Dralin (8 page)

“If anyone had found out, I would have been
kicked out of the program and sent to jail,” Frath admitted
quietly. “I just couldn’t let those men . . .”

“And I am forever grateful, my friend,” Lady
Pallon said earnestly. “In any case, Melody and I brought him home
to clean up and gave him a safe place to sleep. We haven’t told
anyone about the incident although I don’t think he’d get in
trouble for it anymore.” She looked at Frath for verification.

He shook his head. “No. I made it through
the program and I’m an official Guardsman now. Every guard’s past
is completely forgiven once they take their final oath. That said,
I still don’t want to make a big deal out of it.” Frath felt
uncomfortable with everything that had happened that night, but
finally entered into the conversation. “The way you’ve treated me
and given me a safe place to go to since then has meant everything
to me, Milady.”

“But of course! Not only did you save us
that night, but I like you, Frath.” She smiled blissfully. “You
remind me of my husband, as I’ve told you before. You have the same
ideals as he did, rest his soul. This is always a safe place for
you and yours.” Lady Pallon gestured to Sheela to include her in
the statement.

“Thank you, Milady. This has become as close
to a home as I’ve ever had,” Frath told her sincerely. “If anything
ever happens to me, would you look after Sheela for me?”

“No!” Sheela exclaimed.

“Of course, but nothing’s going to happen to
you. I insist,” Lady Pallon said at the exact same time and stuck
out her tongue.

“Frath, nothing’s allowed to happen to you!”
Sheela insisted vehemently. Then she burst into tears. “I don’t
think I could live anymore if something happened to you.”

He put his arms around her, feeling guilty
for upsetting her. Lady Pallon stared at him through narrowed eyes
to let him know that she wasn’t thrilled with him either at that
moment.

After a minute, Sheela wiped her eyes and
sat normally. She took a bite of her food in silence, refusing to
look at him. Frath sighed and finished his plate.

Mary came into the dining room. “Will you be
having dessert, Milady?”

“We’ll take it in the conservatory with tea,
Mary.” Lady Pallon stood as Mary departed for the kitchen. Sheela
and Frath also stood, and then followed her out of the room, into a
hallway and toward the back of the house.

The conservatory was a large room made
primarily out of greenish glass panels. Sheela looked around in
awe. Even though Frath had been in the room before, he still felt
overwhelmed by it. Glass was rare, owned by those who were well
off. Only the wealthy built conservatories as large as Lady
Pallon’s. Plants were everywhere, many with beautiful flowers in
contrast to winter moisture outside.

She led them to a sitting area at the far
end of the room where they could look outside. There was another
pond in the vast back yard in addition to more willows, rosebushes
and other large trees. Frath knew there were other buildings, of
which only one was visible from where they sat. He also knew a
couple of them led underground to some of the secret areas of the
city, but had never shared that information with anyone.

“So tell us about you, dear,” Lady Pallon
said to Sheela after sitting. There was a small wrought iron table
in the middle with a glass top. The chair Lady Pallon sat in was
wrought iron with a plush cushion. Frath was happy that there was a
double seat across from the chair for him and Sheela to sit on. He
unhooked his sword and set it on a side table in order to sit
comfortably.

Sheela paled and began wringing her hands in
her lap. Frath held her a little tighter. Lady Pallon became
concerned. “I can see how upset you are, child. Sometimes talking
about the things that upset you helps. You’re with friends.”

Frath leaned in to look Sheela in the eyes,
she returned the look reluctantly and he could see that tears were
already welling there. “I love you and there’s nothing you can tell
me that will stop my love.”

The tears broke through and she buried her
face in his chest again. After just a moment, she leaned back. “Do
you ever take that thing off?” she asked, tugging on the chain
shirt peaking under his collar.

“Only when I’m in the barracks. Outside of
them, I’m required to wear it at all times.” He took one of her
hands in his free one.

“It’s uncomfortable to rest my head
against.” When neither he nor Lady Pallon responded, Sheela sighed
deeply. “I ran away from home.”

“I remember you telling me that. What
happened?” Frath asked encouragingly.

“I . . . I . . .” Her jaw clenched and she
gripped his hand tightly.

“Start from the beginning if you can,” Lady
Pallon suggested. “Where were you raised?”

Sheela nodded. “I was raised on a small farm
a few week’s walk to the southeast of here. I never went anywhere
until the day my mother lost the farm.” She took a deep breath to
strengthen her resolve. “My father left my mother when I was five.
There were three of us daughters, both sons died in childbirth. He
didn’t want daughters and life was hard on the farm, so he just
left. My mother struggled to care for us, spending most of her time
in the fields and the rest working on the household chores, which
she wasn’t very good at. At night she would collapse,
exhausted.”

Mary brought tea and pastries made with
apples. Sheela poked at the pastry with her fork while talking. “My
younger sister died when she was only a few years old. My older
sister thought it was her fault and killed herself a year later
while my mother was out in the fields.” Sheela’s voice gradually
became hollow as she told of the horrifying hardships she had
experienced. She set the fork down and put her hands back in her
lap.

Frath rubbed her shoulder and arm in an
attempt to flow strength and support to her. Lady Pallon smiled
supportively. “Go on, you’re doing wonderfully. Tell us what
happened, it will help heal your heart.”

“My mother spent the next few years in her
bed while I did just enough to care for us. The tax collectors took
everything we had before kicking us out of our house.” Sheela
stopped, gulping deeply and wringing her hands more furiously. They
waited for her to gather the fortitude to continue.

“My mother and I walked for days, sleeping
in fields when we thought the farmers wouldn’t notice. Then we were
caught. The man lived alone and offered us his home if my mother .
. .” she trailed off, staring blankly outside.

“A mother does what she has to in order to
take care of her child,” Lady Pallon said in understanding.

Sheela shook her head slowly. “She just
shrugged and went with him. It wasn’t to take care of me, she had
stopped doing that long before. He took us into his house and she
just lay down in the bed. He didn’t even sleep with her, going out
to work the fields instead.” Sheela took a deep breath and let it
out slowly. “I made the food and took care of things inside. When
we ate that evening, he stared at me . . .”

Frath felt anger rising in his chest. He
understood why she didn’t want to kiss him originally and why she
had frozen. Then he felt his cheeks burn in shame at how forward he
had been in his advances. Sheela pushed in closer to him for
strength, causing him to set aside his own musings in the
realization that she needed him right then.

“That night, I bolted the door to my room.
He knocked quite a few times through the night. I hid in the
corner, terrified he would break it down.” She took another deep
breath, her dessert forgotten. None of them wanted anything else to
eat at that moment. “The next day, I got up after he left for the
fields. I took care of my mother, but she just continued to lie in
bed. The clothes she had worn before were just as they were. The
man hadn’t touched her.”

“Do you know the name of the man?” Lady
Pallon asked.

Sheela shook her head. “No. He never said,
nor did he ask ours. That afternoon, I was collecting eggs from the
chicken coop when he suddenly appeared behind me. I dropped the
eggs when he put his hands on my arms. He was so quiet and I was so
busy trying to think of what to do that I didn’t hear him.”

Frath felt his vision growing red and his
heart beating against his chest as though it was going to leap out
and hunt the man down on its own. “Frath. Not now,” Lady Pallon
told him. He saw her warning look and took a deep breath to calm
his anger. Sheela looked at him worriedly.

When Sheela knew he was listening again, she
continued. “I pulled away from his hands and ran out of the coop
toward the barn. It was closer than the house and I didn’t know
what else to do. He followed me in and cornered me. I was so
terrified. A part of me wanted to fight or continue to run away,
but I couldn’t seem to move as he walked toward me.”

“That is perfectly understandable, dear,”
Lady Pallon reassured her. “You’re very brave for telling us this.
Go on.”

Frath wasn’t certain he wanted to hear more.
The image of a rough, brutal man with evil eyes stalking his love
like a hunched over wolf was the only image in his mind and it was
taking all his willpower not to give into fury and hunt the man
down.

“He took my arms again and pushed me into a
pile of hay in the corner of the barn. I remember he smelled so
bad.” Sheela thought deeply, no longer crying. Frath knew this was
the first time she had had a chance to tell anyone what happened to
her. “He lay on top of me and forced kisses on me and I remember he
tasted as bad as he smelled. I began to struggle, but he was
strong. He hit me in the face twice. I think it was to get me to
stop struggling, but it just made me mad.”

Frath held her hands as gently as he could
manage, setting his own feelings aside with extraordinary effort
because he knew she just needed him to listen at that point. Lady
Pallon came over, squeezing next to her on the other side of the
seat to lend even more support.

Sheela briefly smiled in gratitude. “I went
still, desperately trying to think of what to do. He stood up to
take off his clothes. I knew I had to escape then. When he knelt
down over me again, I brought my leg up and drove my foot into that
thing between his legs. I think men have those. It’s different than
girls.” She looked questioningly at them and they both nodded
silently. Frath felt his blush go from anger to embarrassment.

“He yelled in pain, so I think it hurt a
lot,” Sheela said. Frath nodded a little more briskly. “I got up,
but he caught my dress and tore it. I reached back and scratched
him in the face and he yelled again. I tried running, but he
knocked me down. I kicked him and got up. When he did too, I picked
up a spade next to me and hit him in the face with it twice.”

She stopped speaking. They sat there
silently for a moment until Lady Pallon handed her a cup of tea.
Sheela took a drink, held the cup and saucer in her lap and
continued in a lower voice. “He curled up in a ball and started
crying. I think he was in pain. The spade fell out of my hands. I
couldn’t seem to hold it anymore. It was like all my strength fell
to the ground in a puddle with it. I was so scared.”

Frath felt her trembling. He wanted to hold
her and never let go, but chose to sit silently so she would be
able to finish. Lady Pallon took the shaking cup of tea out of her
hands and rubbed her back encouragingly. “Go on, dear.”

“I ran. I ran out the barn door and toward
the road.” Sheela frowned while remembering the events. “I ran down
the road and didn’t stop. The sky was completely clear and there
was no one around. Everything was silent except for the buzzing of
insects. It was like I was all alone in a different world.”

Sheela picked up the tea and took another
sip. Her expression was far away as though she were alone in that
other world once more. “I just walked and walked. At night I would
sleep in haystacks or anywhere else I could find where I thought no
one would see me. I stole food wherever I could, but never tasted
it. I thought about my mother once . . .” She took another sip of
tea. “I wonder . . .”

The tears broke in a great flood, ripping
through all the pain, sorrow and suffering the young woman had
experienced. The cup spilled to the floor and was quickly picked up
by Lady Pallon. Frath pulled Sheela into his lap and clutched her
as heaving sobs wracked her body.

Lady Pallon sat quietly next to them, softly
running her fingers through Sheela’s hair. In a little while, the
tears lessened. Then a new round of sobbing began. A few more
cycles of crying, where she would get quiet and then begin a new
round, occured over the next half hour. Finally, she fell into an
exhausted sleep. Frath held her the entire time, rocking slowly
back and forth.

***

Sheela woke up a few hours later still in
Frath’s arms. He woke up as soon as she did. Lady Pallon wasn’t
around, so they stood and stretched out the kinks. Snow was still
falling outside, which didn’t surprise Frath. When it snowed in
Dralin, it tended to do so steadily for days. He felt Sheela duck
under his arm, lifting it around her shoulders. She looked up at
him questioningly and he smiled at her as he drew her in close.

“Ahh, you’re awake,” Lady Pallon said from
behind them. “I know it probably seems like you just ate, but you
slept for hours and it’s dinner time. Come eat what you will.” She
held her arms out to them and they accepted the warm hug she
gave.

The meal was hot and delicious, tickling the
nose with delight as well as satisfying the tongue. Sheela smiled
easily and seemed lighter after having shared her burden. Her eyes
shimmered with cheerfulness whenever she looked at Frath.

Frath enjoyed the light conversation about
what the weather would be like that winter and the details that
Lady Fallon shared with Sheela about the roses and trees in the
yard. He didn’t participate very much because he was reconsidering
his other plan for the day, especially since it would soon be
night.