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“Likewise,” he said with a slight bow of his head. “I’ve been enjoying your cheese.”
“Come join us for tea,” Mair said.
He turned toward Elwyn, as though asking permission. She nodded, and he took a seat at Mair’s table.
Mair gave him an appraising glance. “You seem to be healing nicely. And you look very nice in those clothes.”
“The clothes were Mair’s brother’s,” Elwyn explained. “She lent them.”
“I thank you, lady,” he said. “You came to my aid in my hour of need.”
Elwyn bit the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling. She wasn’t sure if he was mocking Mair or merely playing along. He seemed to have decided to go with the idea that he was a knight. If only Mair had seen him labeling herb jars earlier. “Your color does seem to be better,” she said. “Is the pain easing?”
“Somewhat,” he said. “I don’t feel quite as stiff. I still won’t be swinging a sword anytime soon.”
“And you don’t remember anything about who you are?” Mair asked.
“Nothing, I’m afraid.”
“This is such a fascinating mystery. Exciting things like this don’t happen around here.”
“Which is part of the mystery,” Elwyn said. “What happened, and why here?”
“This village does seem to draw people to it. How long do you think he could have lasted with that wound?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t too deep, so it wasn’t damaging any vital organs. The main problem was blood loss. He might have come from as far as the main road before collapsing.”
“Should we go out there and check?” Mair suggested. “Maybe the other guy is there.”
“Seeing the location might spark a memory,” Bryn said.
“No, I don’t think you’re up to walking that far,” Elwyn said.
“I have a cart and a horse,” Mair said. “Tomorrow after I’ve made my rounds, I’ll drop by and pick you up. Depending on how far we have to go, we should be able to be back before it’s time to open the shop, but you can always open a bit later. Business hours around here are understood to be somewhat fluid.”
Elwyn was uneasy with the plan, but she could think of no more objections. There weren’t too many people out and about on this end of the village, so no one was likely to see a man leaving her cottage and getting into a cart. Bryn could be right that seeing the path he must have taken might spur his memories.
The next morning, she and Bryn went out to meet Mair. “I packed a picnic lunch, so we can make a day of it,” Mair said cheerfully as she pulled up in front of the cottage. “Now, hop in back.”
Elwyn helped Bryn into the cart and said, “I’ll walk ahead. I don’t think anyone’s come this way since Bryn arrived, so I may be able to spot any footprints.”
“Good thinking.” Mair clicked her tongue, and her old cart horse began plodding forward. Elwyn didn’t have to walk too quickly to stay ahead of it. This stretch of road was fairly dry, and there hadn’t been any rain since Bryn arrived, so footprints didn’t show up. They reached the edge of the forest, the tunnel of trees Elwyn had emerged from at her lowest point to see the village ahead of her. She realized she was hesitating, afraid to step past that threshold. If the village was truly enchanted, would she be able to find it again? Would it still be there when she came out of the trees?
She supposed that meant that she actually wanted to be there if she wanted to be able to go back. On the other hand, she didn’t have her purse or her belongings with her, so if she was stranded outside the village, she’d be worse off than she had been when she first stumbled upon it. However, she wouldn’t be alone. That was some consolation. Mair being with her would probably allow them to return, anyway, since she was from the village, and if the village had drawn Elwyn to be a healer there, surely it would allow her to return. She was glad she’d accepted the book, which made her tie to the cottage official. Even so, she realized she was holding her breath as she crossed the threshold of the trees until she turned back and could still see the village behind her. She breathed out in a happy sigh, smiling to herself at the childish flight of fancy.
The ground was softer in the shade, as it never got the chance to fully dry. “I see footprints!” she called out. “Looks like they’re heading toward the village. They seem to be about the right size.”
“So, I did come this way,” Bryn said. “But when, and from where?”
They hadn’t gone much farther when Elwyn noticed a cut in the side of a tree—a fresh one, the wood still showing raw under the bark. “Stop!” she said. “This may be it. See that tree?” The cut would have been at just the right height for someone to have swung at Bryn’s neck.
“They must have been trying to take my head off,” he said, rubbing at his neck. “Obviously, I ducked or got out of the way. Or I was swinging at them and I missed.”
“Your sword didn’t look like it had chopped into a tree,” Elwyn said. “There’s another cut over there. The ground’s been really stirred up around here. This has to be where the fight happened.”
Bryn frowned as he surveyed the whole area. “Is anything coming to you?” Mair asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t get any sense that I’ve ever been here before. But what happened to the other man? How many sets of footprints lead away from here?”
