Free Devil's Dominion by Kathryn Le Veque

squinted, going so far as to put her hand over her eyes. That stopped her forward momentum and she teetered a bit, disoriented and dizzy. The next thing she realized, the big knight had swept her into his arms and was carrying her across the bailey.
    Having no point of reference with any part of the castle other than the vault she had been in, the scenery passed by her in a blur; a big, darkened bailey, some small individual structures she didn’t recognize, and finally great stone steps that led up into a towering keep. She only knew it was tall because she had removed the hand from her eyes briefly. She saw stone towering into the sky and closed her eyes again because it hurt to keep them open.
    From the cold openness of the bailey to the dark, cool innards of the keep, she could feel the dampness of the structure as the knight carried her up some stairs. By this time, her face was on his shoulder because she was too exhausted to lift her head and her eyes were throbbing with the introduction of light after three weeks of darkness. He walked and walked, and then she heard a door slam. Soon, she was being set down.
    “You will remain on this bed until I return,” he said, his tone grim. “If you move off this bed, I will put you back in the vault. Is that clear?”
    Allaston simply nodded, eyes closed. She heard him move across the floor and then a door open and close. She could hear his footfalls fade away.
    Sleep claimed her once more. She had no idea how long she had been asleep because when she awoke, it was to soft voices in the chamber. She could hear people moving around, taking. She heard the splash of water as it was poured. In a dream-like haze, she heard all of these things. Then, someone was shaking her awake.
    “Woman,” came a soft voice. “Get up, now. I’ve had a bath brought for you. Get into it and clean up. You will feel better.”
    A bath . Allaston swore she had never heard more beautiful words in her entire life. She struggled to sit up with the thought of lovely water. God, it had been so long since she’d had a bath. It had been so long since she had been clean or warm. Was it possible such things still existed?
    “A bath?” she repeated weakly. “But... but I have nothing to bathe with.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Allaston could see the big iron tub near the hearth, steam rising out of it, and it was like the lure of food to a starving man. It was calling to her. The hearth, too, had been stoked and a soft blaze was glowing. Warmth! Male servants had filled the tub and were finishing with the hearth, quickly leaving when their task was finished. Water was leaking out on the floor and puddling, but it didn’t matter. She saw the almighty bath as her cure and salvation, all in one.
    “I do not have any soap,” she said, her eyes riveted to the steaming water. “Nor any clean clothing.”
    The knight’s gaze lingered on her. “I will see what is in the other chambers,” he said. “There was a lady here, once. Mayhap she left behind items that are serviceable.”
    Had Allaston been sharper and not wracked with fever, she might have thought on his words. There was a lady here, once . But she didn’t think on them. She really didn’t know what the knight meant by it. There was no way she could have known that the lady of Cloryn had been rounded up with her husband and killed by the very men who held her prisoner. All Allaston cared about was climbing into that tub and being warm for the first time in weeks.
    As the knight went about hunting down something for her to wear that wasn’t soaked with dirt and filth, Allaston struggled to remove her clothing. Since she was not yet a fully consecrated nun, her clothing was simpler than those who had taken their final vows. She wore undyed woolen undergarments, a shift and rudimentary breeches that tied at the waist, and over that she wore a simple gown of unbleached wool that was a dirty white shade, dark and stained now with weeks of wear