Chapter 7: Black, Straight-Haired Lady

Chapter 7

The next day after the tea with the royal couple, the search for the basket, and the first meeting as well as the first escape from Edward, yesterday was so exhausting.

After she left Agnes and Anna's house, she went directly to the back of the house where she grabbed her other basket just outside the window. She carried the basket with medicines on her right arm, the basket with foods on her other arm.

It was not actually the day that she should visit Mrs. Lincoln for her supplies of medicine, but just as to make her reason for escaping not totally a lie, she went to visit her, gave her medicines for the next couple of weeks and took the chance to check if the seventy-year old widow was doing well. Valen was so happy that Mrs. Lincoln was looking better and stronger; she said that his son, Philip, is taking good care of her and the medicines that she is giving her really works. After her business with Mrs. Lincoln, she hurriedly went home.

Valen is having a tea made from fresh, young ceetone leaves that she harvested just outside her shack. It is so early in the morning that it is still dark outside, but she woke up early as this is a perfect time and day to collect morning dews and other ingredients for medicine.

After drinking the tea and eating the last piece of cake, she changes her garments and wears tight, black pants, and then puts on an old brown tunic over a white smock. Her straight, shiny black hair reaches her waist which she lets untied and loose. She grabs her bow and arrows and hangs them on her right shoulder. She grabs two old satchel that she hangs to either side of her shoulders, then puts in a piece of bread for her to eat later to one of the satchel together with a clean, small mortar and pestle that she will use to prepare ingredients as some require to be prepared immediately after harvesting; then lastly, she puts pieces of clean cloth and five small, empty bottles, where she will put collected dews and other ingredients.

She no longer wasted further time as she goes straight outside afterwards, bringing a lighted torch with her, leaving the vial of oil and her cloak as she will only be collecting ingredients.

She went deeper into the forest as she will need to get a full bloom nightling first, which only blooms during summer and only blooms at night but will wither in the morning, that is why she brought the mortar and pestle to prepare the medicine out of nightling flower right away; then afterwards, she will need to find and collect eggs from an ill-tempered bird called giborette, its eggs can heal different kinds of illnesses from yolk to the shell. Then, if she is able to get those hard-to-collect ingredients in no time, she will just collect those other not-so-difficult-to-gather ingredients.

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It is already morning; the sun is already up and bright, Edward is still lying on his four-poster oak wood bed. He was only able to sleep a little as he was thinking of Valen as she did not return from Mrs. Lincoln's house yesterday to escort her home and even found out that the basket of food was no longer in Anna's house where in fact, he was sure that Valen only had the basket of medicines with her when she took off yesterday. What somehow maddens him was that he did not even realized that she will escape from him. Though, what infuriates him most was why is he even thinking about her?

He gets up and changes his clothes. Lord Thomas and Lady Melinda already finished eating their breakfast when Edward enters the dining room.

"Good morning mother, father." Edward greeted his parents.

"Good morning Edward." Both greeted Edward back. "You woke up late today Edward. Overslept? By the way, you escorted Valen home yesterday right? Where does she live?" His mother asked him.

"No, I did not oversleep. I was only able to sleep a little. And another no, I was not able to accompany Valen to her house." Edward told them as a servant serves him his breakfast.

"Why? You both left the mansion and rode the same carriage." Lady Melinda inquired further.

"Yes we did, but she escaped from me. I was waiting for her to return from a patient's house so I can accompany her home but she did not return to where she left me waiting." Edward said sounded irritated. Lord Thomas snickered. "Father, were you just laughing?"

"Sorry, son. This was the first time I heard you irritated which is caused by a lady. You never even showed interest to any girl before. Do you like her?" His father asked.

"No, I do not. Why did you say that? Well, it is true that she is lovely and has dazzling eyes, but no. I only offered to escort her home as she was our guest. Well, definitely she is different from the other ladies that..." Edward seems that he will not stop talking so his father interrupted him.

"Alright, that is enough reasons Edward, enough to let me know that you are somehow interested in her." Edward wanted to interject but his father does not wish to let him speak. "Do not interrupt me son. This is not how you behave normally when we talk about ladies. I will not dig into this matter further; I guess you need to think about this through. But if you do like her, me and your mother will definitely have no complains. If you will excuse me and your mother, Edward." The two rose and went outside.

After eating his breakfast, Edward went to the stables to prepare his horse, Spirit, for a ride.

"Good morning Ben." Edward greeted the senior stable man and the one who drove the carriage yesterday as the chief carriage driver, Dan, was nowhere to be found; probably he is flirting again with lady servants. Ben is already in his early fifties but he is still such a strong man that he still the one who puts the shoes on each horses in the stable, though he already teaches Andy. Andy is also a stableman, which is same age as Edward and the son of Mrs. Morris, the mansion's chief cook. Both of them have been friends since they were children, both are fascinated with horses and they sometimes rode together going to the mountains.

"Good morning Lord Edward" Ben greeted him back. "It is a fine weather today, Your Highness. I believe you will be riding Spirit today. I have already prepared him, I have already made sure that his shoes are fine, I already put the saddle, and everything is ready for a ride."

"Thank you, Ben, you have read my mind again. You know I do not mind to do everything myself but I thank you as I really need to leave right away. Where is Andy?"

"I asked Andy to prepare Jumper, the one he always rode and I also asked for him to get its horseshoes and bring them here. I will be observing if he can already shoe a horse perfectly."

"Yes, he mentioned it to me; hope he can already do so, though I know he will. Please tell him we will not go for a ride today. Thank you again, Ben."

"I sure will tell Andy. Be safe milord." Ben said to Edward sincerely.

Edward went to greet and ride his stallion, Spirit. His horse was given by his father as a present when he was six years old and it was still a days old pony. It was the offspring of his father's black stallion, Valiant, and his mother's white mare, Snow. It was somehow amusing that the royal family owns and rides a family of horses.

A fine, black stallion with a touch of white pigment on half of its four legs and tips of its ears came into view. He touches and pats Spirit as a greeting and it seems that the horse is so happy to see him too.

"Let's go for a ride Spirit. Help me look for Valen so we will be going to Algom first and maybe ask some villagers." He rides his stallion then leaves.

Edward decided to go to the forest to the west between Helena and Algom. A while ago, he asked an old villager when will Valen probably visit Algom again, but told him it will probably be sometime next week but he cannot wait that long so he asked the townspeople of Algom where she lives but they also do not know where, what most of them observed and believed is that sometimes she seems to come from the southeast town entrance, but lately, she has been arriving coming from the north town entrance more which they think that probably Valen lives in the forest as there is a forest outside of town, one can be found in the southeast, the other in the northwest; though it is still a speculation. Having heard what the townspeople observed, it is more likely that what they assumed and speculated is right.

Edward is not too sure if Valen really is living in the forest but he still went deeper into the forest, he has never been deeper on the west forest before, but he is very good in direction, through the wind, through stars, the sun...so he is not afraid that he will be lost. Almost an hour riding Spirit in the forest, he saw a small stream up ahead. He let Spirit rest there for a bit, drink and eat grass - it's a good thing that there are a small amount of hay grass growing near the stream. After Edward drinks from the stream, he also decided to rest for a bit under the shade of trees.

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Valen has collected lots of ingredients. She was able to get and prepare some nightlings, some giborette eggs that she covered with some cloth to protect the shell from damage and crack. She was also able to collect morning dews, some roots, leaves, flower and others that the two old satchels she brought with her became bulky.

She decided to go to the stream to catch some fish to eat later this evening. She goes to the shallower part of the stream where most fish can be found as she prepares her bow and arrows. She was able to find some worms along the way and she throws it in the stream. She puts two arrows on her bow at the same time, then poses to her striking stance as she held her bow properly, calmly waiting for a fish to strike. Just a few seconds later, a school of fish swam towards the worms that she thrown. Waiting for a perfect timing and angle, she releases the arrows from the bow perfectly striking three fish! One arrow hits two fish and the other one hits a fish directly on the center of its right eye! The other lucky alive fish swam away from the worms in panic. Valen puts her bow back hanging on her right shoulder and walks towards the stream and gets her arrows with the three freshly caught fish that are still jerking.

Valen decided to go back home but suddenly saw a black, fine looking horse not so far away to the left across the stream. She has never seen a horse in the forest before so she decided to go and see the horse.

Calmly, she walks across the stream towards the horse so the horse will not be in panic and to let it stay where it is. Getting closer, she thought a while ago that the horse was totally black all over but she was wrong in some way. It is a good and fine looking horse with shiny black coat but the horse has a pigment of white in the lower part of its four legs and on the tip of its ears.

Valen only wanted to touch the horse and not to scare it away, some harmless animals do not scare away from her, even when they look in her eyes, and she hopes that this one will not run away from her. Much closer, the horse felt a presence, then looked to its left and saw Valen. Valen instinctively directed her gaze somewhere so as not to let the horse think that she is a threat. Getting much closer, calmly, thinking that she meant no harm and let her close to him; the horse seems to stay where he is and seems not scared. Valen reaches the horses and now standing beside it. Being closer to the horse makes her more fascinated to it; this horse is so beautiful, she thought.

Once she felt that the horse seems relax, she lifts her right hand slowly, trying to reach his nose. The horse took a small step forward and slowly moved his head towards Valen, that seems that he too wanted to be touch. Gently, he touches the horse's muzzle, gauging its reaction... the horse still is calm and seems to like her touch; she then brushes her hand on his muzzle to his forehead repeatedly and gently. She then makes eye contact for the first time but her eyes being half-closed so as not to scare it away, the horse seems to copy her and his eyes are also now half-closed. Valen hums a soft tune as she brushes the horse's head which makes the horse calmer and relax. The horse is not afraid of her. Her stroking him continues, looking at him gently from time to time now as he also looks back.

The horse makes a soft and friendly-sounding nicker that Valen interpreted as he likes her. Edward abruptly woke up as he heard the soft nickering of Spirit. Edward did not realize that he fell asleep - probably because he lacks of sleep last night. He stands up and brushes off some dirt on his breeches. He decided to go back home for now and walks towards his horse. He suddenly stops at the sight of a lovely, black, straight-haired woman stroking Spirit's head.

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A/N: Chapter dedicated to a friend who finally created an account here in wattpad ;) thebunnyhops