“So, what will be our next move, travel guide of mine?” Elisandrine asked.
She was looking at Nessa with a smile and her hands on her hips. Nessa wondered if she would look as driven tomorrow, after a meagre breakfast and a day’s walk to Nightport.
“Our next move will be getting over this wall,” Nessa said, looking up at it. She spotted cracks that could be used for foot- and handholds. Macray had been truthful. The top of the wall had crumbled away. Either by an act of nature or an act of a wanton prince. It shouldn’t be too hard to climb, not even for Elisandrine.
“That does not look too hard. Give me a leg up, and I will try to climb it,” Elise said, having clearly reached the same conclusion as Nessa.
She helped Elise up. After a few near misses, the Lady lowered herself down on the other side of the wall. Nessa followed, grateful that she didn’t have to attempt it in high-heeled shoes. She said a silent prayer to the gods that Elisandrine would have the same shoe size as her so that she could wear her second pair of boots on their trip.
Nessa stole another look at Elisandrine when she had her feet back on the ground. She remembered what Prince Macray had said about Elisandrine wanting smaller lovers that she could boss around. Sure, Elisandrine was taller than her, but she wasn’t bigger. Nessa had lean, strong muscles from farm work and curves, which Layden had assured her had caught the eye of quite a few men and women in the village. She was not smaller than Lady Falk, and she wasn’t about to be bossed around.
Elisandrine brushed down her dress and turned to face Nessa. “Well, here we are. What do we do next? I doubt we need to run, Macray will ensure no guards go to my room to check on me. Did you say that we could only make our way to the city when it becomes light?”
“Yes. The roads to Nightport aren’t safe after dark. Especially not as we get closer to the city. We will have to spend the night on my parents’ farm.”
Elisandrine adjusted the satchel on her shoulder. “All right. Lead the way.”
Nessa thought for a moment. “Would you mind if we stopped off somewhere first?”
“Probably not. However, that depends on where we are stopping.”
“The apothecary. My oldest friend owns it. He is the man you saw me with this afternoon. I would like to say goodbye to him tonight as we’ll have to leave first thing in the morning.”
“Of course. We shall go there first, then. So. He is a friend? I would have guessed a lover.”
Nessa started. “Really?”
“Yes. There was such an intimacy in how you walked and how you looked at each other. But perhaps that was the distance playing tricks on me.”
“Yes. It was. I have never held any romantic feelings for Layden. And he’s a married man.”
Elise smirked. “That does not mean that he holds no romantic feelings towards you.”
“I’d rather not speak of this, milady,” Nessa said, allowing her tone to grow stern to show that she meant it. She began to walk towards Ground Hollow’s little town square. Elisandrine immediately followed. “Of course. I apologise, I tend to speak far too freely. It got me into masses of trouble at court. Although, secretly, I think the Queen enjoyed it,” she said.
“Was that why she wanted you as a sister-in-law?”
They walked in silence for a few heartbeats.
“Hmm. I had not thought of it that way. I saw my marriage as a banishment because I caused mischief. Either by speaking out of turn or by losing my temper, which I tend to do even more than speaking inappropriately. It never occurred to me that the Queen was trying to make me… family.”
“I should say that she likes you a great deal if she was willing to let you marry her brother.”
Elisandrine hummed softly, a strange look on her face. Then the silence returned.
A swarm of lux beetles flew in around them. They both stopped to watch the sky turn into a festival of yellow and green lights. Mating season made the lightning bugs glow their brightest and fly low and slow.
One flew a little too close to Elise and brushed her hair. She laughed, and Nessa started at the sound of it. For some reason, she had expected Elisandrine’s laugh to be a girlish giggle. Even though she guessed that Lady Falk was close to her own age, she felt like a headstrong and flirtatious lady of court should giggle. Like in books. Not give the heartfelt, loud, laughter that escaped Elisandrine’s lips right now.
Nessa tried to hear that wholehearted, sweet laugh past the sudden pounding of her pulse in her ears. The woman in front of her wasn’t some inaccessible creature from a different world. Not an elegant painting of a princess-to-be. Elise was simply a woman of flesh and blood. She was real. Kind, young, ready for a new life, entertained by the pretty beetles, and as lonely as she herself was. Nessa had the disconcerting sensation of feeling like she knew Elise’s heart and mind. Just for a fleeting moment. She noticed that she was staring, her mouth opened enough to make it dry.
Nessa averted her eyes as she asked, “Are you ready to walk on?”
“What? Oh. Yes, I suppose so. I have never seen lux beetles so close up. I have been inside, watching them do their dances in a garden or swarming down a road. I thought they would be disgusting, like bugs usually are, but they are surprisingly lovely.”
Nessa held out her hand to one, nearly catching it before it flitted away to court another lux. “Lovely? Yes, I guess they are. They light up evenings like these and remind you of how incredible nature can be. How it can surprise you with its own simple form of magic.”
This time, Nessa caught Elisandrine looking at her. Studying her. Nessa cleared her throat and began walking again. Soon Elisandrine was walking next to her, so close that their shoulders brushed, sending jolts through Nessa every time it happened.
“So, how did you come to know this friend of yours?” Elise asked.
“Layden? We were schooled together.”
Elisandrine’s brow furrowed, as if she was trying to remember something. “Commoners are usually schooled form the age of… hmm… eight to eighteen, yes?”
“Yes. You can study further, but you have to travel to one of the cities to do so. And find a way to pay for your studies or a patron who will pay for you. Or a master to apprentice with.”
“I see,” Elise said. She walked closer to Nessa now, making their shoulders touch even more. Sometimes their hands brushed past each other, fingers touching ever so slightly. Sparks seemed to form where their skin connected. Nessa didn’t move away even though something akin to panic mixed with attraction was building in her stomach.
The moonlight was glinting off Elise’s black hair as she asked, “Did you enjoy your schooling?”
“Yes. I love to read, so I took the chance to read any book I could. Even the dull ones,” Nessa admitted.
“I like to read as well. Although I never had to bother with dull books. There were enough books for me to only pick out the interesting ones in Silverton. I wish I could say the same for the other students.”
“What? That they picked interesting books?”
Elise laughed. “No, that they were interesting. I do not know how well-informed you are about Noble children and how we are schooled?”
“I’m not informed at all. I’ve been told you are meant to have better teachers than us. But that’s all I know.”
Nessa swung her arm a little wider than before and her little finger accidentally brushed the back of Elise’s hand for a prolonged, heart-stopping moment. The other woman made no show of having noticed.
“Well, yes. Noble children have the best scholars available in the land. Sadly, what they had in intelligence and experience, they often lacked in kindness and teaching ability. Despite that, I could put up with them. The people I despised were the other students. I wanted to throttle them daily. We were a small group, only fourteen when we started at the age of six. By the age of seventeen there was only eleven of us left.”
Nessa stared at her. “You mean you killed three of them off?”
Elise’s face contorted into anger. “What? Gods no! What do you think I am, woman? I mean that the red pox hit the Noble circles and took lives.”
Nessa felt like all the blood drained from her face. “Oh, right. Of course. I sincerely apologise, milady.”
Elise rubbed her forehead. “It is not your fault. Excuse my outburst. I suppose the mental strain of the day is making me tired.”
The chill of the night was making Elise shiver a little. Nessa pondered offering up her coat but hesitated. Would a creature this dainty and beautiful want to wear her worn, dirty leather coat? “That’s understandable. You’ve made a lot of decisions today.”
“Yes, and being held captive is not restful; it wears on your nerves. I certainly do not recommend it. What is even worse is putting up with Macray…” Elisandrine gave a theatrical yawn which made Nessa laugh.
They kept walking; Nessa could see Ground Hollow Square in front of them now. A field owl hooted in the distance while Nessa scrambled for something to say.
Just make conversation. Pretend you know her and that she likes you. Pretend that you are not an insecure, boorish farm girl.
“Do you mind if I ask why you hated the other students?” Nessa asked.
Elisandrine shrugged. “They were obnoxious. A few were lovely, but most of them were raised to be competitive, aggressive, and arrogant. Not only did they believe they were better than all the commoners in the land, they also believed that they were better than each other. Every day was a battle of who had the most perfect clothes and were the best at their studies. It is hard to make friends when you are all constantly trying to beat each other.”
“That sounds horrible.”
Elisandrine turned to her, lightning fast. “Oh, listen to me complain. You must have had it so much worse than me. I assume you had no sunberry juice break every two hours. Or handcrafted seats and desks to fit your individual sitting style?”
Nessa chuckled. “No. We had things like a ration on the amount of oil our lights could burn in winter. So many dark mornings and afternoons were spent squinting by a barely lit lamp.”
Elise’s eyes widened, glinting in the moonlight. “Really?”
“Yes. Although I have to admit that I liked most of the children I was schooled with. With the exception of a handful of bullies, of course.”
She looked up and saw the sign of the apothecary in the distance. “There’s Layden’s apothecary. He and his family live above it. I’ll go knock on the door and hope that we don’t wake his little daughter. If we do, Isobel will kill me.”
Nessa put her hands in her pockets and picked up the walking pace, eager to get to the apothecary and get this over with.
Elise came up behind her. “Isobel?”
“Layden’s wife. She doesn’t like me. Well, he says she did once, but she certainly doesn’t anymore.”
“Ah, did you step on her toes, too?” Elise teased.
“No, nor did I climb a garden wall and then the walls of a castle for her. You know, I never asked why you couldn’t sneak me into the castle some other way.”
Elise was next to her again now. “No. You just climbed up there because I asked you to. And because you could. I knew then that I liked you.”
“Because I follow orders blindly?” Nessa faced the door to the apothecary, purposefully not meeting Elisandrine’s eye.
“No, because someone needed help and you assessed the situation, saw that you could help, and then simply did it. It shows courage and kindness.”
Nessa wasn’t sure what to say. “Thank you,” she finally mumbled.
Elisandrine stopped and looked from the apothecary back to Nessa. “You are most welcome. Should I wait for you out here?”
“No, the night winds are too cold. Especially with only a shawl over that dress. Come with me. It will be fun to see Layden’s face when I show up with an actual Noble in tow.”
Elisandrine quirked an eyebrow at her but then smiled. Nessa smiled back before knocking on the door, praying to the gods that Layden wouldn’t mock her for blushing.
It took a while before someone answered. Nessa pulled her coat closed against the cold, considering buttoning it up now that she wasn’t lending it to Elise.
Layden finally opened the door, looked behind him into the dark building and then stepped out. He was wearing only a pair of short britches and his spectacles. In his hand was a candle he had used to light his way. She saw him put his free arm around his naked, broad chest with a look of embarrassment. His dark skin was covered in goosebumps.
Nessa frowned. “Why don’t you ever wear a coat?”
“I would start with why he is not wearing a shirt. Or socks,” Elisandrine murmured behind her.
“I was in bed, Nessa! Then I had to rush out here to see what fool was knocking at my door far past the stroke of midnight, nearly waking my wife and daughter.”
Nessa winced. “Ah, right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I guess we won’t be invited in then. Well, I won’t keep you standing out here in the cold for too long. I just had to say goodbye tonight as we are leaving tomorrow.”
For the first time, Layden looked past Nessa and over to Elisandrine. His eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. He snapped it shut and looked back to Nessa, whispering, “What in the name of the gods is she doing here?”
“Listening to you not realising that I can hear you,” Elisandrine answered.
Nessa smiled. She took off her coat and hung it over Layden’s broad shoulders.
“I climbed up to her window like she asked. Then we spoke. We decided to head for Nightport together in the morning.”
Layden looked like he was about to swallow his tongue. “But she’s —”
Elisandrine stepped forward. “Meant to marry the prince, yes. I do not want to. So, I am going with your friend to the city instead. I have the coin and the nerve to do just about anything, while she has the knowledge and cautiousness to make sure that the ‘anything’ does not get us killed. We need to start early in the morning in case they are searching for me and because we have a long day of travel ahead of us. So, you should say your farewell to Nessa tonight.”
Nessa opened her mouth to add something but realised that this pretty much summed things up.
Layden looked at Elisandrine and gave an awkward little bow. Then he turned back to his old friend, wrapped her coat closer around him and peered at her. “With respect, Nessa, are you sure this is a good idea? Travelling with someone who will be chased and who is… so different from you?”
Nessa looked him in the eye, willing his scepticism to disappear before it melted her resolve. “No. Probably not. But it does seem to be moving things along. And I need to move along. Before I lose my nerve and end up staying here, taking over the farm one day.”
He sighed. “Yes. I know. I’m just going to miss you. I’m going to miss you so much.”
She got up on her tiptoes and put her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her in a close hug while avoiding the flame of the candle.
He hugged back and whispered, “Please be careful.”
“I will,” she whispered back.
She stepped away from him. “Say goodbye to Isobel and Hanne for me. Oh, come now, don’t look like such an abandoned lamb. You studied in Nightport, you know it’s only a day’s travel away. I will be back to see you and my parents soon.”
He frowned. “I know. Please, make it very soon.”
“Of course. Now give me my coat back and go get some sleep. No doubt you’ll have to make some important dusts to cover yourself in tomorrow morning.”
He glared at her as he gave her back the coat. Then he gave Nessa a quick kiss on the cheek. He turned to bow in Elisandrine’s direction again and then he hurried back inside, shielding the flickering candle with his hand.
When the door closed behind him, Nessa blew out a breath and faced Elisandrine.
“Right, that’s done then. Now we just have to go home to my parents and tell them that I�
��m bringing a Noble, who was almost a princess, into the house. Without any warning and with an explanation that hardly sounds likely even to me.” She gave a faintly nauseous grin. “This should be fun.”
Elisandrine smiled reassuringly. “Lead the way.”
Chapter 7
Their First Night
Elise looked at the humble house before her. She was squinting through the moonlight to better see the telltale architectural design of the roof, wondering if Nessa’s family knew, as she did, why it had that particular appearance. Her eyes drifted to the worn wood and lack of windows. The design of the house probably wasn’t in the forefront of these people’s minds.
Nessa knocked. Then they waited a while in silence. Guilt at waking the Clays grew in Elise’s belly.
The door opened, revealing a woman who must have been around fifty years old. Maybe younger, it was hard to tell with the lines on her face and her sleepy expression. She looked a lot like Nessa, but with a few grey hairs.
Gently, Nessa placed a hand at the small of Elise’s back. “This is my mother, Carryanne Clay. Mother, this is Lady Elisandrine Falk. Can we come in?”
Carryanne Clay peered at them both, appearing unsure if she was dreaming; then she shook herself and replied, “Oh. Yes. Of course. Come in.”
Nessa walked in, and Elise followed. The room was dark but for the low burning lamp that Carryanne was carrying. She closed the door and turned to her daughter. “I thought you said you would be having a couple of ales with Layden? And then spending the night on their sofa?”
Elise saw Nessa grimace. “Well, that wasn’t exactly true, Mother. I went to see Elisandrine here.”
Elise thought fast. No mother would want their only child gallivanting out with a woman who they just met, especially not one who would be hunted by royal guards. She considered making up a lie, perhaps saying they met at Layden’s and that he could vouch for her.
Making a Tinderbox (The Tinderbox Tales Book 1) Page 5