the Leathermines

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Laun could not sleep.  The number of bodies did not matter.  There had been a few people who asked to come into the sleeping room that Laun welcomed that night.  She had then been invited to participate in their amorous pursuits.  Laun did not have to feign a headache, but asked them to continue.  She was fascinated with the different way people did the same things.  And that night, she was introduced to women going down on men.

It was educational and entertaining.  She knew she would have to try it out herself at some point.  Just not right then.  Others came in, some for sleep, some for something a little more active.  Laun welcomed all.

Close to mid night, most of the people around her seemed to be asleep.  The ones not were soon to be by the time it took them to answer the lover’s talk.  Laun could not sleep.  And Edgar had not come to bed.  And neither had Fount.

One or the other, not unusual as they had set up some sort of schedule.  Laun had not been able to talk to Edgar about the three who had been sent out yet.  He needed to know that night.

Laun got up and pulled on a tunic.  She was not sure it was the one she had been wearing before she went to bed.  It smelled like lavender and tallow, not the sweat and dust that she thought hers had.  She motioned to the privy to the wardsman standing outside the door and he nodded.

She knew all the ways to get anywhere in the castle and keep if you wanted to avoid being seen.  She used her bare-footedness to advantage as she was much quieter than most of the people who were still up at that time of night.  She had not put that knowledge to work to this extent since she had come back to the keep.  She was able to duck around several protector patrols, one couple in a dark corner that was not as private as they thought it was and was able to come to one of the doorways to the Great Hall.

It was just as she expected.  Many of the wardsmen were in the light of one of the fires.  Both Edgar and Fount were there and it looked like Edgar was unhappy.  It also looked like he had been drinking.  His tone was angry, his speech slightly slurred.  Fount was quiet as usual, but steadily staring at one of the wardsmen.  Laun could only see the man from the back, but she thought it was the one she had been fondled by several mornings before.  And another of the men who had invited himself into the chamber and been rough, not to Laun, but to another of the women and had to be asked to leave.  And several of the other wardsmen who had seemed to become distant were also there.

Fount was starting to unnerve her by how he was almost unblinking in the way he was looking at the man.  Sometimes, silence was as good as yelling.  With Edgar doing the yelling, the two of them were really making a team.

Laun slipped into the room and stood in the shadow that was right next to the fireplace.

“... to ask, damnit!  And not me.  Or Fount.”  Fount twitched his eyes to Edgar and Edgar held out his hands, one with a sloshing tankard, towards the younger man.  “Yes, we would like to be asked, but it is up to her.  And remember, she is our Lady.  The head of the household.”

One of the men who she had not been able to talk to for several days said something she could not quite hear, and before she could try to piece it together, Edgar said, “And you didn’t when you first found your cock?”  The other man mumbled something else and Edgar stepped towards him.  “Xavor, it is the same! She is... All the women here have done as much as we have!  Let her have fun.  She wants you to have fun.”  Edgar took another swig of what was left in his tankard.

Fount stood and slowly turned until he was facing Edgar.  “Brother, this is something that should be discussed in the daylight.”  He held out his arm and Edgar grasped it, hand to elbow, as warriors.  Fount started towards the door that was the direct way to the sleeping chamber.  Laun ran as soon as she could and reached the sleeping chamber first.  Several people had the first inklings that there may be ghosts that night when they saw just a flit of a form, but no sound and could not see where the figure had come from, as well as gone to.

She regretted not really finding the privy, but she was in the bedding surrounded by sleeping people when Fount came in.  He undressed in the anti-chamber and seemed to take quite a bit of time.  When he approached the mat, Laun moved the quilt she was under so he would join her.

Fount held her and moved his hand to her cheeks.  “Laun, you seem cold, except your face.  And you are breathing hard.  Are you alright?”

Laun lied for the first time she could remember.  Outright lied, and it made a stone in her stomach.  “I was having a nightmare and found I was not under the covers.  What time is it, anyway?”

Fount pulled her close to warm her.  “Late enough to try to get some sleep.”

Laun moved and snuggled into his chest.  She still did not feel sleepy, but she let her breathing slow.  She felt Fount’s do the same and soon he was doing the half-snore he did before he was completely asleep.  Laun tested him by turning over.  He woke slightly and stroked the hair over her ear.  He started to breathe deeply and went under.

Laun took another few minutes and had to decide.  Go and find Edgar or wait until morning.  He was going to be upset that he was not in the meeting.  Laun had to.

She slid out of the pile again and found her clothes, including sandals and someone’s cloak.  When she went back out, she said, “I think it was the fish.”  The wardsman nodded and went back to being bored.

Laun took a slightly different route and came to the Great Hall.  She still made only a little noise even with the sandals.  She made scuffing sounds and Edgar, who was now mostly alone in the firelight turned to see what had made the noise.  He motioned the cloaked figure to him and smiled when he saw who it was.  He made a sloppy bow and took her hand.

“Edgar, how much ale have you actually had?”  Laun took the tankard from him and found that it was water.  He winked and had a wicked glint in his eye.

“My Lady, shall we go to bed?”  Edgar drew her in and they started to walk.

They came to a stretch of corridor that was secluded.  Laun wrapped her arms around him with the cloak.  “What, Sworn, have you been up to?”

Laun could feel the arch in his eyebrow even if she could not see it.  “What ever do you mean, My Lady Love?”  Her back had those wonderful tremors as he spoke to her in the deep voice.

She let out a small gasp and said, “You are doing that to change the subject.”

“Yes, My Lady.”  Edgar went into kiss her and she backed off.  He went to pull her back to him and she grabbed his wrist.  Hard.  He stopped, and again, Laun could feel that he was looking at her, this time with shock.

“Decide what you will do next after I tell you the news I have.”

Edgar did pull her close and said, “You mean?  You are?”

“I am what?  Edgar, pay attention!”  It was easy to tell what most of him was paying attention to by the bulge pressing into her.

“Yes, My Lady Love.”

Laun took her hands and placed them on either side of his stubbly face.  “Geralk is gone.”

“He-”  Edgar dropped his hands from her back.  “What do you mean?”

Laun wanted so much not to continue, but she had to.  “Marie sent a message and he went to find her.  And took one of the teams with him.”

The sworn pulled away, the cloak dropping from around them.  His tone was much sterner as he said, “Why was I not informed before?”

“There was no... No.  I decided that the least number of people needed to know.  If Dreng had known, he would have taken too long to do something about honoring them or something.  They left tonight right after evening meal.”

Edgar seemed to be struggling with something.  “I hope the mission goes well, Lady.  With your permission...”  He turned and strode away back towards the Great Hall.

Laun let him go.  She knew.  And it did not make it any easier.

She went back to the sleeping chamber and went through the whole clothes and cleaning ritual.  A lantern was still lit but low and she was able to see that the bodies had shifted.  She found a place along one side and laid down.  Her back was against the wall, a tapestry barely keeping the cold of the stone from her.  She listened to the breathing around her, trying to find a rhythm to match her own breathing to.  There were many to choose from.  And none of them helped her to get to sleep.

What was keeping her up?  Her body was screaming for rest, but her mind would not shut down.  She tried to ferret out what it was.  Nervous that she might have sent people from her household out to their deaths.  Upset that she had not included Edgar or Fount, mostly Edgar.  Unhappy that she had told him so awkwardly.  The need to keep everything working when she did not know how things worked.

She had been spending time with different people doing different things to find out how things did work.  She had not known what it took to do all that the household needed until that dreaded summer.  Laun was glad she did know more, it just made it more difficult to keep some things straight.  It just added to the cascading lists she had building in her head.

Perhaps that was part of it.  She needed to use the few letters she knew and write some of what was in her head down.  If it were on paper, it may leave her alone in the middle of the night.  Was that what was keeping her awake?

Evidently not.  Laun turned so that her face was inches away from the tapestry.  She could not remember which one it was.  The one with the orchard?  The one with the fantastical creatures?  Wait... The one with the orchard.

Laun opened her eyes and with the guttering of the lamp was able to see the tapestry.  She was too close, but she could tell it was the one with the orchard.

It was a tapestry she remembered since when she was a small child.  It had been in Lady Hellon’s room along with one other that depicted the castle.  It had been a matched set.  Laun remembered playing in Lady Hellon’s room and hiding behind the hanging embroidered cloths, thinking that the women in the room could not see her.  Laun smiled thinking of how innocent she had been kept through most of her life.

She flashed on when she was behind the tapestry.  She could see through it, like a trail of light that showed her the women carefully ignoring her.  And something else.  The words.  She could not remember what they said.  Laun chastised herself simply by reminding herself that she did not know how to read then, how would she know what it had said?

Since it was at the fore of her mind, she decided, under the pretext of airing out the room, she would have the tapestries taken outside so she could see if what she remembered was there.  Another list of things having to do with arranging that started in her mind and she finally drifted off to sleep.

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