DragonKnight - Donita K. Paul [56]
Bardon shifted in the doorway. He’d been listening but also keeping an eye on the jailer. He glanced at the ragged group of children and counted. Six. He’d have to get them out of jail, as well. “Will you be all right for the night, Granny Kye? Do you need more food? Fresh water? Blankets?”
“Blankets would be nice. The floor is clean, but hard. Quite a nice jail, in fact. The women workers who were here earlier in the day were a nice lot, proud of their work and cheerful.”
Bardon shook his head. “How many jails have you been in besides this one?”
“None,” she replied. “But I have imagined a prison on several occasions, and I didn’t imagine that they would be as nice as this.”
“I’ll take N’Rae back to the inn and bring blankets. Anything else?”
“Bardon, dear, will you be able to get the children out of here when you free me?”
“I think I can.”
“And”—she looked up at him with tears in her eyes—“we can take them with us when we go on our quest, can’t we? They’ve no place to stay and no one to take care of them.”
“No!” The word exploded from his lips.
“Shh!” said N’Rae as Granny Kye frowned, shook her head, and said, “Quiet, dear.”
Bardon glared at them both.
Granny Kye smiled, the expression lifting the worry from her brow. “You can think about the children, Squire Bardon. Consult Wulder and your principles. I know you will come to the right decisions.”
“I’ll be back in an hour,” he said. “Come on, N’Rae.”
On the street, he hailed a horse-drawn cab. The dark streets prohibited their walking to the inn. Once inside the small, enclosed carriage, N’Rae opened the basket.
“What do you think of all this?” she asked the minneken.
Bardon snorted. “Yes, what do you think?”
“I think it is very undignified to lie in a lump like a rag doll,” she answered. “But we are all called upon from time to time to do things we do not want to do.”
19
TAKING CARE OF NECESSITIES
The four-poster bed where Holt had last been seen was empty. Bardon sighed his relief.
“I’m going down to the kitchen,” he said to N’Rae and Mistress Seeno. “I’ll get some food to take to Granny Kye and the children. I’ll also get those blankets to take back.”
Jue Seeno gestured for him to lean close so she could be heard. “You better take food for the women in the other cells, or Granny Kye will just give hers away.”
“Right!”
He bought blankets from the innkeeper and also a basket filled with cheese and bread, fruit and boiled eggs.
“That ruins my plans for breakfast, young man,” said the cook. She threw a couple of handfuls of flour into a large bowl, then doused it with a big splash of milk.
Bardon winked at her. “I have every confidence there will be a splendid repast on the table tomorrow morning.”
“You do talk fancy.” Without measuring, she used her fingertips to sprinkle salt over her concoction, then added sugar.
“Have you seen or heard of Holt Hoddack’s whereabouts, Cook?”
“Aye! He came down asking for a potion to settle his stomach.” She didn’t look up from her work, where she kneaded the mixture into a stiff dough. “Likely he needed something for his head, I’m thinking. I gave him water I’d boiled the vegetables in. Of course I added a generous tablespoon of vinegar and mixed it up good. He said it tasted nasty enough to do some good.”
“Did he say anything about finding a ship for us to book passage on?”
“He didn’t.” She turned her head to holler over her shoulder. “Bim and Toa, come help the squire carry this to the jail for the granny. Maybe you’ll earn a pip.”
Bardon smiled as the twin kitchen boys scrambled out from under a table against the back wall. No dirt ringed their necks. They smelled of soap. Only a spattering of freckles darkened their identical faces. They resembled the cook—clean, round, and cheerful. Green pants came down to midcalf. Brown shirts covered a tight-fitting undergarment of