“I was thinking about what I would like to do after the judging hour is over.” She straightened the blank parchment in front of her unnecessarily, whilst averting her gaze.
The king’s boredom instantly started to ease and just before he could continue the pursuit, a local merchant appeared in the doorway. The merchant wasn’t wearing a mask and her hands could be seen; so the king and scribe knew it wasn’t a matter for judgement.
“Good eve Brede?” Asked the king.
“Aye thank you!” She sat down comfortably on one of the benches.
There was equality in the land.
Brede got straight to the point.
“There’s intriguing chatter at the inn tonight. A group from the North are heading towards us at a decent pace. The news caused so much fuss it was like a fox had got in with the chickens!” She chuckled, adding: “You’ll hear about it soon enough when you arrive.”
“How many days do you reckon Brede?” He asked her.
“A few. The ones we know about at least.” Getting up to leave, explaining she wanted a nap to sober up before starting the fires of the bread oven, in readiness for the dawn bake.
©CMA 2018
To The King and to The Queen
From Tall-ish Tales (Short-ish Stories)
The Angry Farmer 