The Lord of Bryn Du

Chapter 10

"Helga, please."

Alys voiced her question with all the begging an eight year old could muster, her hands stretched out towards her tutor, who, after they had concluded their lessons for the day, had announced she'd walk into town to post a letter to her mother. Helga hoped to catch a small chance of adequate wifi, too, because there were some materials she wanted to download for one of Alys's history lessons, and her phone signal was so weak that even using it as a hotspot was impossible. She had thought a quick trip into town would suffice, but when Alys had caught wind of her plans she had all but barricaded the front door.

"Alys, I can't find Lord Thorne, and I won't take you without his permission, you are his ward, not mine."

"Gerwyn would never mind!" she exclaimed, but for some reason Helga did not quite believe that. Helplessly, she looked to the left and the right, but even Wynn seemed to have disappeared into thin air. This was the trouble with children, she thought. Perhaps the Lord wouldn't mind indeed, but you could never quite trust them. They hardly ever understood the results of their lies on the long term as long as it brought them the short term results they desired. For Alys, it might mean a scolding, but for Helga, it might as well mean losing her job.

"Helga..." she continued, her hand now clutching the bottom of her teacher's blouse, "I haven't been outside in weeks."

Helga thought that was perhaps a bit of a stretch, but she could feel herself cave. The silly fear that she might lose her job because she took a girl into town seemed overly cautious. If anything, she could tell the Lord that it was part of their lesson program. With a final sigh, she once again looked around for Wynn, but the woman seemed to have vanished into nothingness.

"Well, grab your coat then," she sighed, "and no misbehaving. I will write Wynn a note in the kitchen so she won't be scared when she can't find you."

The girl cheered, and even if she were chided, Helga thought, that happiness was often worth it. Children expressing gratitude was something beautiful, and she did not think one could experience it often enough. It was one of the main things she had missed from her time as a teacher - the sheer glee on the faces of children that finally understood something that had previously been too difficult to them. With a smile, Helga left to pen the note and cast her worries aside.

Ten minutes later, they were on their way. Helga had half a mind to ask Wynn if there wasn't some old bicycle she could take into town and have it fixed. This walk would become the death of her if she wanted to do it twice a week. It was a good half hour on her own, but with Alys tagging along it took them over fifty minutes, the girl stopping at every upturned stone. Helga didn't mind, if it truly had been a while since she'd been outside, this was only good for her. She made a mental note to tell Alys to go and play outside a little more often. The inner garden might be overgrown, but Alys wasn't a baby, and she was quite sure the girl would be fine playing around with a ball or some other type of toy.

"Helga, look!" Alys had stopped at the side of the road and pointed frantically at something she saw there. With a low chuckle, Helga walked over to her to see what she was getting at.

"What is it, Alys?"

"Someone forgot their phone!"

Indeed, a battered phone laid face down in the dirt. The back was cracked and Helga didn't want to know what the front looked like. She was quite sure that it was no longer in working order, since it looked like it had spent more than one night outside in the dirt. Nevertheless, she knelt down next to it, using a stick to turn it over. As expected, plenty of cracks ran down the front, and the screen was dark. Mud had seeped into the pores, probably frying the battery, too. There was no way to find the owner of the phone and, even if they had, it wouldn't be any use to them.