Page 27 of May Queen: May Day

“Why don’t you just ask me yourself if you want to know?”

Ricard whipped around to see Flora standing in the open doorway with her handmaid right behind her.

“Lady Flora, how long have you been standing there?” Ricard felt a heat rise up to his face. He’d been caught talking about his betrothed.

“Long enough to know that you don’t trust me.” She walked into the room, throwing him a daggered glance.

“Why are you even here?” asked Ricard.

“I’m here to collect my belongings.” She walked over and looked down into the trunk that Ricard had been going through. Then her eyes focused on the things in his hands. “Give me those! You have no right to go through my belongings as if you are digging for treasure.”

When she grabbed the things from Ricard, something fell from the ribbon of the headpiece and landed with a clink at his feet. He bent over and picked up a silver ring interwoven with spirals.

“What’s this?” he asked.

Flora was busy putting her things back into the trunk. “What’s what?” She slammed down the lid and stood up, brushing off her hands.

“This ring.” He held it up in two fingers.

She turned to look at it and her eyes opened wide. “That’s mine!” She reached out for it, but Ricard pulled back his hand to get a better look at the piece. “These are Druid markings.”

“Nay, they’re not, now give it to me.” She snatched it out of his hand and shoved it into her pocket instead of putting it on her finger.

“Aren’t you going to wear it?”

“Nay. It doesn’t fit correctly,” she told him.

“Where did you get it?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Aye, it does. I want to know, now tell me.”

“It was a gift.” Her eyes darted over to her handmaid.

“Who gave it to you?” He continued with the questions, seeming to make her feel very nervous.

“If you must know, it was given to me by my late mother.”

“Where did she get it?” Ricard asked curiously, knowing for a fact those were pagan markings on the ring.

“Her mother was always buying trinkets from peddlers,” said Albreda, stepping up next to Flora.

“Aye, she was,” agreed Flora. “She loved trinkets of any kind.” Flora pulled the ring out of her pocket and stared at it in her palm. “I admired this one day and she gave it to me.”

“If I may?” Ricard held out his open hand, but Flora was hesitant to let him see it. She glanced over to Albreda who nodded slightly. Unwillingly, she dropped the ring into Ricard’s palm.

Ricard inspected it once again, mesmerized by the spirals that were intricately woven together and etched into the metal piece. He looked inside the ring and saw the initials B.D.. “What are these initials?” he asked, pointing them out to her.

“What initials?” She leaned over to see.

“It says B.D.. What does that stand for?”

She stiffened and looked away as she answered. “They must have been there when my mother bought the ring from a peddler. I just never noticed.”

“Really? It seems to me the D could stand for Debenham.”

“That’s nonsense. What would the B stand for? My name is Flora, my father’s name was Oren, and my mother was Edith.”