Page 278 of Historical Hotties
With that, he kissed her and left the kitchen yard, leaving Caledonia standing with two children she’d given birth to but who didn’t know her at all.
She was determined to change that.
God help her, she was.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The cleaning andfeeding of Janet and Joan de Tosni was a monumental task.
Caledonia struggled to put aside her emotions, her innate guilt, and focus on the duty at hand as she took her daughters inside to begin reversing the process that Madam Madonna had started. Entering the keep itself was an interesting experience because she had always been limited as to the rooms she could visit. She and Robert had separate bedchambers, and hers was on the top floor with the servants and quite possibly the smallest chamber in the entire keep, while Robert had the large chamber on the next floor down and Madam Madonna had the room next to his.
The old nurse was still watching over her charge.
The daughters slept in what was essentially an alcove in Madam Madonna’s large and spacious chamber. Caledonia figured this out when she took the girls inside and wanted to know where they kept their clean clothing. As it turned out, they didn’t have any clean clothing. They only had the clothes on their back. Janet took her to Madam Madonna’s chamber, which was lavishly furnished, and then showed her mother the small alcove that had three little mattresses on the ground. There weren’teven any blankets. The saving grace was probably the fact that the alcove was next to the hearth, so even in cold weather, the girls wouldn’t freeze. But seeing how her children had been raised not only increased her guilt—it fueled a fire of rage in her that seemed to be gaining intensity by the moment.
Nicola eventually found her in Madam Madonna’s chamber, and when Caledonia explained the situation to her, Nicola was suitably outraged. However, she had one thing that Caledonia didn’t have—the fact that she was somewhat emotionally detached from the situation. She had a better perspective on what needed to happen and how it needed to happen, and as Caledonia convinced her daughters that they needed to take a bath, Nicola swung into action.
The first thing she did was rummage through Madam Madonna’s personal possessions looking for soap or anything else that could be used for a bath. Mother Madonna, in spite of being a former nun, seemed to have a plethora of personal possessions, including bathing implements, oils, and soaps. The woman had enough loot to start her own merchant stall because she also had combs, perfumes, and even some cosmetics. The more Nicola dug around, the more she found.
It was all quite surprising.
Handing Caledonia the oils and the soap, Nicola went on the hunt for a tub. She had absolutely no fear as she searched through the halls and chambers until she finally came across a copper tub that was kept near the kitchens. At this point, Thor had all of the servants rounded up and out in the bailey, where he could explain to them who was now in charge. In fact, the entry door was open and Nicola could hear her brother speaking rather sternly to the servants from the keep. There were at least fifteen of them that she could see, all of them listening to the new Earl of Tamworth and Stafford.
Her brother.
She was actually quite proud of him.
Unwilling to wait for the servants to be dismissed, Nicola went through a kitchen that smelled heavily of smoke and yeast, and out into the kitchen yard in search of some royal soldiers because she needed help lugging the water and the tub up to Madame Madonna’s chamber. Because she was a resourceful young woman, she was able to convince Darius to give her a hand even though he had his own duties given to him by Thor. Nicola wouldn’t be put off, however, and being that he was in love with the woman, Darius simply obeyed her. He grabbed several soldiers, and the group of them headed back to the keep so they could bring the bathtub up to the upper floors.
As was usual in almost all castles, there was an enormous iron cauldron of hot water boiling over the open flame. It was a staple in most kitchens so any hot water needs could be fulfilled, including baths. Darius and the soldiers found buckets, and the bathtub, along with the hot water, was hauled up to Madam Madonna’s chamber. As they entered, they found Caledonia cutting off the bottom on a pair of shifts she had found. Given the fact that the children had no clothing, she had little choice unless she wanted her daughters to run around naked, so she’d commandeered two shifts she found in a trunk and, using scissors she found in a sewing kit in the same trunk, cut them both to fit her daughters. They were a little big, but they would have to do until she could make real clothing for the girls.
One problem at a time.
Once the tub was half-full of steaming water, Caledonia and Nicola coaxed the little girls out of their filthy and tattered clothing. Janet argued that she liked what she was wearing and intended to go back down to the kitchen yard and play with her pet chicken, but Caledonia managed to convince her that taking a bath would be more fun. According to Janet, she’d never taken a bath in her life, and given the state of her skin and clothing,Caledonia was willing to believe it. However, she didn’t seem to be afraid of the water and, in fact, climbed in happily when she realized it was warm. But Joan, the baby, was positively terrified of the water and screamed as if she was being murdered as Caledonia lowered her into the warm bath.
As Nicola scrubbed Janet, Caledonia scrubbed the little one. Joan stood up in the bathtub, screaming at the top of her lungs as her mother washed her with soap that smelled of lavender and rosemary. The wash also included washing out her mouth because it was still full of mud and dirt. The areas between her teeth were black with dirt, and Caledonia used some of the fabric that she had cut off the shifts as a rag to clean the child’s teeth. There was even dirt in her nostrils. For the dirt-eating child, the grit was literally everywhere.
In fact, the baby was so dirty that they considered this bath just the first rinse. Nicola sent down for the soldiers again, and they returned to empty the bathtub and bring fresh water. The second bathing was a little better, and didn’t leave the water nearly as dirty as the first, but Joan still screamed through the entirety of it. Caledonia soldiered through, however, scrubbing and rinsing a child who seemed to feel that she was genuinely being murdered in the process. Once it was all done, and the girls were clean and dried and put into the makeshift clothing, Joan promptly fell into an exhausted sleep on Madam Madonna’s bed. It took Janet a little longer, but once everything was said and done, she fell asleep next to her sister.
Warm and clean for probably the first time in her young life.
Caledonia would have rather liked to have joined them.
Standing over her daughters, she felt as if she’d been through a battle. Which she had. But they were both clean and the baby’s hair was drying into soft white curls in the warm air. To see them like that eased Caledonia’s heart a little, but it would be a long time before the guilt of leaving her children in such a horriblestate left her. But, as Thor had said, it was time for her to focus on her children and not her own guilt.
It was time todosomething about it.
She’d gotten a good start.
“God’s Bones,” Caledonia muttered. “I’ve never been so exhausted in my life.”
Nicola was still sitting on the floor where she’d dressed Janet. She couldn’t seem to get up. “I think I’ve lost my hearing in one ear,” she said, sticking her finger into it. “I’ve never heard a child scream so long and so loudly before.”
Caledonia nodded in agreement, gazing down at her sleeping daughters. “They’re like feral animals,” she said. “No discipline, no rules or love or guidance. Joan screamed as if she’d never seen water in her life.”
“She probably hasn’t,” Nicola said, wearily rising to her feet. She spied the girls on the bed, sleeping so sweetly, and chuckled. “But look at them now. They are angels.”
“For the moment.”
