Chapter 3: The Dragon Hunters

“Where’s the Mrs Smith?” Maya demanded of the guards outside the castle gates. “We’ve been waiting for half an hour already.”

“She’ll be here soon,” a guard replied gruffly. “Wait in line quietly!”

Tall, dark-skinned, bearded and muscular, both guards towered over the dozen young girls. They wore the long-sleeved shirts, breeches, boots, chest plates, helmet and uniform cloaks of black and gold with the Winter family crest on the back. Their stern outlook and pointed spears made it impossible to question them again.

Grumbling about the delay, the girls fell to chatting again.

“I wonder what happened,” Netra said. “I’ve been coming here for five months now. Mrs Smith never arrived late before.”

As per the rules, Mrs Smith, the housekeeper, escorted the girls to and from the laundry room every day. The smart old woman was always here first, waiting for the girls. Today, she was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re right,” Lena admitted. “It’s hard to even imagine her being late. Maybe the Baroness called her for some work?”

Netra shrugged. “Maybe Miss Kay called her?”

“I don’t think they need to call the housekeeper directly,” Maya reasoned. “They have enough maids to just relay a message to her.”

“Perhaps she’s tending to some patient?” Lena suggested.

“That’s plausible!” Maya nodded.

Before they could discuss further, the ten-foot tall wooden gates of the castle opened and a rough-looking squad stomped out. The girls went silent in surprise. It was obvious they were dragon hunters. But Netra had never seen such a set before.

The leader was a large, bald and burly-looking man with dark tattoos all over his face, shoulders, and forearms. Instead of a shirt, he wore a fur cloak, beaded necklaces and danglers in his ears, skin tight leather pants, and enormous fur-lined boots. He carried a mace full of spikes in his right hand. Without sparing a glance at the girls, he stomped off down the road towards the town square.

Netra felt sure he was from outside Wisteria Kingdom.

His team of twenty-odd hunters looked strikingly similar to him, yet somewhat younger, slimmer and hairier, wearing grey shirts under the cloaks, and carrying a variety of swords, daggers and other paraphernalia. Two of the hunters whistled at the young girls, who blushed and smiled prettily. Only Netra rolled her eyes and looked away. She knew Pamela would have loved the flirty glances. Probably, she had dated one of these men the night before.

Soon, they followed, and Mrs Smith arrived to usher in the girls. She was an elegant and sophisticated old woman with a perpetual frown on her wrinkled, long face. She wore a black dress with a high collar, long sleeves and floor-length skirt. As always, she tied her greying hair into a neat chignon at the back of her head. A plain white shawl around her shoulders completed her ensemble.

This morning, her frown looked worse than usual. As soon as she appeared, a curious hush descended upon the young maids, and they followed her inside without a word. The old woman barked her regular orders while she led them through the gates. Having heard the same orders for months every day, Netra fixated on her surroundings and let her mind wander. She always found the castle very enchanting.

Inside the wooden gates, a vast stoned courtyard, almost thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, sprawled towards a set of brief steps leading to the main entrance. Mainly used as training space for the Baron’s guards, even now a team of uniformed men marched from one corner to the other. Four lofty pillars supported the stone awning over the elegant porch at the top of the steps. An expertly carved Winter family crest was visible in the centre of the splendid awning.

All servants had a separate entrance to the right corner of the courtyard. The guard’s entrance was to the far left corner. Only the family, messengers, and visitors were to use the main entrance. The young laundry maids followed Mrs Smith through a plain wooden door, constituting the servant’s entrance, into a bright corridor lined with a red carpet, lofty windows along one wall, and niches with lamp brackets along the other. At the end of the corridor, a set of two staircases appeared. One staircase led upstairs to the main wing of the castle, while the other staircase led down to the laundry room in the basement. As the girl filed down the stairs, only their boots resounded on the cold stone.

At the bottom of the stairs, the girls sat down in a designated area equipped with chairs and tables to have their breakfast before beginning their work. A set of large straw baskets stood against one long stone wall. A gigantic pile of bedsheets, curtains, clothes and other washing items lay against the other, under a row of chutes protruding from the stone. The washing tubs, soaps, and paddles were at the far end of the room, next to the large drainage sink. Rectangular ventilators, carved into the top half of the same wall, filled the room with faint light and air.

As Netra, Maya and Lena sat down together at one table and opened their baskets, Mrs Smith called them. “You three will do the sheets today. Don’t use too much soap and make sure you dry the sheets in the sun on the terrace before ironing them. Don’t wash more than three at a time. Remember to use the washing paddle properly. If I find any stains or rips, all three of you won’t get paid today.”

“Yes, Mrs Smith,” they replied in unison.

Her threats were nothing new, although she never went through with them.

“Rest of you get to work on everything else,” Mrs Smith continued. “Try to be as silent as possible. I’ve got enough to do today, so please try not to make any more work for me. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Mrs Smith,” everyone replied in a single chorus.

“Is everything alright Mrs Smith?” Netra asked what everyone wanted to.

Instantly, they all stopped eating and stared at the old woman expectantly.

“No, everything is not alright, Netra,” she grumbled aloud. “By the end of the day, I have to prepare ten extra rooms in the barracks for those blasted dragon hunters on the Baron’s orders. As if we have enough space for our own people! At least he could’ve consulted with me or the butler before agreeing to such demands.”

“The dragon hunters will stay inside the castle?” Lena asked incredulously.

“For an entire month!” the old woman cried. “I just can’t believe it! If they were guests from another county, that would be a different matter. But these hunters know nothing of cleanliness and hygiene. Yet, we must feed them and clean their rooms every day for a month. The staff is going to revolt. I tell you!”

She took a deep sigh to calm herself.

“Anyway, enough talking! Now get back to work, all of you!”

She turned and left the basement.