Free Amanda Scott - [Border Trilogy 2] by Border Moonlight Page A

alone.”
    “Bless you!” Sibylla said, feeling guilty for relying on Tetsy’s kindness but nonetheless determined. “I swear I’ll not let you suffer for helping me,” she added.
    Whether Tetsy believed her or not, she led the way down the service stairs with her pail. Sibylla followed, her robe tied tight, her bare feet protesting the cold stairs. She carried her poultice so they could claim to be refreshing it if necessary.
    At the hall landing, Tetsy peeked in, nodded, and motioned her on.
    “Is the kitchen the lowest level of the castle?” Sibylla whispered.
    “Aye, save for the dungeons.”
    Sibylla experienced a mental image of Simon casting her into a dungeon and leaving her there.
Let him try,
she thought, grinning.
    The kitchen was as warm as she had expected and the bakehouse behind its fireplace wall even warmer. The bakehouse proved to be a small room with a big fireplace boasting cavelike openings in the rock wall at each end of the fire bed.
    Taking swift inventory of the empty chamber, the kitchen, and the scullery at its far end, she said, “If you can find a large basin, Tetsy, we’ll start rinsing my hair in the bakehouse. I doubt the laird will visit the kitchen at such an hour, but someone may, so we dare not use that sink for long. Where is the baker’s boy?”
    “I saw Jack in the hall, m’lady. If he comes down, I’ll tell ’im we dinna want folks talking about us being in here. He’ll say nowt.”
    “Good, then set your pail on the baker’s table, and find that basin.” A thought occurred to her. “There
is
a drain in the scullery sink, is there not, so we can use it to empty the basin when we’re ready to sluice the last of the dirt from my hair?”
    “There is a drain, aye,” Tetsy said. “But ye’ll want yon sink clean when ye use it later, so I’ll empty our basin outside. Yon scullery door opens to a path betwixt the walls with a drain that carries water straight to the cesspits.”
    “Go then and take this poultice with you,” Sibylla directed. “Set it in a bowl of water from the hob. It can steep there whilst we work in here.”
    Tetsy hurried to obey, clearly nervous, and Sibylla fidgeted, too, listening for any approaching footsteps. The maid soon returned with a large basin.
    “Set it on the table,” Sibylla said. “We’ll use the water from the pail first, so I can begin working the dirt out whilst you refill the pail. Find towels to wrap my hair in afterward, too. I’ve brought combs, so we can dry it by this fire.”
    After Tetsy had poured water over Sibylla’s head and gone to get more, Sibylla worked with the mass of loose hair in water that half filled the basin. That water was soon filthy, and she could do little with the back of her head.
    Hearing Tetsy’s returning footsteps at last, she said, “Pour more water over the back of my head, will you? Then you can empty this basin.”
    “Sakes, mistress, we’ll be sloshing water all over the baker’s table!”
    “We’ll scrub the dirt off, and the table will dry by morning,” Sibylla said, squeezing her eyes shut as water ran into them. “He’ll never know.”
    Tetsy said no more but continued pouring slowly while Sibylla worked the hair at the back. When the pail was empty, Sibylla gathered the wet mass of hair into her hands, squeezing as much of the dirty water out as she could.
    “Now, take the basin and empty it,” she directed. “Then bring it back and fetch clean water from the hob to rinse me again.” She wished she could help but was well aware that while Tetsy could plausibly explain being in the kitchen,
she
could not. And if Simon caught them both, Tetsy might suffer for helping her.
    Their process was not ideal, she thought, holding the mass of dripping hair as Tetsy hurried off with the basinful of dirty water and the empty pail. It was the best they could manage, though, and it gave her great satisfaction to be doing something for herself in defiance of her stern