Candle in the Window Read Online Free PDF

are going to scrub the
kitchen,” Lady Saura announced. “All the walls, the
ceiling, the floors; all thepots, the pans, the
spit, the ovens. We’ll be done by sundown.”
    And at sundown:
    “We are not finished cleaning the kitchen.
I’m sorry, Lord Peter, there is nowhere else to cook for the
castle. Until the serfs are done, we must all go hungry.”
    William grinned at his father’s bellow and
realized how long it had been since his mouth had stretched back in
pure amusement. The sore muscles elongated, and he grinned again
for the joy of grinning.
    Actually, That Woman didn’t say much to him.
Actually, she ignored him. There were no more challenges like the
one she had flung the first night. As she had promised, he appeared
to be no more to her than a piece of furniture, his rehabilitation
a poor second to the purging of the keep. Perhaps he had imagined
her interest in him. Perhaps she didn’t care about a blind
beggar like himself.
    Still, her voice delighted his ear. A rare feminine
voice, soft and strong, it supported a range of emotion that
clearly foretold her moods. It was as if she had stopped and
listened to herself and modulated her voice to be pleasant.
    He liked to hear her exasperation as she scolded
the giant dog who adopted her, adored her, tripped her, and
protected her with an amiable fierceness. He especially liked to
hear the iron in her as she dealt with the churls’ deliberate
incompetence.
    “The trestle tables need to be placed against
the walls after breakfast,” Lady Saura announced. “Good
people, today we remove the rushes from the floor. They abound with
fleas. I’m tired of hearing the dogs scratch and I’m
tired of hearing you scratch.”
    In the muttering and shuffling one woman’s
complaint echoed up to the arches. “That’s foolish. New
rushes won’t growtall till late summer,
an’ th’ floor’ll be bare. Lady Anne never made us
change th’ rushes in th’ spring.”
    “When did she make you change them,
Hawisa?” Lady Saura asked courteously.
    “Why, in th’ fall, of course.”
Hawisa snorted with derision, leading the chorus of laughter that
jeered at the lady’s ignorance.
    “ Last fall?” Saura’s voice dripped sarcasm, and when the
laughter died, her voice cracked the whip. “The floor will be
bare until new rushes are grown, and you’ll clean the floor
daily as atonement for your sloth. Today, we will remove the rushes
and brush the floor.”
    The work proceeded at a crawl, and once when Alden
shouted at the slow servants, Lady Saura hushed him. Pricking his
ears, William listened for That Woman’s retribution, and as
bedtime approached she did not disappoint him.
    “Where’re our blankets?”
    “Blankets?” Lady Saura asked
blankly.
    “Th’ blankets we wrap ourselves in
t’ sleep.”
    “The blankets have been taken for washing.
The servants will be finished with them.” William could
almost see the pucker on her face. “About the time these
rushes are burned and the floors purged.”
    “We can’t sleep on those benches
without blankets. ’Tis still too cold.”
    “I suppose you’ll have to lie in the
rushes you have piled up,” Lady Saura answered without
interest.
    “But they’re rotten.”
    “Aye.”
    Listening to her, day after day, he became quite
fond of the clever way she dealt with the childish evasions of the
serfs, hearing their grumbles as they began to do as she ordered
without question. Only a few held out, still sidestepping herauthority, and William began to feel impatience
boil within him. These flunkies were questioning the authority of a
woman of his class, a woman who spoke Norman French and understood
whole phrases of the barbaric English tongue. This woman demanded
nothing more of them than that they earn their supper.
    “Today is the day we have longed for,”
Lady Saura announced at breakfast. “As soon as the trestle
tables are removed, we will shovel out the garderobes.”
    A universal groan rose from the