Mary's Path
Lady in lilac

As the weeks passed by into months, Mary’s life followed a steady pattern. She worked in the kitchen, learning new things, and impressing Mrs. Karrots with how fast she developed her skills.

Her days off she mostly spent alone. As Zerden grew older and started to officially train to become a soldier, he didn’t have as much time for Mary.

On days that he was free, there were other things that would take up his time such as hanging out with the other trainees. But he made sure to spend time with her once in a while still.

They would explore the castle together and soon Mary knew her way around the impressive building almost as good as Zerden. On nice days they would walk in the gardens.

Zerden’s parents regularly invited Mary to dinner and Mary and Zerden’s mother grew close. Sometimes on her free time Mary would go and drink tea with Anna. The evenings with the castellan household were some of Mary’s favorite times.

As Mary grew older her feelings for Zerden changed. The feeling of friendship developed into something deeper and by the time she turned sixteen she was in love with him. She saw him as him as her knight in shining armor.

At times she believed he had feelings for her as well, but most of the time she vas convinced he only saw her as a friend.

Erik tried to come and visit her as often as he could. He had gotten more responsibility in his father’s shop. That made it harder for him to get time off. But still he tried to come by as often as he could.

Mary was every so often invited to his family as well. But she always felt a bit awkward when she went there. No matter how much time passed, she still had a knot in her stomach when she was in the artisan part of the city.

The memory of her parents and a life that could have been was more prominent there. It was easier to block out those thoughts when she was in the castle. She also had a hard time forgetting the actions of Mrs. Korpi and forgiving her.

Mary knew that the woman had done what she thought was the best thing for the protection of her family. But it didn’t make it any easier to get over the feeling of being let down by someone that she had considered to be family.

Mrs. Beata plagued Mary as often as she could and was always threatening her to throw her out on the streets. The constant threats made Mary deadly afraid of making mistakes, it felt like she was being judged by everyone.

The situation with Zerden didn’t help her confidence or self-worth. She had a feeling that if she could just be a better person, more beautiful and more interesting, then he would se her as she saw him.

---

It was a wonderful day, not long after Mary’s sixteenth birthday. She had celebrated, as usual with Zerden and his family. Today was her afternoon so Mary headed out of the kitchen and was surprised to see Zerden waiting for her.

“Hi” she said happily.

“Hi” he replied with a smile. He was wearing his uniform and it always made Mary’s heart beat a little faster. “Want to go to the gardens?” he asked.

“Sure” she said, and they made their way there together. The walked around the paths and looked at the flowers and talked about what was going on in their lives.

Suddenly Zerden stopped by one of the rose bushes. It was the one that Mary always thought of as hers since it was the one that had the flowers that looked like her necklace.

“Mary” Zerden said hesitantly, Mary was surprised that he looked uncertain, almost shy.

“Yes”

“Um, you know the upcoming soldier’s feast?” he asked still not looking at her.

“Sure, it’s all the maids in the kitchen talk about lately” Mary said.

It was the same thing every year. All the single women in the castle that weren’t part of the court wanted a handsome soldier to invite them to the feast. There were always speculations on who would invite who. Mary had always secretly hoped for Zerden to invite her.

“Oh, okay. Well, it’s the first year I’m a full-fledged soldier so I can invite someone if I want” he continued looking even more uncomfortable. Mary nodded and Zerden seamed to be looking for the right thing to say.

Then they hear voices coming from another part of the gardens. Mary froze in place and Zerden looked up.

“Who do you think it is?” Mary whispered. They had never run in to any on in the gardens before, so Mary had almost forgotten that they didn’t have permission to be there.

“Let’s have a look” Zerden whispered back, taking Mary’s hand, leading her towards he hedges that separated the two parts of the gardens.

The peered around the corner and Mary saw a group of five ladies that was walking along the garden path. They looked like ladies in waiting. She started to ger really worried that Zerden and she would get caught.

If Mrs. Meata got wind of her being in the gardens without permission, with a man non the less, she would definitely be out on the streets. She pulled back and tugged on Zerden’s hand.

“Zerden, we need to go” she whispered. He didn’t react. “Zerden” she said and tugged a bit harder. Still no reaction. She pulled hard on his hand and finally he looked at her. The look on his face was something Mary never had seen before.

“Did you se her?” he asked Mary. He sounded dazed.

“Who?” Mary asked.

“The most beautiful women I have ever seen” he said breathlessly. Mary felt like her heart broke in to million pieces and she had a hard time breathing.

“Which one od them?”

“The one in the lilac dress” Zerden answered. Mary took a quick look and she saw the women he was talking about.

The woman was maybe a year or two older than Mary and Mary would have to agree that the woman was beautiful. She had raven hair, pinned in the latest fashion hairdo. Her lilac dress was a dream and suited her pale skin. She moved with confident and grace.

Mary realised if that was Zerden’s idea of the perfect woman, Mary would never have a chance at winning his heart.

“She is lovely” she said. “But Zerden, I can’t be found here in the gardens I need to leave”

“Oh, what? Yes, of course. No problem. I’ll se you another time” he said without looking at her, his gaze fixed at the woman. Mary looked at him. Was he going to let her go back alone?

She knew the way, but he knew that when she was with him, she was protected against most things as he was the castellan’s son. Therefor he usually insisted on always accompanying her as soon as they went somewhere that could be seen as out of bounds.

In fact, he had made her promise him not to go exploring the castle on her own as he was afraid that Mrs. Beata would use that against her is she found out. But know that she really could get in trouble he was willing to let her go on her own?

Mary looked at the woman on the other side of the hedge. She really was everything Mary wasn’t. Zerden deserved someone like that.

“Okay, I’ll se you around” Mary said before turning around to go the long way around to the exit.