Page 279 of Historical Hotties
“Where is the eldest one?”
Caledonia’s attention turned away from the bed and toward the windows. She could hear the sounds of the bailey outside.
“That,” she said thoughtfully, “is a very good question.”
*
He was onthe hunt.
Thor was on the trail of Jane, who had been screaming in the upper bailey about a devil, but now had conspicuously vanished. Thor knew that the servants and the Stafford army had been gathered and that they were waiting for him in the lower bailey to address them, but he had promised his wife that he would find her eldest daughter, and find her he would.
But she was elusive.
Not for long if he could help it. He had been following her trail, being directed by royal soldiers who had seen the child run past them, until he ended up in the stables where the grooms were settling the warhorses after their journey from Birmingham. He was down in the lower bailey now, following the signs, and ended up just inside the stable door. The stables of Stafford were quite large, a long building that stretched along part of the motte. It made sense because all of the filth from the stables was easily dumped into the moat right behind it. As he cautiously entered the structure, which still had servants inside as they tended to the animals, he began to hear a small, high-pitched voice.
He wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but he happened to glance at one of the servants who was filling a feed bucket, and the man pointed to the eastern side of the stable block. Thor didn’t even ask him why he pointed because he already knew.
There was someone in the stable who shouldn’t be there.
Therefore, he headed off to the eastern portion of the stable block, where he immediately caught sight of a slight, white-haired child. Her hair was to her knees, matted and dirty, and she wore tattered clothing that was too small for her frame. There were several horses at this end, including his own warhorse, and the child seemed to be standing just in front of his stall. The horses were facing inward as they munched on their grain, but that didn’t stop the little girl from talking to big horse arses.
She seemed quite intent.
“And that is why Christ has saved you from your sins,” she was saying. “Whenever you disobey your master, you are disobeying God. All creatures need salvation, and I am here to make sure you understand the spirit of God.”
Thor couldn’t help the confused furrow of the brow. He thought he hadn’t heard right with the first sentence he was ableto make out, but then he realized that the child was trying to preach to the horses. She seemed quite serious about it. Given that she wasn’t hysterical at the moment and screaming about devils, he took the opportunity to approach her.
Carefully.
“My lady?” he said, trying to catch her attention. “My lady, are you Lady Jane?”
She stopped looking at horse buttocks and turned to him. Thor hadn’t gotten a good look at her before, when she’d run through the bailey, but now he could see that she was the exact image of Caledonia. She had the same dark, dark green eyes and white hair, the same upturned nose, the same lips. It was like looking at his wife when she’d been a child, such a beautiful, ethereal child.
A child who was looking at him curiously.
“Would you like me to teach you the word of God?” she asked.
He smiled, gesturing to the horses. “Is that what you were doing?” he asked. “Teaching them the word of God?”
She nodded. “Even the animals must know,” she said. “How else are they to get into heaven?”
“How else, indeed,” Thor said. “But youareJane, are you not?”
The child eyed him before nodding and turning away. “You can listen to me as I teach them,” she said. “Do you know that God loves you but if you disobey Him, you will go to hell?”
She was going back to the animals. Thor watched her closely. “Do you know that if you disobey your mother and father, you will go to hell also?”
Jane stopped and looked at him. “I have no mother or father,” she said. “My father is dead.”
“But your mother is not,” he said. “Before you start screaming that she is the devil, who told you that? Because saying that your mother is a devil when she is not is a sin.”
Jane’s eyes widened. “But sheiswicked! She is the devil!”
“Who told you that?”
“Madam Madonna!”
Thor already knew that, but he wanted to hear it from her. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to deny it. He wondered just how bright she was and if he could possibly reason with her, because they certainly couldn’t have her running all over the castle screaming that Caledonia was the devil.
