A day later, Alina left the castle with Lady Talbot with the excuse of fabric procurement for the second shipment.
They passed through the busy market streets, first. Then Lady Talbot turned and they entered into into the back streets, the part of town with narrow lanes, and old buildings.
Lady Talbot took her to a small tavern and nodded at the woman behind the counter. The woman nodded back and took Alina downstairs into a cellar.
The cellar was dim, with cracked walls and a low ceiling. A table for four stood in the middle. Three women were already seated on it. They stood up when Alina entered. One of them was Eleanor while others had their backs to her.
"Alina," Eleanor said warmly. "This is Lydia."
Lydia looked like in her thirties. Her hands kept twisting the fabric of her sleeve in nervousness.
"Lydia was a contract wife who was married at sixteen to a lord three times her age through a trade arrangement between her father and her husband," Eleanor said.
