Chapter Eight

RAYA

“What the hell is that?” I coaxed, hardly trusting myself to breathe as I exchanged wide-eyed looks with the slack-jawed handmaiden.

It had stopped almost as soon as it started, the shrill noise of a woman’s scream that felt like it was coming from outside our doors.

My hands shook as they shot out to grip the cowl of the girl’s maiden smock, forcing her back into a squat as she rose to go.

“No! Judith, it might be dangerous! We don't know what’s out there!” I whispered harshly, searching the twin black pools of her eyes that seemed to lack emotion. I would have thought the lady quite strange, if I hadn't heard the rapid thudding of her heart under my iron grasp.

”I’m sure it’s not a big deal miss, these things happen sometimes around these here parts,” She started, and I blanched instantly, snatching my hands away from her bodice as she had just told me she liked her coffee cold and stumbling back into the tub, feeling the soap suds of the water flop and slosh about me.

Not a b