Mary's Path

“I was about your age and lived in the city with my parents, my older brother and older sister. I was the youngest one in the family and a bit spoiled if I may say so” Anna started.

“I was kind of seeing a young man that was an apprentice in a lawyer’s office. My father was a cobbler, so I was verry impressed by this young man and how fancy he was.” Anna rolled her eyes at her youthful self.

“My sister was asked by a soldier to go to the market with him. In my days, that is what one did if you fancied someone. The man would take you to the market, you would walk around, he would bye something to eat from one of the stalls and you would talk and maybe watch a puppet show or some wondering entertainer”

Mary thought that sounded wonderful.

“My sister didn’t want to go alone to meet the soldier, she was not the bravest one. So, she asked me to accompany her. I talked to, you know I don’t ever remember his name, my fancy man to come as well. I didn’t want to be left alone with to people that only had eyes for each other.”

“When we arrived there my sister was greeted by the most handsome man I had ever seen, and I felt so jealous that I can’t even describe the feeling. Ken, it was him my sister was meeting if you haven’t figured it out, took one look at me and spent the rest of the afternoon ignoring my sister.”

“That didn’t go down well to either my sister or my fancy man as Ken instead kept giving me all the attention. I didn’t want to hurt my sister or get a bad reputation for flirting with a man whilst out with another. I therefor tried to ignore Ken.”

“Luckily for me, Ken is persistent. After we got home my sister announced she never wanted to se that rude man ever again. But already the next day Ken sought me out to ask me to meet with him. I turned him down of course, I still had my fancy man.”

“Over the next two weeks Ken showed up anywhere I went it seemed, regardless of if I was alone or in my fancy man’s company. He even came up to me whiles I was out with my mother and sister. I must confess that I was more than interested in him. But my family pressured me in to stay with the other man.”

“One day Ken was witing at me at the end of our street as I was heading out on an errand. He asked me if he could walk with me and for once I said yes. He then gave me a gift that he had bought for me. It was a book with love poems” Anna said, rising from the table and getting a small book, handing it to Mary.

Mary looked at the book, it looked old, but she could se that it had been handled with love. The tile read “Poems of the heart”

“He thought I wanted fancy things so he wanted to show me that he could give things like that. I asked him if he would read me one of the poems, but he refused. At that moment I understood that he couldn’t read and started laughing. Not because he couldn’t read, but because neither could I. The gift was wasted.” she smiled.

“I loved it non the less. It showed me that he tried to give me things that he thought I wanted. It made him sweeter to me. I ended it with the fancy man the next day, to my family’s great sorrow. And the next time Ken waited for me to ask me out I said yes. I have never seen the man so surprised before or after.”

“What an amazing story” Mary said as she smiled from ear to ear.

“It is” Anna agreed.

“Did you ever see the fancy man again?”

“A couple of weeks after I broke it off with him, Ken and I meet him whilst we were out walking. He tried to get me to change my mind, he grabbed my arm and tried to physically drag me away from Ken. I don’t know what he was thinking. Ken hit him once and the poor man went down like a sack of potatoes.”

Mary laughed at the scene that was playing out in her head.

“He ended up marrying my sister in the end” Anna said.

“What?” Mary said surprised.

“Yeah, I didn’t see that coming eighter. But I didn’t care. I had gotten my Ken and I was happy. My sister and her husband were one of the first to succumb to the first wave of the sickness.”

“I’m sorry” Mary said.

“Thank you Marry. I wish I was close to my sister. But even before Ken and the fancy man we were never close.”

Mary handed back the small book.

“Does it really contain love poems?” Anna asked. “I have always wondered if Ken maybe got tricked into buying something else”

“It really contains love poems. Would you like me to read a couple of them?” Mary asked.

“Would you?” Anna asked whit eyes full of wonder.

“It would be my pleasure” Mary said and turned to the first poem in the book.

“A whisper of the heart” she read the title.

“In the darkness of the night,

Even as the stars have abandoned us,

Evan as the moon hides it face,

You can still hear it,

A faint whisper,

A whisper that grows stronger

With every beat of my heart.

It whispers only to you,

It calls on you,

My love, my faith,

My heart is whispering only to you”

Marry continued reading the poem and then continued to the next one. Anna closed her yeas and listed as tears ran down her face. The words in the book had been trapped inside for many years but Mary could se by the look on Anna’s face that the words echoed the feelings she and her husband had for each other.

Mary kept reading until they heard the door open, and the castellan walked in. Mary stood and handed the book back to Anna with a smile.

“Time for me to head back” she said, and Anna squeezed her hand.

“Thank you, my child,” Anna said.

“My absolute pleasure” Mary said and as she walked past the castellan she curtsied as usual but also gave him a smile.

The man looked in confusion between Mary and his wife that had tears coming down her face. All of a sudden, his wife stood from the table and threw herself in his arms.

Mary smiled as she saw the embrace and walked out the door. She almost walked in to Zerden that was walking down the hallway.

“I think your parents might need a couple of minutes by themselves” she said with a shy smile. Zerden looked confused but nodded and followed Mary back to the door that led to the part of the castle where she had her room.

“Are you going to tell me why I couldn’t go home?” he asked as the were parting ways.

“Your mother told me the story about how your parents meet”

“Oh, the courting and the book and all of that” he said, she nodded.

“I read a couple of poems to her”

“Okay?” Zerden still looked confused.

“She liked them” Mary told him.

“That’s nice, but I still don’t get it”

“I think she wanted to thank him” Mary said flushing as she turned around and walked away.