Elyse eyed the girl. “Who is it from?”
“I have been sworn not to tell, m’lady.”
Elyse took the parchment from her and dismissed her. She promptly went to Emllyn, extending the parchment to her.
“Another note,” she said knowingly. “That makes three notes in the past five days. Who are they from, Emllyn?”
Emllyn could sense curiosity and jealousy from Elyse. It wasn’t surprisingly considering Elyse had been the only fine lady in the castle until thirteen days ago. Now, others were noticing Emllyn. Although Elyse pretended to be excited and thrilled for her, there was something in her tone that suggested otherwise.
Reluctantly, Emllyn took the note and popped open the wax seal. There was no signet ring in the wax, nothing to indicate who had sent it, but the note itself was short and brief. It was the third note asking for Emllyn to meet her secret admirer in the ward of Glenteige near the well at sunset. There was no signature other than: “Your Devoted Servant”. With disinterest, she passed the note to Elyse.
“See for yourself,” she said. “Whoever it is never signs it.”
Elyse read the note with great relish. “How romantic!” she exclaimed softly. “You should meet him, Emllyn, by all means. Mayhap you shall fall madly in love with him!”
Emllyn shook her head. “God’s Blood, Elyse, I am surely not interested,” she said with some exasperation. “I told you once that my only true love was a knight who was killed when Black Sword destroyed my brother’s war armada. I have no interest in another, not a man who writes me notes or a farmer named John. Why can you not accept that?”
Emllyn had told the story about Trevor to throw Elyse off when the woman began prying into her personal life at the beginning of their acquaintance. Certainly, the conversation had never reached the bawdy levels that it had reached this day because the day’s conversation had indeed been enlightening. Elyse had let her prim façade down to reveal the tigress beneath. And the gossip. Emllyn was very glad she’d never confided in her about anything critical or personal, and she knew now that she never would.
Elyse, however, did not share her friend’s sense of reserve. She pressed the note against her breast in an amorous gesture.
“You must meet the man and put him out of his misery,” she said, still holding the note as she went to the table where a fair amount of food was laid out. “It has taken much courage for him to write to you, Emllyn. It would be polite to meet him for his troubles.”
Emllyn eyed her, cocking an eyebrow. “And thank him by bedding him?”
“If he is handsome enough.”
Elyse burst out laughing and Emllyn grinned, shaking her head reproachfully. Elyse began eating the fruits that were upon the table and Emllyn was just finishing up her final stitch when a serving woman approached her from behind, a pewter plate of apricots and apples in her hand. She extended the plate to Emllyn, nearly blocking her vision of her loom.
“Food, m’lady?” the woman rasped.
Annoyed, Emllyn’s head came up with the intention of chasing the woman away when her gaze fell on a set of familiar features. It took Emllyn a moment to realize that she was looking at Eefha. Startled, she dropped her needle but recovered quickly, stabbing herself in the process. All the while, her gaze barely left the gnarled old woman. She could hardly believe her eyes.
When her mouth popped open, a sure sign of realization, Eefha shook her head faintly as if to admonish her to be silent. Emllyn remained silent but she had never been so astonished, by anything, in her entire life.
“Emllyn?” Elyse called to her, mouth full. “Will you come and eat with me?”
Emllyn stood up on shaking legs. “Of course,” she said, trying not to stare at Eefha as she moved past the woman. She desperately wanted to say something to her but wisely kept silent. She forced herself to focus on Elyse. “What delicious dishes do we have today?”
Elyse had her mouth full. “My favorites,” she said. “Brined beef with cabbage and carrots, and duck with honey sauce.”
Emllyn pretended to be very interested in the dishes but the truth was that her mind was still on the shock of seeing Eefha. She didn’t want to lose sight of the woman, not for a moment, so she popped a piece of cheese into her mouth and turned around to see if the old woman was still in the room. She, lingering by the chamber door. Emllyn called out to her.
“You, there,” she said, pointing. “Can you please go to my chamber and bring me my wrap?” she asked. “My chamber is on the top floor at the end of the corridor behind the pillar. There is a red shawl on my bed.”
Eefha didn’t say a word; she simply disappeared from the door. Given the woman’s speech habits and patterns, Emllyn wasn’t even sure if Eefha understood her but she couldn’t have very well sung the request or delivered it via an anecdote about ancient Irish myths. Her entire purpose of sending Eefha to her chamber was so the old woman would know where she slept and, hopefully, would return to her at some point. But, then again, as Devlin once said, Eefha did what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it. Who knew why the old woman was here or whatshe was doing? Emllyn pondered the mystery as she returned to the lovely meal.
“Emllyn,” Elyse said thoughtfully after Eefha had fled the chamber, “do you not think that you should at least meet the man who has been writing you such notes if only to tell him that you are not interested?”
Emllyn sighed with frustration as Elyse went back to the subject of her secret admirer. She was getting rather tired with the woman’s pestering and it was a struggle not to become short with her.
“I do not plan to meet him,” she said as she put food on her plate.
Elyse wasn’t happy with the answer. “But why?” she pressed. “Surely you should tell the man that he is wasting his time.”
Emllyn stopped what she was doing and faced the woman. “Elyse, if you are so concerned, thenyoumeet him by the well tonight,” she said with strained patience. “Tell him that I am not interested in his notes. Mayhap he will start writing them to you instead.”
Rather than refuse, Elyse saw it as an opportunity. Her face lit up. “May I meet him?” she asked happily.
