Lunamae (29 page)

“I brought you a prezzie,” she said with an
ear-to-ear grin. I couldn’t help but smile back. I gently took the
flowers from her with a thankful nod. I pulled a string out from my
needlework kit and tied them around the flower stems, then lifted
them up to hang upside-down from one of the beams of the house.

“You’ve been in the house for much too long,”
Logan told me. “We can watch Caden for you. Go and get some fresh
air. It’s stuffy in here anyway. You don’t get much of a
cross-breeze with the position of your house.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to go,” I told
him, but the little voice in my head told me I knew exactly what I
could do as it forced me to glance at my journal. I had plenty of
planning to do and there were plenty of local vendors who would
need time in advance to create the necessary decorations and
materials for the wedding.

“I know that look,” Logan said, calling me
out on my little fib. I sighed and rolled my eyes which rested on
my “prezzie”.

“Okay, there is something I can do. Our aunt
came in today to ask me if I would like to arrange Lunamae’s
wedding. Although, I’m not sure it was exactly a request,” I
chuckled at the thought. I bobbed my head in the direction of the
bridge. “I can go scout some flowers—see what would work best.
Oydyfr is when the wedding will be so I need to see what could be
dried here. Perhaps Theron could make some suggestions of flora in
Fanarion that we could have delivered so they would be fresh.
Lunamae has such a fondness for blue, so I was thinking perhaps an
assortment of blue flowers would put her more at ease given she
will not be able to see the groom until she meets him at the
altar.”

“A bit barbaric if you ask me,” Logan said to
me as he looked down at Annadel’s face. “I couldn’t imagine asking
my daughter to do the same.”

“She doesn’t want Lunamae complaining,” I
stated. “Besides, it isn’t too terrible. It’s not like she’s going
to have to go through what
I
did when I went to
Fanarion.”

I don’t recall ever actually telling my
brother, and his eyebrows piqued with interest, but I waved my hand
in dismissal. What happened was private and I certainly didn’t want
the delicate ears of my niece to be hearing things which were much
too advanced for her.

“Well if you are going out that way, you
should at least have an escort. Have one of the guards follow you
out,” Logan told me and I rolled my eyes. “You’re important
now.”

“Not as important as Lunamae,” I retorted.
Seeing the expression on Logan’s face made me soften. “I’ll gather
my husband. I am sure he needs some stock. He’s lost some product
in the process of teaching his apprentice.”

“Good thinking. Take your time and come back
when you’re done. I’ll have something stewing over the fire for
you. Yes, I know … cooking with one arm isn’t exactly easy. I’ve
had to learn how to do a lot with Annadel running around.” Logan
smiled and waved me out the door, handing me a basket for
collecting as I left.

Swiftly joined with Theron who carried a
pack, we walked out onto the dirt path leading across the Humble
Bridge. He held my hand in his and gazed at me lovingly as our feet
treaded softly forward. I melted in the contact and smiled at him
as he kept my gaze.

“Are you able to cross?” I asked him. I knew
all I had to do was focus on Lunamae’s wedding and how beautiful it
would be and I would have no issues crossing, but the way Theron
was looking at me—well I knew exactly what was going on in his
mind.

“I’ll be fine.”

I nodded to him after he answered and we both
crossed, still hand-in-hand. When we were safely across, he drew
out a piece of parchment and began to make visual annotations as he
went down the line of the list written there. I tried to swipe a
look at it, but he had already started to close it and put it in
his shirt pocket for safekeeping.

He led me on as we continued into the fields.
I noticed a few blue-budding flowers and skipped towards them. They
were delphiniums and I knelt down to see how they would smell. It
was ages since I’d been around flowers. When I was pregnant I made
sure Theron had removed them all from my presence due to the
smell—even the dried ones. They made me quite nauseous.

“They’ll keep up to a year if you dry them,”
Theron said to me. “I wouldn’t pick them as they can cause skin
irritation. I mean,
you
shouldn’t pick them. I have gloves
on me.”

“Put only a few in there. I want to show
Lunamae so I can get her approval first before sending someone out
to collect more,” I told him. “Did you have something on your list
you needed to collect as well?”

“I have quite a few things on my list. It’s
why I brought my pack with me. Don’t worry, most of them will be
around the flowers so we don’t have to go on some grand adventure
to procure them.” Theron chuckled and withdrew his pack. “Plenty of
space in there.”

I nodded as he put it back and continued onto
the next patch of blue flowers I could spot. I stopped to look at
them and wondered what they were. I did not recall the name of the
plant, but I knew it was something Talfrin had taught me about when
I was younger. There was a long stem with flowers alternating from
large to small, going up the stem like an evergreen tree.

“Monkshood. Excellent,” Theron said as he
lowered himself to pick some with his gloves and place them in his
pack. “They will stay flowering until at least mid-Sedfyr. If the
weather is mild, you might be able to use them in an early Oydfyr
wedding. I need them for making medicines.”

“Perhaps I should have brought something to
make a list with,” I said, feeling sorry that I didn’t have the
best memory lately, and especially since I had Caden.

“I’ll remember for you,” Theron said
playfully as he stood up and we continued. He led me without
touching as he still had his gloves on and didn’t want to get any
of the residues on me. “I think scabiosas would look lovely,
although they are not native to the area. They bloom through
Nachfyr so they would be able to be harvested and delivered very
fresh. I could see if we could get a shipment in from Lermeri. They
wouldn’t have to travel as far as any of the other cities in
Fanarion.”

“Please do. Whatever you suggest from your
home would work fine, I’m sure. She can’t be
too
picky.”

“Really?” Theron questioned with a snicker. I
rolled my eyes in response. He dismissed himself from teasing and
went back to serious gathering. “Hyacinths are out of season now,
but they will be blooming down there. You already know what they
look like.”

“I like them and I’m sure she would. Add it
to your mental order list,” I said. “What about lilies? Ours are
already seeding.”

“Adding to the list,” Theron said smiling,
and with a lift of his finger, as if he was checking it off. “You
should get back to the house. It’s going to be a bit before I
gather everything. As much as you had loved learning about herbs, I
think you have much more to do at home.”

I looked at him thoughtfully. I did need to
contact merchants and plan the making of rings, garments, and
hiring musicians and entertainment. Plus, there was that little
matter of hand-lettering invitations myself. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am.” He winked at me and waved
me off. I didn’t go right away. Well, technically I did and then
quickly turned around to kiss him. We hadn’t had much time to
ourselves with him being the apothecary and I taking care of
Caden.

Instead of a quick peck, he took his gloves
off and threw his hands around my back and waist, pulling me
closer. We became greedy with one another, and soon he had pulled
me to a safe area on the ground where we could lay without being
seen over the cover of the flowers and high grasses.

“Theron,” I breathed out as his lips began to
create a kissing trail up my neck.

“Mmm?” he mumbled to me.

“What if someone sees us?” I asked him. “We
aren’t exactly common peasants.”

Theron huffed. “I can still kiss you
madly.”

We continued in as modest a way as possible
and I don’t think we even realized how much time had passed or we
both had tasks to finish.

“Just where have you been?” Logan asked me as
I entered the house. He glanced over me quickly. “
What
have
you been doing?”

I realized my hair was probably all over the
place and my dress a little stained. I used my fingers to detangle
what I could. “You do remember I had a chaperone.”

“Oh good grief. Never mind that I asked.
Annadel has been complaining about going home, but I kept telling
her we had to stay with Caden until you came back. At least
he’s
been sleeping the whole time.” Logan scooped up his
daughter with one arm quite skillfully and let himself out.

I waved at him and closed the door behind and
then went to check on Caden who was fast asleep in his cradle. In a
few more months I could tell he’d be due for a bigger one. In our
village, the carpenter got bright and instead of selling cradles
outright, he had gone into the business of lending them out for a
lower fee. With some of the women having twins or children within a
short span of one another, his business had improved because they
were able to quickly lease a cradle rather than saving up finances
for one. His ideas had become a model for other merchants,
especially those in the jewelry-making business. With those kinds
of lends, a borrower would have to put up something of value in
case they forgot to return the jewelry or it became lost. A horse
or home did nicely.

I gathered my writing utensils and sat down
next to the cradle, so I could continue rocking while I made my
list of all the parties that should be invited. I planned on
sending out messengers to all corners of Orinda—save for Cragash. I
shuddered at the thought of a gorlag walking into Lunamae’s
wedding, although I giggled as I contemplated the looks the gorlag
would be given by other guests.

I also set to work drafting up a blanket
message that I would write in the keep, where I would have access
to the seal of Frys and better quality parchment. I spent a great
deal of time on the message and soon my paper was filled with edits
and annotations. I was a bit stumped at one point, because I
realized
I
didn’t even know who Lunamae was going to marry.
How would I write the bride and groom? I decided to leave it as
“The daughter of the Chief Dame of Clan Frys and the son of the
Dominar of Kyrie”. I smiled as I decided to add a little bit that
was sure to bring in more attention, specifically “You are
cordially invited by Muirenn, Daughter of Fanarion”.

After Caden had cried for food and I had
filled him up and set him back to bed, as he had been using all of
the morning to play until just before Logan arrived, I continued on
with my secondary list, which outlined everything I would need to
collect. I decided to create a little journal, labeling it “The
Great Marriage of Lunamae”. I probably shouldn’t call it little, as
it was bound to look like a great book, but it was thin so I could
appropriate all I needed and not waste paper. I didn’t get to
writing much in it because soon I was fast asleep.