Cinderella- Fairytale Retold

Chapter XIII

The huntress's horse was tethered at the edge of the village green on the next market day, but though Ash swept her eyes around the green, she did not see Kaisa herself. Impulsively, she went to the horse and held her hand out; the mare sniffed at her empty palm and then looked at her with gleaming brown eyes that seemed to reproach her for not having an apple to share. Ash laughed out loud and stroked the horse's neck; her black mane was soft as silk.

"Have you ever ridden a hunting horse?" said a voice behind her, and Ash turned to see the huntress walking toward them.

Ash felt herself tense up nervously, and she answered, "No, I haven't."

"Would you like to?" Kaisa asked, swinging a saddlebag off her shoulder and buckling it onto the back of her horse's saddle.

"Oh, yes," Ash said eagerly, and then it occurred to her that the huntress might have been making her an offer, and perhaps she-a common household servant -should have turned her down.

But the huntress said, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, "Then I'll come tomorrow?"

For a moment, Ash was not sure if she had heard her correctly. She stared at Kaisa, who finished tightening the straps of the saddlebags before looking back at her. She was slightly taller than Ash, and she rested her left arm on the horse's withers; the sleeves of her tunic were pushed up, and her hands were bare. She seemed to expect her to say yes. Ash opened her mouth to do so, but then remembered that her stepmother would be at home. "I cannot, not tomorrow," Ash said, her heart sinking as she realized that she really did wish to say yes.

Kaisa seemed unperturbed and merely asked, "When will you be free?"

She stepped back so that she would not be in the way as the huntress came around to unhitch her horse. "I-I suppose I could go the day after tomorrow," she said, feeling awkward. Her stepmother and stepsisters would be in the City then.

"Then I will bring a second horse on the day after tomorrow," Kaisa said, and smiled at her.

Though Ash looked out the kitchen window every few minutes on the morning Kaisa said she would come, part of her did not believe it would actually happen. So when she saw the huntress outside the garden gate with a black horse in tow, she had to look twice to make sure she was not imagining it. She went outside to greet her, but before she could say anything Kaisa asked, "Do you have riding clothes?"

"No."

"Then you should wear these." The huntress handed her a cloth bag cinched shut with a leather tie. When Ash hesitated, Kaisa said, "Go on-I'll wait for you." So Ash went back inside and changed into the dark brown leggings and long-sleeved green tunic. They fit almost as if they had been made for her, but for a tiny scar in the knee where the breeches had been mended. They were more comfortable than the borrowed livery she had worn at Yule. These were made for a woman, and Ash wondered whose clothes they were and how Kaisa had known they would fit her. The thought disconcerted her, and she hurriedly laced up her well-worn boots. Then, taking a deep breath, she went back outside. The huntress stood with her back to the house, gazing out at the meadow. She turned when she heard Ash coming. "Those seem to fit," she said, and opened the gate for Ash.

"Thank you for bringing them," Ash said, wondering if her face were as flushed as she felt.

"You can't ride a hunting horse in a dress," Kaisa said with a grin, and Ash laughed apprehensively.

"I don't know if I can ride a hunting horse at all," she said.

"There is no need to worry. Jewel is an experienced teacher," Kaisa said, stroking the black mare's neck. Ash looked at Jewel dubiously-she might be an experienced horse, but to Ash's eye, Jewel was grander than any horse she had ever ridden. Except, she realized, the times she had ridden with Sidhean. The thought of him in the midmorning light, with the huntress standing before her, was jarring.