Aristocrat | ✓

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

     The day after that Lord Evenus left the walls of Barcombe's castles with his men. I had watched from the courtyard with Marie, feeling a part of my soul leave me when the gates closed behind the men. A part of me would worry for him through the summer. Of course, he was a good warrior, but even good warriors lost eventually.

     "Don't be too worried, he'll be back," Marie muttered, squeezing my shoulder before walking away from me. I stood on the spot, looking out in the distance even when they had disappeared. I only left for the castle when the sun became too hot.

     The next few days were lonely. Tory had left with his master, and Marie was focused on preparing things for her trip home as well as mine. I felt bad not helping, but a part of me felt that packing up and counting down the days until I was made to visit family would mean I didn't miss Lord Evenus.

     Two weeks passed, and I was hoisted away on a carriage to go back home. I looked out at the scenery that was drowned in orange sunlight. The dirt brown ground was visible, and so were the greens of the trees and grass. There were more people on the streets now. They were doing everything from carrying firewood, tools, and foodstuff. The carriage also passed other horses and stray animals. It was a big contrast to the white-blue frozen path the carriage had taken when taking me to Barcombe Castle for the first time.

     As the carriage approached the main village my heartbeat quickened, and words felt lodged in my throat. I soon spotted familiar faces in the crowd, and I had an idea of how long it would take before we got to my family's cottage at the far end of the settlement.

    People looked out of their windows or just stared from the front of their doors as the carriage passed them by. The horses came to a stop at the dwelling I had known as home for years. The driver called out to me to come down, so I grabbed my bag and did just that, while the driver offloaded the things Lord Evenus had sent with me as a present for my family.

     "Manfred is that you? I didn't know you were coming, what happened?" I heard my mother's soft voice. I looked up, spotting the woman in an ankle-length dress and a red headscarf. She had a concerned look on her face, so I smiled at her and she seemed to relax. I hadn't sent a note informing anyone that I was coming to visit, and me showing up out of the blue might look like I was sent away for doing something bad, which wasn't the case.

     "The Lord went for a campaign, so he said I and the other works could take a fortnight off," I explained when my mum came up to me to touch my face with her right palm.

     "You look healthy," she said before her eyes looked over to the bags beside me.

     "Presents," I explained, hoping that what Evenus had sent with me wasn't too grand. He'd had Marie give me some food, textiles and a few animal-hides for my family.

     "Isabelle, Mathilda, help Manfred with the bags," my mother said when my sisters made an appearance. Just like my father they had dark red hair. They were three and ten, and twins, a lot younger than my three and twenty.

     I looked around, hoping to spot my six-year-old brother, but he was nowhere in sight.

     "Where's John?" I asked as my sisters pulled at the bags.

     "Inside with pa," Mathilda said, smiling and showing off her buck teeth. The only thing that set her apart from Isabella. Mum said they had different teeth because they ate differently. I'm not sure how that held up to natural philosophers.

     "I'll be off," said the horseman who has been working on the background said. We like behind us, returning the wave he gave us with a cap before watching him ride away. I looked at my mother when the horses were out of sight.