It watched downwards, to the pit, and the light more and more tenue saw the head of a cow floating in a black liquid and thick. That place would be in ahead its home, there it would have to conceive children and to raise them. And the love that would receive was the one that could come from a husband who to to seem forgot it as soon as it let see it one hour.
How it would obtain that it kneads it? Perhaps if she and their servants cleaned the castle, if Liana were able to turn it an appropriate place to live, he would be glad of haber taken it like wife. It would think about her, and not only like the person who came added to the dowry.
And the food, thought Liana. Perhaps if it brought good cocineros and covered the table with Rogan of delicious and agradables plates when paladar. She was sure that the man who ate well, that slept between clean sheets, that dressed articles pulcras, had to feel pleased with mujer that it made possible all that.
And later it was the bed. Liana had ear to say to its servants whom a woman who pleased to a man in cama, for that reason same it could control it. When arriving the night already would have the dormitory clean and he would go to look for it, because when disponer of an intimate place for both, he would wish to be with his wife. Liana smiled for the first time since it reached the Vista of the Moray castle. It only needed to be patient and what it wished, with time would become in fact.
Its seven minutes later doncellas they arrived at the lot, the loaded food arms, pillows and mantas, and all speaking at the same time.
Liana needed a little while stops to include/understand what the women said. Lord Severn was with a person a who they called the Lady and was not probable that was seen it during three or four days. Outside the Lady and his doncellas, were only eight women in all castle.
-- they do not work -- it said to Bess -- and nobody it meant to me what does.
-- and they call them according to the days of week. Domingo, Monday, Tuesday, and thus of the sort, except which it is called the Substitute. It seems that they do not have other names -- it said Stakes out.
-- and the food is frightful, the flour she is full of gorgojos and sand. The baker cooks everything in the bread.
Bess inclined forwards.
-- Soli'an to buy bread to a baker of town, but he initiated judgment against Peregrine by lack of payment and...
-- and what? -- Liana asked, treating about to chew a piece of meat that had been able to be used for fabricar one mount.
-- It peregrinates Them demolished the door of the house of the panadero and... they used like toilet the full flour drawers.
Liana left in the plate the meat incomible. Mujeres had cleaned to a seat under the window and all they seated there. From the floor under the sounds of the steel against the steel arrived, of the men who shouted, of the food chewed with the open mouth. To to seem, the esposo of Liana and its men were being fed in room of the low floor, but nobody thought to invite to the esposa of the gentleman.
-- They could find out as it is dormitory of lord Rogan? -- Liana asked, treating to conserve its dignidad.
The women watched themselves, an expression compasiva in the eyes.
-- Not -- Joice murmured surely -- But a very ample room which I saw when happening, is its room.
Liana agreed. Not yet one had felt fuerte to promote the wood steps of the lot and to see the rooms enough of above -- or what was more probable, what suciedad class had there. If in perhaps the lot kept birds, would be pigs in the dormitory of the high floor?
They were needed two hours duro work in order to limpiar two dormitories. Liana wished to help, but Joice refused to allow it, and it understood. At the moment his doncellas was almost his equal, because all felt perdidas and single in that strange place and maloliente; but Joice did not wish that her master lost the authority that exerted on those women. So that Liana permaneció in the seat of the window of the lot and it maintained near the nose a sprinkled orange of scent nails in order to fight the stench of the pit.
When finally the room was list -- not limpia, but at least could be walked without encountering over bones and rest -- one of the servants persuaded to herrero that it raised mattresses and with the aid of Joice, Liana undressed and it lay down. It remained it wakes up awhile, hoping that his husband arrived, but he not apareció.
In the morning, the noises woke up estridentes and the impure scents. What she believed a nightmare, was reality.
First Rogan hour it entered the hall of the low floor and it saw Severn seated to the table, the head resting sobre the hands with tired expression, eating bread and cheese.
-- it did not wait for verte by a time. You want to go out to hunt with me?
-- Yes -- Severn answered --. I need rest after the night with Io. You do not seem tired. Your wife not you she bothered much last night?
-- Last night it was Saturday -- Rogan responded.
-- and you did not pass it with your woman?
-- No, being Saturday.
Severn rascó the arm.
-- That way never you will have children.
-- you are arranged to leave or no? Already me I will occupy of her. Perhaps the next time... I do not know when it will be. Persona is not one that it warms up the blood of a man.
-- Where it is now?
Rogan shrank of shoulders.
-- Perhaps in the high floor. Who knows?
Severn drank I suck of wine to swallow the rest of the bread and escupió sand to the floor, which its brother for was not thing of its incumbencia.
During three Liana days and their servants they worked limpiando the lot. And for three days she feared to descend to the floor under because one did not dare to face the people of the Moray castle. All they knew that his husband had rejected it and who he not only refused to sleep with her but that refused to grant to him to be able on its servants.
So that Liana remained single, without to see esposo and without being related to the people of the castle. One said that no it was conquering with its submission the love of the husband, sino that he nor at least it paid attention to him, without mattering to him if it were submissive or díscola.
In afternoon of the fourth day a dared to ascend by the wood stairs. The high floor was as dirty as it had be the case of the lot, unless there there were no signs of which nobody had lived during years. It was wondered where the people of the castle slept and almost instantaneously it imagined them forming a confused pile in the floor.
It walked by the runner watching empty dormitory after another one scaring to the small rats when happening and raising dust eddies behind. When it was arranged to descend again, it seemed to him to hear the one movement rueca: one raised the skirts, ran until the dormitory more alejado and opened the heavy door abruptly.
Sitting in a place of the room bathed by the sun there was a very pretty greater woman, of eyebrows and hair dark, working with one rueca. The quarter was limpio, had furniture upholsteries and the windows showed to todos their crystals. Surely one treated perhaps of the Lady whom lord Severn visited, or she was an aunt or another relative.
-- Pasa, beloved, and close the door before both we choke with the dust.
Liana did what it was requested to him and smiled.
-- it did not know that here there was somebody, in Vista of the state in which is everything.
One felt very comfortable with this pleasant one woman and when it indicated a chair to him with a gesture of the head, Liana she seated.
-- Is terrible, right? -- the lady said -- . Rogan prestaría attention to the dirt although did not form a mattress so thick that it had to advance swimming.
Liana stopped to smile.
-- it would not lend attention although I to me it was drowning to me in that dirt -- it said by low it, because its intention no she was that the lady listened to it.
But she heard it:
-- Of course, it would not render to you attention. The men not even see the good wome
n that they take care of which their clothes are clean and their prepared foods affluent, and, that give children them without demanding nothing.
Liana watched it fixedly.
-- and which are the women who them they interest?
-- Those that are like Iolanthe. -- Sonrio' a Liana.-- You know it, is the fiancèe of Severn. Well, in fact not it fiancèe. A to say truth, Io is the wife of a very well-off, very old man and very stupid. Io spends the money of that man and lives here with Severn, that is not old nor adinerado and none stupid.
-- She lives here? It prefers to live in this... this...
-- Tiene its own rooms on the kitchen, that is the best place of the castle. Io always demands the one of more quality.
-- Reclame' helps the servants -- said bitterly Liana -- but I did not obtain anything.
-- Hay exigencies and exigencies -- said the lady, while she spun the linen --. Masters much to Rogan?
Liana turned aside the glance not even and it troubled before his own familiarity with this woman. Very it was tired of to speak solely with the servants.
-- Creo that before had been able to love it, I accepted to marry with him because he was the only man who was sincere with me. It did not praise my beauty and yes it nailed the eyes in gold of my father.
-- Rogan always is sincere, never pretends to be what is, nor takes care of which it does not matter to him.
-- It is certain, and I do not matter to him -- she said Liana with sadness.
-- But on the other hand, you lie to him, he is not thus, wanted? The Liana that is hidden of the laughter of the servants is not that she administered the properties of his father, the woman who certain time faced to a crowd of irritated farmers.
Liana did not ask how it was possible that that woman knew such things about her person, but she felt that him they filled the eyes of tears.
-- I do not believe that a man could love a that Liana, Joice says that to the men it pleases to them...
-- and who is Joice?
-- My doncella. In fact, she is almost one mother for me. It says that...
-- and everything knows what there is to know of the men? She was bred by one, one married with another one, she is the mother of muchos?
-- Well, in fact no; it grew with me. Before she was orphaned and it lived in the rooms of the women. It is casada, but it does not have children; in fact, it sees its husband only three times to the year, of way that... Oh, I include/understand what usted means. Joice has not had much experience with the men.
-- No, me it imagined it. It remembers, beloved, nobody lucha by the woman who cleans the house of a man; she fights herself by that sometimes she uses the whip.
That observation caused the laughter of Liana.
-- it seems to Me inconceivable that I can to use a whip lord Rogan as opposed to.
-- Only one stained mud shirt -- the lady with a rejoicing expression responded. Suddenly, it moved the head.-- Somebody raises the stairs, please, vetoes, not quiero that bothers to me.
-- Yes, of course -- Liana responded and it left the habitación, closing the door. It almost returned to ask to him how she was found out the episode of the shirt, but Joice appeared at the end of stairs and said to him that it needed it.
Liana passed the rest of the day in the lot, with the only company of his servants, but frequently it remembered words of the woman. Very it was confused about the course of action more advisable. It thought about the possibility of going to Rogan and of demanding to him that it forced to the servants to obey to him, but the idea seemed to him ridiculous, he would limit a to give the back him. It could not conceive that it only listened to it because it formulated reclamations aloud. Of course, Liana always could threaten it one sword, but the idea almost caused laughter to him, so that the only alternative that it reduced was to hope to him. Perhaps a day it would arrive at the lot, to perhaps retire one of its hawks and would see that there he was clean, and would wish to continue there, and one would approach her, with enamored eyes, and...
-- My lady? -- Joice said --. I know for late.
-- Yes -- Liana with serious voice said. Of new it would have to lie down in its empty and cold bed.
Several hours later it woke up when hearing strange noise and to see a light.
— ¡Rogan! -- it exclaimed with drowned voice and he returned even to see, not to its husband, but to a high, very good looking boy, with dark hair and dirty lengths until shoulders and one abraded túnica one of velvet on baggy stockings. Estaba next to the wall, a foot on stool, the elbow apoyado in the knee, eating an apple and watching it to light of a heavy candle.
Liana rose of the bed.
-- Who you are, and what you do in my room?
-- Vine to echaros a glance -- he said.
It had of being younger than what his stature indicaba, because not yet it had changed the voice.
-- you have already seen me, so that now... ¡outside here!
Liana was not forced to support insolencias in the quarter that had chosen like dormitory.
The apple chewed noisily and no it made the menor attempt leave.
-- Imagino that it already makes that enough you are waiting for my brother.
-- Your brother? -- Liana remembered words of Helen, when it had said to him how many It still peregrinates restaban.
-- I am Zared -- the boy said, retiring the foot of the stool and throwing by the window the heart of the manzana.-- I have already seen you, you are as they say and Rogan does not come tonight.
It threw to walk towards the door.
— ¡A little while! -- Liana with a voice called that it induced the boy to stop and to become --. Why you say that I am like they say? And where he is my husband, who cannot come tonight?
Liana cherished the hope of which boy afirmase that Rogan was in a secret mission, to the service of the king, or perhaps he had pronounced a provisional vote of abstention.
-- Today it is Wednesday -- Zared said.
-- What has to do the day of the week with my esposo?
-- Oi' to say that there are well-known, is eight. One para every day of the week, and the rest the day in which one of women have feminine annoyances. Sometimes two of them have annoyances feminine at the same time and then Rogan is unbearable. Perhaps in that moment comes to veros.
Liana was not safe, but it seemed to him that comenzaba to understand.
-- Those servants -- it said in low voice --. You mean that my husband to duer to me with different a every night? That they they are like... a calendar?
-- Before it tried to be one every of month, but dijo that that forced it to have many women in castillo and it decided to fix itself with eight. Severn is completamente different. It affirms that Iolanthe reaches to him. Of course, it is it...
-- Where it is? -- the irritation it began to dominate Liana. The anger that had swallowed from the first time that it saw Rogan began to spread by its veins, and now it was vomiting it and como tasted so impure the liquid of the pit.-- Where he is he?
-- Rogan? Duer to me every night in different place. It goes to the quarters that correspond to the days, says that they they have jealousy if it comes to this room. Tonight, as it is Wednesday, surely it is in the high floor, upon the kitchens, the first door to left.
Liana jumped of the bed, its body one alive mass of rage. It had all tense muscles.
-- you will not think to go there, right? To Rogan it does not please to him that they bother it during the night and you I can assure that his character is not pleasant. Certain time, he...
-- it has still not seen my character -- Liana with the tight teeth said --. Nobody treats to me thus and lives to contar it. Nobody!
It happened Zared as opposed to, it left to the runner and of the support of the wall it retired a flaming torch. A dressing gown had putting and it walked with the barefoot feet without noticing the huesos that were above when walking and when a dog wanted to cross itself in its way,
it used the torch like a sword and the animal, separated.
-- Oi' to say that to eras a rabbit -- it said Zared that came behind, with an expression of astonishment in the face. But it is wife none seemed a rabbit while the stairs descended and she crossed the hall the low floor.
What seted out to make the wife of Rogan? Anyone was its intention, Zared knew that it was necessary to call a Severn.
7
Liana did not know very well where they were habitaciones constructed on the kitchen, but it seemed to find them almost very instinctively. The instinct was the unique thing that reduced para to him to orient his steps, because its brain was occupied by the memories of the humiliations suffered from the same moment of the wedding. It did not request to see it before matrimonio, it demanded more money in the door of the church, had violated it after marriage and to only consumar the marriage, not because it wished it in the plus minimum. During whole days desentendió of her, throwing it to the interior of this castle that was a sewer and not even had presented/displayed it to his inhabitants to say to them that she was his wife.
The stairs descended that took to patio and later promoted the narrow stone steps that lead to that according to her it imagined was the kitchen, and later, lofty stairs of stone in spiral. Something sticky slid under its feet but she not him it paid attention. Tampoco considered the people who were beginning a to rise of its beds and to follow it, watching interested that young person whom according to all claimed was a submissive and kind rabbit, the woman who the gentleman had taken to the castle.
Liana continued promoting the stairs and at certain moment it unloaded a kick, to an excessively enthusiastic rat that it had treated in biting the toes to him; finally, it arrived at the floor stop. It opened in silence the primera door of the left and entered room. There, laying mouth down, the beautiful naked body -- the body that once it had inspired so many desires -- was its husband. And to its right, sleeping, the regordeta servant and also in leathers; that a had refused to obey to Liana.
Love of Lady Liana. Page 10