Hair is on your head . . . unless you are bald

Hey! Hows a going? Today's topic of discussion is hair. Colors, lengths, styles, and more.
As far as colors go I like just about everything. I like both natural and dyed hair. the only hair color I'm not a fan of is the one I had until I dyed it a month ago. It was dirty blonde and, no offense to anyone with dirty blonde hair, I found it really boring. I like it the color it is now though. It's kind of auburn and I think it's pretty. For hair textures I like mainly curly hair. Corkscrew curls are so pretty and I wish I had them. I don't mind straight hair but everyone has it so I wouldn't straighten my hair and become one of the mass of preppy popular people. I like a lot of different lengths of hair too. I currently have short hair but i am thinking about growing it out because I've had it short for almost two years now. Again though, long hair is popular so I'm going to have to find something else to do with my hair, other than just growing it. I like a lot of styles of hair but it really depends on the person. I love the way dread locks look and when they are done well I think they are amazing. However when they are done poorly they look absolutely terrible. In general it is much easier for African people to make dread locks look good. They just have the right kind of hair or something. I don't know what it is exactly. But I wish I had the right kind of hair for dread locks and then I would in a heartbeat. If anyone of my many millions of nonexistent readers know how to make dreadlocks for a white girl that don't look terrible, please post a comment of how and I will love you forever.
That's all and now I'm going to go do something productive with my time, like watching TV.

Poetry

I now know that it is physically possible for me to write a post soon after I posted that last one. So hey world. What's up?

Today I am going to discuss poetry. In English we have been reading and listening to poetry being recited on Poetry out Loud. I think it is an interesting program. Nationwide poetry reading contest. Fun stuff. The only problem is I don't like a lot of the poems. I don't like a lot of more modern poetry. I like things like "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Raven" and stuff like that. You know, classics. I like some of them but in general I find some poems just kind of weird and pointless. Seriously, do we all care about how this happened or that occurred or whatchamacallit. I personally don't care at all. Maybe I am a terrible person who doesn't care about other people's feeling or emotions or what they are thinking. Or maybe I just come across poetry that I don't like very much. Maybe I should start caring about these random people I don't know more. Even if they are dead or I will never meet them as long as I live. That is beside the point. The point is that modern poetry kind of sucks and if we want to read good poetry, in my humble opinion, we have to travel beck at least one hundred years. 

And here we are again

I know I haven't written in more than two months but no one really reads this anyway so it's not like it really matters that much. If anyone is actually reading this, how are you? I wonder how it is you have stumbled across this blog. So here we are, in the nether-regions of the internet. The internet is just a huge void, a gaping hole that people pour random stuff into and hope someone will find it. Most of the time people don't. Just taking up space and making the internet load that much slower. I am very well aware that I am just clogging up the internet with some more useless gibberish that no one will read but there is a certain satisfaction to sending it out there. Just knowing that there is a minute possibility that a complete stranger will read what you have written even if they are halfway across the world. Or maybe I just like to talk about stuff that no one wants to listen to and no one can stop me if they are on the other side of the planet. Even if you, whoever you are, is merely reading this to pass the time because you have nothing too do with your time I appreciate you spent a minute or two to pretend you care about what I have to say.

Have a nice day and a nice rest of your life. I hope you enjoy the somewhat-not-very-nice weather we have been having.

How are you?

Hi, I thought that now we are into a new month, or we were yesterday, I should start writing more regularly on my blog. Yes, it has been almost a month. Yes, I know no one really cares about what I have to say on it. Yes, I know this is a profound waste of time. But I will prevail! I will manage to write one post every day for a while! I know I have never done that for more than three days in a row . . . but it's never to late to try.
Exiting things have been happening recently! I have sprained my ankle (I think, there is no official report yet) and I have fulfilled my lifetime dream of owning a pair of crutches. The handles are the squishiest things you have ever seen but I am not enjoying the whole not being able to use my right foot and it feels funny and numb because all it does is hang there all day. I must get to writing some random stuff about Gilgamesh and ancient Mesopotamian culture.
Have a nice life!

Drama out the Wazoo

Today someone has told me what they want me to write about. My darling dearest lump of an older sister has given me a suggestion. Hi Camilla!

Anyway she wants me to write about pairings. I will do that. 

Lets start with Harry Potter.

     Draco/Hermione: the most adorable thing you have ever seen in your entire life <3

     Snape/Lily: I honestly have no idea why Lily married that jerk that calls himself James Potter. Snape loves her and he did everything for her and they would have been so cute together.

     James/Sirius: I always thought that they would have made a really cute couple. They were best friends all through school and they are just so perfect for each other.

     Bellatrix/Voldemort: She worships him for some insane reason and I always loved them together.

     Neville/Luna: They made it really obvious in the movie and I have always really liked both of them and I have always wanted them to get together.

Unless you are an anime nerd you will have no idea who most of these characters are, but I don't care.

Clampverse

     Kurogane/Fai: I love them so much that I want to marry both of them but I can't because they are too perfect for each other. Also what I love is they are pretty much canon. Click for Adorableness

     Touya/Yukito: I can never remember their names but I still like them in both Tsubasa and Cardcaptor Sakura. They are Really Cute

I think that's all for today because I am lazy, the next post will be more pairings, but next time I will post pairings I don't like. 

Have a nice life!

By the by, the title has absolutely nothing to do with this post in case you couldn't tell. 

Yes, it's been a while

Well, after the hurricane I lost power until Wednesday and got internet back on Thursday. I didn't have very much time on Thursday though and all day yesterday was getting ready for my sleepover. And because I had a sleepover last night I only got about forty five minutes of sleep during a movie. I made these cookies and they were really good. I was going to make a cooking video like Martha Stewart while I was making them but the camera didn't have any charge. Anyway, they are really yummy.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (If you don't have almond extract and it really expensive so you don't want to buy any, just double the vanilla and it is still really good)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Today I am also going to write a very brief review for all of the movies I watched last night and this morning.

• Gnomeo and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet with garden gnomes. Cute and pretty funny but not spectacular.
• Happy Gilmore: A hockey player joins the pro golf tour to get enough money to get his grandmother's house back because she hasn't paid taxes in years. Love this movie! Absolutely hilarious!
• Love Actually: Romantic comedy about a bunch of people who all have interlocking stories. Really cute and funny and sweet, the kind of movie that makes your head want to explode from the adorableness.
• Barbie- A Mermaid Tale: I personally love Barbie movies, mainly because they are so stupid. This one might have been the stupidest Barbie movie so far, and that is saying something! Surfer girl/mermaid princess!
• Nancy Drew: I like this movie very much at two thirty in the morning, it was also pretty stupid but no where near as stupid as Barbie. I think if I had watched it at another time of day it wouldn't have been as funny, but I liked it.
• Howl's Moving Castle: I am a total anime nerd so obviously I love this movie. I have seen it a million times and if you don' know the story (if you haven't read the book or seen the movie) you really should see this movie. Sweet, romantic, and really awesome.
• How Can You Know?: It looked like an okay movie but I kept falling asleep because it was around six in the morning. If you watch five minutes of a movie and then sleep for ten to fifteen minutes any movie can suddenly become really confusing.
• Casino Royale: The first James Bond movie that I have ever seen. I really liked it. It just seemed that most of the movie was a very sweaty James Bond running after cars or fighting people. In a good way . . . My only problem with it was the ending. It had a little bit of a Lord of the Rings ending. You think it's over but then there's more, it ends, there's more, and when you think it is finally over there is just a little bit more. I thought it was going to end about six times before it actually ended.

Adios amigos!

Blah, blah, blah

For the first time in a really long time I have now written two days in a row. I actually am really tired of typing right I have been typing all day for my stupid summer homework.

So maybe I should talk instead of type. Hm . . . .

Have a nice and gnome free day!

Maybe next time . . .

I really hope that soon I will be able to remember to write something every day. Yes, I know I have been really bad about it for a really long time. I don't think I've written two days in a row in weeks . . . Sorry.

I was just watching Glee season 2. I'm not so sure about this season so far though. I've only seen two episodes. All that has happened is Rachael has been really mean, Mr. Shuster has embarrassed himself, and Mike Chang is really, really, really, HOT!!!! I like Tina and Artie together but I love Mike Chang. Hey, maybe if Tina and Mike broke up he would go out with me! Heh heh heh . . .

Look at him!! \(*w*)/ *momentary fangirl brain overload*

I gotta go now . . . byeeeee!!!! :D

Gnomes are epic

You know I really should stop making promises because i just keep on breaking them. I wish I could remember to write every day though. Just sometimes I don't turn on my computer or I'm too lazy or I just flat out forget. Maybe once school starts and I have a more regular schedule then I will be able to write more regularly. I can't believe I just thought of something positive about school starting on two weeks or so. I was really irritated because I thought that schedules came out today but it turns out that was just the middle school schedules that came out today and the high school ones don't come out until the twenty sixth. I am really impatient to find out what teachers I have and stuff.

Today I am going to discuss something that is related to the title of my blog. Gnomes. I believe in gnomes, they live in your closets and steals your socks and hide your stuff. They want to rule the world and dominate the planet and one day they will while all of the people are just crawling under their beds looking of a pair of socks that matches. There is also a very small gnome inside your head. This little gnome has a very big hammer. Well, big in a comparative way. This hammer is just about as big as the gnome, but this gnome is very strong so he can lift it. He spends most of his time sleeping and you feel fine then. When he wakes up however he takes his big hammer and starts to hit your brain with it. As you can imagine, this doesn't feel to good so you get a headache. After a while the gnomes gets tired again and falls back to sleep. Some people have more active gnomes than others. Some people have very social gnomes so they invite some other gnomes over for a party and that's when you get a migraine. In general gnomes aren't very nice to people. They don't like humans. We are irritating and use them for lawn decorations. If I was a gnome I don't think I would like people either. Heck, I'm a person and I don't like people very much a lot of the time.

Time to go! Have a nice day!

:3

And I'm back! Yes, I said I would post two weeks ago but I lied. Get used to it. I was lazy that week and then I was away on vacation all last week, I only got home about forty five minutes ago. I was at the beach in Rhode island and I had an amazing time. The ocean is really cool, I hadn't seen it since I was three years old. I would love to live near it. So I could just walk to the beach whenever I wanted to. I know that a lot of people just stay there during the summer but I think I would like to stay there all year. I think that if you spend that much money on a house you would want to stay there all year. There was one house for sale that was right on the beach and it wasn't very big and it had a certain dilapidated look to it but it was still 2 million dollars. I think that is just ridiculous. If it wasn't on the beach that house would be worthless.

Other that spending copious amounts of time swimming, I went boogie boarding for the first time even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I built a dome out of sand.

Sorry, I can't write more now. I'll write tomorrow.

Story Time!!

This will be my only post until probably Monday. I am going to be away all weekend. I'm getting picked up this afternoon and I won't get home until Sunday evening. I am going to a party thing with one of my friends. She also has a blog. You should read it. http://monyosblog.blogspot.com/ Here is the link to it.

I don't have much time to write so I will post something that I already have written. It is a story that I have been working on for quite a while. Please excuse the atrocious writing in the beginning, it gets a little better. I think. It is not done either so it ends in a kind of random place. It is about 37 pages typed so it will look really long on this but bear with me, please.

Bump, thump. We sat in a large wagon as it rattled along on the dirt road, we all bounced. We had to sit in the bed of the wagon among some hay. It was quite uncomfortable, especially because we had to sit underneath thick brown horse blankets. Mother sat next to me with my youngest sister on her lap. She was crying, but trying to hide her tears. She is very mature for a seven year old. My second youngest sister is her opposite, extremely immature for a fifteen year old. She sat in the corner as far away from the rest of us as she could. She glared at every tree as we rode by. All of our long blond curly hair was slightly mussed from the journey. Mother’s green eyes that usually sparkled with laughter were staring off in to space. The wagon was driven by a young man in his early twenties. The man had dark brown slightly messy hair and blue eyes; he was obviously not related to us. He was extremely handsome; most of the men I usually see spend an hour a day at their mirror, or perhaps even more. Not him though, he had a causal look about him, I liked that. I hope I can get to know him well.

An average onlooker would not know who we were. This was very good, that they didn’t know. An average onlooker would think we were just a family returning from market or moving to the area. That average onlooker would be very wrong. If an onlooker looked closely they would see the way my Mother, sisters, and I looked at the trees, dirt, birds, and so on. Being out of doors for an extended period of time is new to my family and me.

“Don’t worry, Marguerite.” I said to my youngest sister. “I’m sure our new life will be . . . will be . . . I’m not yet sure how it will be. I’m sure you, we all will be happy with our new life.”

“Don’t count on it.” my other sister, Blanchefleur, snapped, and then continued glaring at trees. “We are being forced out of our own home for ‘our own good.’ It is ridicules that we are going to be living among commoners.”

“Blanchefleur! Don’t say such things to your sisters or to anyone.” Mother said as Marguerite, my little sister, started sobbing. “You have to get used to the fact that . . .” She glanced at the driver and stopped speaking.

“I know who you are, my father told me.” The young man said, “I’m Sebastian Beneoit, nice to meet ‘cha. You can talk openly around me and Father, we won’t report you.”

“Thank you for you hospitality. I’m Aubeline, my youngest daughter is Marguerite, my middle daughter is Blanchefleur, and the oldest is Jessamond.” Mother informed him. Then she continued. “Blanchefleur, you have to get used to the fact that you are no longer Lady Blanchefleur Courtenay Jamard Devereux Badeau Régis. You are just Blanchefleur; well actually, you won’t even be able to keep that title. We will all have to change our names so your father’s enemies will not be able to track us while you father is at war and we are unprotected.”

“It’s the middle of the summer,” Marguerite said wiping her eyes, “why do we have to sit under big heavy blankets? I’m hot.”

She pushed the blanket off of her shoulder and revealed a heavily embroidered red silk dress. Both her Mother and I quickly pushed the blanket up again to hide her dress.

“It is quite apparent why you have to wear the blanket.” I scolded, as she wiped her eyes, “People around here don’t dress the way we do and it will raise suspicion. You must wear the blanket until we get new clothes. Clothes that will make all of us fit in more.”

“Commoner clothes.” Blanchefleur muttered.

“Blanchefleur,” Mother warned. “Don’t”

Trying to be cheerful Sebastian said, “We’re almost there. I’m sure you’ll love our town.”

“I’m sure we all will love it so much.” Blanchefleur said rolling her eyes, “We get to be commoners. Hurrah.”

“Blanchefleur, you need to be more polite.” Aubeline said, “If it wasn’t for Sebastian and his father, we would have nowhere to live. We must be gracious.”

“What is the name of the town you live in?” I inquired, I wasn’t very interested, but I had to be polite.

“Well, Father and I don’t live in the town. We live on one of the nearby farms, but we shop in the closest town. The closest town is called Villefranche. It has some beautiful streets and there are very many amazing shops and . . .” Sebastian said, and then he continued to describe how wonderful Villefranche was.

Sebastian didn’t seem to mind the comments that Blanchefleur frequently made. Most of them were about commoners and how she refused to ever be one. From that ride everyone learned that Sebastian was an optimist. He would find a way to make the end of the world seem like the midsummer’s eve festival.

After almost an hour of praises of Villefranche, we arrived in the town. It truly was as wonderful as it had been described.

“I took the only cart, so Father couldn’t come to meet us.” Sebastian explained, “Oh, there’s the main bridge. See it? There’s the large central market and the smaller outer markets.”

“You only have one cart? Oh yes, you can’t afford more than one.” Blanchefleur said in a disgusted tone.

“Blanchefleur, apologize at once!” Mother said sharply.

“Why should I apologize?” Blanchefleur asked snottily. “He’s just a commoner.”

“How dare you speak to me in such a tone.” Mother snapped. “I apologize on my daughter’s behalf.”

“You don’t have to; its fine, I don’t really mind.” Sebastian said with a shrug, “You don’t have to apologize.”

“I feel that we do have to apologize, I do not permit any of my daughters to be rude.” Mother said and looked directly at Blanchefleur.

“I can’t wait to get new clothes so I won’t have to wear the big blanket.” Marguerite said, trying to change the subject. She hated it when her family was cross.

“How are we going to get rid of our current clothes? Who will we purchase new clothes from?” I asked Sebastian nervously, “Whomever it is they must be trustworthy. If it turned out they were a spy it would be the ruin of us all. If Father’s enemies were to find us, it would be horrid. Father would have to pay a large sum to get us restored to our home. They might not even return us! We could be prisoners for the rest of our lives. Or perhaps they would kill us or torture us. Are you absolutely sure this person is completely and utterly trustworthy?”

Before Sebastian could say a thing Blanchefleur shrieked, “I will not get rid of my gown or any of my belongings.”

“What belongings?” I asked in a shocked tone. “We were forbidden to take anything besides the clothes we were wearing at the time.”

“Oh, it was . . . it was . . . just a slip of the tongue. I didn’t mean belongings . . . I would never disobey . . . of course I wouldn’t, didn’t, couldn’t . . . I spoke wrong, that’s all.” Blanchefleur stammered, giving herself away.

“What did you bring? What did you bring?” Marguerite asked bouncing up and down with excitement. “I wanted to bring my dolls; Clara, Beatrice, Elizabeth, and Lucille, but Mama didn’t let me.”

She didn’t see that Blanchefleur had been forbidden to take things with her as well. Marguerite just thought that Blanchefleur was lucky and Mama had let her take her possessions.

“First you are rude to Sebastian and now this. I can not believe you disobeyed me so.” Mother said angrily. “What has come over you and what did you bring?”

“I didn’t bring much,” Blanchefleur said calmly, “just my Eau de Royale perfume, my powder compact, my ebony comb, my smaller box of handkerchiefs and ribbons, my silken bag, my gold bracelet, diamond ring, garnet brooch, pearl necklace, sapphire earrings, emerald hairpins, and my finest gloves. Hardly any in comparison to all I wanted to bring, but any more would have spoilt my bag.”

“Where did you put it all? Where did you put it?” Marguerite asked still bouncing around.

“Marguerite, stop parroting yourself and sit still. Bring out the items immediately, no bring them out when we are in a safer place and no one will see them.” Mother said sternly.

The rest of the ride went by in silence.

The wagon rattled up to a small farm, a man greeted us. He must be . . . what was it again? Oh yes, Delano Beneoit. He looked just as cheerful as Sebastian.

“Mama, may we come out from under the blankets now?” Marguerite whined, “I’m hot.”

“Yes you may.” Mother said to Marguerite and began speaking with Delano, “How will we get rid of our clothes and where will we get new ones? How on earth will we be able to change our appearances enough to not get recognized?”

“We shall go to Miligarm.” Delano said.

“Who is Meedlegerm?” Marguerite asked, scrunching up her nose in concentration.

“Miligarm!” Sebastian laughed. “Her name is Miligarm!’

While Mother said, “Marguerite, don’t speak out of turn, only speak when spoken to.”

“Who is she?” I asked impatiently, “and why are we going to her?”

“She claims she is the witch, she has connections and can get rid of your clothes without anyone noticing. She can also give you new clothes. She has a substance called henna which can change the color of you hair.” Delano explained as Mother scolded Marguerite and Sebastian laughed at Marguerite’s pronunciation. “She lives in the nearby woods, we can walk.”

It took a while, but eventually we got to Miligarm’s shack. I am not as prejudice as Blanchefleur, but it was a shack. A shack that looked like it was about to fall over at the slightest breeze. Out of the shack came a woman in her forties trying to look like she was in her nineties or older.

“What do you want?” she said in a hoarse voice, coughed, choked, and continued speaking in a much more normal voice. “How dare you disturb me in my solitude? What is it you desire from the unseen realms? Oh, it’s just you, come on in.”

Once she saw it was Delano and Sebastian she changed from a mysterious witch to a friendly neighbor offering some tea and cookies.

“Who’s this?” she asked pointing at us. “You never bring new people to me, only idiots do that.”

“You dare insult . . .” Blanchefleur didn’t get to finish, Delano cut her off.

“This is Blanchefleur, Marguerite, Aubeline, and Jessamond . . . they are . . . well Aubeline’s full name is Lady Aubeline Courtenay Jamard Devereux Badeau Régis.” Delano said, “She is trustworthy.” He added to Mother as she gasped.

“I get it!” Miligarm said clapping her hands, “A transformation! Who’s first?”

“Huh?” Marguerite cocked her head to the side, questioningly.

“Okay, youngest first.” Miligarm said grabbing Marguerite’s hand and pulling her into the shack, “Follow me, everyone.”

We walked into the shack and it was worst inside then out. There was dirt all over the floor. Strange smelling liquid boiled over the fire. Marguerite sat down on a wooden chair and Miligarm set odd objects down on a cluttered table.

She looked at all of our curly blond hair, “naturally blond and curly?” she asked Mother.

Mother looked ashamed, “Blond not curly.”

“Wonderful, never curl your hair again and I will dye it.” Miligarm said and pulled a curtain around her and Marguerite.

One half of an hour later Miligarm emerged from behind the curtain and announced, “Lady Marguerite Courtenay Jamard Devereux Badeau Régis went behind this curtain, but out comes Magalie Beneoit, a farm girl.”

She pulled back the curtain and you couldn’t recognize Marguerite. She had changed from her red silk dress into a light brown cotton dress. Her hair had been golden curls down to her waist, but now she had reddish auburn, straight hair just past her shoulders.

“Keep you hair brained most of the time, two braids. It helps, it keeps your hair out of your face when you work.” Miligarm suggested to Marguerite. “From today you are Magalie, not Marguerite. Who’s next?’

“I’ll be,” I said stepping forward.

We went behind the curtain and Miligarm washed my hair. She put an odd paste in my hair and let it sit for a while. She washed out the paste and cut it, so it was a little longer then Marguerite . . . no, Magalie’s hair. She had me change from my blue silk, to a dark green cotton dress that, Sebastian said, matched my eyes.

When he said that I blushed, I still can’t believe it. I have gotten all sorts of complements from all sorts of people. I have never before, not even once, blushed. What on earth has come over me?

Miligarm raised her eyebrows and looked from me to Sebastian and Sebastian to me, then said, “You are now Jessa, not Jessamond. Wear you hair in a knot on your head.”

Mother went but everyone could tell she was not as pleased about her new hair as Magalie and I were. Mother went from Aubeline to Aimée. She was not pleased about that either, or her new dress, dark gray cotton.

“No, you may not touch my hair!” Blanchefleur shericked, “nor my dress or belongings. I will not change my name, you cannot make me!”

“If you would prefer to be captured by your father’s enemies I would not mind at all.” Miligarm said politely.

“How dare you speak to me in such a way?” Blanchefleur stalked towards her and lifted her hand to strike her.

I still cannot believe what happened next. As Blanchefleur stepped forward Miligarm sidestepped to the left and tripped Blanchefleur. She fell forward and landed flat on her face. Miligarm lifted the scissors because they were about to fall from the table. Blanchefleur looked up and saw Miligarm holding the scissors and (I quote Blanchefleur) “she had a murderous look in her eyes.” Blanchefleur promptly fainted, so Miligarm dragged her behind the curtain unconscious.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! MY HAIR, MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR! IT’S SHORT AND BROWN! WHY AM I WEARING A COTTON DRESS? WHERE IS MY DRESS AND WHERE ARE MY BELONGINGS? I DEMAND YOU GIVE THEM TO ME AT ONCE! YOU WITCH, YOU MONSTER, YOU HAVE RUINED ME!”

She started wailing and fled from behind the curtain. Her hair looked quite nice, but she didn’t think so. It was the same length as mine and the same reddish auburn the rest of us had.

“What is her new name?” Mother asked Miligarm as Blanchefleur sobbed in the corner.

“Claire,” Miligarm said happily, “we are all very lucky she was unconscious. She might have killed me if she had been awake. She should keep her hair in one braid all of the time.”

Miligarm handed Mother a large bundle wrapped in canvas, “Here is a change of clothes for each of you. I also included sleeping garments and so on.”

“Come, let’s go home.” Sebastian said, laughing, “Will your sister be alright?”

“She live, even though she’ll act like she won’t.” I said and we started to walk back to the farm, “She is a true drama queen, she overreacts about just about everything. Please don’t be offended by her mannerisms. She is used to everyone fawning over her night and day; she needs to realize our life has changed.”

“I understand why she’s acting like this, she doesn’t think that her life has changed for the better,” he looked at me with his bright blue eyes, “Do you think it has changed for the better?”

I looked at my shoes; I couldn’t look him in the eye, “I’m not sure yet . . . it might have . . . maybe.”

“Are you overheated?” Sebastian asked in a concerned tone, “you are really flushed.”

My blush brightened, “No, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

Mother had to threaten to have Delano carry her before Blanchefleur would come back to the farm. Oops, Claire not Blanchefleur anymore. She loved her long elegant name, I feel so sorry for her. She had to give it up, oh so sorry.

A small boy with ghostly gray eyes stared at us from the doorway of the house. I think he glared us, at the new addition to his family.

“You haven’t met Leon yet have you?” Delano said, gesturing to the little boy, “we found him wandering in the woods a few years ago. He has never spoken a single word to us the whole time we have known him.”

“How do you know his name is Leon?” Magalie asked, “If he didn’t tell you.”

“He wrote it in the dirt,” Delano answered, “we can’t afford paper.”

“You can read? You can write?” Claire said in a sarcastically shocked tone, “that’s odd; I thought all commoners couldn’t afford education. Can you count?” she bent down to Leon and held up five fingers, “how many fingers am I holding up?”

Leon wasn’t the least bit offended. He remained completely emotionless as he drew a five in the dirt. Claire stood up straight and started ignoring Leon. He didn’t mind, didn’t care. That bothered her; she was used to people caring when she ignored them.

“Come inside,” Sebastian said when he realized how awkward things were getting, “well, this is home.”

It was small and not very well kempt, but it had the look of a home, not a house. I have always lived in houses, always big houses, palaces even. I have never before lived in a home. I rushed to the back window, there was the most beautiful view I had ever seen. The house was on a hill, so you could see the whole farm and parts of other farms. There was a field full of wild flowers, a rainbow. It was much prettier then the manor’s gardens, which were weeded and trimmed and watered everyday.

“Who owns the flower field?” I asked, I didn’t really ask anyone in particular, I asked whoever would answer.

“Nobody,” Sebastian answered, “it belonged to an old man and in his will he said no one was aloud to purchase or tend to the land. I think he was a bit loopy.”

“What does loopy mean?” I asked cautiously.

“Loopy means crazy or insane,” Sebastian said with a flicker of a smile in the corner of his mouth.

“Why is it amusing that I wasn’t familiar with the word ‘loopy’?” I said acting as if I was truly offended, but I started laughing so that ruined the effect.

I saw Magalie talking with Leon, no talking to Leon. She talked on and on about something. I have no idea what she was saying but, Leon still remained emotionless. Except when she said one thing I saw the same flicker of a smile that Sebastian made when I didn’t know what “loopy” meant.

“I guess these chambers will suffice, they are a little bit too small for my taste. Don’t you have anything larger?” Do I have to tell you who said that? , “They do have a nice view, though.”

“Claire,” Mother pulled Claire to the side, “this is the whole house, not just your chambers. A whole house, everyone lives here.”

Her shriek may have even been louder then her shriek when she woke up and had auburn hair. Okay, not quite that loud, but it was loud.

“What?” she screamed, “First, you make me leave my house, second, you make me give up my clothes, third you cut my hair, and now I have to share a room with six other people!”

“We can sleep in the hay loft,” Sebastian offered, “if you would prefer that.”

“That won’t be necessary . . .” Mother said even though everyone could tell she wanted to accept.

“Its fine, come Leon,” Sebastian said gathering up a few blankets and walking towards the barn, “Father lets go.”

As he walked by I smiled and he smiled back. I did it again, I blushed! He handed me a small, slightly crumpled, sprig of bluebells. Luckily no one saw him hand it to me; Mother would not have let me accept a gift from a man I barely knew. I thought no one noticed until I saw Leon raise his eyebrows at me as he walked by. He is extremely perceptive for one so young. I smiled and raised a finger to my lips, a sign of silence. It was unnecessary, he would never tell anyone. I slipped the flower into my pocket, where it would be safe.

Mother shared the one bed with Magalie and Claire had the other bed. She was supposed to share the bed with me but I couldn’t sleep. Claire wouldn’t have shared the bed anyway. I walked out the front door quietly and went around to the back. I lay on my back staring at the sky, it was a clear night, so I didn’t have to fear rain and I could see all of the stars. I had never been happier in by entire life.

I don’t know when I fell asleep; all I know is that I woke much before Mother, Claire, and Magalie. I’m glad, because I would have been scolded very severely if Mother found out I had slept out of doors. I was damp from the dew but I didn’t mind. I heard activity so I rose and went to the front of the house. Leon was feeding some chickens and I heard someone in the barn. I peered through a hole in the wall and saw Delano. I set off in search of Sebastian. Of all of the people I have ever met, Sebastian is the easiest one to talk to.

I found him herding a small group of sheep back to the barn. There were only eight or so sheep in the group. One of them was quite a bit fatter than the rest of the sheep. All of them were completely white; well they were sort or tan from dirt. That was only to be expected, sheep don’t bathe.

“Hello,” I walked down the hill towards him, “do you always get up so early?”

“Yup,” he said as the sheep surrounded us, “do you?”

“No, I normally sleep in until eight.” I said stroking the fat sheep, “what time is it? Why is this sheep so fat?”

“It’s about six,” he gestured to sheep, “she isn’t fat, she’s pregnant. Her baby’s gunna be big, she isn’t due to have it for another month and a half. Why are you all wet?”

“I feel asleep outside,” I said, ashamed and I looked at the ground. Why did I tell him? He could inform Mother and I would be scolded, “Please don’t tell Mother, or anyone for that matter.”

“Of course I won’t tell,” Sebastian laughed, “Her majesty Claire wouldn’t share a bed?”

“Of course not,” I said laughing as well, “she wouldn’t share her bed with the cat.”

As we talked, we had walked up to the barn. Sebastian sent the sheep inside and we went over to Leon who was still feeding the chickens. Delano was still in the barn milking the cows.

“Do you want some breakfast?” Sebastian asked Leon and me, “We have rolls for breakfast ever day.” He added to me when I started to ask what was they had.

Leon nodded so hard it looked as if his head was going to shake right off. We walked into the house and my family was still sleeping. Magalie had rolled onto the floor, but was still sleeping soundly. Claire slept using her hands as a pillow and she looked extremely uncomfortable.

Sebastian was used to getting breakfast quickly and silently. Once he had gotten three rolls, gestured for us to follow him. We walked outside so we wouldn’t disturb Mother, Magalie, and Claire as they slept. Sebastian brushed a few leaves off of a low broken down stone wall that ran the length of the farm. He sat and motioned for Leon and me to do the same.

“We eat out here sometimes when the weather is nice,” Sebastian told me as I sat down next to him, “you can see the sunrise if you get out early enough. We came just in time.”

I looked at the sky and the sunrise was beautiful. I had never been awake early enough to see it before. I had seen a painting of a sunrise at a museum; it had been my favorite painting. The real thing was much, much more, it was beyond beautiful.

“It’s gorgeous,” I said as I ate my roll, “I have never seen anything as beautiful as this.”

“I have.” Sebastian said bashfully and found a sudden interest in his shoes.

Leon smiled and drew a heart in the air. Sebastian and I both blushed as Leon walked back to the house.

“Let’s go see if your family is awake yet,” Sebastian mumbled, looking at his shoes.

“Yes,” I mumbled in return.

Mother woke when we walked into the house. She shook Magalie and Claire’s shoulders and they woke as well. Claire was grumpy, as usual and Magalie was bouncing off of the walls, as usual.

“Good morning,” Mother said politely and asked me, “how is it that you are already awake?”

“Oh,” I stammered, “I just, I just woke early.”

“Alright,” Mother was convinced and didn’t suspect that I had slept outside at all, “Claire, Magalie, Jessa, let us begin our new life, today.”

We discussed it for quite a while, but finally an agreement was reached. After one week Sebastian, Delano, and Leon would move back into the house and we would, much to the chagrin of Claire, start working on the farm. We would have one week to adjust to our new living arrangements.

For the next week the days were uneventful and rather dull. Mother hardly ever let us out of her site; we spent our days sitting in silence. The only time I enjoyed myself were the early mornings. I woke before Mother did so I had time to talk to Sebastian and Leon.

It was the last day of the first week when Mother found out why I was up so early. She woke earlier then she normally did and discovered I was not in my bed. I was sitting on the stone wall and watching Sebastian chase the sheep, who were trying to run away. I was laughing and telling the sheep to run faster. Mother walked down the hill quickly and gripped my arm firmly.

“This is extremely inappropriate for you to be alone with a man.” she scolded as she pulled me up to the house, “This is why you have been rising so early, isn’t it?”

“No,” I said meekly, “I been rising early so I can see the sunrise. It is coincidental that I was there at the same time as Sebastian.”

“You should have left once you realized you would be alone together.”

I was appalled, “That would be extremely rude.”

“It is proper conduct; you of all people should know that, Jessa!” I had never seen my Mother so angry, at anyone.

“Why’s it so loud in here?” Magalie sat up rubbing her eyes, “why is everybody awake? What time is it? Can I go back to sleep?”

“Magalie,” Mother snapped, “wait for an answer before you ask another question and do not ask impertinent questions to begin with.”

“I’m sorry Mother,” Magalie said and lowered her head; she hated perfect manners and “not speaking until spoken to.”

Mother left the house and went off in search of Delano. She was probably going to ask him if he knew about Sebastian and I being alone together in the mornings. I know he didn’t, he was always working.

Sebastian walked into the room, based off of his facial expression, he had heard every word.

“I’m sorry,” we both spoke at the same time.

“Why are you sorry? I am the one who is at fault.” I said shocked that Sebastian thought he should apologize.

“Don’t be sorry, it’s my fault.” Sebastian said, seemingly shocked that I thought that I should apologize.

“I knew Mother would scold me if I was alone with you.” I explained, “She doesn’t think it would be proper conduct. I got you all mixed up in this, I am terribly sorry.”

“I could have explained, father doesn’t really care about that sort of thing.” Sebastian said, “I should have known that your Mother would care about it.”

“It’s not your fault, at all.” I told him, but he still thought it was.

It took a few hours, but Mother realized that it was not a total catastrophe that I had been alone with a man. She was more preoccupied by the fact that tomorrow we would begin working. Tomorrow Delano, Sebastian, and Leon would move back in. Yesterday Delano bought three more beds. Delano, Mother, and Claire will each have their own bed. I will share with Magalie and Sebastian will share with Leon.

“Tomorrow will be different from any day we have ever experienced.” Mother told us, “We must be grateful that we are safe here. Working is a small price that we will have to pay.”

“I don’t think it’s a price,” Magalie said decidedly, “I can’t wait until tomorrow, it’ll be so much fun!”

“Magalie,” Mother said disapprovingly, “only speak when spoken to. Please refrain from stating your opinion until asked.”

“The child is out of her mind.” Claire gave Magalie a strange look, “Who in their right mind would want to do work?”

“Claire,” Mother sat down on her bed, “must I repeat myself? Only speak when spoken to. Let us go to sleep now, tomorrow we will need the energy.”

Magalie fell asleep quickly and so did Mother. Claire fell asleep within half of an hour. I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling. I pulled the bluebell Sebastian gave me from my pocket. It was even more crumpled and dried up. I sniffed it even though it had no scent left and fell asleep with it held in my hand.

“Good morning,” Sebastian was too chipper for five thirty in the morning, “time to get up.”

Claire rolled over and went back to sleep, Magalie was just as chipper as Sebastian, and I don’t think Mother woke up at all. Sebastian and Magalie left then came back in five minutes with enough rolls for everyone.

“I can’t believe that you are still in bed,” Sebastian said loud enough for Mother and Claire to wake up, “you are wasting the better part of the day.”

We ate a hasty breakfast while we pulled our boots on. Claire was too tired to complain. Magalie was dancing around the room and Mother looked as if she would fall asleep standing up. I was more used to getting up early so I wasn’t as tired as the rest of my family.

“Good morning, good morning, good morning,” Magalie sang and twirled around the room, “Get up, get up, get up.”

“How is it possible for you to be awake at this time?” Claire asked sleepily, “It’s so early . . .”

We walked outside and Sebastian showed Claire how to feed the chickens. It was quite easy, all you had to do was take a handful of grain from the sack and lightly sprinkle it on the ground. When the chickens ran towards her to get at the food, Claire ran in the opposite direction, screaming. Magalie took over feeding the chickens.

Sebastian showed Claire how to feed the pigs. It was even simpler then feeding the chickens. You carried the bucket of leftover food to the pigpen and poured it into the trough. Claire refused to do it once she saw the pigs. Mother took over feeding the pigs.

Sebastian showed Claire how to weed the garden. This was by far the simplest and easiest task there was to be done on the entire farm. You pull the weed and put it in the basket. Once the basket is full you empty it into the compost pile next to the garden. Claire would not kneel in the dirt. I took over weeding the garden.

Sebastian led Claire inside and showed her how to wash dishes. You scrub the dish with soap, rinse with clean water, and repeat if necessary. Shake the water off of the dish lightly and dry with a dish cloth. Claire said it would spoil her hands. Mother walked in and informed her if she didn’t wash dishes; she would have to sleep in the pigpen. I don’t think she was serious but Claire did the dishes without a single complaint.

There weren’t very many weeds, but there were enough to keep me busy. Leon was showing Magalie how to milk the cows. From the noises I heard, she wasn’t very good at it. Claire washed dishes as slow as she possibly could so she wouldn’t have to do anything harder. Mother made bread once she had finished feeding the pigs. The sun rose higher in the sky and beads of sweat dripped down the back of my neck. My hands were dirty and my hair fell into my eyes. When I tried to brush it away I just got dirt in my hair. Sebastian was splitting firewood near the garden. He is exceptionally strong. I rocked on my heels and watched him.

“We can have midday in a quarter hour.” He said when Claire loudly complained about how tired and hungry she was. I looked down quickly when Sebastian looked my way. Why am I such a coward?

Midday was quick and simple; a roll and what ever fresh vegetable we could find in the garden.

Before I took a roll, I asked Sebastian, “Where may I wash my hands? They are filthy from the garden.”

“Follow me.” He said and walked towards the woods. I followed and hoped Mother wouldn’t notice I was gone.

We walked down a path barely distinguishable from the rest of the woods. We came across a stream that came from water seeping from in between some rocks. I put my hand in the water. It was freezing!

“It’s clean,” Sebastian said, laughing at my shock, “we get all of our water from here.”

“How do you stand it?” I said as I rinsed my hands, “It’s so cold.”

“You get used to it eventually.” He said splashing some of the water on his face, “speaking of water, you might want to bathe today. We normally bathe twice a week, but you haven’t bathed at all. We build a small dam a little way down the stream so we have a place to bathe.”

I blushed, realizing how disgusting it was. I hadn’t bathed in a week. I tried to bring the conversation away from my filthiness, “We bathe in this water?”

“Yup,” he laughed, “sorry.”

“I’ll live.” We began to walk back to the house.

After midday we worked for another three or so hours. Claire still did dishes. Leon and Magalie were off doing something or other. Mother was making butter. Sebastian stacked the split pieces of wood next to the house and then continued splitting more wood.

“You can stop now,” Delano called to us from the house, “it’s time to bathe.”

“I would like to bathe first,” Claire declared, “bring the heated water up to the house in twenty minutes.”

“Claire,” I spoke to her softly in the corner, “we bathe in a cold stream in the woods, now. Remember we are no longer nobility.”

Claire rolled her eyes but she didn’t make any more comments.

“So,” Sebastian said, “do you really want to go first?”

I realized how well we had been treated for the past week. Every morning the water barrel was full of clean water. I had had no idea how much they had done for us. Now we were finally living the way they had lived their whole life.

I sat inside whilst Sebastian, Delano, and Leon bathed in turn. Mother said she would bathe next, but she obviously wanted nothing more then to stay inside a little while longer. I picked up a towel, a hair brush, and a change of clothes, “I’ll bathe next,” I said and undid my hair from its topknot, “I don’t mind.”

I walked down to the stream once Leon was done. Beside the freezing water, it was a very nice place to bathe. There was a low branch on the other bank where Delano, Sebastian, and Leon’s freshly washed clothes were hung. There was a bar of homemade soap and a washcloth on a rock next to the temporary pond.

I lay my change of clothes and towel on the ground far enough away from the pond so they wouldn’t get wet, but they were still within reach. I took off my clothes and put them right next to pond. I would wash them once I had washed myself. I stepped into the water. My foot was numb with cold within seconds. I put my other foot in and lowered the rest of my body into the frigid water. I sat on a large rock, half sunk into the ground. I picked the soap up and washed as quickly as I could. Once I was clean I grabbed my dirty clothes and law them on a half submerged rock. I rubbed them with the soap as best I could. I rinsed them then walked to the other side and draped them on the low branch. I dried off and got dressed. I twisted my hair back into its topknot and walked back to the house.

“Who wants to go next?” I enquired, “It’s not really that bad.” I added when Claire made a face.

“Me, me, me, me,” Magalie said getting up and dancing around the room, “I’ll bathe next.”

“Dear,” Mother said with forced patience, “sit down and calm down.”

“Mother,” I said as Magalie’s face fell, “please let her go. Just let her do as she wants. Please, Mother”

“Magalie, go.” Mother turned to me, “Jessa, since when have you know what is best for your younger sisters? I am their mother; I know what is best for them.”

“Magalie hates having perfect manners all of the time, she just wants to be casual.” I was stepping on thin ice, “Let her do as she pleases.”

“I do not think letting a seven year old girl do as she pleases is wise.” Mother said defensively, “Do you?”

“I think you should let Magalie do as she pleases,” I began to say, but Claire interrupted.

“Listen to her Mother,” she said, in my defense, for once, “if you knew what was best or us, we wouldn’t be stuck as commoners right now. I know it’s ‘all for our own good.’ Listen to Jessa, otherwise Magalie will be more miserable then she was when she was noble.”

“She wasn’t miserable . . .” Mother started to say.

Magalie had always been miserable. She despised be indoors and wearing long dresses that made it so she had to take tiny steps. She hated not speaking until spoken to and having perfect manners. She hated it when she had to sit still and listen to adults talk. All she wanted to do was run around and do something. She was forbidden to go outside for more then one hour at a time and running was completely out of the question.

“She wasn’t miserable,” Mother repeated, reassuring herself, “she loved playing with her dolls and . . . and she loved riding. Yes, she simply doted upon it.”

Claire raised her eyebrows but didn’t say a word.

“At times she was a bit unhappy,” Mother said she was sure of herself now, she spoke like she was a queen, “most of the time she was cheerful, never miserable.”

Mother walked out of the house elegantly. Claire asked me, “How much time did she spend with Magalie?”

“Not much,” I frowned; Mother wasn’t going to let Magalie be herself, “whenever Mother saw us Magalie tried to be cheerful. I was around her nearly all hours of the day, she was miserable.”

“I’m surprised we weren’t scolded for ‘acting impertinently’.” Claire said and added, “She might scold us later, be ready.”
After Mother, Claire, and Magalie had finished bathing we ate supper in silence. I don’t see how Delano, Sebastian, and Leon do it every day. They weren’t tired at all but my back ached from bending down all day. I could tell Mother and Magalie were just as tired. Claire had only done dishes, but she was grumpy so she didn’t speak.

Sebastian showed me how to knit, I am extremely bad. Sebastian says I’ll get better with practice. I hope I will. Claire sulked. Leon was showing Magalie how to make a doll out of straw. Mother started to mend a pair of badly torn britches. Delano was setting up the beds.

We went to bed and I fell asleep to the sound of Magalie breathing.

After about a month we were used to farm life. Every morning we woke early and had a quick breakfast. We worked all morning, had midday, worked all afternoon, had supper, and sewed or knit until we went to sleep. We bathed twice a week. Even Claire fell into the routine.

For three weeks Claire would only do the simplest tasks, she refused to do anything that would get herself dirty. Then she met Arlo. He is the horse. At first she refused to go into the stable because it was dirty. Once we got her in she fell in love with Arlo. He is huge, taller then Delano. Claire does everything for him. She feeds him, brings him water, grooms him, and rides him whenever she has a spare moment. He loves her back and whenever he sees her he seems to smile. She has also discovered quilting. She has extreme pleasure when she is sewing small pieces of cloth together and it makes sometime beautiful.

Magalie has flourished on the farm. She is almost always smiling. She is always doing outdoor work; her nose is covered in freckles. Mother works indoors most of the time so she isn’t around Magalie very much. No one is constantly reminding her to only speak when spoken to. I think Mother has given up on trying to turn Magalie into a noble.

I like the farm very much. I love working in the garden. I water and weed the plants every day. The garden is quite large so I have my work cut out for me.

“Tomorrow you are going to go to the village.” Delano announced at breakfast, “I usually go every three weeks, but this time, Sebastian, you are going to take Aimee, Jessa, Claire, Magalie, and Leon to the village.”

“Why can’t you go, Father?” Sebastian inquired, “Is something wrong?”

“Biscotti, our sheep, is going to have her baby soon and I don’t want to be away when she has her baby.” Delano explained, “Sebastian, you can show the others what to do.”

“What will we say? My daughters and I are obviously not related to you.” Mother asked.

“We can just say your husband died and you married Father.” Sebastian suggested, “You are from a far away town, you can just make up name of a town, most people ‘round here barely know left from right. They’d be completely convinced that you were from the town of Aplaceyouwillnevergo, if you said you were.”

I took a large bite of a roll to hide my laughter from Mother, who was looked disapprovingly at Sebastian. I discovered that it is extremely difficult to eat while laughing so after I swallowed I coughed ever so slightly. Mother turned her disapproving look to me. I cleared my throat then finished eating.

We went to bed quite a bit earlier than we do on the average day. Delano said we would have to rise very early, even earlier then normal, and we would be active all day. I fall asleep every night, holding the dried up bluebell Sebastian gave me the day we met.

“Good morning!” Sebastian was not quite as chipper as he has been, but he was still too chipper for that early, “Time to get up.”

Claire responded, “No,” and put her blanket over her head.

“Come on it’s not that bad.” Sebastian coaxed, but Claire simply refused.

“I will not get out of bed.”

“Please . . .”

“No! Leave me alone!”

“Once we get to town you will have a little bit of spending money.” Sebastian said nonchalantly.

“Good morning!” Claire jumped out of bed and was ready to go within minutes.

“What are you going to buy?” Magalie asked as she pranced around the room, twirling her skirt.

“I must purchase sugar lumps for our tea and, of course, for Arlo.” Claire announced as she got dressed. “What are you going to purchase with your money, Jessa?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, twisting up my hair, “maybe some flower bulbs. If you plant flowers that have bulbs, instead of seeds, the flowers will come back every year. You don’t have to purchase more seeds. I might purchase a new hand shovel, for the garden, the one we have is falling to bits. What about you, Magalie?”

“I want to get a little bell, to hang around the baby sheep’s neck when it is born,” Magalie said and stopped prancing, “and maybe, if I have enough money, some little pieces of dried meat, for the dogs.”

“If I have enough money, I would love to have just one piece of nice ribbon, for my hair, on formal occasions.” Claire said with a dreamy look in her eyes, “Or a handkerchief . . . with lace edges.”

After what seemed like an age, we departed for the village. Sebastian drove the cart and Mother, Claire, Magalie, Leon, and I were supposed to sit in the bed of the wagon, with the goods we were selling. Dark clouds loomed on the horizon, it looked as if it was going to rain later today. Sebastian said he didn’t think it would rain until four or four thirty, so the rain probably wouldn’t bother us. Before a quarter of an hour had passed, Mother had nodded off. I joined Sebastian on the driver’s seat, Magalie braided the hay that was in the wagon with us, Leon played with a small black beetle that had flow into the cart, and Claire attempted to curl a stray lock of her hair.

“How long does the ride to the village usually take?” I asked, situating myself on the bench.

“Depending on the weather, it can take anywhere from a half hour to three quarters of an hour.” Sebastian replied after pondering it for a moment, “Today the weather is nice, it should only thirty to thirty five minutes. Oh, I almost forgot.”

He reached into his trouser pocket and rummaged around for a minute or so. He smiled and said, “Close your eyes and put out your hands, keep your eyes closed until I say you may open them.”

I did as he said I should and I felt him put something into my hands. I couldn’t tell what it was just by feel and I was impatient to discover what he had given me.

“Alright, open your eyes.”

I opened my eyes and looked down into my hands. There sat a necklace. It had a charm made of wood. The charm was square with rounded corners; there were no sharp edges to hurt myself on. Most of the charm was made of dark wood, but a butterfly was carved into the wood and that part was quite a bit lighter. It was hung on a piece of sturdy and simple string. It was far more beautiful then any other piece of jewelry I have ever owned.

“It’s gorgeous . . .” I was completely at a loss for words.

“Look,” Sebastian said as he lifted it out of my hands and showed me how to open the charm. It was a tiny box! “You can put something in it, something you want to have with you always.”

“Where did you get it?” I asked as I fastened it around my neck, “I have never seen anything like it.”

“I . . . I made it.”

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened, “You made this?”

“If you could have just seen your face.” Sebastian threw his head back and laughed. His shoulders shook and he almost fell off of his seat.

It is a very good thing Arlo knows where he is going, for if he did not we could be on the other end of the earth. Sebastian was not doing a very good job of steering the cart. I had completely forgotten about Leon, Magalie, and Claire until Claire spoke.

“We must stop, right now.”

“I beg your pardon.” I said, extremely confused about what she had just said.

“We must stop,” Claire repeated, “Arlo isn’t used to pulling so many people, he needs a rest.”

Sebastian laughed again, but he stopped the cart. Mother slept on, Claire went over to talk to Arlo, and Leon and Magalie tried to catch toads on the side of the road. Sebastian hopped down from his seat.

“Jump,” he said, lifting up his arms, “I’ll catch you.”

I smiled, pushed myself off of the seat, and landed perfectly in his arms.

We arrived at the town twenty minutes after we stopped so Arlo could rest. The market was full of all sorts of peoples and all sorts of things. There were shops and stalls that sold everything from horses, to golden jewelry, to belt buckles. Sebastian pulled the cart up next to an empty stall, in between a bookshop and a tannery.

“Wake your mother up,” he told Magalie then he looked to Leon, Claire, and me, “could you three start unloading the cart and arranging the goods on the table?”

“Of course,” I said and climbed down from my seat, “I’ll take them from the back of the cart” I turned to Leon, “you can take them out of the boxes” I looked at Claire, “you can lay them out.”

“I suppose.” Claire answered dismissively then turned to Sebastian, “What shall we be doing today? When will we have time for ourselves, to do as we please?”

“Sometime after midday . . . Jessa!” Sebastian ran over to me as I was trying to lift an extremely heavy box, “Don’t do that, you could really hurt yourself lifting something that heavy. You could break your foot if you dropped it or you might hurt your back or . . . or . . .”

I put the box down and placed both of my hands on his chest, “Sebastian, calm down, I’m fine.”

“But you could’ve . . .” He was worse than a mother hen, but I didn’t mind.

“I didn’t though.”

He looked down at me, he was quite a bit taller then my own five feet six inches, and smiled, “You’re so . . .”

I never discovered what I was, for at that exact moment Claire sighed. Sebastian and I looked and lying on their stomachs in the straw in the bed of the wagon was Claire, Magalie, and Leon. They were staring at Sebastian and me and giggling.

“That was so romantic.” Magalie said dreamily.

“It was far better then any of the books I’ve read.” Claire said sighing again.

Leon shrugged.

I blushed a deep scarlet and stepped away from Sebastian. He blushed deeper then me and looked down at his shoes. I was the first to regain my composure.

“Magalie, you are supposed to be waking Mother up. Claire, Leon, you two are supposed to be opening the boxes and laying the goods out. Go do.”

Claire walked off muttering “spoilsport,” and the other two rushed to do their assigned jobs. I looked up at Sebastian, he was still scarlet. He met my eyes. I smiled, then giggled, then burst out laughing. Sebastian began to laugh too and we just stood there for a few minutes, laughing.

“Oh, we’re already there?” Mother sat up, a few pieces of hay in her hair, “The ride seemed exceptionally short.”

“Yes,” I said fighting back laughter, “it did not take long.”

Sebastian nodded, “Come on, let’s finish unpacking the cart.”

It didn’t take for us long to take all of the goods out of the cart and to arrange them in the stall Delano had rented. We were mostly selling pickled vegetables, fresh vegetables, dried flowers, and fresh flowers. Many people appeared to know Sebastian already and were regular customers. They chatted about how their crops were doing and inquired why Delano was not there. Unfortunately, the most frequently asked question was; who Mother, Claire, Magalie, and I were. Sebastian answered casually, so I tried to stay casual, but whenever I heard the question I stiffened.

After about an hour, a huge red-faced woman, in her forties, came to our stall with her two daughters in tow. One of them, the elder, was about my age, eighteen or so, and had thick black hair that near reached her waist, when it was in a braid. She had large dark eyes and a small nose. She was very beautiful. Her sister, on the other hand, looked about sixteen and had stringy hair, hers was also black, that hardly reached her shoulders. She had small, squinty eyes and a lumpy nose. Both of them were a little shorter then me and quite thin. Their clothes were finer then most of the other people we had seen today. Their dresses were bright colors and they wore a small amount of jewelry.

“Sebastian, how lovely to see you.” The red-faced woman’s voice was loud, deep, and slow, “I can see that your father is not here at the moment. Will he be returning soon?” She did not wait for him to answer, “I simply must speak to him about- Who, in heavens name, are you?” she boomed at me then looked to Magalie, then Claire, and Mother in turn.

Magalie was helping Leon with the money. Claire was flirting with a young, muscular man. He looked to be about my age as well. Mother was chatting with some customers.

“I’m Jessa.” I said after a short pause.

“Why should I care what your name is?” the red-faced woman screeched, flecks of spittle hitting my face, “I asked, who you were.”

“Jessa’s Mother, Aimee, recently married my father; she already had three daughters, Jessa, Claire, and Magalie.” Sebastian explained.

“Oh,” she said, calming down slightly, “well then, I am Madame Jeannette Dubois. These are my daughters, the elder is Gisele and the younger is Pauline. My husband owns the inn down the street, The Frothy Juice.”

“It is very nice to meet you.” Gisele said with a deep, graceful curtsy.

“The pleasure is mine, I’m sure.” I curtsied in response.

Pauline ignored me and fluttered her lashes at Sebastian, “I’m so glad you came today, you ‘aven’t bin comin’ the last couple ‘a weeks. Why was that end why ain’t yur da ‘ere today? ‘Ave you been sick end now ‘e ‘as it?” she didn’t wait for him to answer, she didn’t even pause for breath, “Well yur ‘ere now so that’s all that matters, fur now at least. ‘Ows yur ‘orse doin’? Arlo is it? End yur sheeps end cows end goats end chickens, ‘ow are they doin’? We’ve bin gettin’ lots ‘a rain, that must be gud fur yur crops, Da says this year ‘ill ‘ave the best ‘arvest fur twenty years. Oh, end our inns bin gettin’ lotsa new customers, we might ‘ave to expand soon. We ‘ave enough money ta make least three more rooms end still ‘ave some money left fur new clothes end jewelry. My dresses are so shabby when you compare um to Gisele’s finery. Oh, what ‘ave you brought today. I just love roses, they’re so pretty. Beets to! I simply adore beets! But I once got some of the juice you get win ya pickle um on my finest white dress. There was this big ‘uge pinky-purple stain on tha front ‘a my dress. My choice was to get rid ‘a the dress, or die the ‘ole thin’ that color. I dyed it ‘a cores, now I ‘ave the brightest colored dress in all the world.” she finally acknowledged my presence, “Ma says I shud talk ta you to. I’m Pauline, like Ma said.” I guess she couldn’t think of anything else to say to me, so she went back to talking at Sebastian, “Oh, I almost forgot, we got a dog! A big, ‘uge, nasty one, ta guard the back entrance. ‘E near reaches my shoulder end ‘as a face that looks like ‘e walked into a wall. ‘Is name is Leonardo. It means strong as a lion, in some other language. ‘E is a little, well very, aggressive. We aren’t sure if we can keep ‘im yet. We got ‘im just last week.”

When she paused for breath, Sebastian seized the opportunity, “May we see

him?”

“Why?” Pauline was obviously not a person who liked animals and she couldn’t understand why anyone else would like them, “’E’s ‘orrible.”

“We must go,” Jeanette said grabbing Gisele and Pauline’s sleeves, “come girls. Sebastian, maybe you and your . . . family would like to come and visit us this afternoon. Feel free to stop by anytime.”

“You can see Leonardo this afternoon.” Sebastian bent down and whispered in my ear, once Jeanette, Gisele, and Pauline were gone. He must have figured out that I would love to see him. We were only aloud to have cats when we were noble and I had never been permitted to meet the hunting dogs.

All morning we sold goods and chatted with customers. Claire was no help at all, for all she did was talk to the young man who was my age. Magalie was extremely energetic and convinced many people to but our wares. Mother disliked having to make conversation with complete strangers but she tried not to show it. Leon and I did the cash box and Sebastian talked to well know customers.

“So ‘e said, ‘well if your gunna be like that, I’m not takin’ ya.’ And like I said, that’s the reason she was with ‘im, to go.” The man was telling Claire a story, which she was enthralled by.

“How did she react, did she apologize?”

“No, she ‘as to much pride.”

“So she’s not going.”

“Nope.”

“It’s a shame.”

“Speakin’ ‘a it do you wanna . . .”

Mother was also hearing the conversation and I had a feeling she did not like what she was hearing, “Claire, come over here and help your sisters count out change.”

“Oh, Mama,” The only time I had seen Claire this exited was when we got new dresses, “Zacharie was telling me about . . .”

“Claire, darling, tell me later, we have work to do.” Mother was not going to let her finish.

“Oh alright,” Claire snapped, then her tone changed completely, “Zacharie, see you soon.”

“Claire, wait.” the young man, Zacharie, grabbed her hand then whispered something in her ear.

She smiled, and then came over to help Magalie and me. We didn’t really need help, Mother just didn’t want Claire talking with Zacharie. He walked off and Claire turned and glared at us the moment he left.

“What do you need help with?” Mother promptly walked away from us and started talking to a customer.

We worked for a quarter hour then I cracked, “What did he say? Oh, don’t worry I won’t say a word to Mother.” I added when she looked skeptical.

“I suppose,” she said casually, “well, he told me that one half hour after midday, he is going to be in the main square, next to the sculpture in the center. He’ll be waiting for me.”

“I know what that means!” Magalie said, she had been eavesdropping.

“What?”

“You need to have Jessa put my hair ribbon in your hair, after you brush it again, you need to wash you face and hands, you need to make sure you don’t have anything in your teeth, and you need to put on a clean apron.”

Both Claire and my jaws dropped at the exact same moment.

“Where on earth did you . . . how did you do that?” Claire asked, quickly regaining her composure.

“I observed people, when we were . . .” she paused, “you know. I watched what people did when they wanted to look nice.”

“Magalie, dear, you are a genius,” Claire said giving her shoulder a squeeze, “you truly are my sister after all, I have had my doubts in the past, but you are my sister.”

We had a quick midday, once we had finished eating, Sebastian said, “I’m going to give each of you five coppers to do with as you please. I’m going to close the stall for an hour. Come back before we reopen.”

“Magalie, stay with Claire and Jessa.” Mother said then walked off in the direction of the stalls that sold fabric.

Leon wandered off and Sebastian followed him.

“No!” Claire moaned, “This cannot be happening to me! What shall I tell Zacharie? What ever shall I do? Why, oh why, does it always have to be me?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t speak a word of it to Mother if you go meet Zacharie, and don’t stay with us,” I reassured her, “Magalie won’t say anything either, right?”

Magalie nodded, “You need to meet him it would be unpepper if you didn’t.”

“Unpepper?” Claire asked.

“Unpepper, impepper, unprepper?” Magalie didn’t seem to know what she was talking about any more than Claire and I did.

“Improper?” I suggested.

“Yes, yes, that’s it!” Magalie said excitedly.

“Well, I must be going, I can’t keep Zacharie waiting.” Claire said and walked off in the direction of the main square.

“Magalie, you can go, I’ll catch up with you.” I waited until Magalie was ten feet away from me, then I took the bluebell out of my pocket. It took me a few minutes but I was able to open the charm of my necklace, the bluebell was very small so it fit in the box perfectly. I snapped it shut, then hurried to catch up with Magalie.

We walked from stall to stall and admired other people’s wares. Magalie found a medium sized copper bell at a smithies shop. It cost five coppers, so Magalie bought it. Less than ten minutes later we came across a shop that sold pastries and, of course, Magalie wanted a tart. They cost one and a half coppers, after much begging, pleading, and many a woebegone glance, I bought Magalie a tart. She split it with me, it was quite good and still warm.

“Ooh, those flowers are so pretty. Can you grow flowers that look like that one?” Magalie looked at a display of tulips.

I asked the seller, “Do you sell tulip bulbs?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t suggest that ya buy them now, come back in late August. You ‘ave to plant the bulbs in the autumn for them to bloom the next spring.” He explained.

“I didn’t know, thank you for informing me, I will definitely be back in August.” I

started to go then I changed my mind, “Now I would like one cut tulip, for my sister.” I nodded to Magalie and she grinned.

“’Ere,” He pulled a yellow tulip from the barrel of water that held the cut flowers, “you don’t ‘ave to pay for it, I can spare one tulip.”

“I have the money.” I started to say.

“Don’t bother,” he said with a crooked smile, “I won’t let ya pay.”

I smiled when I saw how happy Magalie was that she was getting a flower, “Thank you, again.”

“Anytime, miss.”

“Come Magalie, I have to find a hand shovel that is three and a half coppers or less.”

After twenty minutes of browsing, we came across a stall that sold garden tools. There was a variety of shovels, with varying sizes, qualities, and prices. I found one that was in worse condition than our old shovel. It only cost half a copper. Magalie found a well made shovel with a handle that didn’t have splinters sprouting out of it. It cost four and a half coppers.

“Oh dear, it appears that we won’t be able to afford a new shovel today.” I told Magalie.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made you get the tart.”

“I’m the one that bought it, it is my fault more than yours.”

“Here,” I turned around and saw a man that looked to be a few years older than me, he had large grey eyes and his bright orange curly hair was tied back, which was very good for it near reached his shoulder. He was even taller than Sebastian. His speaking was more refined and less heavily accented as most of the people I had met today. He held one copper in his hand and he offered it to me, “I’m done shopping and I had this left over, you’re Jessa, right?”

I frowned, “How do you know who I am?”

He smiled, he had a nice smile, “In this town everyone knows everyone and you and your family are all people have been talking about today.”

“Oh.”

“Like I said, I’m done shopping and you’re the best thing I could spend it on.”

“My dear sir, I’m so sorry to disappoint you, but I will not be your lady for a day I am not interested in men like you.” I turned and began to leave but he caught my hand.

“Until we meet again.” He bent down and kissed my hand then released me.

As soon as he let go I walked away but then I realized he had slipped the copper he had offered me, into my hand. I glanced back at him, he winked.

“I’ll just be a moment.” I told Magalie, I walked back to the counter, ignoring my new acquaintance, and purchased the shovel that had started this whole problem. Once I had left the stall I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away. I tried to ignore him but I kept involuntarily glancing back.

We returned to the stall before Mother, Claire, Sebastian, and Leon did. Claire was the next to return, only a few minutes after Magalie and I did. I had expected for her to be late, but she made sure to be back early so Mother wouldn’t know that we had split up.

“Oh dear, I have no idea what I shall do!” Claire was flushed and flustered.

“About what, may I ask?” I was shocked to see Claire in such a state, she is always composed.

“Zacharie just asked me to go to a dance in the town hall tonight at seven, I was delighted, the only problem is we aren’t spending the night. I hope there is a storm tonight so we can’t go home. Oh, I know, Arlo is terrified of lightning, if there is a thunder storm he will refuse to leave the barn.” Claire was continually talking faster and faster and getting extremely out of breath, “There has been a storm threatening all day, look at those clouds.” Suddenly she froze as if she had been struck by lighting herself, “What shall I wear?”

“Did you spend any of your money?” I asked, trying to find a solution to Claire’s problem.

“No, Zacharie bought me lunch and I didn’t spend a single copper. Even in this area, you can’t purchase a dress for less than five coppers. Not one nice enough to go to a dance.” Claire said, dejectedly.

Leon walked over at that exact moment and he must have heard our conversation, for he walked over to Claire and handed her five coppers. Then he walked away. Claire was completely dumbfounded.

“Why did you just give me your spending money?”

He crouched and pulled blades of grass from in between the cobblestones. He laid them out to form letters, then words, then sentences. Leon’s grass said, “Zacharie is my friend and he wants you to come to the dance with him. You won’t want to go unless you look nice.”

“Thank you. Very much. Do you know where I could but a dress fit for a dance that is less than ten coppers?” she cheered up almost instantly when she realized she had five more coppers.

Leon pondered her question for a moment then nodded, hesitantly.

“Will you show me later?” Claire spoke quickly, seeing Mother approaching.

He nodded, more sure of himself this time.

“I’m glad that you have returned on time.” Mother was carrying a large bolt of cream colored fabric, “I am going to make an apron, my dress is often covered with flour and other cooking substances.”

Sebastian approached at a run, “I’m sorry I took so long, I had to wait in a long line.” He was carrying bags full of salt, flour, and a few bottles with cooking oil, and medicine.

He placed the bags and bottles on the counter in our stall. One of the bottles was on its side and it rolled off of the edge of the counter. The glass was thick so it didn’t look like it had cracked. The street was slightly slanted so the bottle began to roll towards the center of the street. I walked briskly towards the bottle which continued to roll away from me. I bent and picked it up. I heard the clatter of hooves on cobblestones and I saw a horse galloping down the street, dragging a cart. The driver and a few other people were chasing after the horse and cart. It was galloping straight for me. I simply froze, I couldn’t move. It was like I was attached to the ground. The horse was less than ten feet away from me. Soon it was so close to me I could feel the breath coming out of its nostrils. Someone ran into me and pulled me out of the way. The horse continued running and the wheel of the cart barely missed my foot. I landed on top of whoever had saved me. The bottle that had caused this whole dilemma slid out of my hand and shattered on the cobblestones. What I did next I feel incredibly foolish for, but I had almost been killed by a runaway horse. I began to cry, more than just cry, I began to sob. I heard the person who I fell on top of, groan.

“I sorry.” I said in between sobs and I moved so I was no longer on top of him. He sat up and I recognized him, he was the man who had given me the copper for the shovel!

He stood up and offered me his hand, “As soon as I met you I knew you would get yourself into something you couldn’t get out of.” He grinned, “You’re going to be fine.”

I smiled shakily, sniffed, and took his hand, “Thank you.”

I stood up but I tottered and near fell over. He steadied me, “You shouldn’t walk until you’re sure you can without falling over. You had a bad scare.”

I leaned against him and he did something extremely unexpected. He lifted me up as if I was only a child, he wasn’t at all bothered by my weight. I wrapped my arms around him neck so I wouldn’t fall.

Slowly, he walked back up to my family. Magalie was as white as a sheet, Mother had fainted dead away, and Claire was trying to awaken her. Claire looked as if she was about to faint herself and I felt as if I might. Leon looked as if he were about to cry and Sebastian was even paler than Magalie, frozen into place.

Once I was sitting down I started to feel more myself again, “I’m afraid we cannot avoid an acquaintance, now that you have saved my life. What is your name?”

“Tristan Harris.”

Mother woke and within the half hour everyone was feeling better so we opened the stall. Tristan stayed and helped us. Both Sebastian and Tristan insisted that all I could do was sit, I couldn’t exert myself or I might get hurt. They wouldn’t even let me pick something up if I dropped it. They raced to fetch it for me and glared at each other if the other one picked it up for me. I found them very amusing. They would tell me to “stop right there” if I tried to pick it up.

When he was taking a break Tristan showed me tricks with a coin. He would but the coin in his right hand, close his hand, and when he opened his hand the coin was gone. Then he would reach behind my ear and he would make the coin appear again. He showed me how he had slid the coin into his sleeve and he taught me how to do it. I wasn’t as good at it as he was but I could do it.

By three o clock clouds covered the entire sky and droplets of rain began to fall. Sebastian went and got the cart but by the time we had finished packing all of the goods into the back of the cart there was a steady downpour. The sky was dark and it looked as if it was the late evening even though it was only three thirty. A bolt of lightning flashed overhead.

“We are going to have to spend the night!” Claire said joyfully.

“We can’t go home in this weather, come lets go to the Frothy Juice.” Sebastian almost had to scream to be heard over a boom of thunder.

It was easy to find the inn, there were very many lanterns outside of it. Sebastian led Arlo to the inns stable and we hurried inside. Tristan departed at the inn.

“Will I see you tonight?” He asked right before leaving.

“At the dance, maybe.” I was being pushed inside but I managed to answer

anyway.

“Hopefully.” He added.

A small wide hairy man with squinty watery brown eyes greeted us. He appeared to be Jeanette’s husband. Pauline came rushing over.

“Sebastian, ‘ow nice ta see ya again, so soon. I was just goin’ ta go over ta see ‘ow you were doin’ end yur family to. Did ya already put yur ‘orse in the stable? Is ‘e doin’ okay, with the lightnin’ end all? Come in, dry off, ‘ave a cup ‘a tea. Da get ‘um a room. Gisele, look ‘o came ta visit us.” Pauline didn’t get to talk very long because in came her Mother and Gisele.

“Sebastian, do you wish to have a few rooms for the night?” Jeanette was overjoyed when she saw Sebastian. “I see you’ve met my husband, Joseph.”

Gisele showed Claire, Magalie, Mother, and I our rooms. I shared a room with Claire, Mother and Magalie had another room. Almost instantly Claire excused herself and gestured for Magalie and me to follow, we did.

“Will you show me now?” Claire started to ask Leon but Mother walked over to us before she could finish the question.

“Madame Jeanette informed me that tonight there is a dance at the town hall, were you aware of this?” Mother paused but not long enough for us to answer, “She also said you may borrow one of Gisele or Pauline’s dresses because we don’t have anything fine.”

“I was aware of the dance and I would be delighted to go,” Claire paused for a moment pondering her reply, “in one of Gisele or Pauline’s dresses.”

“If it won’t be a bother to them.” I hastily added, not wanting to be rude to Madame Jeanette’s hospitality.

“She said it wouldn’t be.” Mother turned and headed for another room, “Follow me.”

We entered a room that appeared to belong to Gisele and Pauline. They had very many dresses, some very plain, some very fine. Jeanette, Gisele, and Pauline were waiting for us.

“I’m glad that you accepted our offer, you will enjoy yourself at the dance very much. I think Gisele’s dresses will fit you best, Jessa. Pauline’s will fit Claire and I’ll see if we still have any dresses your size left, Magalie.” Jeanette showed me which dresses were Gisele’s and showed Claire which dresses were Pauline’s. She left the room in search of dresses that would fit Magalie, Mother followed her.

“I think you would look best in . . . your hair would look marvelous with this dress or this one or that one, oh, or maybe even that one.” Gisele showed me gown after gown and she was being very friendly.

Pauline on the other hand, “’Ere, don’t take tha yeller one with tha roses, I’m wearin’ it.”

We spent almost an hour choosing gowns. I selected a mahogany dress with sleeves that reached my elbow. They didn’t puff but they weren’t too tight. There were ribbons criss-crossing the front and a little bit of lace on the hem and collar. The neckline was lower than I was used too but Gisele said I looked lovely and the dress was very beautiful. Claire chose a pale lavender dress that had also belonged to Gisele when she was younger but she still had it in her wardrobe. The sleeves were almost the same as my dress but the rest of the dress was dissimilar. The top of the dress went off of her shoulders, the skirt had pleats, and there was no ribbon on the front. It was beautiful as well but in a very different way. Magalie wore one of Gisele’s dresses from when she was very young. It was pale pink and it had little rosebuds on it. Gisele looked lovely in a blue gray dress that was a similar style to the one I was wearing. Pauline’s was a garish yellow and had huge cloth flowers attached to it in, seemingly, random places.

Three quarters of an hour before we had to go to the dance Gisele began to work on our hair. She wet our hair and wrapped one coil around a hot metal bar. The hair touching the metal dried quickly and once she moved it, we had corkscrew curls. She did Claire’s, Magalie’s, hers, and mine. Pauline did nothing to her hair and wouldn’t let Gisele touch it. Once everyone was ready we put cloaks, with hoods, on over our dresses, to keep ourselves dry. We rode in what seemed like a mix between a carriage and a cart. It was a cart with benches in the back and a canvas roof.

We arrived at the dance a quarter hour after it started and there was already most of the town there. It was a very good thing the town hall was large. There was a long table, which appeared to be a few tables put together, pushed against a wall and covered with mounds of food. When I walked in I saw both Tristan and Sebastian were already there, waiting for me it seemed. Their jaws dropped simultaneously when they saw me. Gisele had said I looked beautiful but I had expected quite this reaction. While Sebastian was gawking Tristan came up to me.

“You look amazing. I’m glad you came, I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

“I didn’t have a choice, Mother wouldn’t have let Claire go if I didn’t. She would have killed me if I hadn’t.”

“You’ll be glad you came, I promise.”

“Yes,” I smiled at him “I think I will.”

“Do you want to dance?”

I looked skeptically at the dancers, “I don’t know how to that type of dance.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you.” He led me out among the dancers before I could protest, “One-and-a-two-and-a one, two, three, four, spin, clap, clap, and now repeat that twice.” He guided me and quietly gave me directions. I was clumsy at first but I caught on quickly.

When we were dancing our third dance I noticed other people watching us, “Why must they stare so?” I asked Tristan, feeling unnerved by their eyes.

“Many of the town boys have fallen in love with you.”

“Then why do the ladies stare as well? You seem to be quite popular.” I blushed when I realized how popular I was.

“Nah, they’re just jealous because you look so nice.”

“That’s what you think.”

He laughed then we danced in silence. The next song was slow and I had no idea how to dance to it.

“This dance is very new, today is the first time we’ve had one at one of our dances.”

“How do you do it?”

“Just let me lead you.” He put his right hand on my waist, “Put your left hand on

my shoulder.” He grasped my other hand and we danced. It was more stepping and swaying to the music with an occasional twirl.

“Close your eyes, are they closed?”

“Yes.” They were closed.

“Forget that we only met six hours ago. Pretend we’re old friends. We’ve know each other since childhood or we met a few years ago.” His voice was soft and smooth.

“How? What can I do?” I was happy the way I was, it didn’t bother me that I barely knew him, I was happy.

“Think of everything we’ve done together. Gardening, maybe, or going for long walks. Make up memories you have shared with me.” His voice was barely a whisper, tickling my ear.

He pulled me closer. I liked this new type of dance where you stand close to your partner and move slowly. Just from foot to foot.

“When we were children you would pull my braids and tease me, but if anyone else teased me you would stand up for me.”

Tristan laughed softly.

We danced in silence again, listening to the music.

Tristan was the first to speak, “Some say Lady Jessamond, from the north, invented this dance just two months ago.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Neither do I,” he paused, “some also say she is very beautiful.”

I blushed ever so slightly.

“Were you named after her? Jessa, Jessamond, similar.”

“Yes, I was born a few months after her.” he seemed convinced by my hasty excuse.

“I don’t care hope pretty some far off noble is, I think you’re prettier.” I smiled and blushed quite a bit deeper.

“You really think so?” Was he just flattering me?

I opened my eyes. He looked down into them, “Of course I do.”

The music stopped, the song ended, and he looked over to the table, “Do you want something to eat. You haven’t had anything yet.”

I was hungry. Tristan got me a plate and a cup of water with mint leaves in it. He told me what he liked the best and who made what. I had chicken and vegetables and a thick slice of brown bread. For dessert I had strawberries in milk. While I ate Tristan told me about his childhood, his favorite food, his favorite color, what he had wanted to be when he was younger, and more. Once I finished eating, Tristan said he had eaten before I arrived, we went back to dancing.

I danced for hours without even noticing the time pass. Tristan and I danced every single dance. No one else seemed to be brave enough to ask either of us to dance. Claire and Zacharie danced quite a few dances but Claire did dance with many others as well. Magalie, Leon, and a few other village children danced in one corner. None of them knew how to dance so it was extremely amusing. Gisele didn’t dance two dances with the same man and every one looked at her

with complete adoration. Pauline danced a few with Sebastian but just stood and talked at him for most of the time. Mother talked with Jeanette and a few other village women.

“Are you getting tired? We’ve been dancing for more than two hours.” Tristan asked.

“A little,” I pondered my response before speaking, “I’m nowhere near tired enough to stop dancing. I’m enjoying it far too much stop.”

“That’s one way to think about it.” Tristan laughed.

“Jessa,” Pauline approached, trying to look innocent, “I’d like to ‘ave word with ya, there’s somethin’ I wanna be talkin’ to ya ‘bout.”

“Of course I’ll speak with you,” I turned to Tristan, “I’ll be right back.”

Pauline led me over to a quiet corner near the dessert end of the table, her attitude changed completely once Tristan was out of earshot, “Don’t ya be thinkin’ that ya can get away with this.”

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, “Pardon?”

“Don’t ya ‘pardon’ me! I know just what yur up ta, don’t ya be thinkin’ that just because ya live with ‘im now that ya are ‘o ‘e really likes! I’ve known ‘im since before I could talk or walk. Now ya came in with all ‘a yur sweet little manners and ya think that ya can just take ‘im. Well, ya know what, ya can’t, ‘e’s mine!” she smiled sweetly, “I’m glad we ‘ad this little talk.”

She walked away and I stood there for a few seconds trying to process what she had just said.

She has nothing to worry about; he doesn’t like me in that way, at least he hasn’t shown any feelings like that. He hasn’t shown any feelings towards her either but I don’t think that that is my fault. Forget about this incident Jessamond, go back to dancing with Tristan and enjoy yourself. I shook my head and decided to listen to my own advice. I pushed what Pauline had just said into the back of my mind and walked over to Tristan.

“Don’t worry, she says that to every pretty girl who Sebastian looks at or speaks to. She is worried someone is going to steal him away. She still hasn’t figured out that he doesn’t like her.”

“How do you know what she said to me?”

“I watched your facial expressions. You want to start dancing again?”

I grinned, “Why wouldn’t I?”

He grinned back, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

About one half hour later Mother, Magalie, Leon, and quite a few others left. It was almost eleven o clock. I was surprised that Magalie was able to stay awake that long. Mother told me to be home before one o clock and told Claire to be home before twelve o clock. I thought that was quite reasonable, I didn’t expect Mother to let me stay out that late. By then it had stopped raining for the most part but it had cooled down quite a bit. Most of the people that were still there were mostly from Claire to Sebastian’s ages. Tristan introduced me to small blond haired girl a year or two younger than me named Gabriella. She we almost as energetic as Magalie was on a daily basis. She told me that she had loved Tristan once and asked him to marry her, she was six at the time. He had been nine and didn’t know what to say so he said yes. They haven’t gotten married yet. She had spent most of the night with a tall, dark, silent man Tristan’s age named Claude.

“I ‘ope we can become friends, I love makin’ new friends.” Her smile was sincere, not false like Pauline’s, when she spoke to me.

“I to hope we can become friends.” I hoped we would, she was just so warm and friendly.

“It’s nice to meet you.” That was all Claude said the entire conversation.

I also met Jacque, the most conceited man I have ever met and I have met some very conceited men, Pierre, Jacque’s identical twin-what more must I say?, Colette, Zacharie’s flirtatious cousin, and Becka, a sweet girl a little older than Claire.

“What are we celebrating? Did someone do something that we must celebrate? What is the point of this party if no one did anything?” Becka asked when we got to talking about the dance.

“Becka, deary,” Jacque said putting an arm around her shoulders, “we are celebratin’ in ‘opes that somethin’ will happen. Nothin’ interestin’ ever ‘appens in this town. ”

“What an odd celebration, you folk are so odd. I don’t mind though.” she blushed slightly at the arm but she didn’t protest.

“Am I not good enough for ya, Jacque?” Colette protested, batting her lashes, “Well I don’t care, I ‘ave Pierre.” She flounced over to Pierre and put her arm about him. He grinned wickedly at his brother.

“Well I don’t care, I ‘ave Becka.”

Becka stuck out her lower lip and acted dejected, “I that all I am, just a tool for your revenge? Just a pawn to make Colette jealous? Well then, you don’t ‘ave me either. I ‘ave Norris.” She pulled away from Jacque and grabbed the arm of an unsuspecting passerby. He looked to be about twenty and he didn’t protest at all to being included in our group of friends and he definitely didn’t protest to being grabbed by Becka.

“Why does no one want me?” Jacque protested, “I look the same as ‘im.” He gestured to Pierre.

“I ‘ave a personality, ‘ave you ever thought that girls might like my personality more than yurs.” Pierre said, pulling Colette closer to him.

“Nah,” Colette said, pulling Jacque over as well so she had an arm around each of the brothers, “yur personalities are the same too. I love ya both far too much, I’ll never be able to choose. I’ll just go with ‘oever’s available.”

“I guess that’s one way to always ‘ave a man, ‘ave two. I’m ‘appy with just one though.” Becka smiled up at Norris, “Oh, I ‘aven’t introduced Norris to Jessa or Jessa to Norris. Well, Jessa this is Norris and Norris this is Jessa.”

“Nice ta meetcha.” He smiled at me, “I ‘eard yur ma married Sebastian’s da. Is that true?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

“Ain’t that awkward?” Colette asked.

“How would it be?”

Colette laughed then stopped when she saw my confused expression, “Ya don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“’E ‘as a thin’ for ya, ‘e likes ya. I saw it the second ya walked in, the way ‘e stared.”

“You must be mistaken.” She couldn’t be correct.

“If ya say so.” She said, the corner of her mouth twitching as if she was trying not to smile. I tried to act dignified but when Colette stifled a giggle I burst out laughing.

Soon everyone was laughing. Claire and Zacharie walked over to us.

“Everyone, this is my sister Claire. Claire, this is Gabriella, Claude, Jacque, Pierre,

Colette, Becka, and Norris.” I gestured to each person in turn, “Everyone already knows Zacharie, am I correct?”

“Of course, ‘e’s my cousin” Colette said then turned to Claire, “I warn you against ‘im.”

“’Ey!” Zacharie protested, “What’s wrong with me?”

“Do ya really want me to answer that?” Colette asked with a sly grin. Zacharie got a little red and didn’t say anything, “Nah, I’m just jokin’, ‘e ain’t that bad.” She paused, “Most a’ tha time.”

“It’s very nice to meet all of you.” Claire said, dipping a quick curtsy.

“No need to be all formal, we’re all just friends ‘ere.”

I guess she was right, if I wasn’t friends with them already I knew I would be before the night was over.

When I woke I opened my eyes extremely slowly, I wasn’t quite ready to be awake yet. Light filtered through the thin curtains that hung at my window. A slight breeze caused them to flutter, thus letting even more light enter my room. I squinted while I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light. I inspected the room Claire and I shared in the light of day. Yesterday afternoon I didn’t spent more than a moment in the room and when I went to bed I was far too tired to notice what my room looked like. It was simple but clean. It was obviously not one of the inns finer rooms. I could understand why, we couldn’t afford expensive rooms. It had only one window. There was a medium sized wardrobe and a table with two chairs. I glanced at the bed where Claire still slept. Even though we had been commoners for more than a month Claire still wasn’t used to getting out of her bed early. The bedclothes in both beds were cotton and well made. I walked over to the window and pulled the curtains back all the way. Below the window was a small garden surrounded by a wooden fence. I saw a big dog asleep on the steps leading up to the back door. He must be Leonardo. I made a mental note to meet him before we went back to the farm. The sun was pretty high so I guessed that it was a little past nine o clock.

“Jessa, close the curtains I’m trying to get some sleep.” Claire sat up in her bed rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Get up, we’re going to have to go back to the farm soon. You have to be awake before we can go.”

“All the more reason to stay abed as late as is possible. Hey, give those back!” As she spoke I pulled the blankets off of Claire’s bed. She tried to grab them back but to no avail. Claire leaped out of her bed and tried to jump onto me. I stepped to the side and she landed on my bed. She grabbed the back of my nightgown and pulled me back onto the bed next to her. Fearful that the blankets would split, each of us tugging on an edge, I let go. Claire toppled off of the bed, landing on the floor in a tangle of legs, arms, and bed clothes. She righted herself again and dropped her blankets back on the bed then sat down on it.

“We really ought to stop making so much noise, Mother and Magalie are probably still sleeping. Magalie isn’t used to staying awake that late.” I said when I realized how loud the thumps we were making were.

“You’re dreadful!” Claire exclaimed, “You could have mentioned that before! Why did you feel the need to wake me if we won’t leave for a while?” She threw a pillow at my head, I caught it.

“Mother and Magalie are still asleep, I wanted company.” I said innocently.

“Sebastian’s probably awake.” Claire teased, “You could have had him for company.”

I reddened slightly, “He probably woke hours ago, he’s probably off doing something.”

“Of course he is.” I threw the pillow back at her and it hit her squarely in the face. She screeched while I laughed.

“We have to be quiet.” I stammered out in between spasms of laughter.

“Of course we do.” Claire said as she hit me over the head with a pillow. I snatched a pillow off of my bed and responded with a blow of my own.

“We also have to be careful with everything in here, they aren’t ours and we will have to pay for anything we destroy. We should get dressed and go down for breakfast.” Claire pondered this with her pillow raised to strike me again.

“I guess you are right, let us get dressed.” She lowered her pillow.

We put on the same gowns we wore yesterday, we had no other choice. Even though they were slightly soiled from wearing them before we couldn’t borrow and of Gisele’s dresses because we didn’t know when we would next be able to return to town and give them back. They had already extended their hospitality very much. I hoped that I would be able to change my gown as soon as we returned to the farm. I also hoped Delano was doing alright. We had left him to deal with the farm by himself for more than we had originally planned. I assumed that he’d be fine though. He had dealt with the farm and watched Sebastian for a few years when he was too young to be of help.

Once Claire and I were dressed we went down to the dining room. There were many people even though the hour was late for breakfast. We didn’t know anyone there except for Gisele, Jeanette, and Pauline. I scanned the room for a vacant table. All were occupied. One table in the corner had four chairs but only one was being used. A young man who looked to be about twenty two with short blond hair sat alone, reading and drinking tea.

“Would you mind terribly if we sat here?” I asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“Not at all.” He didn’t look up from his book, he just continued reading.

We sat in silence for a few minutes then Claire asked, “What are you reading?” I kicked her under the table but she ignored me.

“On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the world and meet the sky;

And thro' the field the road runs by

To many-tower'd Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

Gazing where the lilies blow

Round an island there below,

The island of Shalott.”

“Willows whiten, aspens quiver,

Little breezes dusk and shiver

Thro' the wave that runs for ever

By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four gray walls, and four gray towers,

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

The Lady of Shalott.”

“You’ve read Tennyson?”

“Yes, he’s my favorite. I feel so sorry for the Lady of Shalott. She loves Lancelot but she can never tell him and she is trapped. She can only see the world through a mirror. I can understand how she feels.” Claire stared out the window and spoke softly, as it she spoke to herself. She blinked rapidly, “I’m terribly sorry, I got distracted.”

“Don’t be sorry, for you did nothing wrong. I’m Damien by the way and you are?”

“I’m Claire and this is my sister, Jessa.”

“It’s very nice to meet you.” I said, silently cursing Claire. Not only did she engage in conversation with a complete stranger, she almost revealed our status. Mother would be furious if she knew about either one. If she came into the dining room she would see us and it would be dreadful.

“Good morning, I didn’t see you come in. I’m sorry it took so to get to you.” Gisele greeted us with a warm smile, “Is there anything I can get you?”

“I would like a muffin and a cup of tea.” I said.

“I’ll have the same.” Claire added after a moment’s thought.

“Anything for you?” She asked Damien.

“Not now, thank you.” He replied.

“I’ll be right back.” Gisele walked through a door on the other side of the room that appeared to lead to the kitchen.

“Did you attend the dance last night? I didn’t see you there.” Claire asked Damien after Gisele had left.

“No, I don’t enjoy dancing and I don’t live here so I only know a few people. I’m not very good at talking to anyone, especially people I don’t know.” He replied bashfully.

“I think you’re doing very well.” I kicked Claire under the table again and, yet again, she ignored me.

Gisele returned carrying a tray with our tea, muffins, cream, and sugar, “The tea is still hot, be careful.” She placed our tea and muffins in front of us and put the cream and sugar in the center of the table, “Just call if you need anything else.”

I drank my tea and ate my muffin in silent misery while Claire chatted with Damien about poetry.

We finished breakfast and said goodbye to Damien then went back up to our room to get ready to leave.

“I’m going to have bruises on my legs for weeks! Why did you have to kick me so many times? No, don’t answer that, I can figure it out on my own. Still, you didn’t have to kick me that hard.” Claire muttered as I forced her to gather her bedclothes from the floor.

After another quarter hour Magalie and Mother entered our room. Magalie was dressed but her hair was sticking out in all directions. Mother was as composed as ever. Magalie was bouncing up and down with excitement.

“Wasn’t the party so much fun? I wish I could have stayed later, but I was getting tired. I danced for what seemed like forever, I didn’t know how to do any of the dances but one of the village girls named Jill did and she showed us. I think we were doing it wrong because everyone else was doing a different thing than we were. I didn’t mind though because I still had a fine time. Leon showed me how to a slow one where you moved back and forth but I think we spun around too many times and we felt really funny and we almost walked into a wall. The food was delicious, wasn’t it? I had a slice of pie that wasn’t really pie. It was made of egg and cheese and it had vegetables and meat in it. I also had a blueberry tart with whipped cream on the top. I had half and Leon had the other half. It was so yummy I would have had another one if Mother had let me but she said that if I have too many tarts I won’t feel well.”

“Magalie, darling, calm down and let your sisters answer your questions before you ask more.”

“Yes Mother, wasn’t my dress so pretty and the way Gisele did my hair looked radishing. Is that the right word, radishing, or is it something else. Ravishing, oh yes, that’s it. Everyone there looked so nice. Jill said her Mother had made her dress for her. Hers was pale blue and she had pretty little blue flowers in her hair that were the same color of her dress and it looked amazing. I think they were bluebells. She said that her Mother didn’t have a garden because they didn’t have enough room next to their house so they have little boxes attached to their windows where they grow flowers. They grew the bluebells in one of the boxes.”

“Jessa likes bluebells.” Claire said with a wicked smile, “Don’t you?” I had made the mistake of telling her about the bluebells in my necklace.

I glared at her, “Yes, I do like bluebells.” I said stiffly.

Claire noticed Mother’s perplexed expression and quickly changed the subject, “I had a marvelous time at the dance. I haven’t been to a dance since,” she faltered, “since last year.”

“This is only my second because I only went to one before we moved here. I hope that next time we come there will be one and we can go to that one too.” Magalie said as she danced around the room and sat down on the bed that I had slept in. I sat down next to her and attempted to make her hair look slightly more presentable, “Jessa, once we get back to the farm will you show me how to do the dances? It will be hard without the music but I think we can manage. Claire, did you know that the tall man with the really short brown hair was Jill’s brother? You danced with him twice, I think.”

“Magalie,” Mother warned.

“Yes, Mama.” She said with a sigh.

“Have you eaten yet?” Mother asked us.

“Yes, we ate downstairs a little while ago.” I replied.

“Try the muffins, they’re wonderful.” Claire added.

“Alright, Magalie come with me. Jessa, Claire, get ready to leave, we will depart as soon as we can. Meet us by the stable in one half hour. Find Leon and Sebastian and tell that we simply must leave as soon as possible.”

Once Mother and Magalie went down to breakfast Claire and I went down to the stable which was right next to the garden. The dog was still asleep on the steps; it looked like he hadn’t moved since I saw him when I looked out my window when I woke up. Claire went over to the stable in search or Arlo. Slowly I approached the dog. My feet crunched on the pebbled path. He lifted his head at the sudden noise. I knelt next to him and slowly moved my hand nearer to his face. He eyed me warily, sniffed my hand a few times, and then licked it cautiously. I scratched him behind the ears gently and after a minute or so his tail began to thump on the ground. When he sat up he was the same height as I was when I was kneeling. It was slightly disgusting but I didn’t really mind when he licked my face.

“Arlo’s not in there, Sebastian must have- good gracious me, what are you doing?” Claire came out of the stable and was brought up short when she saw Leonardo and me. “Pauline said that he was a terrible dog and that he was extremely aggressive.”

“I guess you just have to be kind to him.” I said as Leonardo wandered over to Claire and licked her hand.

“That’s repulsive!” she exclaimed, examining the dog spittle all over her hand, “I’m going to go find somewhere to wash it off, tell Mother where I am if she gets back before I return.” She stormed off towards the other side of the inn where there was a well, as we had discovered the night before.

I stood up, brushed the rocks off of my gown, and attempted to wipe Leonardo’s drool off of my hand. Someone in the kitchen whistled and Leonardo bounded towards the partially open door. I started to walk towards the stable but I heard footsteps behind me. When I whirled around I saw Tristan. He grinned at me, “I’m glad I was able to see you before you left, I was worried I would be too late.”

“I’m leaving in less than a quarter hour, you are just in time to say goodbye.” I smiled. I had been worried that I wouldn’t be able to see him again.

“Will you come back to visit sometime?”

“Of course, I’ll come back in two weeks, if I can.”

He walked closer to me, “I’ll miss you very much. Will you miss me?”

“Of course I will.” I said smiling up at him, now he was standing right in front of me.

“Truly?” his eyes stared straight into mine and I couldn’t look away.

“Truly.” I said, very softly. With very much effort I looked down and broke eye contact. He lifted up my chin and bent his head down so his face as just inches from mine. The distance between us was decreasing swiftly and I was not pleased with that fact. I tried to protest but it was too late, his lips met mine. I pulled away from his light hold and slapped him as hard as I could. Physical strength is something I lack but he wasn’t expecting my slap so he staggered. Taking advantage of his momentary weakness, I ran away as fast as I could.

I nearly collided with Claire on her way back from the well, “What’s going on? Is Mother back yet? What’s wrong?”

I breathed slowly and tried to get a hold of my thoughts. Tristan had kissed me. I had slapped him. He was not a gentleman. I had thought as much when I had first met him but then he had saved my life. He had been so kind last night. I thought I knew what I was doing in this new world, the world of being normal. I suppose I am not as adapted as I thought I was. When we were noble I would sneak books out of the library and read them late at bight when everyone else was asleep. In all of the stories where the princess met the prince they would kiss and they would know that they were the one for them. It certainly hadn’t felt like that when Tristan kissed me. I was worried someone would see us and I just wanted it to end.

“Jessa?” Claire’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“Whatever you do, don’t tell Mother! Say I was with you or he wasn’t there or we weren’t there or we were there and maybe he was but he left and it never happened. No don’t say that, say he was never there because if he was there then he would have waited to say goodbye. Maybe if we don’t mention him they won’t think of it or just don’t speak of it.” I tried to breathe deeply and be calm.

“How can I tell her? I have no idea who or what you are talki-” I clamped my hand over her mouth and slid behind a tall bush, dragging her with me. I waited until Tristan’s footsteps were inaudible before I emerged, “Jessa, what is going on? Who was that?”

“Tristan, it was Tristan. He . . . he,” I stammered, “he kissed me.”

“He what?” Claire’s jaw dropped and she just stared at me as me cheeks heated up.

“Kissed me.” I mumbled.

“What did you do? How did you react?”

“Well, I . . . um,” I felt incredibly foolish, “slapped him and ran away.”

“You what?” her jaw dropped even further and me cheeks got even hotter.

“Slapped him,” I looked down, “and ran away. Don’t tell Mother.”

“I would never tell her.” Claire grinned, “So, how was it and why on earth did you slap him?”

“I panicked and it was dreadful. I was so worried someone would see. Come on let’s go see if Mother, Magalie, Leon and Sebastian are by the stable.” We began to walk to the back.

“Who cares if you were worried, how did it feel?”

I considered her question for a moment before answering, “I don’t remember, I was too busy worrying to notice how it felt.”
Claire sighed, “You are supposed to remember these things. I guess I’ll have to wait until I get one so I’ll know.”

“You won’t until you’re thirty if I have any say in the matter!” I said, smacking her gently, “You are far too young for such things.”

“Am not!” was Claire’s stubborn retort.

“Yes you are, don’t try to deny it. You are still a child.” I grinned at her as she stuck her tongue out at me, “My point exactly.”

When we arrived at the stable no one was there yet but Mother and Magalie joined us after five minutes. Leon and Sebastian brought the cart back a few minutes after Mother arrived. Everything we had purchased was packed in the back.

“Come on, if we hurry we’ll be able to leave before too many people go to the main square. Otherwise we’ll be stuck for a long time.” Sebastian told us as we clambered into the back of the wagon.

“Please do hurry, I need to get back home so I can change my gown.” Claire said once we were all settled.

“I’ll go as fast as Arlo will take us.” Sebastian informed us as we rolled out of the gate and onto the street.

When we passed by the square I saw a flash of orange hair and sunk lower down into the wagon. Sebastian saw Tristan’s hair too and sped up the wagon.

“Don’t slouch.” Mother said sharply when she saw my dreadful posture. I sat up all the way and looked around but I saw no signs of Tristan.

We sat in silence as the roads got worse. Once we were out of town they changes from cobbles to dirt. There were very many ruts and dips because of the rain and we near tipped over more than once. After a half hour of moving at an incredibly slow pace, the road got even worse.

“Leon, could you drive for a while? Leon?” Sebastian glanced back to see Magalie and Leon fast asleep. They were still exhausted from last night’s excitement.

“I’ll drive.” I volunteered and before Mother could protest, not that I thought she would, I clambered up to the seat, “What should I do?”

Sebastian jumped to the ground and began to walk alongside the wagon, “Just have Arlo move to whatever side I say you should. Okay? Left. That’s good, no a little to the right, stay in the middle, good.”

We were making good progress but, unfortunately, all who rise must fall. The road was just beginning to get a little better when disaster fell. Arlo froze in the middle of the path, staring at the ground. A small garden snake slithered across the path. Suddenly Arlo bucked, kicking at the air. The wagon tipped to one side and I heard the crunch of splitting wood as the rear axel snapped. Leon and Magalie’s heads popped up and looked around with their fright written all over their faces. Sebastian ran over to Arlo, grabbed the reins and tried to get Arlo to calm down. He was inconsolable and continued to kick at the air. One of his kicks landed hard on Sebastian’s arm. Sebastian fell down holding his arm tight to his chest. I jumped off of the seat, ignoring Mother’s cries for me to stay put. I saw that the snake was gone and there was no trace that it had ever even been there. Arlo was getting a little less frantic as he began to tire and I took advantage of it. I snatched up his reins and yanked them down as hard as I could. After one last kick that wasn’t directed at me Arlo let all four hooves rest on the ground.

I knelt down next to Sebastian. He was extremely pale and I saw red seeping out from in between the fingers that held his arm. As gently as I could I pried his fingers off of the wound. I sucked in my breath when I saw it. The gash was even deeper than I had anticipated. By then everyone else had gotten out of the wagon. As soon as she saw it Claire ran over to the side of the road and began to vomit, Mother fainted, and Magalie started to cry. Leon just began to unhitch Arlo from the cart, climbed up on him, and soon the two of them were galloping off towards the farm. Slowly I straightened out Sebastian’s arm and began to rip his shirt just above his elbow. He stiffened when I started to peel the bloody and ripped fabric off of his gash.

“Claire,” I said, seeing that she had returned from vomiting, “go get one of the bottles of water that we kept for the ride.”

She walked over to the cart and grabbed a nearly full bottle of water. I took it, murmuring my thanks, and slowly poured about half of the contents onto Sebastian’s arm. I splashed a little bit of it on his face and he opened his eyes. He groaned and used his good arm to push himself into a sitting position.

“Are you alright?” I asked cautiously.

“I’ve been better.” He said with a crooked smile.

“This is no time to be making jokes!” I protested but I couldn’t help smiling, “Now sit still.”

I glanced at Sebastian shirt, it was dirty and most of his left sleeve was missing. I tore a piece off of the lower edge and poured a little of the remaining water on it. Using the scrap of cloth, I dabbed away the worst of the blood. He winced but stayed still.

“I’m sorry that it hurts.”

“I’ll be okay, you don’t need to worry about me. Just do what you have to do.”

“You’re going to need some sort of bandage. Your shirt is going to get even more destroyed.” I informed his as I tore strips from the remainder of his shirt.

“That’s alright, the shirt was getting a little too small anyway.”

I began to wrap the thin strips around his arm. The first layer was soon soaked with blood, so I added a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth layer. By the time I was done all that was left of his shirt was part of his right sleeve. Once his bandage was securely tied I let him stand, but he had to lean against a tree.

“Is anyone else hurt?” he asked, glancing around.

“The wagon.” Magalie said, wiping the tears from her eyes, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll be just fine before you know it. Is your Mother?” Sebastian asked when her saw her, “Where’s Leon?”

“She’s fine.” Claire said in a completely unconcerned tone, “Whenever something bad happens she faints. I think it’s so she doesn’t have to see the rest or something. She’ll come to in a few minutes. It’s never anything serious. Leon rode Arlo off towards the farm. He’s probably getting your Father.”

“We’re not very far from home so they shouldn’t take too long to get back.” Sebastian said after a moment’s consideration.

“Goodness me, what on earth is going on?” Mother shakily rose, using the cart for support, “What happened?”

“You fainted, Mama.” Magalie said, going over to help Mother to her feet.

“Oh, how are we ever going to get home?”

“We will probably have to walk, but we should wait here with the cart until Leon and Father return.” Sebastian said and tried to stand without the help of the tree. He wobbled and almost fell over before I grabbed his good arm.

“Just stand there and behave yourself until they come back. Then we’ll have you ride Arlo home so you don’t collapse.” I glared at him.

“Yes m`” he said in a jokingly meek tone.

About a quarter hour later Delano, Leon, Arlo, and a large wheelbarrow came into view down the road. Delano and Leon rode on Arlo and the wheelbarrow was a makeshift cart, fastened to Arlo. They jumped off and ran to Sebastian.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!” Delano was looked as if he were about to be sick, “I was so worried.”

“I’m fine, really.” Sebastian assured him, “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“You going to have to see a doctor,” Delano said, Sebastian started to protest but he was cut off, “I insist. You need some sort of medical attention.”

“Does that mean I have to go back to town?” Sebastian asked grudgingly.

“As soon as I get the wagon fixed, yes. Aimee you are going to have to stay home by yourself and the children tonight. We’ll be back either late tonight or perhaps early tomorrow morning. And you, Sebastian, are going to have to wait with me until I can fix the wagon. Leon, get me that spare axel in the wheelbarrow.” Delano looked over at the rest of us, “Can any of you help me, because Sebastian is in no fit condition to do anything but sit down.”

“I can-” Sebastian started to say.

“No, you can’t.” Delano said and shook his head.

Leon walked over to him and looked up at him imploringly. For most children his age it would mean he wanted to eat extra sweets or be permitted to buy a toy. Not Leon though, he meant that he wanted to stay and help fix the wagon.

“Alright, come over here. The rest of you should be getting back to the farm, Leon will meet you there in about and hour or so. Make sure that everything gets done and keep an eye on Biscotti, she hasn’t given birth yet.”

Mother smiled thinly, “We’ll be able to handle everything just fine on our own. Come along girls, we should be getting back.” her tone suggested that she would rather walk back to town than manage the farm on our own for a day. Her expression also looked as if she was using all of her energy to keep smiling and not scowl.

“Be careful.” I called over my shoulder as we walked away.

“We will.” Sebastian said, smiling crookedly.

We began to walk back to the farm trying to avoid to largest pools of water and mud in the road. Magalie skipped around trying to catch frogs and scaring the frogs half to death. Claire and Mother walked carefully and were very mindful of their skirts and shoes. I did must best to avoid the worst of it to mud and water but my hem was rather wet by the time the farm was in sight.

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It isn't meant to have all of those empty lines but I'm too lazy to try and get rid of them. I hope you liked my ridiculously long and historically inaccurate story. :)