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Post of the Month

~ January 2006 ~

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Adela/David ~ Written by Nikke. 

Posted on the HoS Yahoo group March 2005.

Adela shivered as she slid out of bed. The night had cooled, and the sun was hardly up yet to warm the earth.

She washed her face, and walked over to the shuttered window. She prised the shutters open a crack and peered out.

Someone was whistling. It was one of the stable boys, walking across Huntingdon's courtyard below, pushing a handcart of straw towards the stables. Adela looked to the East where the sun was just beginning to rise. Fingers of pink and gold were reaching out across the sky to touch the grey clouds.

Moving quietly across the chamber, she found her soft leather shoes and hastily re-braided her hair. Then she left her chamber.

The passages were still quiet in the hush of the new morning. From the kitchen came the sound of activity movement and voices, fires being stirred into life.Adela walked down the passages, descended the staircase and entered the Great Hall.

David stood on the dais at the end of the Great Hall, riding cloak donned, and snatching bites of bread from a platter and sips of ale from a horn mug that stood on the table by him.

"Hugh's gone to ready our horses," he said as Adela crossed the quiet expanse of the Great Hall to him.

"You're leaving already?" Adela walked over to him.

"Sun's up," replied David, "I may as well start for Nottingham early."

Adela ascended the dais steps to stand beside him. "You're going to Nottingham first, before trying to find Robert in Sherwood?"

"Yes. I will have to lodge somewhere for a day or so, so I'll lodge at Nottingham Castle. De Rainault's away in London - thank the stars. I won't have to put up with his sarcasm."

"I hear Gisbourne's been left in command," Adela said.

David gave her the twitch of a wry smile. "Well, that will be interesting to observe, won't it. I wonder if the good folk of Nottingham have started a rebellion yet."

"David, when you go into Sherwood...." Adela laid a hand on his arm. "Have some caution with that."

David shrugged. "I hardly think I'll get an arrow in my back from Robert's men; they all know who I am. I'm taking Hugh with me, that's all. I don't intend to ride into Sherwood with a great entourage. That's asking for trouble."

"When will you be back," Adela said.

David's answer was simple. "When I've found Robert."

"What if he doesn't want to return to Huntingdon?" Adela queried.

David did not reply, just stared into the distance whilst he chewed on the last piece of bread, and she knew better than to ask again.

The small knot of unease that was already in her stomach concerning this matter tightened a mite more.

David swallowed the last piece of bread, drank the last gulp of ale from his beaker, dropped a brief kiss on her cheek and taking up his gloves from the table, left the dais. "I'm away. Tell that lazy slug-a-bed we have for a cook to stop pretending he's sick and get out of his bed and see to his kitchen. I want a half-decent meal set before me upon my return."

He left the Great Hall. Adela hesitated for a moment, then descended the dais steps and followed him out, trying to come to terms with the fact that Robert could return with David in a matter of a few days. She had not seen him for three years... She wondered if he had changed in that time.

And if he HAD gone blind, if all the stories and gossip and news were true - how would that have changed him? And how would that affect David, when he saw his son again, the son on which he pinned so many hopes for the future, the continuation of his line?

Adela hated to think. She shuddered to herself as she walked across the Great Hall.

David was right - if Robert WAS blind now, it was best he returned to Huntingdon, where he could be looked to....

By the stables, Adela stood in the already warm sunshine and she watched David and Hugh ride out of Huntingdons courtyard. The birds were singing and the morning light gleamed on the well groomed coats of the horses. Behind David rode Hugh, and as they turned under the courtyard archway, he respectfully bowed his head to Adela. Adela looked beyond him, to David on his large bay, and as they passed through the archway, the Earl of Huntingdon glanced back at her and gave her a slight nod. She knew what it meant. He knew he was leaving Huntingdon in good hands whilst he was away.

"Bring him back safe to us, David," she murmured, watching her lord ride away.