Page 51 of The Trials of Alaric
The thought occurred to him again the following morning, as he stood on the bank of a swollen river, looking at the ruins of the bridge they had intended to cross.
“It was meant to be a simple journey there and back again,” he commented to Tarquin.
“It has turned into a bit of an odyssey, hasn’t it?” Tarquin replied.
Alaric stared at him. That was it!
“She keeps the hearth, defends the home.
“He far across the seas does roam.
“Which is her lord? The bow’s the test—
“Revealed, triumphant, still the best.”
Odysseus and Penelope. Surely. Clue solved! When he returned from his long voyage to find his wife besieged by suitors, and she agreed to marry the one who could draw her husband’s mighty bow. Odysseus, in disguise, was the only one to succeed.
Now all Alaric had to do was return toCashtal Vaaichand find the image of the pair of them.
*
Bea’s sleep hadbeen restless and disturbed. She woke heavy-eyed to the news that the suitors were attending the horse fair in the village of Duncarrick today, with instructions to buy a carriage horse for a lady and a horse suitable to pull a plow for the home farm.
“The ladies are not required to attend, my lady,” Eunys told her, “but can if they wish.”
A horse fair. It might be better than drooping around the castle all day, waiting for news of Alaric.
“My riding habit, please, Eunys. And let the other maids know to tell their ladies I will be going to the horse fair, and they are welcome to ride with me or come by carriage, if they wish to attend.”
An hour later, they all rode out—the four remaining suitors, Bea, Ellie, and the Hetherington sisters on horseback, and Mrs. Howard and her daughter, Lady Dashwood, Aunt Joan, Reina, and Christina in two curricles, one driven by Mr. Maddrell and the other by Mr. Whittington.
Papa and Lord Lewiston must have been up early, for they were already at the fair when the castle party arrived, as were servants from the castle, who were setting up a tent to provide shade, and in it chairs and refreshments.
The men went immediately to examine the horses on offer. The fair had also attracted peddlers, and Bea led the ladies toward the area where they had set up their stalls. Time enough to admire the horses when the auctions started.
Buying a horse was nearly the last trial. The very last was an interview with Papa.
Alaric and Luke had missed the horse buying. They had missed moving the bulls and driving a carriage, too, but Papa had decreed they had completed the first task on the day of the fair, and they had driven a carriage to Dara yesterday, so that would count, as well.
Papa had been testing the suitors for courage, common sense, prudence, and teamwork. That had been easy enough for Bea to work out. What did buying a horse tell him about the suitors? An eye for a good horse, she supposed. An even better test than the steeplechase of the sense not to be taken in by a showy animal with more flash than substance. What else? The ability to negotiate? A sense of ethics?
Alaric would pass, she was certain, if he were here. But he was not. Would Papa disqualify him from the trials because he was not back when he said he would be? Surely not without listening to him. But that wasifhe came back. Would he?
Did she want him to?
Her heart said yes, and it also said no. No, because he had hurt her by leaving. But surely, he had had a good reason?
The debate continued in her mind as she chatted with her friends, admired ribbons with her cousins, and exchanged commiserations with Ellie, who was as worried about Luke as Bea was about Alaric. Worried, only. Ellie did not seem to be beset by the same doubts as Bea. She was certain Luke would return and was imagining all the dire circumstances that might have delayed him.
“Luke loves me,” she told Bea in an undertone, though the others were totally absorbed in the antics of a monkey that was dancing to the tunes played by a man with an accordion. “He wants to marry me. He is coming back.”
Does Alaric love me? He kissed me. He wants to marry me—or, at least, so he said. But does heloveme?
And when had Bea decided that she wanted love? She had agreed to the trials—had told her father she would choose one of the successful contestants who met with his approval. “Love will come,” Papa had promised her. “Marry a suitable man, and love will come.”
I want what Ellie and Luke have—what I think Reina and Maddrell are developing, but I want it with Alaric.
There. She had thought it, and now it could not be unthought.
