Thomas takes us back to the main entry and speaks with a man wearing a long yellow tunic with a leather belt tied around his waist. He wears black woolen trousers, leather slippers, and a black cap.
The man says something in Gaelic.
“What did he say?” I ask Thomas as the man goes to the other room.
“He asked you to wait here while he fetched the maidservant.”
“Hopefully, one who speaks English,” I say.
“There are a few that do of higher station.”
The man returns with a burly woman who reminds me of a battleaxe. She wore a brown tunic down to her ankles, a black rope for a belt, and a black pullover shawl covering her chest down to her waist. Her hair is wrapped in white linen that drapes down to her shoulders, held in place with a braided leather band around the forehead. She reminds me of a nun.
“Come with me, sir,” she says as she walks up the main stairs to a floor below where I saw the girl earlier.
Three young boys with shaggy brown hair in yellow linen tunics are leaving a room, carrying empty wooden buckets, leaving a trail of water on the floor. The woman yells something in Gaelic, and another boy comes with a towel to wipe up the water. Oil lamps, suspended from the ceiling on chains, light the hall, with sunlight entering through a narrow window at the end.
I follow her into the room. A wooden bath sits in its center, draped in white linen. “Your bath has been prepared, sir,” she says. “Remove your clothing and I will have them cleaned.”
I look around and see a bar of soap and a linen cloth. The room is larger than I had imagined. There is a four-poster bed with drapes and a lounge area with a sofa, chairs, and a table. The door is still open.
“I prefer privacy,” I say.
“Haven’t you had anyone properly care for you, sir?” she asks.
“Only myself,” I say.
Another maidservant enters the room, and the lady closes the door, staying within. “Here, you will be taken care of properly. Now, remove your clothes and step into the tub. You’re just a boy.”
I am surprised by her rudeness. “Are you a nun?”
“I used to be,” she says. “Now, are you going to undress, or do you need help?”
The maidservant looks at me, waiting. She wears a bonnet over her black hair and a blue tunic with a belt. Unlike Mother Superior, she has gentle, pale blue eyes.
“Well, do you need help?” the maidservant asks with a hint of a grin.
“Do you know English?” I ask, removing my sword belt with scabbard and placing it on the table.
“I was taught some growing up,” she says as she helps me remove my muddy boots and socks.
I unbuckle my vest straps and slip out of it. She unties my leather gauntlets, removing each one.
I loosen the straps and pull my tunic over my head, and she helps me pull it the rest of the way off.
Mother Superior glares at me. She’s determined to stay and watch. I shake my head and untie my trousers, stepping out of them. I keep on my undergarment and step into the lukewarm tub.
“Do you normally wear your undergarments bathing, sir?” the girl asks.
“No,” I say, still standing and feeling awkward. “But I want to keep some modesty.”
Mother Superior comes to the tub. “That’s silly. You need to take off all your clothes. How else are you going to get clean?”
The girl turns around, and the old lady does as well. I hurriedly untie and step out of my undergarment, dropping them to the floor, and sink into the warm tub. I notice oils on the surface of the water with the scent of flower fragrance.
The maidservant takes the clothes and leaves the room, leaving me with Mother Superior.
“Dunk your head, sir,” she says as she kneels by the tub.
I dunk my head in the water, and she takes the bar of soap, scrubs my hair, and has me rinse it off in the tub water. Then she scrubs my back, arms, feet, and legs with a cloth and soap. “Do you want me to continue cleaning, sir?” she asks.
“No,” I say, feeling humiliated by being washed by her like a child.
“Take this and finish washing,” she says, handing me the soap and cloth.
When she turns around, I lather the cloth and continue cleaning my other parts. I rinse off and feel much better.
She hands me a towel and leaves the room, closing the door. I step out of the tub and dry off, wrapping the towel around my waist. Hazel twigs are sitting by a bowl of mint paste near a basin of water. I chew on the end of the twig, ruffing it up and dipping it in the paste to scrub my teeth. I dab a bit of paste on a cloth and continue cleaning until my teeth were clean and refreshed.
I walk over to the window and open the shutters, letting in some light and a little breeze. The sun is still high in the sky, burning through the mist. A cloud obscures part of the mountains but reveals others capped in snow.
A linen robe lies nearby on the sofa. I slip into the robe, tie it around my waist, lay the towel across the bathtub’s rim, and walk over to the bed. I am exhausted from not getting much sleep last night. I lie on the feather bed, prop my head up with a pillow, and gaze at a landscape painting of the lake and mountains hanging on the wall. My thoughts drift to my angel saying I only have two weeks and then Danu telling me to remember my power.