Chapter 3
BIRDOSWYN
The day grew warmer, and as the afternoon wore on, I was glad that I wasn’t still wearing my formal doublet with its layers of lace and velvet or I might have melted into a puddle right on the path.
As it was, although I was warm, it was bearable.
It helped that Elowin’s earlier brisk strides had slowed to a casual stroll, which I was almost certain was for my benefit.
Still, it was my first time leaving Hillstowe, and more than once I found myself caught up taking in the surroundings or gazing at a field of black and white cows before finding I was ten paces behind and rushing to catch up.
Elowin didn’t seem to mind, though, waiting patiently with a bemused smile on his face and my heavy pack slung over his shoulder.
We walked for what seemed like miles, and I’d seen no less than four robins, six finches, and a raven by the time we paused under the shade of a willow tree for a much-needed break.
My feet ached, and the fabric of my shirt was clinging to my back when I eased Elowin’s pack off my shoulders and sat down in the long grass.
I swept my hair over one shoulder and thought wistfully of his suggestion that I tie it back.
But of course the idea was ridiculous. I’d had it drilled into me since I was a child—nobility did not tie their hair back. Otherwise how would they be recognized?
Still, I closed my eyes briefly and allowed myself to imagine what it would be like to have the freedom of movement that would come from something as simple as a braid. Not that I even knew how to braid hair. It seemed like something best undertaken with assistance.
Elowin sat down next to me, stretching his legs out and settling back on his elbows. It showed off the length of him, and I couldn’t help noting the curve of his calf muscles and the breadth of his chest. His face was flushed and his hairline was damp, which somehow made him even more handsome.
I put that thought firmly to one side. I was on my way to marry the prince. This was no time to be thinking about handsome guards or their very distracting calves.
Elowin caught me watching him and smiled. “Shall we open that cider?”
“Oh! Yes, of course!” I scrambled to open his pack and pulled out the bottle, and after a moment’s consideration, the pork pies. The lunch at the farmhouse was a distant memory, and my mouth watered at the sight of them. “There will be somewhere to buy dinner, won’t there?”
Elowin nodded. “There’s a tavern we should reach before nightfall.”
A tavern. I had never been to a tavern. Hillstowe was far too small to have one, and even if it had, my parents wouldn’t have allowed me to visit it.
“Is it allowed?” I asked carefully. “Is it proper, I mean?”
“To go to a tavern?” Elowin asked, brows arching. “Why wouldn’t it be allowed?”
“Well, there is drinking,” I said, “and possibly, um, carousing.”
“Yes, that’s the point of a tavern.” His mouth curved in a smile. “Though the carousing is optional. It’s a place to buy some food and drink, and to put your feet up, and to stay the night in a bed instead of a pile of bracken in the woods.”
“But is it suitable lodgings for someone from a genteel family?” I asked. “I don’t want to upset the prince if he were to hear about it. He might not approve.”
His mouth twitched again. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Sparrow. Even Prince Aldian has stayed in his fair share of taverns.”
He was making fun of me a little, I thought, but the sudden warmth I felt wasn’t just because of that. It was because I liked the way he called me Sparrow. My parents would be very disapproving if they’d heard him call me that, but Elowin had said that he liked sparrows too.
“I haven’t seen much of the world,” I said.
“You said you’ve never left Hillstowe.”
I nodded. “But I’m looking forward to seeing everything. Even a tavern.”
Elowin laughed. “I think you’ll like it.”
I hoped so. I was getting the impression that the world outside of Hillstowe was very different than I was used to, and while part of me worried that I was unprepared for such an adventure, another tiny, secretly bold part of me was excited for the chance to explore before I met the prince and he offered to marry me.
Which was the purpose of this trip, I reminded myself sternly. Not making visits to taverns with handsome elf guards and carousing, whatever form that took.
We packed up our things and continued to walk.
“How, exactly, do you carouse?” I asked as we rounded a little bend in the road and a vista of trees and fields and hedges appeared in front of us like a beautiful patchwork quilt.
And Elowin laughed and said, “Wait and see!”
It took us another few hours, and the light was fading when we reached our destination.
The tavern was at a crossroads. It looked much the same as a regular farmhouse from the outside, complete with a stable and outbuilding. A sign hung from a bracket by the door. There was a white swan painted on it.
“The White Swan,” Elowin said, nodding, and I realized the painting on the sign served as the tavern’s name. “The food is hot and the beds are comfortable. I can’t speak for the quality of the carousing, though. We may need to bring our own.”
And then he winked at me, and for some unaccountable reason my face burned. Fortunately, I didn’t have to reply because Elowin was already striding up to the door of the tavern and pulling it open.
I hurried to follow him in.
The taproom of the tavern was large. It contained three trestle tables with bench seats at each one.
It wasn’t very crowded; there were three elves at one table and two at the next, so Elowin and I dumped our packs at the third table.
I sat down while Elowin went to speak to the woman behind the bar.
The tavern was warm thanks to the fire that was burning in the fireplace.
The air tasted of woodsmoke and hot food.
The couple at the other table were talking in low voices, faces wreathed in smiles.
The three elves at the other table were a little louder, laughing, and one of them ran her fingers over the strings of a lute that sat on the table in front of her.
I suspected if there was to be any carousing, it would start there.
Elowin came back bearing two pints of amber liquid and plonked down in the seat opposite me. “They only have one room, so we’ll have to share tonight.”
“Oh,” I said. I wondered what my parents—and the prince—would think about me sharing a room with a guard. Although technically Elowin was my protection, so maybe it was all right.
He slid one of the large mugs across the table. “Drink up, Sparrow.”
I took a sip and made a face. “Oh, this isn’t cider.”
“It’s beer,” Elowin said. “Have you not had beer before?”
“No,” I said.
“I can get you something else.”
“No,” I said. “I just wasn’t used to the taste, that’s all. It’s nice. I shall do my best to finish it all.”
Elowin’s mouth twitched. “Well, you want to be in the mood for all the carousing, right?”
“I come from a genteel family, Elowin,” I reminded him. “I do not carouse!”
Two hours later Elowin carried me upstairs over his shoulder as I continued to loudly sing the cheerful roundel I’d just learned, my new best friend chasing after him to get her lute back.
The sunlight woke me. It was an unpleasant sensation.
I groaned and threw an arm up over my eyes.
It didn’t help. My head ached, and my mouth was dry.
I put my arm down and opened my eyes to see the unfamiliar ceiling of this unfamiliar tavern room.
I remembered Elowin carrying me up here last night and helping me take my boots off, but where was he now?
I peered over the edge of the bed and spotted him stretched out on the floor, his pack under his head as a pillow.
He didn’t even have a blanket! Although he certainly didn’t appear discomforted by that fact.
I supposed that royal guards were trained to handle small discomforts, but I still felt guilty that he’d slept on the floorboards while I’d had a comfortable mattress.
I sat up and regretted it immediately as my stomach rebelled and my head swam.
I pressed my hands to my stomach and groaned.
Elowin opened his eyes. “You alright up there, Sparrow?”
“I don’t feel very well,” I whispered.
He stood up and stretched. “You’ll be fine. You just need a big greasy breakfast.”
That sounded like the opposite of what I needed.
He must have read the doubt in my expression because he said, “Trust me. It’s the best cure for a hangover.”
“I’ve never had a hangover before,” I said miserably. “I don’t think I like them very much.”
“Nobody does,” he said, far too cheerfully, and why didn’t he have a hangover?
He glanced over at me and his expression softened. “Come on. I promise you’ll feel better once you eat.”
My stomach flipped at the thought, but I did trust Elowin. The prince would only have sent his best guard to escort me, surely. Still, did he really have to hum the song I’d learned so faithfully last night, and sung so loudly, as he followed me down the stairs to the taproom?
Breakfast was porridge with honey, thick toast with lots of bacon, and a large mug of elderflower tea, and I did feel better after I ate.
Then Elowin showed me out back to the yard between the tavern and the stables, and we washed in the chilly water of the pump.
I averted my eyes for modesty’s sake when Elowin took his shirt off, but I failed to keep them averted.
For some reason I kept stealing glances of the way the water ran over his skin, and the way his muscles moved, and how the droplets captured the sunlight and made him appear to almost glitter.
My fingers shook a little as I took my shirt off too, but Elowin just smiled and gave me space at the pump. I wondered if he was looking at me the same way I’d looked at him. I turned my head and—
“Ah! Sparrow!” a voice exclaimed.
“Oh,” I said as the woman with the lute approached from the back door of the tavern. “Good morning!”
She pushed up her sleeves as she approached the pump. “You’re looking bright, considering how many beers you drank last night!”
“I think it was only one or two,” I said.
The woman exchanged a look with Elowin.
“It was four,” Elowin said with a shrug and a grin.
Well, perhaps that explained why I couldn’t remember her name.
“Thank you for letting me play your lute,” I said. “I’ve never done it before.”
She grinned. “I could tell.”
I flushed but laughed too. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually drink beer.”
“Well, we all have to let our hair down sometimes,” she said and then looked at mine. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
I nodded, and the three of us spoke a little longer about our travels.
I almost wished we were going the same way as Celeradona—Elowin remembered her name, even when I couldn’t, and dropped it into the conversation—although she was certainly not the sort of traveling companion who would have met with my parents’ approval.
They probably also wouldn’t have approved of the fact that by the time our conversation was done, the three of us were shirtless.
Both Elowin and Celeradona had seemed unbothered by the sudden introduction of her breasts into the proceedings, and so I decided that perhaps I ought to be unbothered too.
Perhaps the rules were different at taverns or perhaps—and I was beginning to think that this might have been the case—the rules my parents had taught me were not as universal as they’d believed.
“She’s fun,” Elowin said with a laugh as we headed upstairs to get our packs. “Shame she’s not headed to the market. Think of all the songs you could have learned!”
Think of all the breasts I could have seen, I thought.
Well, only the same two, I supposed, but repeatedly.
“Yes,” I said, suspecting I was not as unbothered as I’d intended, given I was still thinking about them. “Um, is it usual for strangers to get unclothed together to wash?”
Elowin laughed again. “Well, it’s not unusual in Celeradona’s circles, I expect.”
When my parents talked about social circles, it was usually accompanied by a strong tone of disapproval, not a warm laugh.
There was nothing in Elowin’s voice to suggest that he thought either of us too good to be part of Celeradona’s circles.
In fact, his tone seemed to imply her company would be a delightful place to find ourselves.
“It is a shame she’s going the other way from us,” I said, and meant it. “I liked learning the song about the cuckoo.”
“And you sang it beautifully too,” Elowin said, though by the way he was still laughing, that might not have been entirely true.
We took our packs—I carried Elowin’s and he carried mine—and I waited while he paid the tavern owner, and then we set out westward again.
It was another lovely day. The sun was warm, though not too warm, and the breeze was pleasant. Birds sang in the trees, and I untangled the different melodies as I walked so that I could identify which song belonged to which bird.
I’d never walked this far in my life. My shoulders ached from the unaccustomed weight of the rucksack and my thigh muscles complained as we made our way along the narrow path.
Yet when I glanced over and found Elowin walking alongside me with a soft smile on his handsome face, I found that I really didn’t regret the lack of a royal carriage at all.