003: Healer's garden

Nora's POV

I woke up hungry enough to eat the blanket.

The smell of fresh bread pulled me into the kitchen, where a tall woman in a grey apron stood directing two younger kitchen girls through the morning preparations.

"What does it take to get a decent meal in this house?" I asked.

The two younger girls froze. The older woman set her ladle down and turned to me the way a person turns when they have been waiting since dawn.

"Lady Hale left clear instructions last night, my lady. The charity bride eats what's left after the full household is served. If you ask me, I think that's quite an easy punishment for you after you attacked her."

"And did any of you see me attack Lady Hale?"

"My eyes are not what Lord Dorian pays me for, my lady. My loyalty is."

"Loyalty to Lady Hale, or to Lord Dorian? Because lately, they don't seem to be the same thing."

Her mouth tightened. She did not answer.

I could have kept pushing, but arguing with people like her was a waste of time I didn't have.

Still, I gave her the one line I knew would carry straight back to Cassandra.

"Tell your mistress her little act worked beautifully for one morning. I wouldn't count on it lasting past breakfast."

I turned and left before she could answer.

The reminder floated up in front of my eyes like the system could hear my stomach growling. A side door at the end of the corridor opened into a walled garden, where rows of plants I didn't recognise grew between stone paths. The air smelled green and sharp, like crushed leaves and something medicinal. A woman knelt at the far end with her sleeves rolled up, digging around the roots of a grey-leafed plant with her bare hands.

She was older than me. Maybe forty. She had brown hair streaked with silver, tied back with a strip of cloth. There was dirt under her nails. She wasn't wearing any jewelry, no fine dress. She looked up when my shadow crossed her row.

"You are the Whitmore girl."

"Nora," I said.

"Maren." She sat back on her heels and looked me over. Not the way the cooks had looked at me. Not the way Cassandra looked at me. Maren looked at me the way a doctor looks at a patient before deciding what is wrong. "You look hungry."

"The kitchen said I eat whatever scraps Cassandra and Dorian leave behind."

"The kitchen said that, did they?" She stood, brushed the dirt off her knees, and walked to a stone bench where a cloth bundle sat beside a water jug. She unwrapped the bundle. There was bread, cheese, and dried fruit. She held it out.

"I always bring extra. The kitchen staff have moods."

My hands took the bread, and I bit into it before I could talk myself into being polite about it. It was dense and sour, but it was food, and my hands were shaking.

"Thank you."

"Sit down before you fall down." She poured water into a clay cup and handed it to me. "I'm thaaaaaae estate healer. Your father and I studied under the same teacher, years ago. He was better than me. Steadier hands."

My eyes went to her face. In the book, Maren had barely been mentioned. A background character. The author had given her three lines across the entire novel and never even described her face. But here she was, real and solid and offering me bread when nobody else in this estate would.

"You knew my father?"

"Knew him well enough to know his daughter wouldn't shove a teacup at anyone." She bit into a piece of cheese. "I also know Cassandra Hale well enough to know she doesn't bring tea to people she considers beneath her."

My chest loosened. One person. One person in this whole estate who was not already against me.

"How bad is the story she's telling?"

"Bad enough. Half the staff think you attacked her. The other half don't care because they've been told to keep their distance from you." Maren shrugged. "Cassandra has been managing this household's opinions for years. She knows which servants gossip, which ones report to Dorian, and which ones can be bought with a smile and a kind word. One night was all she needed."

"And Dorian believes her?"

"Dorian believes whatever keeps his life simple. Cassandra is simple. You are not." Maren tore off a piece of bread for herself. "That's your problem and your advantage, depending on how you use it."

"Good to know.”

"There is a garden reception in a few days. Lord Aldric will be there. He doesn't leave his chambers often, but he insists on meeting you." Maren glanced at me sideways. "That's the one that matters, Nora. Not Dorian. Not Cassandra. Lord Aldric is the one holding this whole arrangement together. If he decides you're worth keeping, Dorian can't throw you out no matter how badly he wants to."

Golden letters flickered at the edge of my sight.

[New task assigned. Earn Lord Aldric's approval at the garden reception.]

[Reward: Redemption points +10000.]

Ten thousand dollars. Enough to hire a shark lawyer back home. Enough to make Ethan's smile crack the second he saw my new team walking through his door.

That matched what I remembered from the book. Lord Aldric was bedridden, old, and stubborn. He believed in the marriage contract because he believed in debts, and he would not let his grandson break a promise made on his behalf. But in the book, Nora had never earned his approval. She had stood at the reception, silent and small, while Cassandra charmed the room and Aldric watched with disappointed eyes. He didn't break the agreement, but he didn't bless the union yet because the future queen couldn't be timid and small.

"What does he care about?" I asked. "What would make him decide I'm worth keeping?"

Maren gave me a long look. "You are a healer's daughter. Show him that."

"I don't know anything about healing."

"That can't be true." Maren nodded at my fingers wrapped around the bread. "Your father trained you since you were twelve. Don't tell me you never learned anything all this time."

She was right. Memories and knowledge of herbs and teachings were now flooding my head and I remembered I had this body's memories and abilities. “You're right. But I need a little more training if I'm to be as good as my father was.”

[New bonus task available.]

[Learn three medicinal plants that will be useful to Lord Aldric from the estate garden before the reception.]

[Reward: Redemption points +2000.]

Two thousand more. For learning a few plants. The system was practically throwing money at me.

I had a clear knowledge of what the book said that was going to happen at the garden reception. Lord Aldric's illness was going to worsen significantly and nobody would be able to help him except me. It took me a few weeks in the book before I could get the perfect combination to do it. But Cassandra took the credit and blamed me for worsening his condition with my ragged presence.

"Teach me," I said. "Whatever you can. Before the reception." Access to Maren's knowledge was certainly going to help me remember and plan ahead on saving Lord Aldric.

Maren's mouth curved. Not quite a smile. More like the look of someone who had been waiting to be asked.

"Your father would have said the same thing." She pulled the grey-leafed plant from the soil and held it up. "This is silvervein. It stops bleeding in seconds. Every healer on this continent carries it, and half of them don't know how to grow it properly." She pressed the stem between her thumb and finger. Clear sap beaded out, thick as honey. "Aldric's physicians have been trying to slow the old lord's decline for years. None of them think to ask the garden."

That went into memory. If Aldric valued healers, and his own physicians were failing him, then a healer's daughter who actually knew her plants might be worth more to him than a roomful of Cassandra's charm.

"Come back tomorrow at dawn. Wear something you don't mind getting dirty." She paused. "And Nora, stay out of Cassandra's way until then. She's not finished with you. That woman doesn't lose gracefully."

"I know," I said. "I've met the type before."

Maren looked at me a moment longer than necessary. Whatever she saw, it seemed to satisfy her.

Then her face dropped.

"One more thing. Before you go."

"What?"

She did not answer right away. Her eyes moved to the garden gate, then back to me, and her voice went low.

"If you secure Lord Aldric’s blessing at that reception, you'll make Cassandra desperate. And desperate women do things nobody can plan for. Make sure you have a plan to survive past that night, Nora. Because when she comes for you, she won't miss twice.”