The Lady Who Stay

"How do you think he survived the fall?" she wondered aloud, looking up at the hole above.

"If he did survive the fall, someone must have caught him. Or he fell on a softer ground-or someone looking up at the hole like you are doing now," Meredith, her chaperone and lady companion absently answered.

Cressida rolled her eyes. "You're not even taking this matter seriously."

"I'm not."

"Why ever not?"

"Because you're trying to waste our time talking about a myth."

"No, I'm not," Cressida answered, closing her eyes and reveling at the heat of the sun above them. If there was anything she hated, it was the gloomy feel of the Town behind her.

"We will be late. Your father will be looking for us."

"Let them wait a little while longer," she murmured.

"Your mother will have a faint if you do something strange today," Meredith said beside her.

Cressida finally opened her eyes and turned to her companion, her heavy dress rustling as she shifted on the bench. "I am not planning to do something strange."

Meredith merely looked at her as if she knew better. "I've known you all my life, Cressy. You don't have to say anything for me to realize you are planning something." When she didn't say a word, Meredith added, "Marrying the Lord of Easton is-"

"-the worst idea of the lifetime, I know," Cressida cut in.

Meredith shook her head with a faint smile. "If the Lord of Easton is an old man and ten times your size, yes it is. But he is not. He's merely a few years older than you and you've known each other-"

"-and never liked each other all our lives. I know, this marriage will be horrifying."