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They actually had a good time hauling out the mattress and removing the stuffing.

Elisiana was a hard worker, and most enthusiastic about it, and she ended up sneezing her head off with all of the old grass and dust flying around in the air.

Once everything was out of the mattress, they hung it up on the branch of a tree nearby and beat it with another branch to get rid of the dirt and the dust. After that was done, they were able to stuff it with the hay that had been brought over from the stables.

But the fact remained that even though they had a mattress that was nicely stuffed, there were no linens on it and there was no bed frame.

That was when the ladies became resourceful.

Because the village at Blackchurch had once been a thriving hamlet where people had lived, there was a repository of old furniture in one of the outbuildings by the stables.

The three of them headed over to that building, which had been picked over in years past, so there wasn’t a lot to go through.

Still, considering Payne had nothing at all, they were able to collect some of the items and put them to good use.

The mattress Payne had was rather large because, being a large man, he liked a big bed.

There wasn’t much they could do with that because there was no bed frame, rope or otherwise, big enough to hold the mattress, but they did come away with three chairs, a wooden bench, a very small table, and two stools.

All of that was lugged backed to the cottage and distributed in the chambers.

Already, it was looking more like a home.

The last items were the bed linens brought over from the laundry.

They were clean and smelled of the wild mint that grew around the cottages.

Astria stood aside and watched as Athdara and Elisiana expertly put the linens on the bed, including a heavy coverlet that had come from Elisiana’s own possessions.

And with that, the cottage was clean.

To Astria, all seemed so strange. It was a world away from her months in captivity, and her activity on the sea, and her life as a duchess in a palace that was filled with servants.

She had come to the duc’s palace as a stranger, and the truth was that living there all of those years had been a lesson in solitude.

She was the lonely girl who’d never really realized she was lonely.

It was simply the way of things. But in just a day, engaging in simple activities with women who were more than happy to teach her what they knew, she felt like she was on another planet.

She wondered how things could be so very different from what she was used to, but the truth was that she had never spent a more enjoyable day in her life.

She was quite overwhelmed by it.

“Now,” Athdara said, wiping her hands off on her apron.

“Do not forget to check your bread dough. It should have risen a great deal in the past few hours, so you’ll want to put that in a pot, put the lid on it, and let it bake until it has risen and is browned.

Would you like for me to stay and show you how? ”

Astria shook her head. “Nay, but I thank you,” she said.

“I have already taken you away from your children for the entire day and do not wish to take any more of your valuable time. I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated your help, however. You must have been born doing such things, because you do them so well.”

Athdara grinned. “I was not,” she said. “I was born a duke’s daughter in a fine house. I had to learn all of this, much as you are learning it.”

Astria smiled. “You are an excellent teacher,” she said, looking at Elisiana. “Both of you are. Now, if you will tell me where I can draw water, I will try to do the rest of this on my own.”

“You will do very well,” Elisiana said. “If you need help, we are right down the road. I have yellow flowers in front of my house and Athdara has rocks. Lots of rocks.”

Astria nodded gratefully. “You are so kind,” she said “I… I did not expect to find such kindness here. I thought it was all men and warriors.”

Athdara and Elisiana laughed softly. “It is, mostly,” Elisiana said. “The women are outnumbered, so we are very glad you are here.”

“Thank you.”

A silence settled, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

It was simply time for Athdara and Elisiana to depart and leave the newly minted wife to her duties.

The sun was at such an angle that the cottage was starting to darken, so the last thing they did together was light tapers in the kitchen, fat tapers that had been brought over when the servant delivered the kitchen implements.

When Athdara and Elisiana finally departed, Astria felt a little intimidated.

Here she was, alone in her new home, and expected to be a proper wife.

She wasn’t sure she knew how, but she would learn.

She found that she very much wanted to.

The afternoon started to wane and Astria went about baking the eggs and the bread, watching both nervously and checking often to see how they were progressing.

She didn’t really know what she was looking for other than for the bread to be brown and the eggs to not be liquid.

From her chatelaine training, that much she knew.

There were other things she knew.

Pulling herself away from the hearth where things were cooking, she went out the back door.

Behind the cottages were gardens, cluttered ones, with wood or discarded items that probably belonged in the repository.

There were also trees, small ones, and she went to the nearest one to strip off some of the lower branches with their leaves.

When she had an arm full of them, she went back into the cottage and spread the rushes out in front of the hearth in the larger common room, but also under the table to catch crumbs and other rubbish falling from the table.

That was customary. The green leaves also gave the cottage a fresh smell, something she inhaled deeply.

It was comforting. In fact, the clean cottage and the baking bread were both comforting.

Payne had mentioned his wife making a warm home for him, and she hoped that this was what he’d meant.

It was true that this was an unexpected marriage, but now that she was entrenched in it, she wanted to do it the best way she could. The way Payne wanted it.

When he came through the entry door a short time later, the expression on his face told her that, indeed, it was the way he wanted it.

And that was a surprisingly good feeling.

“Well?” she said. “What do you think? Is it clean enough for you?”

Payne was looking around the room, his jaw slack with surprise. “ Ye did this?” he said in awe.

Astria nodded. “I did, but I wasn’t alone,” she said. “Your friends Lady Munro and Lady de Reyne are the ones to thank. They worked very hard for this. I just did as they instructed. Are you pleased?”

Payne was looking at the two chairs facing the blazing hearth in the large sitting room. “My God,” he breathed. “Am I pleased? It is more than I had imagined. Are ye pleased?”

Astria looked around at the room that smelled faintly of vinegar and rushes. “I think we did a good job of it,” she said. “It looks much better than it did.”

He nodded firmly. “I would agree with that,” he said. Then he turned to her, grasped her by the arms, and planted a kiss right on her lips. “Well done, lass. I’m proud of ye.”

Astria was shocked by the kiss, overwhelmed by the kind words. I’m proud of ye . Over something like this? A clean house? It seemed so trivial.

… wasn’t it?

Dumbfounded by his reaction, she stood there with her tongue tied, unable to respond as he went over to the chairs in front of the hearth and inspected them.

“Where did ye find these?” he asked.

Astria cleared her throat and found her tongue.

“In the outbuilding that has old things in it,” she said.

“Lady Munro told me that this little village used to be an actual village, with people and businesses, but Blackchurch purchased it, so old furniture and things were cleaned out and put into a storehouse.”

He nodded, lifting up the chair and looking at the sturdiness of the legs. “A very long time ago,” he said. “But these seem steady enough.”

Astria pointed into the kitchen. “We found other things, too,” she said. “Enough to start a home with, anyway, but there are a few things we may need to purchase.”

“Like what?”

“A bed frame,” she said. “Unless you intend that we should sleep on the floor.”

He set the chair down. “Nay,” he said. “It doesna matter much tae me, but I dunna want ye on the floor with the cold drafts. There’s a wheelwright in Exebridge who can probably build us a proper bed.”

“Speaking of bed,” she said, pointing toward the stairs, “we cleaned yours and put clean linens on it.”

He grinned. “Good,” he said. “It needed it.”

“Aye, it did.”

She didn’t hesitate in answering, and he snorted. “Ye agreed with me too quickly,” he said. “Ye could at least be… What’s that smell?”

He suddenly started sniffing the air. Astria sniffed, too, realizing it smelled like smoke.

With a gasp, she ran into the kitchen and tried to grab one of the pots off the coals, but she nearly burned her hand.

Payne was right behind her, using the bottom of his tunic as a barrier against the hot handle of the iron pot.

He swung it onto the table and went in for the second pot as well.

With both of them on the table, Astria used a spoon to remove both tops, trying not to burn herself again.

What she saw distressed her.

“Oh… no,” she said sadly. “It is burned, all of it.”

Payne was peering into the red-hot pots. “Nay, it’s not,” he said, trying to be positive. “Look—what’s this? ’Tis not burned in the middle. I can simply eat the middle.”