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Chapter 3
Elwyn woke the next morning in a dark room with rain spattering on the panes of the dormer windows. It looked like there would be no work in the garden for her until the rain passed. Since she had nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do, she let herself fall back to sleep. It was still gray and rainy when she woke again. She dressed and headed downstairs, where she found a griddle cake with honey drizzled over it and a cup of tea. The tea and cake were still hot, but she knew the helper had ways to keep food warm, since the work of healers didn’t always fit around mealtimes. It felt rather indulgent to take advantage of that power for mere laziness.
After breakfast, she went to the bookshelf in the sitting room in search of something to amuse her, since she was stuck indoors. The books left behind included a few treatises on remedies, as well as one dog-eared novel with a battered leather cover. She had copies of the treatises in her personal library that she’d had to leave behind. It would be good to have those references handy again—that was, it would be good if she were planning to resume her work. As it was, she would leave them behind for the next person when she left. She didn’t see the house’s log, the record kept by the resident healers of patients and treatments. It should have remained with the house so the next occupant would know the medical histories of the people served by the local healer, so Mother Dilys was unlikely to have taken it with her. Elwyn reminded herself that she wasn’t staying, and if the helper saw her reading the log, it might get ideas.
She picked up the novel and sat in the chair. She’d never had much time to read for pleasure, and this was the sort of novel that was purely for entertainment, with little literary merit. She wanted to sneer at it, but she soon got so caught up in the story that she jumped when she heard a knock. Had she only imagined it because someone had knocked on a door in the book, or had it come from somewhere in the cottage? No, that was definitely a knock, she decided when it happened again.
She set her book down and got up to go out into the hall. At the next knock, she could hear that the sound was coming from the back door. She edged back toward the sitting room, hoping that the visitor hadn’t seen her through the lace curtains in the door’s small window. Who could it be? Dire scenarios raced through her mind. Had the baron’s men tracked her down already? Were the local authorities coming to evict her as a squatter? She could flee through the front door, unless they’d stationed someone there to block her escape, but she wanted to run upstairs to grab her belongings first. Could she do that before they rushed inside?
She was still standing frozen, unsure what to do, when the door opened to reveal an utterly drenched Mair standing on the doorstep. Elwyn lunged forward to make it look like she’d been the one to open the door. She’d have words with the helper later. “Ah, I was right!” Mair said. “I suspected you’d be in this cottage if you had herbs. Since it was too rainy for a market, I thought I’d experiment with seasoning the cheese,” she said. “Would you like to help me test it?”
As much as Elwyn was inclined to keep to herself, she couldn’t leave her neighbor out in the rain, especially not if she came bearing cheese. “Come inside,” she urged, stepping back from the door. “There’s a fire in the kitchen.”
When they reached the kitchen, Mair took a seat at the table and opened the bundle she carried. It contained a small crock and a loaf of bread. She took the lid off the crock, revealing a cheese with bits of green mixed in. Elwyn looked for plates and a knife, realizing she didn’t know where anything was kept. She noticed movement on one of the shelves and smiled a thanks to the helper as that drew her attention to the plates. The knife on the sideboard practically leaped into her hand. She set the plates on the table and handed Mair the knife.
Mair sliced bread, then spread cheese on the slices and handed one to Elwyn. Elwyn was still so unaccustomed to having food that anything would have tasted good, but this was delightful. “Excellent,” she said when she finished chewing.
“I think so, too,” Mair said with a nod. “I might even be able to take this to market in a larger town. There aren’t many people to sell to around here.”
“I didn’t notice any shops in the village.”
“There aren’t any, not anymore. There aren’t enough people to keep them open. That’s why we do the daily market. It’s easier for people than having to go out to the dairy, over to the greengrocer’s farm, and out to the mill. Though the miller only comes to market once a week. You don’t need to buy flour daily. The baker’s the only one who keeps a shop, since it’s right there on the square anyway, and she’ll also bake your goods in her oven. There are peddlers who come through every so often for other goods, and when anyone goes to another town, they take orders from everyone else and bring their goods to sell. We take turns going.”
“So, you can come and go from this place,” Elwyn said with a smile, forcing herself not to look at the bread and cheese as though she wanted more. “I was beginning to worry that I’d stumbled into some sort of enchanted village separated from the real world.” Actually, that would have been nice. It would have meant that the people who were pursuing her wouldn’t be able to find her.
“Sometimes it does feel that way, but no. It’s far too easy to leave. We’re not on the way to anywhere else, so not too many people find us. How did you come across us?”
“I didn’t want to be on the main road anymore, and I saw a byway that looked pleasant and shady. Then I came upon the village and the door to this cottage was open. No one seemed to have been here in a long time, so I thought I might as well pass the night.”
“I’m glad you did. It seems like the people who need to be here find their way here. Everyone who’s come in the past ten or so years has been someone who needed to find a place. We just need more of them to have a proper village once more.”
Elwyn pondered that. Had there been something leading her here? It had almost felt like it. Or it had merely been the first lane she saw after she decided she didn’t want to die on the side of the main road. She’d seen nothing to indicate there was an enchantment on this place.
“So, you’re taking over the cottage?” Mair asked. “You seem to know your herbs.”
Elwyn tensed, but Mair didn’t sound like she was being critical, merely curious. “I stumbled upon it when I arrived the other night,” Elwyn said. “I grew up in a house like this, helping the local herbalist, and it appeared to have been abandoned, though it’s well-kept, so I thought I’d see if I could stay until I was ready to travel again.”
“Oh, it’s been abandoned, and if you grew up in a house like this, I’m sure you know why it’s well-kept.” Mair winked. “If you’ve been welcomed in, then maybe it’s the right place for you. We could use someone who knows their herbs here. I’ll need to place a standing order for parsley and chives for this cheese.”
“I don’t know if I can stay. Who would I approach about renting it?”
Mair smiled. “That’s one good thing about what’s happened here. There is no rent. If no one’s living there, just stake your claim. That’s what most of the people here do.”
“What about . . .” Elwyn gestured with her head in the general direction of the castle looming over the village.
“No one’s heard from the lord in years. He probably died without heirs and no one’s bothered to claim the place. We get by just fine without him. Besides, I didn’t think healers were ever expected to pay rent. The cottage comes with the job.”
“I’m not really a healer,” Elwyn protested. “I can’t take on that job. And I can’t stay here for long.”
Mair coughed, and Elwyn said instinctively, “That doesn’t sound good. You might have taken a chill. I’ll make some tea. What sort of thing do you like?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Whatever you think best.”
It wasn’t for healing, so the stakes were pretty low. There was no real harm she could do here if she read wrong, and she wouldn’t have to go deep to sense Mair’s tastes. As she got up to go to the kettle, she brushed against Mair and opened her magical senses. Feelings flooded her—contentment, warmth, but also loneliness and loss. Mair wanted sweet, but also tart. Elwyn broke the connection and said, “I think I have just the thing.” She mixed together the herbs that would create the flavor she thought would most appeal to Mair, adding in some elderflowers and dried elderberries to help fight off a cough or cold. That hardly counted as healing. It was merely about knowing her herbs.
“I thought people with your skills were in high demand,” Mair remarked while Elwyn poured hot water into a teapot. “Not wandering the countryside and settling into abandoned cottages. Or is that how you find a new position? You wander until you find an empty healer’s cottage that fate pointed you to?”
“It’s not so much about not being able to find a position,” Elwyn said, wincing.
