Chapter Three
The door thrust open, and it hit the wall. It's a small wonder that the door hasn't yet gone THROUGH the wall, thought Bella. Then, with a jolt- Reality hit her. She would have to face the Master presently.
"UP! Up! Your Master waits for you!", bellowed Ilona. Bella sat bolt upright in her cot. Ilona would surely not today act as she did every morning at dawn if she had heard of what had happened yesterday- Would she? A small hope blossomed in Bella. Perhaps Ilona had heard nothing, then? Had the Master not said a word to the Motherservant? It seemed impossible. Last night, Bella had been sure that there would be a dire punishment for how she had run off and slept the entire day in the stables. Now, it was as if it had never happened.
Ilona moved on to the next hut, waking other Maidservants. Bella lit her lantern and went about readying herself for her day. A small voice inside her niggled at her. Someone knows, it said. Someone was in your hut last night, it said.
She dreaded even the thought of seeing Master Cullen, never mind waking him as she had the previous morning, but it could not be helped. Bella picked her way past the smoking firepits and brush to the castle. She entered through one of the servants' entrances and made her way to the Master's chamber. In front of the door, she paused and breathed in deeply. With an outward breath, she heaved open the door.
Silence. For the first time since Bella had been in his employ, aside from several hunting trips that he had taken, the Master was not sleeping soundly when she arrived to start her morning service. Articles of clothing were strewn about the room. The liquor that Bella had clumsily spilled the morning before was sticky on the bedtable. The bed was unmade, the overturned chalices left where they had fallen. The bedpan lay untouched beside the bed, and there was no evidence of any meals that had been taken in this room lately. The Master always ate in his room, save for the odd Saturday feast or formal occasion.
The Master had left, and from what Bella could gather, not a soul had been here since. This must be the reason that Ilona had not been made aware of what had happened yesterday. Relief flooded Bella's chest.
For the first time, she was completely alone in the Master's bedchamber. A shiver coursed through her, but she could not say why. She quickly tidied the room, and took the linens to the Washerwomen. Her step was light. Even if there was hell to pay for this later, for now, Bella had gotten away with 'it'... Whatever 'it' was. She still had no idea why the Master had been so angry with her, but at the moment, it mattered not.
Each morning, Bella would climb the ornate staircase to Master Cullen's wing. She would tiptoe to the door of his sleeping chamber, breathe-in,out-, and throw open the door- To find no one. She wold almost smile to herself at this, relieved. No Master meant no chamber pots (Bella loathed the chamber pots most of all), no linens stinking of God-knows-what, no kneeling to scrub what someone had wretched up the night before. Other than a little light dusting, some polishing, and an all-over clean once a week, she had nothing to do with the Master gone. She had not even heard of where he had gone... Ilona was her only source of information, and she had told Bella nothing.
It went on in this way for some time. A fortnight, perhaps, thought Bella. She had only recently begun to measure the passage of time with any accuracy. When every day is the same, why count them? A Maidservant had no reason to need to know what day of the week it was. However, with her days numbered as they were, Bella was trying to keep track. She wasn't sure why- Her situation was not unlike one person trying to stop an erupting volcano. It could not be changed, or helped.
On the seventeenth day of Bella's newfound (somewhat) freedom, she cracked. The longing had weakened her, and she had to fulfill the craving that she had been tamping down for so many days now.
Bella reached for one of the Master's books, and removed it from the shelf. She ran her hand over the smooth leather, turning it over in her hands to examine the gilded edges. It was quite uncommon for a Maidservant to be able to read, but Bella's mother had taught her when she was a very young girl. Her mother had come from a middle-class family, and had been taught that literacy was akin to freedom. Bella had spent hours pouring over the few books that her mother had been able to salvage from her old life, memorizing them front to back. The stories were those of her mother's people; Tales of the old gods that Bella's ancestors had worshipped. Though she didn't believe the stories housed in those books, Bella valued the act of reading, almost more than the content that was being read.
Dusting cloth discarded, Bella removed some of the pins from her hair. It tumbled down, relieving her scalp of that incessant pinching. She wandered over to the Master's bed- it was so soft, she thought-, and seated herself. There was no real harm in relaxing for a few moments, was there? She began to read.
LIGHTS! A lantern, shining in Bella's face, a rough hand shaking her awake. The Master was HERE! It was dark! Bella's heart took off at a gallop.
"What in seven hells are you doing sleeping on my bed?", the Master roared, his face an inch from hers.
Bella jumped to her feet, the forgotten book that she had been so enjoying clattering to the floor. He was on the other side of the bed now, and for all Bella could see, he looked as if he was about to give chase. A lion and a lamb. This was no fair face-off, she thought. She chose to run anyway, but he knew her choice before she had even made it. As Bella tried to dart past her Master, his arm shot out and a strong, slender hand encircled her bicep. She tried to keep going, but the Master yanked her closer to him.
"You think that you can sneak in here and read my books when I am not here? You think that you can sleep in my BED?", he hissed in her ear. Bella let out a strangled sob. The Master had her by the shoulders now, steering her toward the open door. Instead of pushing her through it, he slammed the door shut and pinned her up against it, his hands hard at her shoulders and his thigh between hers. Fear drove a hot spike through Bella's stomach. What was the Master doing? His hands softened a little, and his thumbs worked rough circles up and down her collarbones, hard against the ridges there. Sweat was beading on Bella's brow. The Master was enraged. His thumb came up to her chin, forcing her to look at him. His golden eyes seemed to burn two holes into Bella's head, his prodding thumbs felt as if they were under her skin, not on top of it. He leaned forward. He smells of mint and salt, thought Bella, terrified as she was. His lips were against her ear now. He breathed in deeply through his nose, as if he were smelling her.
"One more transgression such as this, and I will gift you to the harem for your remaining months." The Master's hand raked down Bella's side to her hip, bunching the fabric of her Maidservants' dress there and pulling it taught. "The next time, I will not let you leave." Bella felt the muscles in her belly clench and unclench. She had never felt this strange, exciting sensation before. Her Master gathered up a handful of her hair and wound it tightly around his wrist. He let out a ragged breath as he pressed his cool forehead into Bella's neck. His thigh, between hers, flexed. He pulled gently once on her hair, and released her. He stepped back, eyes dark as night, a wild look about him. His fists were clenched at his sides.
Bella squeaked once before turning, opening the door, and sprinting down the dark hallway as quickly as her clumsy feet would carry her.