Chapter 57: Difficult Choices

Celestine found she was uncomfortable with three sets of eyes looking at her.

The news of the events at the inn had made their way to the castle before Celestine had arrived. She gave a brief synopsis to Elena, Jonathan and Choran and they had sent her off to bed while they considered how to respond.

The maid was unsurprised to have a summons to visit with the three ministers awaiting her at her morning meal. She hadn’t slept much and wondered if the trio tasked with running the country had any better luck than she had.

She had her answer when the three tired people looked at her as she entered the meeting room. They gestured her to a chair and conferred briefly in whispers. Then they cast their gaze upon her.

“We just want to ensure we have the correct sequence of events before we write our communiqué to King Olaf,” Jonathan said. “Would you mind starting from when you left the castle yesterday?”

Celestine nodded her agreement.

“Marcos and I returned to the Dockside Inn,” she told them. “I told the proprietor that we were a bit uncertain of the people he’d rented the rooms to and asked if he would take me on as a maid so I could watch them. He agreed immediately. He is a firm supporter of the Crown – which I knew. I doubted there would be any difficulty in securing a position there. While we were discussing the best way to watch the von Schumans, the man came down the stairs. He plods like one of the horses and I heard him from the time he closed the door upstairs.

“I was watching him as he entered the dining area. He immediately spotted Marcos and I detected a hint of menace in his expression. It was brief but I was certain. His next action convinced me that he intended ill for one of our soldiers.”

“Oh?” Choran cut in. “You believe he planned to harm Marcos?”

“I am positive,” Celestine said with another nod. She pulled her sleeve upward until the hilt of her concealed weapon came into view. “As soon as he saw Marcos, he put his hand to his left wrist to slip his dagger lower. To the untrained eye, it appears he was adjusting the cuff of his shirt but one who wears a weapon there knows differently. He immediately made a pretense of asking Marcos to accompany him away from the inn. As you know, the Dockside is in a bit of a shady neighborhood. Much mischief takes place there in the alleyways and hiding spaces. Although I am certain Marcos is a fine soldier, I did not believe him capable of dealing with an assassin. I have no doubt that von Schuman killed people for coin. There was just too much about him that pointed that way for me to think anything else. I feared that Marcos would be in immediate peril if he should leave with the man. So I intervened.”

“How did you manage that?” Elena wondered.

“I agreed to take the man where he wished to go,” Celestine told them. “It was clear that he was displeased by the suggestion but I continued to press – pointing out that Marcos had duties on the dock. He tried to avoid my company by saying it would be improper for him to be seen with me without a chaperone. I laughed at him and I could see his temper stayed very close to the surface. So, we left together and barely made it to the next neighborhood when he slipped away from me. He used another clear lie and our situations were reversed. I had little choice but to let him return to the inn. I couldn’t well follow him back because I had already told him I was headed elsewhere. I believed he planned to lie in wait for Marcos and that is what he ultimately did.”

“He made an attack on one of our soldiers?” Jonathan asked.

“No, no,” Celestine replied. “By happenstance, one of my sisters was nearby. I enlisted her aid. She went to the inn to warn Marcos and I ... I stole the dress of one of the street whores that frequent that part of town.”

“A street whore?” Choran asked, looking at the other two to gauge if they were aware such people existed in Tyrell.

“They are common near the docks,” Celestine said. “In fact, I would wager they are common near every dock. The sailors come ashore after months at sea. They have coin in their purse and an ache in their loins. For some of the lower-class girls, it is the best work they can find. They don’t steal from the sailors if you’re worried about that. It is a straight transaction.”

“No, I understand,” Choran said.

“I did not know you had siblings in Tyrell,” Jonathan noted. “They are not blood like you and Elizabeth,” Celestine clarified. “We were made sisters by circumstance and remain sisters by choice. I would prefer we not delve too deeply into that matter. I used the term to denote others in service to the Crown through Rucar.”

“Of course,” Elena said despite the fact it was obvious that Jonathan and Choran were extremely interested. “Please, continue.”

“There were three of Rucar’s people nearby,” Celestine said. “They can glean a great deal of information from the sailors in port so they stay near the docks when in Tyrell. Two are barmaids and one works at a shop down there. I tasked them with following the man from the inn. I could not do it myself. Even with new clothing I feared he would recognize my face. He was ... extremely vigilant about his surroundings. I took into account that he was a stranger to our city but I believed him to be overly cautious. Until our confrontation at the inn, I feared he had seen me for what I am. Perhaps that is the case and he simply underestimated me. The outcome was the same, I suppose.”

“What did you do while the others followed him?” Choran wondered.

“I came back here and learned of the man’s past before I went back to the Dockside,” Celestine said with a shrug. “I entered the room he shared with the woman he claimed to be his child. I found that he had used a switch to beat her severely and ... and I suspected he raped her through the rear before he departed. I found the switch with his belongings and it had a large amount of fresh blood on it. It had not yet turned brown nor had it soaked into the wood. The beating occurred either just before they left the boat or shortly after they arrived at the inn. Since Marcos didn’t mention the woman had difficulty in moving, I suspect it was after they arrived. Her obvious pain was the first thing I noticed about her.”

“She caught you in the room?” Elena inquired.

“It was unavoidable,” Celestine admitted. “I knew she was still there and I was under the guise of a servant delivering water. My initial impression of her, aside from the injuries, was that she was terrified of the man. He had instructed her that she was to permit no one in the room and she was frantic to get me out of there. I left because there was little I could discover anyway.”

“Why not?” Jonathan asked.

“Are you familiar with how Lady Julia keeps me out of her room?” Celestine asked the group. All three shook their heads. “To be honest, neither am I. I know she has concocted a system that tells her when a person has entered while she is away. The man at the inn did something similar. Their travelling satchels were in the front room but he had looped thread through the handle. I could not open it without alerting him to the fact it had been tampered with. Given the evidence of a recent beating, I thought it prudent not to point the blame at the girl. I left them alone.”

“That was good thinking,” Choran said with a firm nod.

Celestine offered a shrug.

“In the end, it didn’t matter,” she said, frowning slightly. “I met him at the bottom of the stairs as I descended and he did not survive the encounter.”

“How, exactly, did a chance meeting conclude with him dead?” Elena asked. It was the main thing she was interested in learning.

“He ... accosted me,” Celestine said after searching for the correct word. “His trip to find Marcos had been fruitless and he was already peeved. He grabbed my arm as I passed and demanded to know where I’d been. I ... I have an aversion to people putting their hands upon me. In truth, the only person I have permitted to touch me without injury in many years is the king – and that was because he grabbed my nose and nothing more ... intimate.”

“He grabbed your nose?” Choran asked in confusion.

“I’m sure he did to her what he always does to me,” Elena said, shaking her head in disgust. “It was humorous when I was five. It is not humorous now. So, von Schuman grabbed you. What happened next?”

Celestine sighed and looked away briefly.

“I kicked him in the fork,” she admitted.

Choran groaned and grimaced before closing his eyes tightly. Jonathan cringed and pushed his knees tightly together. Both had been on the receiving end of blows landed with far less malicious intent that they were certain Celestine had intended.

“The fork?” Elena asked in puzzlement.

“The beans,” Jonathan whispered. Elena’s eyes went wide. Of course, Lady Westmont had no beans and she’d only recently become familiar with them in any sense. But she recalled sending her father to his knees with an accidental kick in the genitals.

“I’m certain that did not improve his disposition any,” she said.

“Any man that grabs a woman he doesn’t know should expect such treatment,” Jonathan said, recovering first from his discomfort.

“He did not,” Celestine told them. “In fact, he dropped to his knees in pain. As I said, I expected he was armed with a hidden blade. I’ve also shown you where I keep mine so we were evenly matched in that sense. I pulled my dagger and clasped his wrist so he could not free his weapon. I believe I cut his cheek but I’m not ... yes. Yes, I cut him below his eye so he would recall my face the next time he tried such a thing.”

“So you did not intend to kill him at that point,” Choran added helpfully.

“No,” Celestine said. “I mean, most certainly it crossed my mind. I tried to ... goad ... him into make a move at me. I released my hold on his wrist and stepped away but not far enough to give him an advantage. Then I poured water over his head.”

The trio blinked in unison at the description.

“Is that when he struck at you?” Jonathan asked.

“No,” Celestine confessed. “He was smart. I will give him that. He understood that I had the edge. My weapon was drawn and I had already demonstrated I was willing to use it on him. I ... I believe I told him that if he put his hands on me again I would ... neuter ... him. I will admit that my temper got the better of me. I had seen what he had done to the woman and I wanted him on notice that such conduct was criminal in Azkoval. I suggested that he depart our shores immediately and told him that if I found him still here when the sun arose this morning he would be dead – either by the King’s justice for his acts against the woman, or by my hand.”

The group found themselves nodding.

“And then he attacked,” Choran said.

“Uh, no,” Celestine answered. “He never actually attacked me with a weapon. He told me that one of us would be dead in the morning but it wouldn’t be him. I decided it best to prove him wrong.”

Elena sat back and stared at the maid.

“He made a threat to your life,” Jonathan said with a nod. “Given his secretive nature and the fact he carried a concealed dagger, I find you acted with justification.”

“Absolutely,” Choran agreed. “If a man tells me he plans to kill me, he better to prepared to act upon it that instant.”

Elena looked first to her husband and then to her friend in amazement.

“She threatened him, too,” she pointed out.

“And if he would have killed her, it would have been justified in my eyes,” Jonathan declared. “Certainly I would have voted to hang him anyway but I would believe he had a right to defense.”

“Agreed,” Choran said, looking past Elena to Jonathan and nodding. “We told her to act as she saw fit. I will not second-guess her since I was not present.”

“Very well,” Elena said. “We rule that you acted in defense of yourself or another. We will draft our letter to King Olaf explaining the circumstances and send it off with the next ship. Did you search his room afterward? We still don’t know what he had planned.”

“I looked in the girl’s bag,” Celestine said. She hadn’t worried about the outcome of the trial. Even if they stuck her in the dungeon, she was positive that Rucar and Joseph would see the wisdom in her actions. They had always espoused the “strike first” philosophy in personal combat. “She had nothing of interest to us. I asked her about ... the rape ... but she denied it. She admitted the man had beaten her on her backside but said that was all. I still believe she is lying but I did not hold her down to inspect her injury.”