That told her everything she needed to know.
“God’s Bones,” she hissed. “Please excuse me, my lady.”
With that, she dashed inside the entry just as the apothecary was shoving Meadow and Flora out the door.
“And keep them out!” the man shouted at her. “They are trying to lick the corks of my phials. And they are stealing my hemp!”
Lista was mortified. She had hold of her mother and aunt, preparing to pull them out of the apothecary’s shop when Meadow’s face suddenly lit up.
“Kelli!” she gasped. “Kellington Coleby!”
She yanked from Lista’s grasp and ran to the wimpled woman, throwing her arms around her and nearly knocking her over. Both knights, standing close by, had to reach out to steady the women so they wouldn’t go over into the mud. Even when she was righted, Meadow continued to hug the well-dressed woman.
“Kelli, I’ve not seen you in years!” Meadow said happily, finally loosening her embrace to get a good look at her. “So many years have gone by, but I still recognized you. I would know your lovely brown eyes anywhere!”
Lady Kellington Coleby de Velt smiled at her old friend. “I am so happy to see you, too,” she said. “It has been too long.”
“Much too long.”
“Whatever are you doing in Berwick?”
Meadow turned to gesture to her daughter and sister. “We have come into town to purchase a few things,” she said. “We were just going to the man who sells the brined fish down by the river. What areyoudoing in Berwick?”
“The same thing you are.”
“Shall we go together, then?”
Kellington wasn’t too certain about that. She had a lot of people with her and didn’t want to drag them along while she went off with a childhood friend, pleased as she was to see her.
“I am sure you have many other things to attend to, just as we do,” she said. “But introduce me to your daughter. I’ve not met her. I do not think I remember your sister, either.”
Meadow turned to the pair behind her, proudly. “My daughter, Lista,” she said. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
Kellington grinned at the young woman who was now starting to flush. “Quite,” she said. “She looks like your mother a little.”
Meadow nodded in agreement. “She is much prettier than my mother ever was,” she said. “And she’s very smart, as well. She can read and do sums in her head. She can do anything you ask of her, for she is perfect.”
Lista was hoping the ground would swallow her up right about then. But unfortunately, she was left exposed as her mother praised her. “My mother has far too much faith in me, my lady,” she said, trying to shut her mother up because the woman was being too chatty due to the fungi she had ingested. “May I introduce my aunt, Lady Flora d’Orbec.”
Flora was slightly more inebriated than Meadow, but she concealed it well when she wanted to.
She’d had practice.
“My lady,” she greeted. “I recognize your name. I do not think we met as children, though I suspect it was because I went to foster before my sister did and there was never the opportunity. Where did you know her?”
Kellington smiled politely at the slender woman with the long face and hair piled neatly on top of her head. It made her head, in general, look extremely long.
“St. Helen’s,” she said. “I was born at Pelinom Castle and my father would take me for lessons with the priests at St. Helen’s, where Meadow also received lessons.”
“What sort of lessons?”
“Mostly biblical education, but we learned to read and also to write.”
Flora smiled thinly. “Pity,” she said. “My parents were never so gracious to me. They sent me away as soon as I became ofage, though I cannot fathom why. They seemed to like to keep Meadow close to them.”
If Kellington thought it was a strange comment, she didn’t let on. “Where did you foster?” she asked politely.
“Alnwick,” Flora said. “I met my husband there. He was a retainer for the earl and, for a time, for John when he was king, though it is unpopular to say so. I rather enjoyed court.”
