The Grey Dawn by Stacey DeMichael

Author:Stacey DeMichael [DeMichael, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen: The New Potato Peeler

The next morning Ellalee set out before breakfast to go to the barn to find Irwin. The thought of a rat infested home had haunted her dreams. She had nightmares of rats crawling behind the walls and popping out as she tried to escape. She found Irwin humming to himself as he mucked out the stables, and she gave him her request. Irwin promised to see to this chore as soon as he finished with his morning duties. Then Ellalee returned to the kitchen to make a tray to take down to Christopher and Gladlia.

The swelling in Christopher’s leg had diminished quite a bit, and the skin around the break looked merely green and yellow. However, nothing showed the promise of his healing more than his antsy mood. Gladlia, on the other hand, looked positively worn through.

“He’s been awake through the night,” she said. “I’m too old for boys this age.”

“She is teasing, Ellalee,” Christopher assured her. “What did you bring for breakfast?”

Ellalee gave Christopher some thick porridge with milk and poured Gladlia a cup of hot tea which she accepted most gratefully with two hands. Ellalee filled them in on her rat-in-the-wall theory and her solution. Gladlia appeared to choke on her tea, but her eyes had definitely picked up their merry look once more. Ellalee promised to fill in Christopher on anything that happened upstairs during his midday meal, but as it turned out, Christopher, himself, was the big news.

Just before noon, the earl’s awaited delivery arrived from a local carpenter who had made a chair with wheels and a leg rest that could support Christopher’s splinted leg now that Gladlia had decided he no longer needed traction. The footmen went below and under Gladlia’s careful watch, transferred the boy into proper livery for his shirt and waistcoat and into his new chair where his leg was strapped to the leg rest to prohibit movement so that the bone could continue to heal. Then Charlie and Mark carefully lifted the chair up the steep steps. Ellalee was frantic as the men carried up Christopher’s chair fearing that one slip down the treacherous steps would mean disaster, but Christopher was brought to the kitchen without incident. Gladlia looked relieved and poured herself another cup of tea while she vicariously enjoyed the warm reception of her patient.

Daniella kissed and hugged Christopher in her delight, and the footmen and Simmons were delighted simply with Daniella’s delight. It was only then that Ellalee realized how protected and favored her sister had become in the other servants’ eyes. It was more than just good cooking. It was Daniella’s sweet disposition that had won them over so completely. Ellalee pulled back from the throng in the kitchen to lean against the far kitchen wall to better take in the warm scene and smiled. Resting a hand over her heart, she wondered what the chances were that here in this cursed castle, Daniella had found, not just peace, but friends?

Like a cold wind that stole the warmth and joy in a fell breath, the earl entered the kitchen.

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