Chapter 4
Ellie heard the cart doors open behind her. She turned around and gasped as a guard grabbed her around her ankles and pulled her out of the cart.
She fell to the ground with a loud thud. She gasped in pain as it rushed through her body as she landed.
"Alright you lot, out!" The guard yelled to the other villagers in the cart.
They slowly made their way out of the cart and stood on the stony ground.
Mark while holding Jocelyn's hand walked up and down the aisle, looking at each of the villagers that his guards had captured and bought back to him.
Jocelyn stopped and looked Ellie up and down. "Stop crying, we haven't done anything to you yet."
"I'm sorry." Ellie said. She knew if she answered back to Jocelyn or disobeyed her, she knew that her head would end up on the chopping block, even right now she didn't care if it happened or not.
Jocelyn stared at the little red head in front of her. There was something about her she did not like, she couldn't quite put her finger on it; but she decided to keep quite about it.
"Right, you two take these men to the field and you can take this one here to the laundry hall." Mark ordered his guards as he stopped in front of Ellie.
"Alright, come along you." A guard said grabbing Ellie tightly around her arm and leading her away from the court yard down to a big brown barn.
He opened the doors and pushed Ellie inside; he shut the doors straight after.
Ellie stood still and looked around. There were large tubs of water with women stirring them with wooden spoons. There were towels and sheets everywhere, it was completely chaotic.
"Hello dear." Ellie heard a voice from her left.
She turned her head and noticed an older woman with a few sheets in her hand standing near her. She looked about sixty or so. She was quite plump and was wearing a shirt and apron, with a long blue skirt and her gray hair was tied up in a bun.
"Hello." Ellie replied quietly.
"You must have just arrived judging by the expression on your face." The woman replied.
"Yes I am new." Ellie said quietly.
"Well there no need to be shy, I'm Martha." She smiled.
"I'm Ellie." She replied quietly.
"You look young, how old are you?" Martha asked.
"I'm eighteen." Ellie replied with a bit more confidence in her voice.
"Oh so young and beautiful, and you're stuck working here." Martha sighed.
Ellie put her head down.
"Oh its ok pet, come with me and I'll show you our beds." Martha said and led Ellie past all the work that was going on.
"Well here we are." Martha stopped as she opened a door.
Ellie peered inside. There was just basically a row long of beds, the sheets were dirty and the pillows were stuffed with hay.
"You don't wash these sheets much do you?" Ellie asked.
Martha chuckled. "Queen Bernadette and her sons come first I'm afraid."
"Yeah of course." Ellie replied.
"Well dear, if you don't mind sleeping here." Martha pointed to a bed beside her.
"No I don't mind." Ellie replied and sat down on the lumpy mattress. She started to cry again.
"Oh pet, whatever is the matter?" Martha asked leaning down and taking Ellie's small hands in hers.
"This has just been an awful day for me." Ellie cried.
"I know. I remember arriving here for the first time about thirty-something odd years ago; mind you Prince Marcus was only a little one then. Would you believe that I'm like a second mother to him? And now I hear the rumors going around that he and his fiancé' are trying for a baby. Oh does the time fly." Martha chatted on.
"Really? Well it's not working here that bothers me, you see my best friend died this morning." Ellie explained.
"Oh heavens, that's not good, I remember when King Harold past on, oh what a bad time for the kingdom that was." Martha replied.
"Um would it be ok, if I could take a small nap to clear my head?" Ellie asked.
"Of course dearest." Martha smiled and kneeled back up and left Ellie to rest.
A few hours had past when Jocelyn walked into the laundry.
"Can I help you Jocelyn?" Martha asked while folding some washing.
"I came to see the new worker here." She replied.
"Well she's taking a nap back at the dorms; poor thing's had a bad day." Martha said with sympathy in her voice.
"Really?" Jocelyn replied and walked on heading to the dorms.
She opened the door to find Ellie asleep on a bed.
Jocelyn gritted her teeth and picked up a stone near her feet and threw it at Ellie's back.
Ellie jumped up and looked and saw Jocelyn standing at the doors.
"Hope I didn't wake you." Jocelyn sneered.
Ellie kept quite.
"Do you think we hired you to sleep? No we didn't, now get back to work." Jocelyn yelled.
"I'm so sorry." Ellie replied and hopped up from her bed.
"And for a warning, if I ever catch you doing any thing else other then working, I will not hesitate to call upon my fiancé's guards to give you a lashing you'll never forget." Jocelyn replied looking Ellie in the eyes.
Ellie gulped. She was dead serious.