Captives by Emily Murdoch Read Free Book Online

you, and they will bring you back.”
    Catheryn stared at the woman who was to be her jailor.
    “You are not wanted, Lady Catheryn of England.” Turning her back, she quickly left the room.
    Catheryn almost laughed in shock. If she and that woman had met in England a year ago, it would have been Adeliza scraping the knee. Catheryn greatly outranked this woman who did not think her good enough to give a proper welcome.
    Catheryn realised that the man who had brought her to this place had gone. She was standing alone in the hall of a castle, miles and miles from everyone that she knew and cared for. She was truly alone. Tears welled in her tired eyes.
    “My lady?”
    Catheryn turned quickly, and the servant girl took a hasty step backwards.
    “My lady Adeliza bid me take you to your chambers,” she said quietly.
    Catheryn frowned. “And does your lady Adeliza bid you be polite to me?”
    A look of confusion blossomed over the servant girl’s face. “My lady?”
    Catheryn sighed. “Forget my hurried words,” she said quietly. “I am too tired to argue. Take me to a place where I can sleep.”

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    The moon had changed from old to new twice, and Catheryn had barely settled in the castle of the FitzOsberns. It felt like every day was a new exercise for the household to remind her that she was not wanted, an outsider. Their prisoner.
    Each morning, when the household broke their fast together, Catheryn would sit between Adeliza and a young woman who never spoke to her. During the first few days after Catheryn had arrived at the castle, she had tried to speak to Adeliza. Catheryn knew that there was no reason that she, an Anglo-Saxon, could not have a rational conversation with a Norman. She was too old, and had seen too much of the world to believe that there was really that much difference between them. And yet still, Adeliza forced silence onto the table.
    Catheryn was beginning to crave the small conversations that she had had with Lina, when she had been a prisoner of Geffrei. At times it made her laugh – she could never have imagined wishing herself back to those days of silence and solitude. And yet she had at least had someone who acknowledged her presence once each day.
    The summer was hot, and heavy. Much of the castle’s household would try and spend their days outside in the shade, where the heat was not trapped and fires were not still burning. Within the first week of her stay with the FitzOsbern family, Catheryn had discovered the way to their kitchen. Her love for creating something delicious with only her hands and a fire was a skill her husband had always mocked her for, and yet done so with a smile, and a kiss.
    “You’re not a servant!” Selwyn would say. “Let someone else do that…”
    But Catheryn could not deny the passion that she had for feeding the stomachs of those she loved, and she had passed that fire on to her daughter. Would she be in a kitchen now? Catheryn wondered. Would she be eating?
    Catheryn had hoped to find solace in the kitchen of the FitzOsbern castle, and yet she was denied it. The servants there could not seem to understand why she wanted to be there; they suspected her. Catheryn knew that they had probably been fed lies about Anglo-Saxons poisoning all the food that they prepared… and yet it would give her great peace to lose herself in the kneading of some dough.
    “Please,” she said to a stony face. “I will not be any trouble.”
    “You are trouble,” was the reply. “Do not return here.”
    The chambers which had been given to her by Adeliza were not large, but they were comfortable. The first room that led off the corridor had a small fire in it, two chairs which had beautiful silks draped over them, and a chest that she had put her meagre belongings in. A cloak. A second dress that had been given to her by a servant girl, who had muttered that her mistress Adeliza no longer wanted it. A flower she had picked.
    A doorway beside this