In a Weary World

Chapter IV: The Magician

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere. -- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

"What did you say your name was?"

"Merethe Haagensen, sir."

"And how old are you?"

"Sixteen, sir."

Vidar Ovesen eyed the girl before him dubiously. She looked at least two years older than sixteen, yet the wide-eyed curiosity she showed as she surveyed the bookshop reminded him of a small child on her first trip to town, and the way she kept glancing around as if expecting to see someone standing behind her made him think of a teenager doing something her parents would not approve of and expecting them to appear at any moment.

"What work experience do you have?" he asked, moving on to the next question on his list of questions to ask job applicants.

"None at all, sir. You see, my parents were rich and none of us needed to work, but then they got into debt, and I want to get a job to help."

Well, that was a plausible enough explanation, and went some way to explaining Merethe's nervous air. It also raised another question.

"Do your parents know you're applying for a job?" he asked, and his suspicions were confirmed as Merethe turned red.

"Not exactly, no."

"Hmm. Why do you want to work in a bookshop?"

"I like books," Merethe replied, in a 'why else would someone work in a bookshop?' tone.

Vidar considered for a moment. "As long as you do what you're told and don't cause trouble, you've got the job. You can start work tomorrow."

~~~~

Rigmor had spent the entire job interview certain that her latest prospective employer would see right through her. When he announced that she had got the job, she went through a complicated series of emotions starting at almost fainting with relief and ending with delirious joy. At last! After so many failed attempts, she had finally succeeded! The money she had taken with her when she ran away was dwindling after weeks of staying in inns. Now that she had a source of income and could afford to rent proper lodgings, she could set the rest of her plan in motion.

She wandered down the street, planning her next actions. She hardly noticed the shoppers milling about, wandering in and out of shops or stopping to gossip with their friends. None of them paid any attention to her. Certainly none of them suspected that their cursed princess walked in their midst.

Rigmor had heard rumours of a witch dwelling in a village several miles away, breaking curses and banishing small, troublesome imps and suchlike. That was where she would start, and if the witch couldn't break her curse, then perhaps she could direct Rigmor to someone who could.

The princess turned off the street into a park beside the river. Children ran around, laughing and playing under the watchful eyes of their mothers or nurses. Young men and women, with the haggard, haunted expressions of university students preparing for exams, sat in groups on the grass and talked about everything except their studies. Rigmor wandered past all of them and down a path on the river bank, lined with oaks and a few birches just starting to regrow their leaves after winter.

She stopped beneath one of the trees and gazed out at the river with the wonder of one truly seeing it for the first time. Her previous glimpses of the river running through Therlund, the capital of Vardiholm, had been through windows -- the windows of the castle or of the royal carriage.