SEVENTEEN
Clouds had darkened the day early, so what had been a sunlit room when she left it yesterday was now a place of shadows and deeper darkness with the shutters closed. The newly lit fire didn't help matters, flickering weakly like a dying bird that had fallen down the chimney.
A fitting place for Queen Guinevere to sleep tonight, she grumbled to herself as she pushed the door shut behind her.
For the first time in her adult life, she wanted to throw herself on the floor and pound the flagstones until her frustration died. To be so close to safety and yet so far...
But if she did, the weariness already starting to weight her limbs would overcome her, and the floor was no place for a queen to sleep. Better that she take herself to bed instead, and pound the pillows without hurt
