The Island With No Parallel

Spanish Baron (part 2)

The man started walking around the house, and she breathed a sigh of relief. He had compassion on her. She followed him as he led his horse with him. As they came to the front door, he held out the reigns to his horse. "Please hold these a moment. I will return."

He walked into the home and left her alone a moment. He reappeared with a man Yunara assumed to be his butler. He seemed disgruntled, and even more so when he laid eyes upon her.

The man explained something to the butler in spanish, the butler grunting out a, "Si, señor." He reached his hand out for the reigns that she held, pointing at the reigns then his hand for emphasis. She handed him the reigns. The butler glared at her as he walked by.

"Follow me. Does it still hurt you?" The man asked as he led her into his home.

"Yes." 

They stepped into a beautiful foyer surrounded by stone walls and terracotta floors. There were archways standing as the entrances to the other rooms in the house. Where they stood, there were three, one in front of them, behind which was a staircase, and two to either side.

"Maria!" the man called out.

"Kind sir, I never got your name."

The man turned to her. "Ah yes, it is true. I am Barón Manuel Suarez de la Costa." Seeing the confusion on her face from how fast he pronounced the name, he chuckled. "You may call me Manuel."

She chuckled, but from embarrassment. "Thank you, sir Manuel."

Just then a maid came out and started talking to Manuel in Spanish. They spoke for a while, Yunara feeling awkward as they continued on, not understanding a word.

After they had finished, Manuel turned to her and said, "follow Señora Maria. She will take care of you." This maid was much more pleasant than the butler was, a plump little woman with a beautiful mess of brown curls on her head. She nodded for Yunara to follow her.

Maria took good care of her as promised. Yunara supposed Manuel went to bed, because she didn't see him again for the rest of that night. Maria cleaned and wrapped the wound, which stung like hell when she did. When she was done, she led her to a bedroom where Yunara could get some rest. At first she was afraid that the difference in language would be a problem, but it didn't seem to bother Maria at all. Whatever she needed to express she did so with hand gestures and was patient with Yunara in her slowness to understand.

Finally, Maria left her alone to rest. Yunara's mind was swarmed with thoughts that troubled her about where to go from here. She couldn't get the image of the King and Queen out of her head. Eventually between thoughts she drifted to sleep and slept hard.

The next morning, she woke up to Maria greeting her as she brought a tray full of food. It felt strange, Yunara having spent her entire life on the other side of this situation, serving food to others all the time. It felt wrong. She tried to express as well as she could to Maria to allow her to wash her own face and prepare her own tea as she laid out the hot water and leaves for making it. Maria made a face and slapped her hands away, pointing at Yunara's bed, instructing her to return to it.

She was left with no option but to obey as Maria set her food before her, toasted bread, eggs, muffins, and tea. There was butter for the bread, as well as jam, and a little jar with sugar and a little spoon in it for the tea.

Maria called Yunara's attention to a little piece of paper under the plate of food. It was a note left by Manuel for her, apparently.

"Gracias," Yunara said, trying to remember as much Spanish as she could.