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Old 05-24-2006, 06:30 AM   #26
JennyHallu
The Pearl, The Lily Maid
 
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Lin's face twisted briefly with her scorn when Scyld suggested she might have hired him, and when she replied she didn't even try to keep the emotion out of her voice. "That Sorn would hire you is but another sign of his foolishness. Never hire a man you cannot trust." She paused, thinking. But if he betrays his master, it might run to your good. Then again, it might not. All the same, Lin, do not overly antagonize him. You might need him yet.

Stiffly, Lin walked to a solid wall of her cell and slid down it to sit on the dirt floor beside the bars. She put her weight for a moment on her left hand, lowering herself down, and cried out in pain. She'd thought it only bruised. Apparently it was broken. She cradled it to her chest, wondering anew if she could ask for a healer, or if she could trust any "healer" Sorn might keep in his hall. Hopefully Scyld hadn't noticed her injury, and she could think through what to do about it.

"A pampered noble? That is how you see me, and it justifies this?" She gestured with her right arm to indicate the bars, and the cellar, and her jailor, leaning indolently against a cask of wine.

He grinned at her, a mirthless smile on a cruel face. "Prove me wrong."

Lin shrugged, in the process finding a new bruise on her shoulder. She repeated the gesture carefully. Just a bruise. Good. "I cannot. I am a 'pampered noble'. I cannot help my birth, though, and brothers are just as like to pamper a farmer's daughter as a lord's." She smiled to herself. "It is a poor tactic, to charge a girl of seventeen summers and youngest child of being pampered. It is the natural order of things, to a degree."

Scyld sneered. "The natural order? Have you ever done real labor? Have you ever killed a man in fair battle? Have you ever stood at risk of losing your life and livelihood to a fool and been helpless to defend yourself?"

Lin supposed Scyld referred to the experience of a poor tenant farmer on an unscrupulous man's land, but could not help but laugh a little morbidly. "As for the latter, yes!" Then she turned swiftly serious and her eyes flashed. "And to your first question I answer with my own. Have you ever stood responsible for the lives in your domain through famine and war? Found them food and shelter? Gone without so that others, lesser than you, perhaps, but no less valued, might live?"

Scyld was silent, and Lin ranted on, using her hands to emphasize her words. "As for killing a man, no! I am innocent and a maid, and I hope I never have to. But I have never harmed a living soul, and I have certainly not stood guard over a child. Be proud of your servitude if you wish, and I shall be proud of my nobility, as long as it is true."

She leaned back against the wall, fighting an urge to cry. Her wrist was shooting jabs of sharp pain up her arm, and she finally gave in to it. When she next spoke her voice was soft and almost petulant with pain. She cursed herself mentally for showing her weakness to this man, but had no choice.

"I think my wrist is broken."

~<*>~

Marenil walked stiffly towards Eodwine's rooms, where the plans for Lin's rescue were in full swing. He knocked softly on the door, heard a muffled sound that might have been a "come in" and entered quietly, bowing at those gathered within. "My lords Eodwine and Haleth," he began, tears sparkling in the corners of his eyes. "I find I must trust you implicitly to find Linduial. I seem to have grown old while I wasn't paying attention. But I wish to do summat to help."

Eodwine smiled at the older man. "Will you accompany young Degas back to Dol Amroth, then? He'd probably appreciate having you along for 'protection'."

Marenil sighed heavily and took the chair Haleth proffered respectfully for him. "No, lad, I won't. I've been meaning to speak with you about it, but the opportunity hasn't come up. I've gotten two letters since arriving here. The first was to tell me my wife, Eru love her, has passed away, and the second released me from my service to Lord Farlen. And with Lin here, and the lads all grown up, and me own lad working as steward, there's no place for me there. No work for me. I've been meaning to ask you if you might have a spot by the hearth for an old plowhorse like me. I'm not as spry as I used to be, but you've got plenty of spry lads and lasses about. I'm experienced."

Eodwine looked to be trying to say something, but Marenil held up an age-spotted hand and continued on, eyes fixed on the desktop. "And if ye accepted me into your household, I was going to offer to watch your business for ye while ye were agone. That way young Thornden could run along to help Lin, if he wants, or finish the rounds of all those farms you own now, and you wouldn't have to worry about a young colt under the halter of this cart you're trying to drive here."

Now he stopped and turned his dark grey eyes up to Eodwine, waiting for an answer.

Last edited by JennyHallu; 05-27-2006 at 09:40 AM.
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