Love of Lady Liana.

by Alvarez y Losada

  -- Llegamos today at the castle Peregrinates?

  -- It is the Moray castle -- he with voice said tense --. The Ho­ward occupies territories of Peregrine.

  It almost had to run to follow it and its long túni­ca enlisted in the branches and stones.

  -- Oi' to speak of them, robbed to you earth and title, right? If it were not by them, now you would be Duke.

  One stopped as opposed to Liana abruptly and it watched it irritated.

  -- Girl, that one is your hope? To marry you with a Duke? For that reason you were united to me and you rejected to the rest?

  -- Caramba, no, nothing of that -- Liana said, astonished --. I married with you because...

  -- Yes? -- he asked.

  Liana could not confess that he it it excited, that his co­razón barked aceleradamente even now, when they were so close the one of the other and that it wished more than nothing to touch the naked skin of the masculine chest.

  -- they are Here -- Severn said, that it was had approached without being seen and his presence it saved to Liana the problem of answer --. The men are prepared to start off. My lady -- it said, agreeing with the head to Liana.

  The eyes of Severn examined it so kindly that it sonrojó and became the glance to Rogan, to com­probar if it had seen something, but he was not thus. It had thrown to walk in the direction of camping, leaving to Liana in the place in which it was. It returned single to camping, following several meters of distance to both brothers.

  -- She is prettier of which it believed to principle -- Se­vern said to its brother while they rode.

  -- it does not interest to me absolutely -- it said Rogan --. One per­sona that represents the paper of "wife" does not interest to me.

  -- I would have imagined that you would fight with all your forces if somebody tried to take it.

  Severn was joking with its brother, but ape­nas said these words regreted. Ten years back al­guien, in effect, had tried to seize of the wife of Rogan and it fought with so much ferocity to recover the one that two of their brothers died.

  -- No, it would not fight by her -- Rogan said in low voice --. If you wish that woman, tómala. For me it is less than nothing, the gold that it brought to me is everything what I want of her.

  Severn frunció entrecejo when hearing words of their brother, but did not say more.

  6

  They sighted the Moray castle at noon: Liana never had contemplated a more depressing spectacle. Era of style old, constructed for protection and it remained without changes for more than one hundred fifty years. Venta­nas was grooves to shoot arrows, tower had pare­des thick and an aspect of impenetrable bastion. The men they aligned themselves behind the battlements, destroyed in some places, as if castle had been attacked pe­ro never repaired.

  As they came near, Liana it perceived the scent of the place, that dominated the one of its own horses and dirty bodies of the horsemen Peregrinate. The stench of the castle.

  -- My lady -- Joice murmured.

  Liana did not watch at his doncella and nailed Vista to the front. Helen had spoken to him of the dirt of the place, but Lia­na it was not prepared for this.

  They arrived first a the pit: all latrines of casti­llo emptied in that protective water mirror thickened by the excrements and remainders of the kitchen and mainly by putrefactos bones of animals. Liana maintained discharge around the head and the eyes to the front and his doncellas tosían and had nauseas because of the stench.

  They rode in India row by a tunnel low length and raises Liana saw three openings destined the heavy grates sharpened of iron that could fall on the intruders. To the end of the tunnel there was a single patio, whose extension was half of the outer patio of castle of sir Neville; but it lodged the triple of the number of people. His sense of smell that already felt like victim now added its ear. The men they hammered the iron to the red one on anvil; the dogs barked; carpenters hammered, the men shouted an a others treating about to dominate itself the noise.

  Liana as soon as it could believe in the reality of this noise and the stench of the stables and pocilgas, it seemed as if no they had been cleaned in many years.

  To its right, one doncella shouted and his horse inclined on the one of Liana, that returned the eyes to see what there was frightened the young person. A orinal installed in the third floor was opened on patio and a cascade of tinkles fell and sprinkled the wall and finished in a depth dirty water pool that covered part with the floor.

  After the whine of doncella nor Liana neither the res­tantes women said one more a word. They were too much horrified to speak.

  To the right there were two perrons of stone, one that took to the only tower and the other lead to the building ba­jo more, of two floors, with slate ceiling. In that small cas­tillo there was no patio neither outer interior, nor separation between the gentleman and the vasallos. All lived together in this reduced space.

  At the end of the perron, Liana saw a two women. Am­bas looked for between just arrived, until they saw it then one of them indicated it and both laughed. It could see, that they were bred, but the dirt of the place demonstrated clearly that they did not do anything. Liana it said that soon it would correct them and it would teach to them to abstain to laugh in presence of its superior ones.

  The girls descended quickly steps and when they surrounded the brief wall by Liana stone could ver­las: both they were of low stature and prominent bust, cintu­ra narrows and wide hips, with abundant coarse and dirty cas­taños hair, hanging on the back in long braids. They used fit clothes affluent, so that his revela­ban all forms and walked with I wag insolent and exaggerated of the hips. They crossed with slow cadences the patio, so that the great chests they shook under the dress; most of the men it interrupted its tasks stops to watch them.

  While a horseman helped Liana a descend from the horse, the young person saw that the women approached Ro­gan. it was issuing orders to some men about the cars of Neville, but Liana saw that to­maba its time to examine the girls. One of them became and it so directed to her a triumph glance to him, that fingers of the young wife felt desires of cruzar­le the face.

  -- Entramos, my lady? -- Joice asked sumisamen­te --. Perhaps inside it is...

  Its voice was extinguished.

  It was evident that its husband not the new home and to this height of the Liana things proposed mostrar­le not espe­raba nothing similar. It supposed that the perron that the bred inso­lentes had lowered it took to the rooms of the gentleman of the castle, so that it raised his skirts and began to ascend; in the passage it separated with the feet some bones of which it seemed a dead bird.

  At the end of the perron there was one ample room; the access door was divided reason why once it had to have been a beautiful carved wood leaf, but aho­ra axes were seen nailed in her and nails to hang ma­zas and lances. After passing the ample ones wood leaves of the door, one of which hung of a single hinge, it opened a room of about fifteen meters by eight, with a as high ceiling as wide it was the room.

  Liana and his doncellas entered silence in this lu­gar, because there were words no to express what they saw. It was more than dirt. The floor seemed the place that received all the bones of all the consumed meals there du­rante more than one hundred years. The flies they formed clusters al­rededor of the rest covered with worms, and Liana could to see things -- one refused to think what was -- that they slid under the heavy layer of remainders.

  The spiderwebs with its fat occupants they hung almost of the ceiling until the double floor, homes on the end this of the hall they had a meter of ashes almost. The only furniture in the room it consisted of a heavy table for­mada by a lamina of blackened oak and eight cracked chairs ro­tas and, all originating fat place setting of years of meals.

  There were several windows in the room, some to about five meters of height, but the crystal and the blinds had disappear, and thus the scent of the pit, the patio and the room were mixed.

  When one of doncellas that was be
hind it drowned a exclamación and it began to desmayar itself, Liana was not surprised.

  — ¡Of foot! -- it ordered --. Or otherwise we will have acostarte on the floor.

  The young person reacted immediately.

  Making of guts heart and gathering the silk skirt, Liana crossed the room in the direction of the stairs that es­taba in the corner the northwest. Also the steps esta­ban places setting of bones here, straw squashed until becoming dust and what was possibly a rat died.

  -- Joice, sees with me -- it said superficially of the shoulder -- and that the others remain here.

  After promoting eight steps one room opened to the left and a toilet to the right. It was shown to room but did not enter her. It contained a small table re­donda, two chairs and hundreds of arms.

  Liana continued promoting the perron to circulate, with the timid Joice behind, until it arrived at the second floor from tower. Before her a short and low runner opened itself and after advancing few meters by him were arrived at a door that was opened to the right. It was dormitory with a dirty straw mattress in the floor and the straw was so old that it filled as soon as the two fabric covers coarse. Of this room a went a latrine.

  Joice went ahead a step and lowered hand, like dispo­niendo itself to touch the two blankets that were on the foot of mattress.

  -- Lice -- he was everything what Liana said and it continued cami­nando by the runner.

  It entered the lot, a room ample and espacio­sa illuminated by the numerous light that came from venta­nas. On the South wall there was wood stairs that took to the third floor. movement to certain height induced to Liana to raise the eyes: throughout braces talla­das that they maintained the beams of the ceiling were ma­dera hangers and in them the hawks, all subject en­capuchados were encaramados and by the legs. They were travelling, hawks, you embarrass and sparrowhawks. The walls were mancha­das of excrements of the birds and the dirt was chorrea­do even to form duros knolls in the floor.

  Liana raised a little plus the skirt and it walked on the dirty floor towards the side this of the room. There were three arcs, the power station formed a small room, with a wood leaf that hardly it hung, while the other had de­saparecido. Against the stone wall one small pisci­na used by the priest to practice ablutions later of the mass.

  - - Is sacrilege -- Joice said, because it dealed with ora­torio private, a sacred place to say the mass in pre­sencia of the family.

  -- Ah, but we have a Vista here excellent of the pit -- Liana said, showing itself to the window and trying to put little of humor in that frightful place. But Joice did not laugh nor smiled.

  -- My lady, what we will do?

  -- Trataremos about which my husband is comfortable -- Liana with voice said signs --. In the first place, we will prepare two dormitories for tonight. One for my husband and I -- it could not prevent sonrojo that to him the face dyed --, and another one for you and my doncellas. Tomorrow us we will occupy of the rest of lu­gar. Now, it is enough to remain immovable, watching. It sees to look for those women who are there down, a little work will cure to them insolencia.

  Joice feared to be single in the castle, but the attitude of its master instilled anger to him. It was afraid of which it watched in the shades and the corners. If somebody attacked it, how long would even happen that they found his bones between the res­tantes?

  In the lot, Liana happened to rooms of the cos­tados ones of oratorio. Here the excrements of the birds they were less evident and could notice that under the dirt, the walls had painted different scenes. After lim­piar them it could order that they repaired, and there, on pa­red the west, to the bottom, would hang a carpet. During momen­to almost could forget the scents the room, the ominous sound of the movement of the wings of the birds and rui­do of which it was moving, outside what it was, under the rest accumulated in the floor.

  -- My lady, does not want to come -- she said Joice, out of breath from the door.

  Liana returned to the reality.

  -- Who does not want to come? My husband?

  Joice was indignant.

  -- the servants. The servants of lord Rogan. When I said to them that they had to clean, they were ed ***reflx mng of me.

  -- Truely? -- Liana said --. Let us see what they say to me.

  It was arranged to fight with ferocity. One had been so obedient and swallowed as much rage during the last days that she wished to give exit to his anger, and the servants who indicated it with the finger and they ed ***reflx mng themselves, was an excellent target.

  The lofty stairs descended furious, it crossed the camera of the gentleman, lowered by the outer perron and it entered dirty and noisy patio. The two maids those who before she had seen were holgazaneando near the well and permi­tiendo that three young horsemen they extracted water buckets for them, simultaneously who cleared the busts prominent con­tra the arms of the men.

  — ¡You! -- which said to Liana to it was more close --, you come with me.

  Liana began to walk towards castle but suddenly noticed that no of the servants was si­guiendo it. One became and it verified that both smiled to him, as if they knew something that she it ignored. Liana never had made the experience of a servant who the deso­bedeciera, always being supported by the power of its father.

  During a little while, it did not know what to do. It could sen­tir the eyes of all those that were in the patio fixed in her and it included/understood that it was the moment for affirming its dominion like lady of the castle, but it could not make it if esta­ba safe not count on the endorsement of his husband.

  Rogan was near the wall of the bottom of the patio, directing the unloading of a car that contained several ar­maduras complete, those that were part of the dowry of Liana. Irritated, it crossed patio avoiding to three dogs that fought and stepping on a battery of entrails disturbed of ewes.

  It knew what wished to say, exigencies that when wanted to formulate, but Rogan became towards her, irritated because it interrupted it, its confidence disappeared. She desea­ba as much to please it, longed for that its glance changed when watching it. Now, it seemed that he it tried to remember who was the young person.

  -- the servants do not obey to me -- she said with neutral voice.

  Consternado watched it, as if the problem of Liana nothing had to do with him.

  -- Deseo that the servants begin a to clean, but they do not obey to me -- Liana insisted.

  This answer seemed to alleviate disagreement of Ro­gan. One became towards the cars.

  -- Limpian which is necessary, I thought that you had brought bred.

  It put between him and the car.

  -- Three of my doncellas are ladies, and others... well, there is too much to do.

  -- Abolla that armor and I will dent to you head -- it shouted

  Rogan to a man who was unloading the car. It watched Liana.

  -- I do not have time to servants and the place is enough clean. Now, it vetoes and déjame to unload these cars.

  Desentendió of her as if no it existed; Liana remained of foot, watching there the back of Rogan, and feeling nailed in her the eyes of all the men and mainly of two women. Well, Helen had ad­vertido to him about this, thus was marriage. A man later courted until he obtained it and a woman he was less than... less than a piece of iron. By su­puesto, in the case of Rogan she had not deserved the ga­lanteo.

  Now, it knew that it had to maintain to everything coast its dignity. It in line did not watch at right nor at left and however way straight line towards the stone steps, promoted the es­calinata and entered the castle. Behind, it reached to hear the noise of the patio that it recommenced with force tripled, and it even heard some acute feminine laughter.

  Its heart barked quickly because of re­cibida humiliation. Helen had said to him that she was badly customary to cause of the power that exerted in the property of the Nevi­lle, but Liana did not have had true idea of which his madrastra suggested. It suspected that few people com­prendían how different was of
the hers own life of others individuals. It had hoped that its conjugal life was a little different, but this feeling of impoten­cia, as if she herself did not exist, was something completamen­te new for Liana.

  Surely thus it was as Helen felt in the resi­dencia of the Neville when the servants obeyed to Liana and not to own Helen.

  -- I felt like now, and nevertheless it was good with me -- he murmured Liana.

  -- My lady -- Joice in low voice said.

  It watched blinking its servant, and saw fear drawn in the face of the woman. Now, Liana did not seem so safe of himself same since it had been the case before the wedding. At the moment, one felt tired to think what would do in the future. Now, the necessities immediate they had to do with the food and a place to sleep.

  -- Envi'a to Bess, dile that sees where they are the kitchens and that food brings.... tonight desire not to eat in com­pañía. Later, it orders that they raise the lot leaves from my clothes of bed. -- Alzo' a hand in order to prevent that Joice spoke. -- ­No I know how I will obtain something, it seems that I lack being able in the home of my husband. -- Trato' to avoid that its voice expre­sara autocompasión, but did not obtain it.-- and brings pa­las, tonight we will drain of dirt two rooms and thus we will be able to sleep. And tomorrow...

  It was interrupted, because it did not please to him to think about the morning. If it lacked being able, although it went for issuing orders a a servant, would be a prisoner, exactly co­mo if they had locked up it in one mazmorra.

  -- Averigua everything what you can about this place -- Liana said, like of last --. Where he is lord Severn? Perhaps he can... to help us.

  There was not much energy in the voice of Liana.

  -- Yes, my lady -- Joice said submissively and it left the room.

  With slow movements, Liana ascended the circular stairs that took to the lot. The hawks moved in his hangers when they heard the movements of the young person and returned to calm down itself. If the whole castle had not mos­trado a carpet of rest, those that people produced by the mere fact to live, she could have thought that she was desert. It was so different from the house of its father, where the inhabitants they entered and they left the quarters and bro­meaba was ed ***reflx mng and. It only had men, the hard and shady faces, with scars in the body and arms in the hands. Children did not see themselves, and either women, except the two vixens that they laughed of Liana and they refused to obey to him.