Myosotis

Myosotis : Chapter Two

MYOSOTIS

Chapter Two

              While I walked in the castle, my destination was clear in my mind. Following the warm and familiar scents, my feet easily lead me to the kitchens.

              Just like I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to Balm, I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to Poppy. After my mother’s death she had taken an important place in the female figures in my life. While my maid Endine who had always been there for me, was still alive and going on strong, she wasn’t motherly like Poppy was. Maybe it was just the warm bread that made her so, but still, I found myself much more attached to the old cook then the old maid. Maybe it also had something to do with the fact that the old cook never reprimanded me though.

              When I stepped in the warm room, Poppy was there running around and giving orders, telling one to put more salt, and another to stop feeding the oven with wood before he burned the breakfast.

              The minute she saw me, a loving smile filled her flour covered face.

              “Child! I thought you’d leave without saying goodbye,” she exclaimed, and rushed over to me to pinch my cheeks for good measure and hug me.

              I smiled at her while she wiped the flour she had put on my face. “How could I leave without saying goodbye?”

              “Oh but I would have understood, busy girl you are,” she smiled and took my hand in hers. “Come, come, I have something for you.”

              I couldn’t keep from smiling around her. She just had so much energy and a happy aura around her. I didn’t feel this way around a lot of people. Actually I only felt that way around her.

              I followed her while she walked all the way to the other side of the kitchen, where she usually stayed to work and laughed when she slapped Mullein, her son, on the back of the head telling him to stir and stop looking at pretty girls.

              Mullein was a bit younger than me but seeing that I was so often hiding in the kitchens I knew the boy well. His father had died when my mother had. Since then, he had spent all his days following his mother in the kitchens, never going out of the castle. When his mother would be too old to work, he would surly replace her. His was still in the years where he looked lanky, his limbs gangly, but the boy knew his way around the kitchen.

              Poppy stopped behind her counter, and took off the cover from over the single plate there, revealing a single cinnamon bun.

              My smile grew and I took the food eagerly. I still hadn’t eaten today after all.

              “A full basket is waiting for you my dear.” Poppy smiled, taking the plate away “They won’t be as warm the longer you wait to eat them but they should still be good.”

              This was why I loved her. Nothing tasted more like home then those warm cinnamon rolls that just melted in my mouth.

               “So? What are the latest gossips,” I asked smiling and took a big bite.

              Poppy fanned herself with the cloth she had wiped the counter with. “You’re not going to like this sweetie,” she made a clicking sound with her cheek.

              “What?” I asked, hiding my full mouth with my hand.

              “I might be wrong… but with what I’ve heard from people passing by… I think someone might be planning an attack on you, while you ride to the Clematis castle.”