2 Sarah

The woman nudged the girl's body with her foot. Josephine started to move her head from one side to the other, and a little sigh indicated that she was about to wake up. Slowly, her eyes opened. Dizzy and a bit shaken, she sat up carefully, her head wound throbbing in pain. Suddenly, her feet pushed away from the earthy ground, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and the strange woman. Anxiety filled her body like water a sinking ship.

'Where am I?' she asked with a trembling voice. Her gaze never left the woman who stood back and leaned with a tense but not threatening posture against the stone wall of the dungeon.

'Where am I?' Josephine asked again, utterly oblivious of the rattling sound her frantic breathing was producing.

Again there was no answer.

'Say something!'

'I'm afraid you are in no position to demand anything of me,' the woman declared.

'Then tell me at least who you are,' Josephine retorted. She felt defeated, and if begging was her last resort, so be it. She needed a spark of truth. A clue what had happened to her and whom she was dealing with.

'Please,' she said and then turned away to rest her aching forehead on the cold stone wall. Tears filled her eyes, and as sobs erupted, Josephine was glad to hide her face from the stranger's relentless stares.

'Sarah,' the woman suddenly said. 'My name is Sarah, and now please, I am begging you, stop crying. You are making me feel uncomfortable.'

The sobs stopped instantly, and Josephine looked at Sarah, completely flabbergasted. And after a moment of odd contemplation, her silence turned into a chuckle, the chuckle into hysterical laughter. Sarah glared at the girl. She was irritated and worried at the same time, praying that Josephine wouldn't try anything stupid.

'That's so rich, really,' Josephine said. 'So bloody rich! I am making you uncomfortable?′ She continued to laugh until a rough cough forced her to stop.

'How about you calm down and tell me your name,' Sarah said.

'Go fuck yourself!'

Sarah pitied the young woman. However, she was not a person who tolerated any kind of profanity. She looked at the sulking girl for a moment, then turned on her heels, took the torch off the wall and headed for the door.

'Wait!' Josephine cried out in despair. 'Don't leave me alone.' Sarah stood still and lowered her head. She sighed, and her tied-back raven hair shone in the torch's gleam as bright as a black pearl.

'Very well then. I will arrange a room for you where you'll find dry clothes, a warm fire, and everything you need to wash. We better clean your head wound as well,' she said. 'We have to make you presentable for them.'

'Presentable for whom?'

Lost in thought, Sarah did not answer immediately but started to wring her hands.

'Powerful men who don't pity women,' she said, and only then, did Josephine realise how pale the strange woman looked. 'It's impossible,' Sarah whispered to herself, and before Josephine could say anything, she turned around and left the lock-up.

*

The room Josephine had been taken to was small but neat. The crackling of burning logs filled the whole chamber, and a pleasant warmth clung to her body. Sarah hadn't exaggerated: on a spacious four-posters bed, hung with deep-green velvet curtains, a bundle of neatly folded clothes waited for Josephine. To her left, a little bathroom was attached. Someone had already filled the tub with steaming warm water. The door opened, and a man carrying a food tray entered. Josephine saw a bowl of hot soup on it, and her mouth started watering.

~Is he a butler?~ she asked herself and went to the small table where the servant had just put down her food. Her stomach made a rumbling noise. With the soup came a piece of bread which she stuffed into her mouth greedily while glancing at the butler. He stood there in silence with his gloved hands folded behind his back.

'Are you British?' she asked the man. He looked at her, raising one eyebrow, and then, a little smile flashed over his face.

'No Ma'am, I am from here.'

'And where is here?' Josephine said with a waving gesture around the room. 'By the looks of it, it must be a castle,' she said and gulped down the last piece of bread.

The door swung open, and Sarah entered the room. Her dress was a long Victorian-like garment, rendered in a soft, grey-green fabric and a high neckline. It was elegant, even beautiful, yet entirely out of date like everything else here in this place. Sarah made eye contact with the butler who then bowed his head and took the tray with the empty bowl out of the room.

'Please take a bath now. Our leader, the Lord Commander, will be back in an hour, and by then, you must be ready,' Sarah said to Josephine and looked at the folded dress on the bed. 'It is not the best gown, but it will do in the meantime.'

Josephine did not move.

'Do you always take such great care of your prisoners?' she asked and leaned back a little, waiting for Sarah to answer her witty sarcasm. And within a moment, the woman was in her face. She did it so incredibly fast, it knocked Josephine nearly off the chair.

'Let me be very clear about something,' Sarah said, a yellowish shimmer reflecting in her eyes. 'I will have to answer to the Lords for the generosity you are receiving. So no, we usually do not treat people we can't trust in such a friendly way. Still, I allow you to be in this room, served with food, a hot bath and new clothes.' She backed away and regained her composure. 'I don't want you to catch pneumonia. Our physicians have plenty on their hands by taking care of our folks.' She crossed the room and opened the door to the bathroom. 'You have two choices: get in there, wash yourself, get dressed and be ready when we pick you up. Or, go back to that stinking hole I have found you in, and see how well you'll be doing with your cough in a couple of hours.'

Josephine forced herself to keep looking into Sarah's dark eyes, weighing her options. And with a heavy heart, she stood up and started to take off her damp and smelling clothes. She certainly was no martyr.

'A little privacy?' she demanded in a muffled voice. And as Sarah was leaving the room, Josephine stepped into the bathtub as requested.