The Ivory Knight

Chapter 3

"Susanne! That pot needs to be scrubbed again immediately, without further ado! It's as filthy as a hog's trough, you silly girl. Richard, that stew isn't finished thickening yet, put it back in the fire! Must you be so daft? Adeleina, dear! Out of my way, Sasha, get that sack of flour Ivy is holding, can't you see the poor girl is struggling to stay on her feet?"

A tall and lanky figure clutching a soup ladle emerged from the mass of shuffling people. She had wild, frizzy black hair that was tied back in a bushy ponytail, but even so, several strands broke free and exploded around her thin face. Her warm brown eyes were alight with excitement, and lit up even further while she approached Adeleina with outstretched arms.

"Darcy!" Adeleina laughed as her friend engulfed her in an outrageously messy hug. The head cook was a head taller than her, though she was a mere two years older than Adeleina's seventeen. Slightly buck-toothed and with bushy black eyebrows, Darcy was the daughter of a pair of innkeepers. She had earned her rightful spot as the castle's head cook after Adeleina's father had stopped by their inn, and immediately called for the owner upon his first spoon of their signature beef stew.

"This stew," he had declared, wringing the poor flustered innkeeper's hand in delight, "is the most succulent, most mouthwatering, most exquisitely-prepared stew I have ever tasted. Bring me your cook, I say, and two more helpings of the excellent stew!"

Darcy had been offered the position of head cook at the castle, as their previous one had recently gotten married and resigned. Adeleina immediately took a liking to the gawky but extremely friendly girl. There were few girls her age around the castle that freely talked to her without formalities as Darcy did. Hot tempered, stubborn, and at times obnoxious, she had been Adeleina’s first real friend.

“You’re just in time to accompany me to the village market,” Darcy threw off her dirty apron and tossed it at a passing maid carrying a basket of dirty linens. “Unless you’re too busy with your duties as a soon-to-be-betrothed, of course,”  She wiggled her thick eyebrows at Adeleina, creating a rather silly effect.

Adeleina’s damp mood considerably brightened at the proposal. An excuse to get out of the castle was all she needed. Besides…a small nagging thought at the corner of her mind still hoped that the beautiful stranger from the day before would be there.

“Of course I’ll come!” Adeleina exclaimed, grabbing her friend’s hand. "I have loads I need to tell  you, anyway. You'll never guess what happened yesterday..."

It took her all the time it took to reach the village to recount, in a rather grandiloquent manner, of her latest adventure, and the stranger who had saved her.

"A bear!" Darcy was saying as they passed a peddler attempting to sell his trinkets. "You should have brought the meat back. Braised bear is always a favorite of your father," She cast a humorous glance at Adeleina, who was looking bemused.

"It was foaming at the mouth, and it's breath smelled like sickness, Darcy. You wouldn't want to eat a bear like that,"

"Oh. And what of the man who killed it? Two arrows, you say?" She paused to admire a row of pale yellow corn on display. Adeleina felt the blush begin to heat up her cheeks again. "What's the matter with you? You look like a tomato. Do you have a fever?" Darcy dramatically laid the back of her hand across Adeleina's forehead in a mocking manner.

"No!" Adeleina lightly slapped Darcy's hand away from her head. "I was only thinking..."

"About?"

"He was an extraordinary person. It was strange, the way he made me feel-- like something was fluttering inside me. Do you know what I mean?"

Darcy laughed, not unkindly.