Night Falls Ch. 04

The Lady sat up in her bed, staring at the door as the room still rung with the sound of the man’s exit. How dare that animalistic man come into her rooms and call her a whore!

A servant shuffled her way across the room, trying to avoid the woman’s notice so she can slip away to her other duties. A rage at the woman’s impertinence rose in the Lady’s breast. She reacted, leaning over to pick up a porcelain jug of water from her bedside and throwing it across the room to crash against the wall just over the servant’s head.

The woman ducked, holding the place where blood welled already as the jug’s shards cut into her scalp. The woman looked up then, fear shining in her eyes, only to be rewarded with a cruel shriek to get out of the Lady’s sight. The servant broke down in tears, running from the room. She tripped before the doorway, shaking so hard she could hardly stand, reaching for the door afraid to look back at the woman as she stumbled out.

The Lady Iliana watched all of this with a cold detachment, light blue eyes that had once been soft and innocent in her flirting with the young men of the court in her seasons before marriage, now cold and angry most of her time. Little humor saw it’s way to those eyes now, except in times like this, when the ridiculousness of those around her touched her interest. Rising from her bed, she ignored the clench of pain caused by her body adjusting after the birth.

Scowling at the few hairs that had fallen from her pale blonde coif, she screamed for her servant, standing nude beside her bed. The harried teenager came closer, dropping a curtsy as required by etiquette.

“You called, M’Lady” The soft shy voice came across the room, her eyes dropped to the ground as not to look on the woman’s form in this state.

Iliana noted this, amused by it. “Dare not look at me? Am I not beautiful since I have had my children.”

The young girl babbled, floundering for words. “Of course you are, M’Lady. I merely wished that I not offend by staring.” Yes those words seemed placating enough.

Iliana chuckled, amused by the youth’s embarrassment. “Then do not offend me by looking away. Look child, and pray when you populate the lower classes with your bastards that you remain your figure as I have.”

The girl gasped at the words, not sure how she had deserved the cutting word the woman used and dark thoughts of her own balking at the Lady’s use of the word bastard when it was well known the two children of his house were both exactly that.

No one was fooled by the name the children carried and yet the Lord loved the children so deeply another’s name for them would have seemed a crime against the family somehow. But the Lady’s vanity must be sated, if for no other reason than the money desperately needed to keep the girl’s family eating the next week.

Raising her deep brown eyes, she lets them roam over the nude woman, taking pleasure in the sight of stretch marks, indentions in the skin, sagging where the woman’s pregnancies were showing none too flatteringly in her carefully maintained pale porcelain skin.

The glimmer of humor and enjoyment in the young woman’s eyes was immediately misinterpreted in the ego of the woman before her and the Lady Iliana smiled, a wolfish smirk that screamed of self assurance in their own sexual prowess. Her voice came out a velvet purr, as she looked the young woman before her over with her own curiosity.

“You can touch, young one. I will not harm you for doing so.” This had the young woman squirming, her stomach twisting at the idea of touching the Lady, as it would obviously lead to more and the woman had no interest in such things.

Feigning deep religion, she begged off with words that her mother would whip her and her God condemn her for even the thought of touching another woman as was suggested. Iliana scowled, seeing this for the excuse it was and banished the youth, snatching at her robes to cover herself in her embarrassment.

The girl stopped at the door, tugging gently at her wheat colored hair as she watched the Lady’s ego crack and crumble in that moment. At least she didn’t get hurt as the older woman before her had, and she ducked out of the room glad for it.

What neither woman noticed was a small body that stood to one side of the doorway, in the shadows. A tiny face, so serene for one so young, turned up in prayer, the words slipping off of rosebud lips. Hands clasped to his well-tailored shirt, bright green eyes closed tight as he prayed for his mother’s soul, for the anger and violence…and of course for the scene he had just witnessed with the servant girl. With an Amen, whispered a bit louder but with the reverence of a man deep and years into his faith, he looked back to see his mother laid over her dressing table sobbing.

He thought to go to her, his stocking feet taking him a few steps closer to the cracked open door when he heard a set of steps in the hallway and he ducked back into the shadows, stretched on his toes against the wall to make himself invisible. He closed his eyes tight, holding his breathe as the woman passed by him with the sleeping infant, and only as the smell of new baby touched his nose did he dare to open one eye a crack to watch the servant.

The woman was far too engrossed in the angel in her arms to look around for anyone in the hallway, so his efforts were nothing but comical for the mice that might have witnessed the drama of the young boy. He stayed where he was, not moving as the servant moved out into the hallway, closing the doorway carefully behind her as not to wake the child.

When the woman finally was gone, he looked back at his mother, who had seemed to settle and gone back to lay down, the exhaustion of her efforts taking over to force her to rest. Knowing that she was well and no longer in need of him, he passed the hallway, sneaking carefully across the plush run carpets over the hardwood floors.

Carefully he twisted the doorknob on the children’s suites, slipping inside and very carefully closing the door after him. As he released the doorknob, the lock slipped into place with a loud clank that made him near jump from his skin. He looked around carefully, waiting for the sleeping Nanny to wake and scream at him for being out of the room, but she slept on, snoring loudly.

A faint smile touched his face at that, relieved to be spared one more argument with the older woman. Passing her form slouched in a chair in the playroom, he moved to the room they had spent the past months preparing for the new child. The door was still open, as to let some air circulate in the spacious room.

A soft sound came from the intricate bed created for the little Lady and he moved towards it with almost reverent steps, cautious and curious at the same time. Tugging a chair over to the side and climbing upon it, he was suddenly confronted with a set of wide icy blue silver eyes.

They stared up at him with a sense of strength and curiosity, looking him over carefully as if to place him in her life. Whatever she found in that look seemed to hit her the right way, because a smile curved her tiny full lips and she curled her fingers a bit in a motion almost like a wave. Morgan stared down at her, stunned, finally coming down to his knees on the chair to rest his arms on the edge of the bed to be closer to her.

One small hand reached out to press his fingers against hers. “Lord is with you, sister.” He said this with all the faith of a priest and all the heart of a saint, serious and mature even at his grand five years of existence. The baby smiled up at him again, though the expression soon melted into a massive yawn and her heavy lids dropped.

She was content, safe and her knight protector had just arrived and taken to his sentinel. This was a bond that would go far beyond the death of each of them, but this moment was when it was deepest. The faith and trust of innocent youth, unclouded by conflict, pain or guilt…this was pure.

Morgan watched her sleep for long minutes, making sure she would not stir again before he could see it. Sliding down from the chair, the tired little man went to his chambers, pulling the coverings from his bed to drag them to her bedside. Spreading them out on the floor, he curled up in the soft fabric, tugging it over as a impromptu beg as he took up his watch over his new little princess.