A DESPERATE MEASURE
Alina looked up at the ceiling. The morning had dawned hours ago, tracing beams of orange and then gold across the pale, vaulted expanse. Shivering despite the cloak that covered her and the fire that burned in the grate beside her, Alina shook her head to clear it.
Lord Camry had given her his terms. Either marry him, or be disgraced.
She closed her eyes, resting an aching head in the palms of her hands. The trouble was that she had made it childishly easy for him. No one knew why she had left the castle. All they knew was that he had found her in the woods. While most of the locals loved her for her healing skills, many of them, particularly the churchmen interested in keeping people loyal to their own method of healing, denounced her. All Camry had to do was tell someone he had found her casting a spell in the woods, and she would be as good as dead.
And even if he was not so cruel, simply saying I have spent two nights here in his castle, unchaperoned, would ruin me forever. No one would marry me. If she was lucky, her uncle would allow her to retire into a convent, helping her to find one accepting of her. If she was unlucky, he would send her out of the castle to seek her own way.
Either way, she would face a life of hardship and unpleasantness, and possibly mistreatment and death.
“I'm not sure which I prefer,” Alina said wryly to herself. “Being mistreated on the street, by the sisters at the Abbey, or by him.”
The choice was surprisingly hard. If she were lucky, on the street she might find shelter and someone to protect her from men's violence and lust. There was no one to protect her from either lust or violence of Lord Camry.
She thought about the way he looked at her and shuddered. There was something about his predatory nature, about his bullying arrogance, his belittling ways, which all disgusted her. She could not marry him! To do so would debase her beyond anything she could dream of.
I will escape, she thought wildly. I have to.
She leaned back on the chair, thinking hard.
Lord Camry had locked her in here. It was a serviceable room – comfortable and pleasant. There was only one window – a high one, carved in the stone wall. She could not have reached it and even if she had wished to, to leap through it would be death this high up. She had been brought a meal in the morning and, as of the previous day, an invitation to join Camry at luncheon, which she had refused. The light outside the window had cooled somewhat since then, and she judged there were perhaps six hours between the present hour and supper.
That means I have perhaps four hours of sunlight left.
Alina closed her eyes. Let her mind form a plan. At length, she stood. She knocked on the door.
“Milady?”
A maid – Greere – appeared. Alina recognized her from when Camry brought her up here, ordering her to assist Alina in any need she mentioned. She was fairly sure that was the woman's name.
“Greere,” Alina said, hesitantly. She saw the woman's face soften at the use of her name. “I hunger terribly. If you could fetch me something to eat? Perhaps some oatcakes? Or just a little gruel?”
Greere looked worried. “Of course, my lady! His lordship would be vexed if he thought I'd starved ye!” She curtsied deeply, and retreated. Alina looked around the room.
While the maid was gone, she ran to the wall. She swallowed a feeling of guilt at deceiving the maidservant, but she knew she had no other choice, if she wished to escape this fate.
She looked up at the wall, resuming the search. The stonework was covered in tapestries, the designs fine work in gold and red. She tugged on one, a large one which was easily twice her height, showing magical beasts in gold and red on a white ground. She had no idea how much time she had and she pulled again, heart thudding in her chest.
When it came loose in her hand, trailing dust, she felt a surge of elation and gratitude. That part, at least, was working.
She ran lightly to the door, terrified of missing a moment. She stood there, heart thumping. Her plan relied on timing to have any chance of working. She stood with the vast tapestry in her hands, threads digging into her fingers with the pressure.
At length, she heard footsteps on the stone stairs.
The maid turned the handle, and then pushed the door back slowly.
“My lady?”
She looked around the room, confusion showing on her face. She took a step forward, tray in hand.
Alina drew a breath. Quick as lightning, she stepped behind the woman, lifted the tapestry and dropped it downward, aiming for her head. It landed where it had been intended to, and covered the woman, effectively trapping and blinding her for a while. As long as it took for her to escape its heavy folds.
“What? Ugh! Get it off me!”
Alina dashed through the door, hearing Greere coughing and shouting from below the tapestry. She had no time to feel guilty, only hastily to pray Greere would not get blamed, and then she ran lightly down the hallway.
She felt her mind burst into urgent action. I have so little time!
This way, she told herself, going toward her right. She remembered turning right from the solar to reach this place the previous night. That meant that if she wanted to avoid that part of the house, she should go right again when she left here. She headed down the hallway on her right, feet fast but not running, to avoid attention. She walked quickly and quietly over stone flagging, heart in her mouth.
Calm, Alina, she told herself, feeling her heart thumping. She heard two men laughing in one of the rooms and stiffened, but it was only two guardsmen, watching their companions over the rail as they sparred in the courtyard. She moved on.
Calm, Alina. Her hand was on her heart, schooling her breath and its wild beating.
She reached the top of the stairwell. Here, she had a decision. She could head down, which would take her to the courtyard and the great hall, or she could go right again, which led to another turret. She had no idea which way to go. Along the hallway, she heard feet. Probably the men at arms, coming out of the gallery-room.
She bit her lip and made a choice. Go right.
The courtyard was full of sparring men who would certainly notice a lady and question that, and his lordship might yet be entertaining in the great hall. The kitchen would have been good, but the servants would probably stop her. The turret, however, might have a window, or a door.
She walked along the hallway to the turret, booted feet clicking on the stone.
Calm, Alina. Alina, calm. Breathe in, then out. In. Out. Her heart thudded and her palms were soaking. She walked down the corridor at top speed, looking left and right. She reached the stairs she ran.
She cannoned into someone.
She screamed.
She looked up.
Facing her was Lord Camry.