The Lady Knight

Chapter XL: Suns and Sieges

"Good," he nodded at me in approval.

"When are our lessons, Papa?" Richard inquired, grinning.

"They begin tomorrow morning," he was clearly pleased by our enthusiasm, "now, off with you two. I have a lot of work to do."

We nodded, sprinting out of Papa's study towards our own chambers. Indeed, we were running so fast, and all too aimlessly, that we accidentally bumped into a little girl when we cut a corner.

As a result, Richard fell painfully down on his bottom, while I landed on top of her.

"Ouch, you are heavy!" came the familiar, soft voice that was now filled with annoyance, "get off me, you big donkey!"

Richard began to laugh out loud, as I flushed bright red and stood up. "Apologies, Julie," I muttered in embarrassment, as I held out a hand for her.

She reached out to grab it, and heaved herself off the floor in one fluid motion. Ensuring that her two pigtails were still as neat as how she had braided them that morning, and her gown had no wrinkles, she smiled ruefully up at me.

"'Tis all right," she shrugged, glancing at Richard and me, "why are you so happy?" She was curious.

"Papa gave us new flutes!" I beamed at her, as I held mine out towards her before Richard could, "see? We are even having lessons from tomorrow!"

"It is Papa's present to us," Richard added, grinning.

Julie bent over my hand, gazing at my silver flute with extreme awe and wonder. "It is so beautiful," she murmured, wide-eyed, almost afraid to touch it lest it vanished before her eyes, "I wish I had one too." She bit her lower lip, as she stared at it longingly.

"You can hold it, if you like," I offered generously, placing it in her hands.

She accepted it, twirling it in her fingers with caution, fingering the cool metal with reverence, as her forehead creased in deep thinking.

After a long while, she spoke. "Nick, will you allow me to borrow your flute until your lesson tomorrow, please?" she gazed up at me hopefully, "I wish to show it to Kat and Lisa and all my other friends!"

Now I was undecided. "But - "

Her eyes widened adorably. "Please?" she pleaded, "I promise to take good care of it, and return it to you by tomorrow morning. Pinkie promise." She held out her pinkie finger.

I could not refuse her when she looked at me like that. Especially since the very recent demise of her mother, my pianoforte mistress, I could hardly refuse her anything she asked, for fear of upsetting her further than she already was.

"All right," I sighed heavily, linking my pinkie with hers, "but you pinkie promised. You had better keep it."

Richard rolled his eyes. "Brother-mine, do not worry. Jules knows pinkie promises are unbreakable, does she not?" he shot her a quick grin.

Julie nodded, beaming. "Thank you, Nick!" she smiled shyly, "I will see you both later." With that, she ran off with my flute, skipping down the hallway, happier than I had seen her these last few weeks.

However, the next morning, she had come to me, sobbing and puffy-eyed, to return me a broken flute that had been hacked at so horribly, that it had been no longer recognisable.

She had insisted countless times that she had hid my flute under her pillow when she went to bed the night before, and when she woke up the next morning, it had suffered such atrocious damage without her knowledge.