To Break a Curse

Chapter 8

'Is it really bad that I actually quite enjoyed that?' Rose asked Will. They were walking back to Gaius' chambers that evening after finishing work at the stables.

Rose had always liked helping out on Will's farm in the stables: on her farm, they mainly had sheep and crops so Rose had 'borrowed' one of the horses from Will's farm since she was little.

Will laughed, 'just don't tell Tom and Oliver; from what Gaius said, I don't think they were so lucky.'

They ran into Storm in one of the corridors.

'Ah,' she said. 'I was just looking for you. I don't know if you know this, but there's a bathhouse around the west side of the castle that's free for castle workers. You've got time before dinner to use it if you want.'

'Ok, thanks for letting us know,' Rose was relieved to hear this – she had been wondering how she was going to have a proper wash from the wash jug in her room.

'Oh!' Storm called them back. 'Madame Appleby told me to tell you to go to her tomorrow evening for your fittings for the Winter Ball.'

'Sorry?' Rose frowned. She glanced at Will who was looking equally nonplussed.

'You have heard of the Winter Ball?' Storm demanded. A look at both of their faces told her all she needed to know.

'Right, well, it's the highlight of the winter months. The king and queen hold a grand ball in the castle and everyone attends, even the servants. How have you not heard of it? Anyway, you all need to be made suitable clothes, Rose; you'll have a dress, and Will, you and the others will have suits. It's in three days,' Storm suddenly remembered the time, 'look, I have to go, I'll see you later.' And with that, she left them.

'What on earth...?' Will shook his head.

'That's exciting,' Rose grinned. 'I wonder what the music will be like. Do you think there'll be dancing?'

Will shrugged, 'who knows? C'mon, let's get going.'

Gaius was out when they got back so they both grabbed a towel and a change of clothes and after asking a few people for directions, found their way to the bathhouse. There were different entrances for women and men.

'See you back at Gaius'?' Will asked.

'Yep, see you later.'

***

'What time do you think we'll be allowed to leave?' Tom leant against the counter, exhausted. They had both been on their feet for thirteen hours.

Oliver rubbed his face wearily, 'I don't know, soon, probably.' Chef hadn't given them a lunch break so they were starving as well.

Oliver straightened up as Cara entered the scullery saying, 'chef says you can go if you've finished.'

'Brilliant!' said Tom happily.

Cara ignored him and looked at Oliver, 'so, how have you found your day?'

'Oh, you know,' Oliver fumbled with the tea towel he was holding, feeling as if he had too many fingers and was going to drop the plate he was drying. 'It's been easy really, no problem.'

Cara smiled, 'that's good, well, see you tomorrow, Oliver.'

Tom rolled his eyes; that was the fourth time Cara had been to see them that day: it was getting on his nerves.

***

At dinner later that evening, Tom started asking Gaius about magic:

'Well,' Gaius started collecting the plates. 'Magic runs in families and, no one knows why, but only people who belong to the same family can see magic spells when they are performed. To an outsider, they would just see the result of the spell, a little as if you only see the result of wind moving the branches of the trees. Each spell that is performed in one family has the same colour, so one family's might by blue, and all of the spells for another may be green.'