen servant’s job and no one else’s. Kerta struggled across the footbridge and tipped the first bucket on the heap just yards from where they were hiding, then wearily hoisted up the second.

‘Kerta!’ Lia hissed. ‘Over here!’

The laundress looked up, startled, and she was even more startled when she spied Lia and an unknown serf peering over the dung heap. ‘Lia?’ she said, casting an anxious glance back over her shoulder. ‘Is that you? We thought you were dead. Who’s that with you?’

‘It’s me, Princess Elfrida.’

Kerta stared as though a madwoman were speaking, so Elfrida pushed her hair back from her face and Kerta’s jaw fell. ‘M-my lady,’ she gasped, giving a clumsy curtsey.

‘We have to get in,’ Elfrida said. ‘Are the guards still there?’

‘Y-yes, my lady; t-two of them!’

‘Why are you taking out rubbish?’ Lia asked.

‘Well,’ Kerta said, confused, ‘who else should do it?’

‘No, I mean who’s left in the kitchen? Is Tilda still there?’

‘No, the soldiers took her. There’s just Holmann and Dagna and old Berta and me.’

‘Dagna,’ Lia echoed with relief. ‘She’ll do. Kerta, you must come again at dusk. Bring more rubbish, and bring Dagna too. She’s to lure the guards away from the gate and keep them occupied, you understand? She’s to do whatever it takes, even if that means fucking them. You must bring two clean smocks and slippers for the princess and me. Once Dagna’s lured the guards away from the gate you come out and get us; we’ll be waiting right here. Have you got all that?’

‘Yes, I think so.’

‘My lady,’ Lia said, affording Elfrida her proper title for Kerta’s benefit, ‘please command her to do as I say, and command Dagna through her. She might not take any notice of me.’

Elfrida did so and Kerta curtseyed once more. Lia would have dearly liked to ask about Durwin and Velda, but that would have to wait until later. The guards might come at any time, wondering why Kerta was taking so long to empty two buckets. They sent the laundress back, while they themselves slipped away to hide until nightfall.

Lia’s plan worked perfectly. At dusk Kerta came out of the gate and hurried over to them. She handed them the smocks and slippers and they changed into them quickly, dropping their old clothes on the rubbish heap. Lia felt a little guilty about leaving Winifride’s old blue gown lying in the dirt, but safety was more important than sentimentality. As they went inside Lia heard grunting sounds from a nearby lean-to, and a man’s voice telling someone to suck harder.

‘Dagna,’ she muttered. ‘They’re fucking her, then.’

Kerta nodded. ‘Both together, one at each end.’

They crossed to the keep and made their way to the kitchen without incident, where Holmann seemed awestruck at being face to face with the princess, as though he hadn’t quite believed what Kerta told him. He stammered answers to their questions, though it was Lia who did most of the asking. King Ulric was indeed dead, murdered in his sleep by Torkel’s assassins just as Willem the archer had said. Elfrida was distraught, though she’d known it for days.

‘I-I’m very sorry, my lady,’ Holmann said, wringing his hands. ‘Shall I… do you wish me to go on?’

‘Yes,’ Elfrida said quietly. ‘Please do.’

The news got no better, for they learned Queen Gudrun and Princess Magdalena were being held prisoner in the royal apartments. Kerta, who had taken food there, said they were being harshly treated, and had even been interrogated under torture. Though no one had any knowledge of Velda’s whereabouts, Holmann was adamant that Prince Baran had been neither killed nor captured, but was presumably in hiding somewhere.

‘The prince wasn’t in the castle when they attacked,’ he explained. ‘I overheard the officers talking. They caught Karl, the prince’s bondman, and tortured him with hot irons. He told them the prince was in the town visiting…’ His voice trailed away and he licked his lips nervously.

‘Go on,’ Elfrida said without rancour. ‘Who was he visiting?’

‘It’s just what I heard, my lady,’ he said apologetically. ‘They said… he was visiting a merchant’s wife while the merchant was away.’

Elfrida smiled grimly. ‘Trust my brother. Saved not through a brave and noble act, but by his lecherous ways. If we live through this I’ll never hear the end of it.’

‘What happened to Tilda and Durwin?’ Lia asked.

‘The Osburg soldiers took them away,’ Holmann said. ‘They took Jarold and Clady as well. It’s not hard to guess why they wanted the young women, but why take the young men?’

No one had an answer to that.

‘Why didn’t they take Dagna too?’ Lia asked.

‘They did,’ Holmann said, ‘but I told the officers I couldn’t feed ’em. I’d lost five kitchen staff, I explained, and it was just me and Berta down here. They said I could have one more helper, so I asked for Dagna; and they gave her back to me, saints be praised. Three still wasn’t enough mind, so I fetched Kerta from the laundry. It’s hard work feeding ’em all, for there’s dozens of the devils. They’re all over the keep.’

Negotiating with the enemy in such a way could be construed as treason, Lia guessed, but Elfrida seemed prepared to overlook it. It was fortunate the overseer did what he did, for without Dagna to distract the guards at the postern gate Lia knew she and Elfrida would never have got back in.

‘We have to help my mother and sister,’ Elfrida said when Holmann fell silent. ‘Freeing them is our main priority now.’

‘How many men are watching them, Kerta?’ Lia asked. ‘Are the guards quartered right there in the royal apartments, or lower down?’

Such information was vital if they were to attempt a rescue, but the laundress didn’t have any answers. So there was only one way to find out. Kerta volunteered to go and spy, as did Dagna, who’d just returned looking flushed and not a little discomforted. Elfrida glanced at Lia, and though she didn’t ask outright, for this was a perilous duty, it was clear she wanted her bondmaiden to go.

‘I’ll do it,’ Lia said, thinking that having a princess’s trust was a double-edged sword.

She made her way up the back stairs in her kitchen servant guise once more, with a basket of bread and jug of wine for an excuse. At one point she was obliged to press tight against the wall to let three men squeeze by on their way down. They ignored her, all except the last, who took a loaf from her basket and tickled her under the chin in payment. These weren’t rough soldiers like the ones in the town, but well-dressed officers with quick, intelligent eyes. She would need to keep her wits about her if she wanted to come through alive.

When she reached the royal apartments she glanced first into Velda’s bedchamber, half hoping to see her there; but a man’s armour and weapons lay on the bed and there was no sign of Velda. The sound of a woman sobbing drew her on, to a door that was ajar, and she peeped inside to discover a richly furnished bedchamber. A naked woman lay spread-eagled on a four-poster bed, her legs elevated and her wrists and ankles tied to the corner posts. In the room with her were two soldiers. One sat at the foot of the bed regarding the woman, while the other stood looking on.

The one on the bed turned to his companion. ‘Pass me the goad.’

‘Mercy!’ the woman sobbed. ‘Have mercy!’

Lia, remembering what Kerta had said about interrogation under torture, wondered if it was Queen Gudrun, though somehow she doubted it. There was nothing regal in the woman’s demeanour, so maybe she was one of the ladies-in-waiting. On the other hand, perhaps even a queen could be reduced to begging by such loathsome treatment.

The standing man handed the other what appeared to be a stout metal needle set into a wooden handle, with which he began to prick in and around the woman’s anus, causing her to writhe and moan pitifully. He did so for many minutes, during which time not a single question was put to the victim.

‘Why don’t you try her clit?’ the standing observer eventually prompted.

‘Later,’ the other replied. ‘I’m happy with her arse right now. Just watch it pucker up when I do this. It’s funny.’

‘With respect, captain, we’re not here for that. We’re here to get information on Baran.’

‘She doesn’t know anything,
sergeant
. If she did she’d have told us yesterday, wouldn’t she? Two hours with the pincers will loosen any woman’s tongue, even a queen’s. She’s not holding anything back.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so.’

‘Then why the hell are we doing this, sir?’

The captain winked. ‘Because it’s fun.’

Lia moved on. The next room was empty, but in the one after that a young woman was sitting on the bed, her back to the wall and her knees drawn up, with a sheet pulled up to her chin. She looked like an older, slightly plumper version of Elfrida, with the same eyes and the same pouting mouth. Lia guessed this was Princess Magdalena.

Footsteps echoed along the passage, heading her way, and Lia scuttled forward to the next turning. She peeped back around the corner and saw a soldier enter Magdalena’s room carrying a tray. ‘Supper, princess,’ he said cheerfully as he went in.

Lia crept back and looked inside. The young woman was wiping her eyes with a corner of the sheet. ‘Where’s my mother?’ she said. ‘Why won’t you let me see her?’

The soldier set the tray down on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed. He patted her leg through the sheet. ‘Just tell us where Prince Baran is and I’ll take you to her.’

‘I don’t know where he is,’ Magdalena said sulkily. ‘Don’t you think I’d tell you if I did?’

The man sighed. ‘You want the cord, is that it?’

She shook her head, dropping her gaze. The soldier stared at her, then took hold of the sheet, tugging gently, and she resisted him. ‘Leave me alone,’ she mumbled.

‘Come on, princess,’ he said, letting go of the sheet. ‘No point in making this difficult.’

He unfastened his shirt and drew it over his head, then stood up and took off his hose and braies. His cock was semi-erect, and he rubbed it lewdly until it stood straight and hard. Then he spat in his palm and smeared it on the glans. ‘Come on.’

He grasped the sheet once more and tugged it harder from her hands. She was naked beneath and drew her knees tight to her breasts, clasping her arms around her shins. The soldier sat down and grasped her wrist. Magdalena struggled briefly, then seemed to lose any strength in her limbs. He pulled her unresisting across the bed and onto his lap, her back to him.

‘No, please,’ she moaned, but he merely lifted her with one arm around her waist, fumbling beneath her bottom with his other hand as she stiffened and whimpered.

‘Come on, princess,’ he drooled in her ear, ‘you know you want to.’ She shook her head, sobbing, as he nuzzled her neck and nibbled her earlobe. When she didn’t respond he cupped and squeezed her breasts. ‘We don’t want to have to bind these again, do we?’ he threatened. ‘Shall I tell Lang to bring the cord?’

‘No.’

‘No, course not. So let’s go. You’re getting to be an old hand at this, aren’t you?’

‘But it hurts.’

‘I know,’ he chuckled, ‘but that’s the idea, isn’t it? Just tell us where your brother is and no one will fuck your arse ever again, that’s a promise.’

‘But I don’t know. I’ve told you, he’s always going off somewhere. He never tells Elfi and me where he goes.’

‘Where’s Elfrida, then?’

‘I don’t know! Why won’t you believe me? Velda took her somewhere, that’s all I know. Let me go, please!’