Sapphire - Book 2 (19 page)

“Blackberry pie, my lord and lady?”

Sapphire’s head snapped up as she surveyed
the old, wrinkled woman with her hand outstretched, a small
palm-sized pie within it.

“No charge for a lord,” she said.

“Oh, thank you.” Roe reached out to take it,
but Sapphire grabbed his hand and stopped him.

“Nay,” she told him. “Blackberries are
cursed and not to be eaten from Michaelmas until the spring.”

“That’s nonsense,” stated Roe.

“Nobody will take your pie, old woman,”
Sapphire told her. “Don’t you know that this is the day when
Lucifer fell from heaven and landed on a briar patch of
blackberries? He spit on them and they are cursed and only bad luck
will come to those who eat of them from this day until they grow
again next year.”

“That is ridiculous,” Roe told her. “’Tis
not real, but only a superstition.”

He reached again for the pie, and Sapphire
stopped him once again.

“Please Roe, don’t. I do not want anything
to curse our upcoming marriage.”

“Alright, sweetheart. For you, I will give
up my favorite pie in all the world. Because I love you and want
our marriage to be happy and prosperous, not cursed.”

“I love you too,” she said, her heart having
wings to hear Roe actually say he loved her out loud. And even in
front of a stranger.

“You two are to be married?” asked the old
woman, putting the pie down at her side. She raised her face to
them and in the sun Sapphire could see the cloudiness of her blind
eyes.

“We are,” said Sapphire. “The banns have
already been posted. I am to marry Lord Sexton soon.”

“You sound as if you two have found true
love,” the woman surmised.

“I don’t know much about love,” Roe
admitted, “but I would say that yes, I have found true love with my
betrothed, Lady Sapphire.”

“Sapphire?” the old woman asked. “That is an
odd name is it not?”

“I was named after the sapphire stone in a
dagger,” Sapphire told her.

“You were?” the hag asked curiously,
fingering a pouch at her side. “And why was that?”

“Oh, it’s a long story,” Sapphire said
casually.

“Another of her crazy superstitions,” added
Roe.

“You don’t believe in superstitions?” the
woman asked him in a crackly old voice.

“Nay. Not really,” he admitted.

“Lady Sapphire,” said Erin, coming to join
them. “Lady Katherine requests your presence as she has a line of
people waiting for an audience with her, wanting to be hired to
work at Castle Rye.”

“Go on,” Roe told her. “As I need to leave
for the village and I am already behind schedule. I will see you
later, my love.”

Roe watched Sapphire hurrying through the
crowd with Erin right behind her. His mother sat high upon a wooden
dais, looking out over the crowd of villagers from many towns vying
for the few servants’ positions that were available. Henry was
standing there as well.

“Lord Sexton,” said Waylon, making his way
through the crowd and stopping at Roe’s side. “The reeve says he
awaits you and the day is getting late.”

“I am going right now,” said Roe, turning to
leave, only to be stopped by the voice of the old woman.

“You love Sapphire, don’t you?” she
asked.

“Aye,” he answered, “I do.”

“I can see that,” she said.

“Old woman, you are blind. I doubt you
really meant that.”

“Even the blind can see, but in different
ways,” she told him. “I look into the souls of people, as eyes are
not needed for that.”

“Lord Sexton, the reeve is heading toward
the gate already. Shall I tell him you will be detained?”

“Nay,” he said. “Tell him I will be right
with him.”

His squire left and Roe looked back to the
old woman. “Do you really believe that blackberry pie is cursed?”
he asked. “Is that something you can see with your blind eyes as
well?”

“I believe it is, my lord. As the one who
eats it will have the devil after him. And I believe in
superstitions as well. Did you know you should give your beloved a
betrothal gift? It is proper if you really love her as you
say.”

“How did you know I didn’t get her anything
yet?”

“As I told you, I can see into a person’s
soul. I also have a gift you can give her that I think she will
like.”

“And what might that be?”

She reached into her pouch and held out a
beautiful two-toned etched dagger with a blue sapphire stone in the
hilt.

“That is beautiful,” he said, taking it into
his hands to inspect it. “And I do believe you are right. She spoke
of a dagger similar to this that she had as a child.”

“Part of that superstition of which she
spoke?” asked the woman.

“Yes, it was. I would love to give this to
her as I think it would make her very happy. How much do you want
for it?” His free hand went to his pouch of coins to pay her.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Really, I can’t take such an expensive item
for free. Now how much, old woman?”

“The merchants on the feast day of
Michaelmas are supposed to give a portion of their earnings to
charity in exchange for a space in your courtyard, are they
not?”

“They are,” he said. “But just a
portion.”

“Well, consider this my portion to charity
and give it to your wife.”

“But you could make more from selling this
dagger than you ever could selling those pies.”

“True,” she said. “But the pies aren’t mine.
And the price someone will be willing to pay for this blackberry
pie alone will be more than even the value of that dagger.”

“Lord Sexton,” said Waylon, now with the
reeve at his side. “We are ready to accompany you to the village my
lord, as there is much to be done today and we also look forward to
making merry at the celebration afterwards.”

“Of course,” he said. “Just let me pay this
old hag for the dagger, first.” He turned to try to pay her, but
the back of the cart where she’d been sitting was now empty, with
only the lone blackberry pie in its place.

“Did you see where she went?” asked Roe,
searching the area around the cart with his eyes.

“Nay,” said Waylon, and the reeve just
shrugged. “Oh, blackberry pie, my favorite,” say the squire
reaching out for it.

“Nay!” Roe grabbed the boy’s wrist and
stopped him from taking it. He looked around the courtyard and had
an eerie feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Leave the pie,” he
said, turning and directing his squire toward the gate. “We have
duties to attend to and no time for that. Besides . . . don’t you
know that if you eat blackberries at Michaelmas that you will be
cursed by the devil?”

The boy just looked at him oddly and Roe
felt like a fool for actually saying that aloud. But for some
reason, he actually believed the damned superstition now. And he
didn’t need anything cursing his wedding to Sapphire. He took the
jeweled dagger and stuck it in his weapon belt, anxious to give it
to Sapphire. And that he would, tonight, just as soon as they were
alone.

“Sapphire, hurry,” said Lady Katherine as
Sapphire climbed atop the raised wooden platform and stood next to
her as well as the steward. “We have a long line of villagers and
serfs to talk to in order to decide which ones will serve us the
best.”

“Aye,” said Henry, from the foot of the
platform, “where have you been?”

“I am sorry,” she said. “I was distracted by
a blind old hag selling blackberry pies.” Sapphire took the flower
from her hair and sniffed it, thinking of the wonderful time she’d
soon be spending with Roe.

“Blackberry pies?” asked Henry, suddenly
curious. “Where was this? I need to find this person
immediately.”

“Why right over there,” said Sapphire,
pointing at the cart. She noticed that the old woman was gone but a
man who looked more like a dock rat than a merchant, dressed in
ragged clothing and a woolen cap with a turned up brim covering his
head, stood at the back of the cart instead. “I see that cursed
blackberry pie from here. Whatever you do, don’t eat it. I can’t
believe someone would even bring it to Michaelmas. The nerve of
them as they know as well as everyone that blackberries this time
of year are naught but the curse of the devil.”

“I need to leave now,” said Henry, which got
a negative reaction from his wife.

“Henry, you promised to stay and help
oversee the hiring of the new servants. And we were going to stroll
through the gardens together right afterwards.”

“Nay, I can’t. I’ll be gone the rest of the
day so don’t wait for me.”

“Where are you going, husband?” she asked as
the man hurried toward the cart.

“Don’t worry about it, dear. I have
something I need to attend to.”

Sapphire watched as Lord Henry hurried over
to the cart and conversed quickly with the man. He paid him a coin
and picked up the pie and took a bite. Then he pulled something out
from inside it that looked like a small piece of parchment. He
wiped it off and read something on it, then shoved it into his
pouch, and headed away. Sapphire noticed the parchment fall out of
his pouch as he headed for the stable.

She put her flower down on the chair, all
the while keeping her eyes on the piece of dropped parchment. “I’ll
be right back,” she told Lady Katherine and rushed through the
crowd, dodging people until she got to the cart. She picked up the
parchment and read the words upon it, her heart racing as she did
so.

B.O.B. – owl,
she read, wondering
what it meant.

“Excuse me,” she said, as the peddler closed
up the back of the wagon quickly and started to hitch it up to his
horse. “Why were you selling blackberry pies today when you knew
you shouldn’t?”

“I only had the one,” he told her, which
sounded even stranger. “And I don’t need you asking questions,” he
growled. He took off quickly, leaving the fair with a full wagon of
pies though the festival had just started.

“Something is odd here,” she said aloud. She
looked at the note again, and then her attention was directed to
Lord Henry speeding through the courtyard on his horse much too
quickly with all the children and merchants around. He joined up
with the man with the cart, nodded slightly, and then rode off
ahead of him over the drawbridge and away from the castle.

“Lady Sapphire, what are you doing?” Lady
Katherine made her way through the crowd and over to her, stopping
twice to redirect her path as first several children ran in front
of her and then a stray dog. “I have the steward taking your place
in hiring, but I really wanted you to do it since you are to be the
new lady of the castle soon.”

“Oh, Lady Katherine, I think something bad
is about to happen.”

“What do you mean? And have you seen Henry?”
Her chin raised and she scanned the crowded courtyard. “He took off
so quickly, I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

“He left with the pie vendor in a big
hurry.”

“The pie vendor? Whatever for?”

“He ate the cursed blackberry pie, my lady.
And I saw him take this from within it.” Sapphire held up the small
piece of parchment.

Lady Katherine looked at her quizzically.
“That was in the pie? What does it mean?”

“I think we now have proof your husband is
involved in the smuggling, I am sorry to say. But I believe this is
someone telling him to meet at the Bucket of Blood, hence the
B.O.B. And the owl part – if I’m not mistaken, means the smugglers
who call themselves Owlers.”

“Then we need to go there to find out for
certain,” said Lady Katherine. “I want to know once and for all if
my husband is involved in this or not.”

“’Tis dangerous and I know Roe will not like
it if he finds out. We were just starting to make amends for the
last time I angered him by going to the pub.”

“Then don’t tell him,” she said. “That way
if we are wrong, we’ll not look foolish in his eyes or those of my
husband’s. I’ll get the cloaks for us to hide under and you get our
horses and we’ll go anon.”

“But what about the hiring of the servants?
And the fair? And what will Roe think when he gets back and I’m not
here?”

“The steward can handle the hiring, and we
will be back before Roe returns or before the fair is over. We’ll
just go to the pub and watch from outside. We don’t even have to go
in. If we see Henry there then we’ll know he is involved and we’ll
come back and tell Roe.”

“All right,” Sapphire agreed. “But I want to
take Dugald with us so we’re not unescorted. He can keep a secret,
so we’ll be fine.”

“Then do it,” instructed Lady Katherine.
“But hurry. And make certain no one else knows where we’ve
gone.”

* * *

Roe hurriedly collected the taxes, surveyed
the fields, and tended to the rest of his duties in the village. He
was excited to get back to Sapphire and give her the dagger and
tell her about the mysterious old blind hag. His duties as lord
were taking much too long.

“We’re done here,” said Roe to his squire.
“Let’s get back to the castle.”

They rode quickly and entered the busy
courtyard and excitement coursed through him thinking of the
wonderful night he had planned to spend with his betrothed. He
glanced over the courtyard, but didn’t see her. Then he saw the
steward and rode up next to him, with Waylon right behind him.

“Where is Lady Sapphire?” he asked.

“I am not sure, my lord. I haven’t seen her
all afternoon.”

“But I thought she was assisting my mother
with the hiring of the servants.”

“Nay, I did it by myself,” explained the
steward, “as your mother and Sapphire left early this afternoon,
and to my knowledge they have yet to return.”

“Left? In the middle of a festival and after
she told me we needed to be here. Where did she go?”