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“Maybe you were injured because of who you are, so that’s part of the pain.”
“So it must have been an enemy who injured me, not some random assailant. I wonder what I was doing in your garden. You said you don’t think I was wounded here?”
“I didn’t hear a fight, and I’m a light sleeper. No one else around here noticed any noise. The area didn’t look disturbed. But it’s odd, you were in the back garden, so you must have come around the house.”
“I seem to recall that people often come to each other’s back doors in the country, so I might have been hoping to find help. You’re a healer. That might explain why I came here. Is there a sign?”
“I don’t work as a healer. The sign is for a tea shop.”
“I must have been desperate for a cup of tea.”
“A good cup of tea will cure a lot of things, but it doesn’t help much with wounds.”
“Then I’m lucky I stumbled upon a purveyor of teas who also knows how to treat wounds. I’m sure there’s a story there.” He grinned. “I think it’s safe to say that I didn’t come to burgle you during the night.”
“Why not?”
“Armor would be a terrible choice of attire for a burglar. It’s impossible to sneak around while wearing that stuff.”
“True. You’d wake up the house with all the clanking.”
“Was there any insignia on the armor?”
“None that I saw.”
“May I look at it?”
“It’s still in the hall.”
He shoved back his seat, started to stand, then winced and put a hand to his upper chest. After a long, slow breath, he moved more gingerly until he was almost upright. “I’ll have to be more careful about that.” He moved haltingly out the door and to the end of the hall, by the back door. Elwyn lifted the pieces of armor for him to examine. “None of this looks familiar to me,” he said, shaking his head.
She held out the sword belt, and he pulled the sword from its scabbard. He used his right hand, but he quickly had to support the sword with his left hand, as well. “Nothing on the sword to indicate who I am, either,” he said. “I don’t even know if this is a good sword.”
He swayed, and she reached to grab the sword before he dropped it. “You’ve been up long enough. You should sit down.”
“I thought you said I wasn’t hurt too badly.”
“You lost a fair amount of blood. It will take time for you to recover your strength.” She set the sword down, took his elbow, and helped him toward the sitting room, where a second chair had been added in front of the fire. She guided him to one of the chairs and lowered him into it.
“Wasn’t there only one chair in here before?” he asked.
“You must not have noticed the other,” she said. “You were a bit foggy.” The helper had clearly been busy while they were eating. Not only had it found a chair, probably in the spare room upstairs, but it had lit the candles and set out lace doilies on every horizontal surface.
“Hmm, I was so sure. Nice place you have here. Very dainty.”
“The decor is all from the previous resident.”
“You know, while we were trying to figure out who I am, we never addressed my earlier question. Where am I?”
Elwyn sighed before saying, “To be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure other than that the village is called Rydding.”
“Did you wake up in the garden one day without knowing how you got there?”
“No, but I did take a small lane that turned off the road, and I found myself here without knowing exactly where I was. It’s not much of a village, and it’s mostly empty.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About a month, I think.”
