In her father's chambers.

Amelia sat alone in a carved wooden chair by the hearth in her father’s bed-chamber. He’d thankfully remained asleep as the strong fighting men of Castle Arrowthorn had carried his litter to the section of chambers that housed Lady Amelia’s family. Coals glowed in a wrought iron brazier heating the room, most of the smoke being captured by the chimney. Her mother had kept the walls of this room free from sot but since her passing many years ago the walls above the great mantle had become stained with black once again.

She’d sent Jacinta to go bathe. Her handmaiden had been laden with blood and other filthy from her excursion outside the castle walls. Amelia knew she should wash too but was just so damnably tired. She hadn’t done more than wipe the blood that had splattered her face at the parley with a damp rag. Amelia touched the wispy streaks of her hair that had come loose from their braiding. Grains of dark ruby coloured dried blood crumbling into smaller granules and falling from her head onto the floor.

She’d fallen asleep sometime that evening and then awoken with Jacinta pouring heated buckets of water from the fire into a small wooden washtub she must have brought up to Lord Caiden’s chambers.

“Rest My Lady. I will have some more buckets brought to fill the tub soon enough,” Jacinta told her.

The water was not half a foot deep yet but would be enough for Amelia to scrub the dirt from her body herself.

“That will do Jacinta.” The luxury of waiting another hour for a full bath seemed trivial to her now. “Help me with these buckles and then if you could perhaps fetch me some soup from the kitchens if there is any? I will try and feed some of the liquid to my father.”

“Yes, My Lady,” Jacinta acknowledged before helping her from the chainmail and leather armour she wore continually under her full plate.

Amelia stepped naked into the small tub. She had to bring her knees up close to her chest to have enough room to sit. The water rose to just over her hips.

Just before Jacinta left Amelia told her, “before you go to the kitchens, send my cousin in to see me.”

Jacinta nodded and then closed the thick wooden and studded door to the chambers. With a bar across the stout barricade could delay a besieger from entering the Lord of the Castles chamber by an hour or more. The old wood was as hard as iron. Amelia washed herself with a small jar of Lye soap made from ash and lamb fat.

She was not yet done when she heard a small knock before the door once again opened and Welwyn entered the room. Her cousin gasped sharply at seeing her sitting naked facing away from him. Amelia turning at the sound to see that he had also turned to face away from her. The pommel and the tip of her sword could be seen on either side of his body.

“I have your sword My Lady but I will bring it back when you are more suitably attired,” Welwyn said and she could hear the discomfort in his voice.

“Don’t bother cousin. Stay.” Amelia commanded him. “It is well that you see me like this as I have come to a decision. The events at the parley today were influenced by the succession of our family. Duke Blackmuir sort to use the siege to pressure me into marrying his son and obtain for themselves the lands and rights of Arrowthorn. I will have this weakness no more and I will not have our family’s birthright go to another house. If my brother had been alive, they never would have begun this affront.”

“What are you suggesting?” Welwyn asked her softly.

“I will marry you, dear cousin, and keep Arrowthorn for Arrowthorns,” she declared at last. Contempt for both him and their predicament filling her voice as she emphasised ‘dear cousin’.

For once at least Welwyn had the smarts to keep quiet.