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Quinn smile faltered. "Perhaps then I shouldn't ride her?"
Tommy grinned as he slipped on the saddle. "His lordship left instructions that if you asked to ride, I should give you Majesty."
Quinn couldn't help the little thrill that lit along her nerves at those words. Archer might be ignoring her but he was still thinking about her and that made her ridiculously happy.
"Then I shall ride her," Quinn announced with authority.
After thanking Tommy, Quinn and Nickie set off and before long they found themselves in the village that Quinn had visited in the 21st century. She wasn't surprised to see that it looked remarkably the same, almost as if the three hundred years that past hadn't touched the place. They climbed from their mounts and wrapped the reins over a branch.
"Here Nickie," Quinn offered him an apple for Champ while she fed one to Majesty. Cook had prepared a basket for their trip into the village since apparently many of the villagers had a weakness for Cook's sticky cake.
"Shall we find some people to share Cook's cake?" Quinn asked as she held out her hand to Nickie.
"Yes. The school is up that way."
"Perfect."
Quinn noticed that there were more people in the village now than in the future and the landscape was dotted with the small dwellings of the tenant farmers. As they walked along, people gave her side-ways glances but no one seemed to want to make eye contact with her. Nickie noticed this too and pulled on her hand. Quinn lowered her head to his.
"Lady and Miss Danvers came into town a fortnight back," he confided.
That explained the looks. Katherine and her mother no doubt made it clear to the masses that they would be reigning over them soon. It was just something those two wicked women would do, looking down their noses on these hardworking people while they shamelessly sponged off of Archer. It wouldn't surprise Quinn to learn that they had even insisted these people pull out their finest offerings -- provisions that were being saved for special occasions -- just to wield power over them.
"That certainly explains their reluctance to see us," she muttered as they reached the town center where a group of children were all sitting around a young woman. This was obviously the school and though it was primitive by modern standards, the children were clean and what books they had were in good condition.
"Good morning," Quinn offered cheerily.
The children stayed quiet but the teacher offered a greeting albeit weakly.
"Morning, Miss," she answered with her eyes turned down.
"I'm Quinn, Nickie's friend. Would you mind if he sat in on your lesson?" Quinn knew this was completely unheard of, nobility mingling with commoners, so it wasn't a surprise when the teacher was rendered mute. Quinn took that opportunity to lift the lid of the basket and pulled out the sticky cakes.
"We brought treats to share." And just like that, she broke the spell of fear with Cook's cakes.
Hours later, Archer and Thaddeus arrived into town concerned for Quinn and Nickie but stopped short at the sight before them. Quinn was sitting on the dirt road surrounded by children: two little girls on her lap, Nickie pressed up against her on one side and another little boy on the other. Whatever she was saying had gained the rapt interest of not only the children but the parents that had formed a circle around her. In unspoken agreement Archer and Thaddeus dismounted and quietly approached, being careful to stay unseen so as to not break up the impromptu gathering. They stopped and listened when they were close enough to hear.
"The evil witch cursed the young babe and vowed on her fifteenth year she would prick her finger and fall down dead but a wise woman, wishing to bestow a gift on the child, changed the prophecy; the princess will not die but fall into a deep sleep."
"In the years that followed, the King and Queen protected their daughter who grew up happy and safe. So many years had passed that the curse was nearly forgotten. On the day of her fifteenth birthday, the King threw a party to celebrate. The evil witch didn't forget though and she disguised herself as an old lady and entered the castle as a guest. She lured the young princess to a spinning wheel where she pricked her finger and fell into a deep sleep." Quinn paused and Archer was surprised to find that he was like everyone else, hanging on her every word, waiting to know what happened. So when his son spoke the words he himself almost voiced, he couldn't help but smile.
"What, what happens?" Nickie all but screamed.
"Well, the evil witch wins and the princess stays asleep forever," Quinn teased.
The disappointment was palpable; even Archer found himself stunned by the story's ending.
"Bloody bad ending," Thaddeus concurred from next to him and Archer grinned to himself.
The uproar that her ending caused had Quinn shouting over the raised voices.
"You don't like that ending?"
"NO!" came the yell in unison from children and adults alike.
"Are you sure? Because the princess was very tired."
"No!"
