Is this a good idea?

Mary watched Kopa walk away with his group of riders. She turned around and looked at the three riders that were her escort for the day. As usual Kopa had taken it a bit too far, her new friends, they were her friends, weren’t they, looked dumbfounded.

“Don’t mind him, he’s a bit overprotective” she tried to say with a smile.

“I have never seen sir Teeran like that” Jontak finally said.

“Look, I know he can be a bit frightening. But I promise it’s not a big deal” Mary tried again.

“Oh, that part isn’t surprising” Sinhera told her. “The scary thing is seeing him smiling and looking… kind and happy” she continued, and the other two riders nodded in agreement.

“What are you talking about? I know he doesn’t smile a lot, but he is always kind. Everyone can see that, can’t they?” Mary told them. She had always seen it in Kopa so she always figured that everyone else could as well. But all three riders shook their heads in unison.

“Well, he his. Shall we get going?” sha asked. She didn’t like that people thought Kopa was this grumpy, strict, and terrifying man.

“Sure, I’ll lead the way” Sinhera said with a smile and soon they were at the fabric stalls looking at fabrics.

“For bathing clothes, you need wool fabrics, you want them as thin as possible and as soft as possible” Sinhera told her.

Mary had decided to buy fabric as well. If Sinhera were to teach her to swim, she would need clothes that she could use. Mary would ask Bettina to take her to Cheara so that she could order bathing clothes from the seamstress. Maybe they could pic up some of her new dresses as well.

After looking through the stalls, to the dismay of Jontak, Mary decided on a thin, dark blue, wool fabric. Sinhera chose a black fabric. Tenac took the bundle of fabric from her.

“I think we better be heading back” he told them, and Mary nodded.

They walked back to the entrance whilst talking about their plans the coming days. As they reached the entrance, they stopped so that Sinhera and Jontak could say goodbye.

“Mary, we are having a party on Saturday. The company that is, would you like to go with me?” Jontak asked her.

To say that Mary was surprised was an understatement. No one had ever asked her something like that before. She looked at him in silence for a moment as she worked out what to do.

“That is very kind of you Jontak. But I’m not ready to attend parties at the moment. But I appreciate that you thought of me” she said. Jontak looked disappointed but Mary thought that Tenac looked relived.

Didn’t he want Mary to come to the party? Of course he didn’t Mary realised. She was his mission so he wouldn’t like her to intrude on his free time. He deserved to relax, Mary was happy she had made the right decision.

After they had said goodbye to the two riders and checked out Mary’s knife, Tenac walked her home. This time they took a new route. As they got close, they started to plan when they could head out next time. Tenac suggested Saturday.

“I thought there was a party then?” Mary said.

“There is, I’m not a fan of the company parties, I usually avoid them. And I won’t have another day off until Friday next week after that” Tenac replied.

“Then you should really take the day off. You need to relax” Mary told him, and he smiled at her.

“Walking around the city with you isn’t that taxing. It’s a good way to get out of the party. If I stay in the barracks, someone will come find me and drag me to the party. If I go back home for the day, my mother will spend the day telling me I should be more social” he told her.

She could see that even if he tried to make it sound like he found his mothers behaviour annoying, he really didn’t mind it.

“Okay, but let’s make it a half day, that way you can get some free time”

“Sounds good. I’ll come and get you after lunch? I think we can start exploring things outside the marketplace” he agreed.

After agreeing Mary said goodbye to Tenac and headed inside with her fabric. So much had happened during the day that Mary felt like her head was overflowing of thoughts and impressions. She planned to go to bed early, draw a hot bath and try to sort things out.

The next afternoon, Mary and Bettina was cooking for the dinner. They had invited Dr Genict to come over. Kopa had promised to be on his best behaviour but both Mary and Bettina were a bit worried. Mary was hoping that their plan to get Dr Genetic to back off would work.

Bettina had asked if Mary would like to be responsible for the dessert, she thought it would be nice to try something from Dermes. Mary was happy to do it. While she helped Bettina to cook every day, she had been occupied with learning the local cuisine that she hadn’t made anything from Dermes yet.

Mary had, after some thinking, chosen to make one of her personal favourite desserts. It was made with a soft cake that was layered with vanilla cream, whipped cream, and lingonberry jam. To her dismay lingonberries wasn’t something they used in Salmis. After some thinking she replaced it by using a gooseberry jam that Bettina had made the previous year.

They had set the table in the dining room, it was the first time since Mary’s arrival that they were dining there. Mary took a final look at the table setting and nodded. The table had room for twelve people. But as they were only four that would be dining, they chose to place everyone at one end.

Mary went through to the kitchen, it smelled amazing, and Bettina stood stirring one of the pots. Mary looked at the organised chaos and felt right at home.

“Is everything ready?” she asked Bettina. Bettina looked at her and smiled.

“Everything is right on time. The stew needs some more time, but it will be done when we are ready to eat. Now we are only needing the men.”

Mary nodded and felt a bit restless, now that most of the work was done, she just wanted this thing to get going. Bettina had gone with her to the seamstress in the morning and they had ordered bathing clothes for her. They had also been able to get the two last everyday dresses they had ordered for her.

She was now wearing her pale orange dress with a square neckline. She loved it just as she did with all her dresses. They were both beautiful and comfortable. Mary had realised that she enjoyed having the choice to were more colours than the dreary black ones she wore in the kitchen.

The front door opened and a minute later Kopa came walking into the kitchen. He greeted them with a smile as usual and gave Bettina a peck on her cheek.

“It smells mouth watering in here, I can’t wait for dinner” he said, trying to pinch a bread roll that was cooling. Bettina swapped his hand away and handed the basket with bread to Mary to put in a safe place.

“Thank you dear, you have just time to go and change before our guest will arrive” Bettina told him. Kopa followed the breadbasket and Mary decided not to put it down until he had left the kitchen, just to be safe.

“I’ll be back, ladies” he said, leaving to get changed.