Mary's Path
You are never too old

The more Anna thought about it, the angrier she became at her son. She truly believed him to be a good person. She and her husband had done a good job at raising him to be a strong, loving person.

But at the moment he was being inconsiderate and cruel to Mary and as Mary practically was her daughter, that put her in a foul mood as she prepared dinner.

As the castellan got home and greeted his wife, she almost growled at him, making him raise an eyebrow in surprise. His wife was rarely in a bad mood. But now she looked like she could kill someone.

He knew better than to get in her way on days like this, so he did his best to stay out of her way. Hoping that she would tell her on her own what was wrong.

When dinner was almost ready, Zerden came walking in. On days when he hade the time he would eat dinner with his parents. Anna took one look at him and decided that he looked far too happy.

“You, sit down” she told him, pointing at a chair at the table. Zerden looked at her, he hadn’t even said hello and was already in trouble. The castellan looked on as his son took a seat, with a look that said that he had no idea why his mother was upset with him.

“I had tea with Mary today” she said looking at her son. She got no reaction from him.

“She told me that you had talked to her about her friend. That she shouldn’t se him anymore. Is that true?” she asked.

“Yes” he answered and received a glare from his mother that made him wince. “Did she tell you that he has been taking her to church, just the two of them. I’m only looking out for her” he defended himself.

“Zerden, you and I both know that is not what you were doing, and I won’t have you making that poor girl’s life any worse than it needs to be” Anna raised her voice at her son, waiving her finger at him.

“But mother, a woman shouldn’t be out with a man alone, you know this” Zerden said.

“Zerden, we both know that no one care about social rules like that one outside of the court. The number of men I used to go for walks with before I meet your father”

“Now my love, I’m certain that Zerden had good intentions” the castellan started saying but stop when his wife gave him a death stare.

“You keep out of this husband, I will deal with this” she said, and he raised both his hand as if to surrender. As she turned towards his son the castellan sent his son a apologetic look. He knew his wife well enough to not interrupt again.

“We both know that the reason you said what you said have to do with that boy liking Mary, and not as a friend.” Anna continued as she hadn’t been interrupted. “Not only is it below you to do something like that, but it is cruel to Mary. You know better than anyone that she is terrified of doing anything wrong”.

Anna was please to se that Zerden looked a bit ashamed at this point.

“You know that saying something like that to her will make her withdraw out of fear of being cast out of the castle. Did you ever considered how badly you hurt her with those words? Not only making her go around being scared but also making her give up one of the few people she has.” She stared at him for a while as he squirmed under her harsh look.

“If you have feeling for her this is not the way to go about confessing them” she said, getting a surprised look from her son.

“Mom, I don’t have feeling for Mary. Not those kinds of feelings.” he protested.

“Well, that’s good then, because after the way you spoke to her, I would say you would not be good enough for my Mary. She’s a beautiful girl, woman, both inside and out. Even you can see that. She will replace someone that appreciate her and treat her right. I’ll make sure of that.”

Anna felt a bit cruel saying the last part, but she needed her son to understand what he was risking by his behaviour. She couldn’t confront him about that lady Sarah, Mary had told her that in confidence. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to make him see reason.

“Yes mother” Zerden said deflated.

“Good. Now go wash up and when you see Mary next time you will apologise and make sure she doesn’t feel obligated to stop seeing her friend” Anna said softly, Zerden nodded.

---

Zerden went to wash his hands before dinner. He could feel his face burning from the scolding his mother had given him. No matter how old he got, his mother could make him feel like a child.

He thought about what she had said. He realised that he may have been a bit harsh with Mary. His mother was right when she said that Mary was petrified of making mistakes that could get her dismissed.

But at the same time, he had done it to protect her. It wasn’t because he liked her, she was his friend. He had planed on asking her to the soldiers’ feast. But that was before he had meet lady Sarah. Next to lady Sarah, Mary seemed like a child.

Lady Sarah was so sophisticated, well dressed, and beautiful. Sure, Mary was beautiful to, his mother was correct about that. But not in the same way as lady Sarah.

It annoyed Zerden that men looked at Mary when they were out walking. He had gotten mad at more than one of his fellow soldiers that had made a comment about her to him. But that wasn’t because he liked her, that was just him being protective of his friend.

Mary was so innocent and oblivious to the real world. Some one needed to protect her and as her friend that was his job. Even if that meant hurting her a bit by telling her to stay away from that Erik.

Zerden had seen how Erik looked ad Mary, it hadn’t been as a friend, and he had seen how he blushed when she had said goodbye to him the other day. Yes, Zerden thought he definitely needed to protect her from that guy.

He wouldn’t apologise to Mary, neither would he make sure she continued to see Erik. Zerden could always make sure to boos Mary’s mood a bit next time they meet up to compensate.

Now that he thought about it, she had been unusually quiet today as they had meet with lady Sarah. He appreciated the fact that Mary always stayed a bit away from him and the lady, and lady Sarah had been teasing Mary a bit this time to.

Still, he saw no reason for Mary to be as quiet as she had been when the two of them were walking back from the gardens. Maybe his mother had been right that his words had cut deeper than he intended. He would need to make it up to her somehow he decided before joining his parents for dinner.