Mary's Path

Time seemed to pass quickly when Mary finally began to accept her new life. She enjoyed her new chores and she quickly learned how to chop carrots and diced parsnips.

She had started to make some of the porridge they ate in the mornings, and she discovered that after watching how one of the other assistants did, she could cook porridge that neither floated into the milk nor got stuck in the pot.

Filled with new confidence, she learned how to clean meat and fillet fish. The days weren’t any shorter, but the chores suited her better.

Her hands would still hurt when she went to bed at night, but now it was due to cuts from knives or that she had burned herself on a hot saucepan.

She also had Wednesday afternoons to look forward to. She and Zerden met in the courtyard outside the kitchen and practiced. As spring passed into summer, he began to master the letters better and better.

He, in turn, used the time to tell her about all the exciting things that happened outside the kitchen. He often knew who had been visiting the king, whether there had been new ladies for the Queen or if any of the guards had gotten into trouble.

For both Mary and Zerden, Wednesday afternoons were a welcome break in the chores. They slowly but surely developed a friendship, even though they still had fights even now and then.

Mary rarely knew how to spend her free Sunday afternoons. She had thought about going to visit Erik, but she was still afraid of his mother. Instead, she started to visit a church and sat there until it was time to go home.

Mrs. Karrots, who knew very well where Mary was going on Sundays, took it for piety, others might have taken it for a way to pass the time. In fact, for Mary, it was about dampening the feelings of guilt that were plaguing her.

The weeks rolled on and summer was replaced by autumn.

It was the last Friday of the ninth month and the staff in the kitchen lined up and watched the treasurer who had set up his table in the dining room.

He sat on a chair and called them out one by one. They had to go to the table and receive the pay for the past three months. Then the treasurer made a note in a big book and called out the next name.

Next to him was Mrs. Meata. Mary had been right when she had had the feeling that everyone in the kitchen was afraid of Mrs. Meata that first day. Everyone took care to get in her way or make her angry.

When everyone had got their pay on this day, the treasurer got up and took his book and left the room. The kitchen staff were getting ready to return to their chores when Mrs. Meata spoke to them.

“Today, all the rooms are to be inspected,” she said, then left the room. Everyone exchanged nervously glances with each other. Mrs. Meata always found something to complain about, Mary had been told.

As they began working on dinner, they discussed what she would find this time. They fell silent when Mrs. Meata appeared again and walked through the kitchen. All the work seemed to stop, and everyone was watching her. She stopped in front of Mary.

“You have a locked chest in your room,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Mary, and curtsied, she had stopped breathing.

“Give me the key”, Mrs. Meata ordered. Mary stiffened, after the Lady had hung the key around her neck, Mary had only taken it off when she was going to wash herself. Would she have to give it to Mrs. Beata?

Mary looked at Mrs. Karrots. If Mrs. Karrots had understood that Mary needed help or if she was just annoyed by the fact that the work in the kitchen had been disturbed, Mary did not know. But Mrs. Karrots came striding towards Mary and Mrs. Meata.

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking at Mrs. Meata.

“The girl has a locked chest in the room, and I want the key so I can look in it,” Mrs. Meata explained. Mrs. Karrots looked at Mary.

“Mary, what’s in your chest?” she asked.

“A couple of things I inherited from my parents, a couple of dresses I’ve received as a gift, and the money I’ve earned while working here,” Mary replied. It was as close to the truth she dared and wanted to come.

“There. Do we have to look through dresses and memorabilia?” said Mrs. Karrots as if the case was closed.

“Do you trust her word?” asked Mrs. Meata.

“Mary has never spoken untrue as long as she has worked here. She is one of my most trusted assistants” Mrs. Karrots said simply.

“What if she has things she’s stolen from the castle in that chest?” said Mrs. Meata angrily.

“Are there any objects missing?” the cook asked. Mrs. Meata had to admit there wasn’t, but you never knew she argued.

“I wish you would stop bothering my staff, Mrs. Meata,” Mrs. Karrots said.

“We have a lot of work to do before dinner and I’m not going to ask the court to wait so that you can look in the chest of a kitchen assistant. If you want to accuse Mary of theft, I want you to have something concrete” she continued, turning around and walking towards a large pot.

She clearly showed that the matter was dismissed. Mary had not dared to look up during the conversation and noticed that she was still holding her breath.

“Don’t think you’re anything special, I’ll make sure you suffer for this,” Mrs. Meata whispered before she quickly left the room.

Mary stood paralyzed, what had she done that could make Mrs. Meata so angry? Mary decided to make even more of an effort and make sure that there was nothing to complain about either in terms of how she performed her work or how she conducted herself.

On Wednesday it rained and cold winds blew across the yard. Mary and Zerden had sat in one of the storage sheds to escape the weather. Mary had just told Zerden about the incident with Mrs. Meata.

“She’s really horrible” he said. “Father says there’s not a friendly bone in her body. He says that in all the years they’ve both been at the castle, he hasn’t seen her smile once.”

“How sad,” Mary commented. Zerden shrugged, he didn’t understand why it would be sad. He just thought it proved how mean Mrs. Meata must be.

Mary asked Zerden to spell infantry, she often chose words she knew he was interested in. When he managed to spell the word without hesitation, she smiled at him.

“You’ve become very good” she praised him.

“I don’t think you need any more lessons” she added sadly. If she wasn’t going to teach Zerden on Wednesdays, she didn’t know what to do.

“Maybe not, but we don’t have to tell anyone that” he said. “Why don’t we keep meeting and talking? We’ll both get out of the chores for a little while.” Mary liked the idea and accepted it.

They sat there for a while and talked about everything that was happening in the castle. The prince was going hunting in a couple of days and Zerden’s father was putting together a group of soldiers to go along.

Mary listened to Zerden when he told her he was going to be going. Mary congratulated him. Like Erik, Zerden wanted to be just like his father.