CHAPTER 2
About midmorning, a ruckus came from the front of the inn. This was not uncommon when visitors arrived. But this visitor proved an enormous surprise.
The magnitude of the arrival became known to me by Mistress’ caterwauling. “Oh, my son! My son is home! Bless the Heavens that I have lived to see this day!” She fell into in raptures for this son, out in the courtyard for all to see. I had no idea that she had any living relative.
I scrubbed the floors in the dining room between breakfast and lunch as usual, so I could see everything. Into the foyer bustled Mistress, still squawking her joy. Behind her strode a corpulent man dressed in ornate clothing that looked ridiculous to me. He had no personal beauty, but he expressed himself as a man admired by all and conscious of it. His importance outshone this little inn.
Mistress’ raptures now encompassed a second person in the form of a daughter-in-law, who followed behind the son with an irritated expression. “Oh, my dear, sweet daughter, Nicole! I am doubly blessed to have two children now!” Nicole looked unimpressed. She also wore very fine clothes and her hair shone in an ornate coif, covered with a fine lace cap. Her face was pinched and her nose came to a dangerous point, directed upwards. She allowed Mistress to act as a maid and remove her velvet mantle edged in fur.
“So lovely, my dear!” Mistress began.
“Mother, there is nothing we could desire more than rest right now,” the son proclaimed in a nasal tenor voice. “We will discuss everything when we have refreshed ourselves.” One would think that he was the master here.
Soon Mistress’ prodigal son and his wife retired to the best two rooms at the inn. Mistress had no other outlet for her raptures but me, so she regaled me with all the excuses why she hadn’t paid a visit to her son while I finished the dining room.
Dempsey was his name. She told me why he never visited her: His influence was great in the city where he crafted beautiful garments for rich men. He enjoyed great riches himself and couldn’t be bothered by his old mother’s little inn.
When I finished in the dining room, she followed me to the Kitchen where I scrubbed the floors but couldn’t touch anything else. There she excused Master Dempsey at length for not answering her many long letters. He magnanimously sent her an announcement of his marriage two years before. It was made of such pretty paper that she had kept it safe in her room.
The tinkle of a bell interrupted her raptures about Nicole. Mistress leapt to respond. “Of course, they will want food! How stupid of me!” she exclaimed.
I marveled at the transformation in my Mistress. I didn’t know this woman who had replaced her.
Our work attending Master Dempsey and Mistress Nicole proceeded even later into the night than normal. Mistress attended her son and his wife with food and compliments, and when they dismissed her, expounded upon their glories to me. I fell upon my bed of straw exhausted in mind and body that night.
The following day, I awakened as usual at dawn and began my regular duties. Mistress had miraculously awakened before I approached the inn and said to me, “Girl, my son will take over the inn from now on. His enterprises in the city became…tiresome. He and his elegant wife will live here and run the inn. You will obey everything Master Dempsey tells you. Do you hear?”
I nodded, amazed.
“Girl, today you’ll go to the market.”
“Mistress!” I exclaimed, my feelings about her first amazing statement overshadowed. My emotions brought me pain from the collar. But Mistress had never permitted me to leave the inn’s property before. It was unheard of that I should go to the market!
“Don’t sass me, girl. You’ll go to the market! I can’t very well have you attend my son and his wife! That would be an abomination. You’ll go to the market and you’ll not touch anything you buy. I’ll give you two baskets and a list and you will have the vendors place the items into the baskets for you. Do you hear me? I won’t have you pollute our foodstuffs with your cursed hands!”
“Yes Mistress!”
“You’ve never been there before, have you?” she contemplated. I shook my head. “Well you walk down the road that way for a few miles. You’ll come to a group of buildings and one of them will have a sign with a red cockerel on it. That’s the pub and it’s next to the market. The street beside the pub is the market, you hear? I’ve listed the items and which vendor to visit for each, and also the price you are to pay.” Then she handed me a bag of coins. “This is enough to buy the goods and no more, do you hear me! You aren’t to buy anything else. I will check all that you buy and I’ll know if you slight me!” I nodded again with the knowledge that my promise not to cheat the mistress would gain me nothing but a contemptuous comment. Mistress liked silent obedience and nothing else.
I hadn't eaten any breakfast.
And so I made my way to the marketplace, deep in thought about the strange turn of events, Mistress’ new demeanor, sending me to market, and a new master. Master Dempsey seemed like a refined gentleman and I wondered what kind of a master he would be.
I soon replaced my musings with wonder at the world around me. My familiar surroundings disappeared and I entered into the unknown. The day shone balmy and bright. Nature around me seemed to rejoice in its life. Though my growing excitement at each step away from the inn brought me pain from the silver collar, it didn’t suppress my feelings.
I passed by cottages and people along the way. The people smiled at me. They didn’t know of my curse, or they would have turned away. Though it made me feel a bit dishonest, I smiled back and enjoyed their friendliness. I passed a few men, and they looked at me the way the village boys had looked. I quickened my pace in fear. Mistress couldn’t prevent them from polluting themselves and I wasn’t sure I could prevent them. I must return to Mistress quickly and avoid those types of men.
At the market, everyone welcomed me. The vendors looked at me with perplexity when I shrank from touching the wares and asked them to put the items in the baskets. But they obliged with a smile. Everywhere, the men looked at me. They smiled and said kind things, but they didn’t look at my face. Young, handsome men and old men all joked with me and called my attention.
“Miss,” the male vendors insisted, “The price I told that customer was for bargaining. I won’t haggle with a lovely girl like you!” Then they gave me the goods for lower prices than what Mistress had written. I puzzled, but I didn’t object. Maybe Mistress would approve of me. With all the vendors’ chitchat, I worried that I would not return to the inn soon enough for Mistress.
After I had bought from several vendors, a commotion arose down the street. I heard people exclaim words like, “Gentleman”, “Royalty”, and “Wealthy”. I tried to see what everyone stared at as I made my way to the next vendor, but the crowd pressed in too tightly. The next vendor on Mistress’ list stared at the spectacle and I had to wait for her attention.
By chance, a space opened in the crowd all the way to the center of everyone’s focus. There, upon a fantastic horse, sat the most glorious man I could imagine. He must have been a prince or a King. His head turned and he seemed to look right at me, handsome eyes wide.
“Oh! I can see him!” exclaimed the vendor. Then the crowd closed the gap and he disappeared. Surely it was a wondrous land we lived in where royalty visited the local market!
While at the second-to-last vendor on my list, my excitement and self-control faltered. Because I ate nothing so far that day, I swooned. I caught myself and looked to see if the vendor had noticed.
“Oh miss! Are you all right?” he exclaimed and rushed around from behind his cart. His gnarled old hands grasped my arms. The wobbly world came back into focus.
“Oh, forgive me, sir. I’m fine,” I murmured, in a struggle without strength to break the contact that would taint him. Then my stomach growled, loud and insistent.
“You must eat something, my dear! Growing girls shouldn’t starve themselves just to stay slender. A man likes meat on a girl’s bones!” he snickered, not
letting go.
“Oh, sir, I cannot spend Mistress’ money on anything but what is on the list!” It wasn’t something I should have said, but my hunger made me feel foggy.
“You poor dear,” he crooned. “You must take one of my meat buns. I won’t accept any money from such a lovely girl. And shame on your mistress to starve you so!”
I tried to refuse his misplaced kindness and defend mistress’ honor as a good servant should, but the meat bun smelled so good. My mouth filled with drool and I couldn’t refuse without dribbling, so I bit the meat bun with ferocity. The old man chuckled his approval at my unspoken praise of his meat buns. Indeed, at that moment, I had never eaten anything more delicious.
The old man sent me away from his stand refreshed, and with a second free meat bun and more excess money.
I stopped at the final stall, worried about the time. The woman spoke curt and quick with no lower price offered than the price Mistress insisted. I checked three times to assure myself that I had gotten everything. I hadn’t missed anything on the list and I still had a quarter of the coins left in the bag. Afraid to delay any longer, I decided to risk mistress’ wrath.
My trip home felt much shorter than my trip to the market, but I enjoyed it more. I made sure to eat the second meat bun before I got back to the inn.
At the inn, I came to find the inn’s atmosphere changed from before I left. Master Dempsey and Mistress occupied the kitchen when I brought in the shopping.
Mistress seemed agitated as she took the baskets from me. When I handed her the bag of coins, she shook her head and motioned to Master Dempsey. I looked at her with confusion and handed the coins to Master Dempsey.
“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure,” he warbled, his florid face covered with an enormous grin.
“This is the house servant. She’s lived here since childhood,” Mistress explained with a curt scowl.
Master Dempsey looked me over at his leisure, his eyes like the village boys’ and the men at the market, but more frightening. His eyes glinted with possession as well as lust. All my thoughts of the refined gentleman had been fantasy, and I began to foresee a new kind of wretchedness in my future. The collar inflicted its punishment of pain upon the strength of my fear.
“Lovely,” he cooed. I could see in his eyes what Master would want from me.
Mistress, who behaved like a different woman in the presence of her son, took the bag from Master with a timid attitude.
“My son, you are right! There are fully a quarter of the coins left! How can this be?” she exclaimed.
Master Dempsey just leered at me some more.
“What is your name, girl?” he asked me. His question startled me for a moment.
“Her name is Lyneth,” volunteered Mistress.
“Mmmmm. Excellent,” he replied, with a different kind of glint in his eye. I could tell that the glint of avarice meant that Master Dempsey anticipated I would bring more surprise coins somehow.
“I see you have shown wisdom and sent her to the market for you, mother. She appears very successful at…negotiation.” His expression made me feel dirty. Then I felt remorse that I, the cursed one, should feel dirtied by one who is clean.
I heard the tinkle of a bell. “Ah, the new mistress is awake!” cried Mistress. “I will go and attend on her.”
“No, send Lyneth. Nicole is of a sensitive disposition and your presence unsettles her, Mother. Perhaps Lyneth will please her better.” I was appalled. No one had ever spoken to Mistress in this manner.
“Oh, my son, no! You mustn’t pollute dear Nicole with this cursed girl’s presence. She is unclean! I shudder to tell you what a trick that terrible trader played upon me when he burdened me with a cursed child! And I thought I obtained such a wonderful deal, too. She must not touch Nicole or you, or any guest. She is polluted. She is a monster!”
Master Dempsey looked at his mother as if she was mad. “My dear mother, what has that crazy priest taught you here in this village? Cursed? Polluted? Monster? Nonsense! Look at this girl.”
“Oh her looks deceive. It is a terrible thing that comes upon her when she doesn’t wear this silver collar, wrapped in Holy linen, around her neck. It is terrible to behold!” Mistress insisted.
“Really? Do the people of this village believe it?” queried the new master.
Mistress nodded. Then Master looked at me, so I nodded.
“Hmmm. This could be…interesting. I will think on this. In the meantime, go and attend my wife, Lyneth, for she would rather endure the ministrations of an accursed one than by an old crone.”
I managed to turn away from Master and Mistress toward the stair before my jaw dropped in horrified amazement. Master Dempsey had just insulted his own mother to her face, in front of me, and she had said nothing.
Upstairs, Mistress Nicole still lay in her bed with a cup of chocolate.
“There you are!” she groaned when I entered after my knock her summons.
“At last, someone to attend me who is not hideous and a chatterbox!” I curtseyed in recognition of the command within the comment. Nicole wanted to speak, not to be spoken to.
I retrieved the dress and underthings she described to me from her enormous trunk. I aided her in removal of her voluminous nightgown and application of the many layers of complicated underthings. I assisted her in careful donning of the fussy gown. Then she instructed me in her toilette with pictures for reference from a magazine she had upon her nightstand. All the time that I worked on her, she talked.
“You can’t imagine how awful it is for me, girl! I am a lady born and am unused to course accommodations in the wilderness! I would have never wed that awful man if I had known what a lecherous cheat he was! I could bear it while he maintained…certain levels. But for him to secret me away to a shack in the woods because he can’t deal in honest business! It is the living end! Know that I will not share a bed with him ever again! He can make some hobbledehoy his heir because he won’t get one by me!”
The entrance of that very man, the cause of her woes, interrupted her tirade. He didn’t appear to hear any of her derision, because he interrupted with the greatest good humor.
“My angel, I am glad you have found an attendant that pleases you better than Mother,” he declared. “I have come to request an article from you. I feel it would better suit the business to cater to a higher-class level of guest. If we removed my poor aged mother from the burden of food service to the guests we could place that responsibility upon this strong young girl.” He laid his hand upon my shoulder. I could not escape his touch, as my hands entwined in Mistress Nicole’s elaborate hairdo. “She would both please the eye better, and serve the guests quicker,” he elaborated, now with both hands on my shoulders. “My mother objects due to her back-country religious notions that the girl carries some sort of terrible blight upon her. She feels the girl is unfit for any contact with decent people or their food.” Master began to move his hands over other areas of my body, paralyzing me with fear and pain from the silver collar in response to the fear. His wife pored over her magazine and didn’t give either of us so much as a glance. “Do not betray me to your mistress,” he whispered in my ear, hot, sticky, and smelling of onions. I attempted to continue upon Mistress Nicole’s hair, repulsed, afraid, and with growing pain from the silver collar. “I think we will use her perceived…affliction as a subject of intrigue for our guests,” he continued as he rubbed me in unmentionable places and smelled my neck like a hog roots for a truffle. The pain of my collar was excruciating. “But we must dress her in something more…appropriate for our higher-class guests.” This reference to Mistress Nicole’s wardrobe caught her attention. Mistress Nicole’s quick eyes were not match for Master’s quick hands. When she lifted her eyes from her periodical, Master’s hands clutched at his lapels and he strode around from behind me. I tried not to quake with horror and pain.
“This young woman appears to be of a size with you, my dear.” He would know
. “It would please me if you would choose one of your simpler, more modest gowns to adorn her. I would prefer anything to this.” He indicated my garb, which I had never doubted for propriety before. I had rushed to pin Mistress Nicole’s hair as soon as possible so I could flee from Masters roving paws. Mistress Nicole inclined her head toward me, her frown deep.
She sighed with great martyrdom and replied, “Very well. She can have the Camborget. But you must buy me a new gown.”
“I wouldn’t dream of anything else, my darling! Lyneth, please change into the more appropriate gown and then report to me in the office. I wish to discuss your new duties.” I understood that I had finished with Mistress Nicole’s toilette, and that he meant terrible things when he said ‘new duties’. He had made clear that he did not share his mother’s aversions to my curse.
“Well, I am certainly relieved to relinquish those duties to you, girl,” Mistress Nicole declared upon her husband’s exit. Though she didn’t appear to see her husband’s actions, I could see she understood his intentions. The pain from my fear and the collar’s quelling made it nearly impossible to move.
“Freedom from that type of duty suits me very well, and the price of a dress is a small one to pay.” She plucked a pale lavender gown from a jumble in her trunks. The fabric was very soft and flowing. I had seen fine clothes like that on guests, but had never touched any. She tossed the gown onto a footstool and moved to leave the room.
Before she exited, she said, “Just don't let it give you any ideas. I will always be mistress here. You will attend me each day when I ring in the morning. Do you understand?” I nodded and curtseyed despite my agony. This seemed to please her and she relaxed her frown for a moment before she left the room.
I calmed myself as well as I could and changed where I stood, for I did not want to risk the openness of the barn loft while Master could lurk nearby. This room, of all others, seemed safest from his intrusion.
The delicate and soft gown but revealed much more of my figure than my scratchy old one. I knew Mistress would dislike it. I felt almost naked. With a tremor of disgust and pain from the collar, I recognized that my “talk” with master, just moments away, would prove worse than any lecherous grope. Some of my new “duties” that I would perform in place of Mistress Nicole would ensue with ease in the privacy of the office, which had a lock on the door. It would be horrible sin, but how could I prevent it? I steeled myself the best I could and walked downstairs to my downfall.
The Silver Collar Page 2