Snippet #1504369

The thud of the horse’s hooves was sharpened to a clop as Kenneth trotted his big bay stallion on the hard packed earth of the road outside of Cavanaugh castle to the stone paving past the portcullis. He didn’t want to draw much attention to himself until he could figure out how his sister had been running the Cavanaugh household. There was hardly anyone around to challenge his entrance which struck Kenneth as odd. There was a civil war going on between the Cavanaugh’s liege Lord Winsler and King Henry. Both Kenneth’s father and his brother had kept guards at the gate and on the walls at all times, even during peace. With such a dangerous war going on, the guardsmen should have been patrolling four to the gate and eight or more to the walls. The portcullis should not have been left open to anyone. As he dismounted in front of the main entrance to the Great Hall and petted his tired mount’s nose Kenneth took stock of what he saw. Barely a dozen people stood about a hot and quiet courtyard. No children played ball as it was in the village he’d left to come here, no women gossiped nor laughed or flirted with the men. In fact, it looked as if there weren’t any men. The oldest boy Kenneth saw was being pulled along to the shade near a passage that Kenneth thought he remembered leading to the worker’s and peasant petitioner’s rooms. The scrawny sunburned child looked less than twelve, and there was no energy in his movements. The boy acted like enemy soldiers Kenneth had seen captured and starved for days at a time to break their spirit. It was not a happy memory, and Kenneth would be having extremely unpleasant words with his sister, Julia, instead of the normally unpleasant ones he had already planned for and memorized on the ride back to Cavanaugh land.

As no one came to stable Kenneth’s horse and escort him inside, Kenneth took the honor upon himself. First he walked the sturdy bay to the front paddock to the right of the courtyard by the guest stables. At this hour of noon with the sun high overhead, nothing should have been kept there as the heat was too intense. However, two scrawny cattle with glazed eyes and a sorrowful looking mule were attempting to crop at the dry grass strands covering the dusty summer ground. All three animals looked exactly like the starved boy Kenneth had seen just a moment ago. He walked his horse inside the paddock and over to a small bit of shade where the eve of the stable reached over the fence, near the water trough and its brackish contents, and tied the reigns there loosely. Kenneth looked into the soulful brown eyes of his mount and said, “I won’t leave you like this for long. You’ll be in a cool stable before dinner time.” Turning away Kenneth thought to himself, “If we even stay so long as that.”

Kenneth strode away, having seen as much outside as he could stomach, towards the wooden doors of the Great Hall. “Funny,” he thought, “Even when I was a nobleman, soldier, and knight in training, these doors always seemed larger and more solemn than anything in my life. I come home now as a simple blacksmith, two heads taller and certainly no wiser, and these doors seem small, overpowered by the tall stone walls they are set in. I suppose both of us look as we always truly were; simple and solid, nothing great nor grand or special.” No steward or guard challenged him here, either, as he lifted the handle and pulled the door open.

He paused inside the threshold to let his eyes adjust from the blinding sunlight outside to the dim gloom inside the Hall. “Some things don’t change,” he thought. The Great Hall was still a massively tall, long chamber. The dusty tapestries of nymphs and fauns were different from the epic battle scenes of his childhood, but the majesty of the Hall couldn’t be masked by trivialities such as that. It had been built to intimidate guests and enemies alike, and it still suited its purpose even in these hard times. All the view needed was a pack of hounds, a game of dice or two, and a circle of women doing needlepoint to make the image in Kenneth’s mind complete and real before his eyes. Sadly, the hot, heavy air muffled no conversations or curses or speech at all. A dull echo of a thud sounded to his far left ahead of him as a servant, the first near teenage boy Kenneth had seen since he’d been there, emerged from the kitchen door holding a tray of something and strode with quick, echoing steps toward the grand staircase on the opposite side of the Hall. Kenneth strode toward the boy quickly and called out, “You, boy! Stop for a moment. I have a question for you! Yes, you! Stop! ” The boy halted, and he waited for Kenneth to reach the other end of the Hall.

“Would that tray be for the Lady of this house?” Kenneth asked.

“Yes, ser. Excuse me, but she doesn’t like to be kept waiting. This morning when a maid was bringing hot water for the Lady’s bath—“

“Don’t worry boy, I have no intention of keeping you here. I’d like you to take me to her.”

“Well, you can follow me up if you want to, ser. Can’t guarantee that she’ll see you, though.”

“She’ll see me, lad. Let’s get going.”

~

“Hello, Julia. I see you’ve managed to almost ruin Father and Matthew’s hard work in little less than a few months. Not much has changed, I see,” Kenneth thought while staring at his sister’s back.

He was standing in her presence chamber, an embroidered chaise lounge in front of him and facing away. Reclining on the lounge was Kenneth’s sister, Lady Julia Cavanaugh. Five years younger than Kenneth and infinitely more spoiled and full of herself, Lady Julia had been running the Cavanaugh estate since the untimely death of their older brother, the late Lord Matthew. It was by her beseeching request that he’d come back at all.

“Julia,” was all he said.

Julia jumped up from the lounge, scattering the silver tray of sweetmeats the serving boy had brought her all over the floor.

“Lady Julia!” she screeched before she’d even turned around. “My title is Lady. I am the Mistress of this house and I—“

Her face was red at the ears and cheeks, drastically clashing with her dirty blonde curls. The look of anger disappeared and was immediately replaced with one of mild shock as she turned around completely and faced Kenneth for the first time in fourteen years. The incredibly pale, sweaty looking skin of her chest and throat blazed red in embarrassment, but she quickly regained her speech.

“Princey, thank the Seven you’ve come to save me!” she exclaimed in fake relief and enthusiasm.

Kenneth winced and tried not to let it show. “Matthew isn’t around anymore, Julia. You don’t have to pretend to like me the best. There’s no making him jealous where he’s at now, so don’t call me that.”

Julia’s fake smile faded and was replaced with an arrogant smirk that really didn’t become her plump, rosy face. “Yes, I know that, Princey dear. But it bothers you nonetheless. Therefore, why shouldn’t I say it?”

“Perhaps because you’ve entreated me to come fix the mess you’ve made of this household, and I haven’t agreed to do it yet?” he retorted.

“Oh, you’ve agreed alright. This is Father’s legacy we’re discussing. Everyone on the grounds knew that you were always closest to him. That’s why Matthew agreed to help fake your death in the first place. He didn’t want any challengers to the title. He secretly hoped you’d get out into the world, young and foolish as you were, and get yourself conveniently killed for real. I can’t say I didn’t feel the same,” she said and strutted over to Kenneth.

Her head barely reached his shoulder, and she had to reach up to stroke his earlobe. “Matthew was always very good to me. I was his only family after mother died. And you remember us three were always so close,” she said with a sigh.

Kenneth took her by the shoulders and gently but forcibly moved her away from him a few steps. “It was quite convenient how Mother died and Matthew claimed the title. Rumors around the peasantry make it sound a little too convenient for my comfort.”

“Yes, well,” she said as she hastily stepped to his side and laced his arm around hers, “that’s all in the past, Kenneth. We must now discuss our future.”

She walked with him rather stiffly accompanying her to the chaise lounge and attempted to sit him down with her. After a moment of his silent refusal to sit, she released him and sat down anyway.

“As you must know, House Cavanaugh is in the middle of a civil war between Houses Winsler and Damian,” she spoke as if she were discussing new curtains. “

“I know that, Julia. That reminds me of a very important question I have for you. Where are all the soldiers and guards? I understand that some of them would have been sent to protect Lord Winsler, but we should have at least fifty here guarding the gates, the walls, and the surrounding countryside. I came through an open portcullis without a word or a challenge! You could be attacked and killed at any time. What’s worse, you could have been attacked and we could have lost our lands and our title. Father would be apoplectic if he could see this, and I don’t think even sweet Matthew would have many kind words for you now,” he said sternly.

Julia yawned and picked up a stray sweetmeat from the cushion next to her. “Calm down, Princey. We have about sixty of those annoying brutes if you count all the boys I rounded up and stuck them with. I sent them on patrol a week ago. With the farmers slacking at their work and the war raising the price of food, it was awfully hard trying to figure a way to feed all of the servants as well as keep myself in the luxurious lifestyle I’m entitled to as a Lady,” she said, then popped the candy into her greedy mouth. “In fact, I’ve fired almost everyone except the kitchen staff and darling Tobias that you came in with. They work for food now.”

“What happened to the fortune Father amassed over his lifetime?” Kenneth burst out.

“Matthew wasn’t exactly frugal, Princey. He didn’t leave very much of it to me. Besides, didn’t you see those three lovely tapestries in the Great Hall as you came in? Those were quite expensive, but I think it gives the Hall the feminine touch it’s needed all these years. And if you’d sit down you’d see how wonderfully comfortable this new chaise lounge is,” she said in all seriousness and pride.
Kenneth rubbed his temples firmly and said, “You’ve made such a mess of things, Julia. I can’t help but think you did it on purpose to bring me back here so you wouldn’t have to work, but I know that you’ve never been that clever.”

He stood up straight and used a tone of voice that shockingly reminded Julia of their father. “My first order as Lord is that our remaining soldiers come back immediately. I don’t care if ten of them have to go hunting every day in order to feed this castle until I can somehow fix the finances, but they must come back. We are terrifyingly too open to attack right now. My second order is that you will make no purchases unauthorized by me. From chocolates to horses, you will ask me first or you’ll be locked in your rooms.”

Julia had been smiling at first, but the expression slowly faded from her face as she realized that years living as a peasant hadn’t made Kenneth long for a title and power like she assumed. If anything, the tall, strong, man before her had been hardened against the whole thing. She had thought she was doing him a favor when she recalled him from the slums, and she had thought he would treat her as such. This serious, unforgiving brother of hers was treating her like a child.

“It’s going to be harder to get my way than I thought it would be,” Julia thought. “Just he wait until I tell him the best news in my arsenal of gossip. Why, he’ll be the first to know, after I write to my darling betrothed that is.”

She rose from her sitting position and curtseyed to her new Lord. “Of course, dear brother, I will do as you command at once.”

Kenneth saw through the act his sister was putting on, but he decided to let it go. Until she decided to do something openly against him, he had bigger problems to deal with.

“I wish her spy never found me to give me her letter,” he thought. “Yes, well,” he answered himself in his head, “it’s happened and we’re here. Let’s begin.”

~

Very early the next morning, before the servants or the sun were up, Kenneth strode down to the stables to check on his horse and saddle him for a ride. He thought the peace and quiet of the early morning and the solitary ride would help him sort out his plans and emotions. The sun was just barely coloring the horizon as Kenneth stopped in the courtyard to watch it. This was a personal ceremony he’d honored every morning for the last four years since his wife, Beth, and their child had died. He wasn’t going to forget it or them just because he’d been forced to reclaim his heritage.

Lost in introspection, Kenneth didn’t notice at first that the sky was smudged black in the direction of Strake land nor that the breeze smelled faintly of smoke.