Mary's Path
You are beautiful

When Mary the next day was learning how to make a new sauce from one of the chefs, Josie taped her on the shoulder.

“The soldier is here to see you” she said to Mary, and Mary knew she meant Zerden.

“Thanks, can you ask him to wait, I can’t get away at the moment” Mary said with a ping of bad conscience for keeping him waiting.

As soon as she could get away, Mary headed for the door and to her relief Zerden was still waiting at the well.

“Hi, sorry to keep you waiting” she said.

“No problem, it won’t take long” he said. “How long do you usually spend in church on Sundays?” he asked.

“Well, the service is about a hour and then time to get there and home so if I go straight there and home, two hours”

“Can I ask lady Sarah to meet us at the second guard change after lunch? You should be back from church then, right?” he asked Mary. Mary didn’t want to go with him to meet lady Sarah, but she had promised, kind of.

“Yeah, that should be fine” she said with a small sigh that Zerden didn’t seem to notice.

“Wonderful, I’ll meet you at the gate on Sunday then” he said waving as he vanished out into the main courtyard.

Mary just turned around, took a deep breath, and continued into the kitchen. For once, she didn’t look forward to the coming Sunday. In fact, she wished it would never come.

But not all the wishes in the world could stop time from going forward. Sooner then Mary liked it was Sunday and she was getting ready for church.

She found herself taking longer than usual, she realized she was trying to make herself look prettier as she knew she would meet lady Sarah. She sighed and deemed it useless.

Her wavy, read hair would never be as smooth as she wished, and it would always be red. She didn’t have smooth black hair, she didn’t even have blond or brown hair. Her dress was nice, but it was plain and even after adding one of her mother broches, it still looked plain.

She decided to just braid her hair and pin it up around her head as usual. She didn’t think she would need her summer cloak so she lest it behind as she headed for the gate to the city.

For the second week running, she saw Erik waiting for her outside the gate. She smiled at him.

“Hi, are you free this Sunday as well?” she said.

“Yes, it’s easier to get Sundays off” he told her. “I was thinking I could join you at church and maybe we could go back to us after. My mother and father would love to see you. It was a while since you visited.”

“You are more then welcome to join me or church, but I need to go straight back afterwards, Zerden needs my help this afternoon” she said.

“Are you helping him with soldier things?” Erik sounded amazed.

“No” Mary laughed. “He has started seeing someone and he needs a chaperon” she explained.

Erik stopped walking and just looked at her.

“What?” she asked.

“He is seeing someone?”

“Yes”

“Someone that isn’t you?” That question stung a bit in Mary.

“Yes of course”

Erik still stood there looking at her as she had told him that the sky had turned purple.

“What?” she asked again, and he shook his head as if he couldn’t grasp what she was saying.

“Nothing, I just didn’t think…” he trailed off. “You know what, never mind. I’m happy for him”

“You are?” Now it was Mary that was surprised.

“Yes I am. And even though I’m a bit disappointed that you can’t come to visit us, I’m happy to be able to join you at church. You can come and visit us next week instead” he said seeming happy.

He beamed a smile at Mary and offered her his arm. She looked at him in surprise, but she accepted his arm and together they headed to church.

On their way back they kept talking and the mood was light, and Mary hadn’t once thought about what was coming next. As the got to the castle gates Mary saw Zerden stand and talking to the guards. He was probably waiting for her.

“Thank you for joining me today again” she said to Erik. “It really meant a lot to me, and it was needed” sha continued without further explanation. She knew that if it wasn’t for Erik, she would probably have spent the time obsessing about the meeting with lady Sarah.

“It is always my pleasure Mary. I always have fun when I spend time with you, and as usual you look beautiful today. I was the envy of every man at that church” he said with a smile. Mary felt herself blush.

“You shouldn’t say things that aren’t true” she told him. He just shook his head.

“One day Mary, I will make you understand that you truly are beautiful, until that day I’ll just need to keep reminding you”.

That made the light red blush on Mary’s cheeks grow darker and as she was at a loss for words, she punched him lightly on his arm.

“Go home Erik and tell your parents that I will come by another day. I’ll see you around”

“Stay safe Mary, you know where to replace me if you need anything and remember that you are always welcome in our home” he said winking at her before she turned around and headed for the gate.

As she came closer, she saw Zerden looking at her and then at Erik. He raised a eyebrow in a questioning way.

“He went with me to church” she said to Zerden as she came closer.

“You seemed friendly. Did he say something rude? You are blushing”

“No, not at all, he was just being his usual weird self” Mary said with a giggle. That seemed to throw Zerden off as he just stood there watching her.

“What does that mean?” he finally asked, Mary shrugged.

“He made sure that I was in a good mood” she said.

“Okay, if you say so” Zerden said, looking out the gate at Erik as he was walking away. “Can we get going? I don’t want lady Sarah to have to wait for us.”

Whit those words, Mary’s good mood disappeared, and she just nodded and followed Zerden towards the gardens.

Zerden didn’t seem to notice her mood change, he was busy talking about how excited he was to se lady Sarah again and about all the things he wanted to ask her and talk about with her.

Mary nodded and once in a while she added a “Aha” or a “That sounds nice”. She realized she would rather have followed Erik back to his home. Even though she didn’t like spending time there, it sure was better than being where she was a t this moment.