Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page B

shoes off the table and
quickly put them on. In a hurry now, she swung her cloak off a wall
peg beside the door and draped it around her shoulders. She made
herself slow down and eased the latch up.
    She crept down the stairwell and near hugged
the walls as she made her way through the great hall. Pallets
covered much of the floor, and whenever a restless sleeper turned,
she froze until they settled again. Between loud, grating snores
and thunderous farts, her footfalls went unheard.
    Once outside, she paid heed to the guards
atop the wall-walks as she quickly went from shadow to shadow to
the herbal garden. Carpenters had built a workshop against the
outer wall there for her mother. She took the key from her cloak's
pocket and gathered the heavy wool around the lock to make a
cushion. As she cautiously turned the key, the cloth muffled the
sound of the lock snapping open.
    Even as a young girl, she had enjoyed
preparing potions and such here with Aunt Joneta, using recipes her
mother had recorded on old parchments too worn to use for carrying
messages. Inside the warm interior and beneath the dried herbs
hanging from the roof-beams, stood a long wooden table where she
and her aunt had mixed elixirs, purgatives, prepared tinctures and
stirred rubbing oils when their stocks were low. She took a deep
breath, enjoying the smell of the drying herbs, knowing that when
she lived, her mother had breathed the same scents.
    Bottles, jars and flagons, some with oils and
others with wine distilled with herbs, filled the shelves along the
back wall. She pulled a three-legged stool over and stood atop it
to retrieve a small vessel near out of sight on the top shelf.
    Since her first worrisome suitor had pricked
her ire, she had stored a bit of honeysuckle plant chopped so fine
it was near powder in a jar and sealed it with a wax lid. It was
ready for use in case a man was not sufficiently afeared of the old
crone to leave her in peace. A small amount cured locked bowels; a
larger amount also caused vomiting. She removed the correct amount
for a man Graemme's size and funneled it into a vial.
    On her way back out the door, she spied the
drying racks where purple-black plums picked at the edge of
ripeness and dried until they shrank and crystallized into gummy
sweetness. Each Sunday, she gave some to the cook to spread on her
father's porridge. It helped relieve his excesses in eating the
sennight before. She grabbed a goodly portion of these and wrapped
them in a small linen cloth. Storing everything in her pocket, she
returned to her room.
    o0o
    When Graemme entered the bedchamber, the maid
Ada was plumping his pillows. As she turned to leave the room, she
had one hand on the door latch then hesitated, looking uneasy.
    "Sir, my mistress is kind and wouldn't want
to see you harmed. 'Twould be best if ye didn't sleep within the
castle this night. 'Tis rumored amongst the villagers that a
warlock has taken a fancy to the Chief's daughter."
    "Oh? Would this warlock be the Black Raptor?
I hardly think he would 'take a fancy' to his own sister."
    "Nay!" Ada blushed at the thought. "'Tis an
evil man my mistress refused. He wants no human to have her. If you
sleep within, he will send his minion to lay a curse on you. I am
sure you heard of the many men who fled screaming at first light,
never to be seen again?"
    "I canna say that I have." Graham tried hard
to keep a serious look on is face. "Thank yer mistress for the
warning. I will take heed."
    Ada nodded, looked satisfied, and slipped
through the doorway.
    When her footsteps receded, he wondered what
Ada was up to. He stripped and flung himself on the bed and
welcomed the cold air on his naked body. He stretched arms and legs
wide, rumpling the bed sheets as he sought to relieve muscles too
long kept tense from meeting with the girl's father. He had not let
his guard down even for a breath after the threat to his ballocks,
expecting he would need to fight or take flight at any moment.