The newest part of the Duke’s castle was the broad southeastern tower, only completed in the year following his wedding. It was massive enough to have been counted a keep even if it had stood alone, but as an appendage to the rest of the castle, the upper stories could be spared for chambers for guests.
It was in this tower that Ethelwyn was sleeping during the “birthday season”, as Lady Gwynn called it – namely the twelve days between the birthdays of the Princess and the Crown Prince, which also included the birthdays of Lady Gwynn herself, as well as the Earl, and Sir Brede’s and Sir Sigefrith’s sets of twins.
Cat and Flann had come to stay because they enjoyed parties, but Ethelwyn was only there in the hope that someone or something would jog his memory. But he was beginning to believe that nothing ever would, and he was considering going away at the end of it, to Leol perhaps with the money he had saved, and then…? His future still appeared as blank as his past.
When the Duke had outfitted the chambers on the third story of the tower, he had furnished each of them identically, with a single, narrow bed. These, he had declared to his own evident amusement, were “just wide enough for a stack of one or more persons”.
When it came to populating these chambers during the birthday season, he had furnished each of them with precisely one young, unmarried person, males at the far end of the passage and females at the stair end. To imitate propriety while maximizing hilarity, he had then placed Father Brandt in the chamber that fell in the middle.
Father Brandt was growing rather deaf on the one hand, and he had always been a heavy sleeper, particularly when he slept at Nothelm with its bountiful wine cellar. On the other hand, he snored so loudly that he prevented his nearest neighbors from engaging in the one bedtime activity he would have sanctioned.
Ethelwyn was, of course, according to his usual hapless predestination, in the chamber directly next to Father Brandt’s. Mouse slept on the opposite side, though he supposed that was due more to the will of Alred than to Providence. Perhaps the Duke hoped they would sleepwalk into one another when they dozed off on their feet.
There was also only the one steep and narrow stair to reach this level, coming up two stories through the thickness of the wall. Verily the bachelors, the maidens, and the priest were all trapped together, and none could venture out at night without risking a meeting with another.
So far – so far as Ethelwyn knew – there had been neither venturing nor adventures to speak of. However, the Duke was no libertine, and Ethelwyn knew it was merely the appearance of impropriety that Alred sought, and the possibility of teasing his guests in the morning about their supposed activities of the night before – Ethelwyn himself being the favorite target, of course, according to his usual luck.
The hour was already late when he climbed those steep stairs on Saturday evening. He did not care to encounter one of the young ladies in the narrow corridor where two could scarcely pass, and he knew that Father Brandt occasionally had a quiet hour or two after his first, deep sleep. Ethelwyn hoped to have the time to fall into a deep sleep of his own before the priest’s blaring started up again.
But before he had quite reached the top, the door of the first room opened and its occupant darted out, hopping down the first several steps before stopping to look at all.
Ethelwyn had been walking with his head down, lost in thought, and he started at the sudden light and the sudden movement from above. The stairs were scarcely wide enough for his shoulders in any case, and his right shoulder smacked into the wall at the same moment he looked up.
In that instant, he felt a rushing in his head as when one opened a door on a windy day and the very air of the room seemed to be sucked outside. His hands went up to clutch at his head and prevent anything important from being whipped away – but it almost seemed that something important was trying to get in. There was something he should have remembered… something about a narrow stair, bumping his shoulder, the hem of a girl’s dress…
He looked up to the face at the top of the dress. It was Cat: one of the least dangerous occupants of the chambers at the stair end, but certainly the one who teased him the most. But was it Cat he was trying to remember?
“Have we – have I – I beg your pardon, but I am certain this is familiar to me… something I should remember. Have I…”
“Lots of times! I always met you here whenever you came sneaking up the stairs to my room at night.”
“I – ” Ethelwyn flushed, and then he coughed to hide the fact that he had been embarrassed by what he now suspected to be a joke. “I never know when to take you seriously,” he mumbled.
“Never take me seriously, and you can’t go far wrong. Besides, silly man – your chamber is on the same floor as mine. You needn’t sneak up any stairs at all to see me. Only come down the corridor.”
“Oh, that’s right,” he sighed in relief. “But… have we done this before?” He waved his hands in a confusing gesture that signified nothing. “Met…?”
“I’m certain we’ve bumped into one another on the stairs before, but never hard enough to leave an impression on my body or my mind.”
She spoke gravely again, but when he looked up into her face she winked at him.
“Oh.” He sighed again, but in disappointment. “For a moment it seemed to remind me of something, but the memory is gone now.”
“It will come back to you, Wyn.” She patted the curls on the top of his head, which were usually out of reach to her. “Keep trying. Are you going to bed?”
“I was.”
“I’m about to go to the kitchen to steal a snack. Care to come?”
“Will you need a defender for this perilous journey?”
“Only if you come with me,” she giggled.
“Then I shall leave you to your cheese. On second thought I believe I shall step outside and take some air… try to remember…”
“Will you need a defender on your perilous journey?” she asked as he turned to go down again.
“Only if you come with me, Cat,” he laughed.
Chapters
So he is begining to remember! Good boy, Ethelwyn!