Oct 5th and Oct 6th complete

Oct 5th I drew a rough layout of the room, and itemised it contents.
Oct 6th, I described what I'd drawn using all 5 senses.

Eleanor's room at the castle

“Now, just make yourself comfortable my dear while I go and find a blanket for you.”

Eleanor gazed around the small room that the cook had brought her to. This was to be her home for the foreseeable future. The woman seemed kindly enough, but if the room was a gauge to measure such things by, life at the castle was going to be very hard and barren. Two rickety beds, both with thin rolled up mattresses stood at opposite ends of the small space. Pushed against the wall that separated them, were two pieces of tree trunks standing on their end, serving as stools. A wooden box with a dark, warped lid was tucked close to one of the beds. In the corner a solitary slop bucket stood sentinel. A rustle from the ceiling drew Eleanor’s eye upwards. A small bird flew out through the hole in the overhead thatch with a stolen piece of thatch in its beak.

Mistress Lampon return at that moment and caught her looking at the sky through the gap in the roof.

“I’ll get Hartley,” she said mentioning the name of the Squire’s groom, “ to bring some hay from the hay loft and mend that. It will be as tight as a drum before your head hits the pillow tonight.”

Giving the rough blanket she held in her arms a perfunctory shake, she reluctantly handed it over.

“It’s a bit damp,” she admitted with a grimace, “ but at this time of year, what isn’t? It will keep you warm tonight however, warmer than that cloak of yours.”

Put you things in the trunk,” she advised nodding toward the box on the floor. “Then come down to the kitchen when you’re done and I’ll have a bowl of hot soup ready.”

Eleanor closed the door behind the cook and regarded the room with dismay. The blanket felt coarse and rough in her hands, and smelled strongly of dog. Rolling back the mattress so it covered the ropes that zig-zagged down the bed frame, she slumped down on top of it, dropping the blanket on the bed beside her. The hessian mattress cover was stained dark brown in the middle and the smell of urine, immediately overpowered the rank animal smell from the blanket at her side.

She sighed. It had been a long day and it promised to be an even longer night. She had noticed a huge cauldron of soup on the fire and four loaves of freshly baked bread placed daintily on the table when she had been down in kitchen. The thought of freshly cooked bread, the crisp outer layer crunching between her teeth while the rich butter melted in her mouth, kept her spirits up while she emptied the contents of her bundle into the open box. Closing the lid with a bang, she left the room, tripping lightly down the cold, dark stairs towards the smoky warmth of the kitchen.