Morning in the Market

The late May morning is sun-soaked and warm, with all the shoppers and goods in Bree\'s market bathed in a lazily dappled golden light. Muirgheal has long since put away her winter boots for summer sandals, and today she\'s alone as she picks through a stand of colorful fruit, checking to see what is ripe. After she\'s paid for a few fuzzy peaches, she moves on to eyeing some silks with envy. If she\'d taken some of that barrows treasure, she could afford a new dress...she shakes her head, banishing the thought, and moves on toward the bakery.

Coming out of the bakery, Cordelia has a cookie in hand. She pauses, smiling as she catches sight of Muirgheal, then lifts her hand to wave to the woman. \"Morning.\"

Muirgheal is quite the happy glowing sight, with the warm weather improving her mood greatly as she walks with her basket through the market. Of course, the rosiness in her cheeks might have something to do with the child that\'s made her belly quite round. \"Morning!\" Muir greets, smiling. \"I\'m sorry I didn\'t have time to visit you at the healer\'s the other day, after that boy...\" The smile slides from her face, and is replaced by something a little more menacing, but it\'s not directed at Cordelia, only the thought of Keldean.

\"Rhifaroth\'s knife,\" Cordelia nods, her face darkening and her smile fading. \"I didn\'t really want to think about that...are you going to let Keldean give it to Rhifaroth? He so wants to apologize to him. Though...I don\'t see how that would help.\"

Muirgheal sighs, this time with relief. \"Finally, someone who agrees with me!\" She murmurs, happily throwing her free arm around Cordelia\'s shoulders if the woman is close enough. \"You know, it wouldn\'t help. I have to live with the memories every day- I can\'t forget the way Rhifaroth did- but Keldean stirring it all up again is grossly unfair to my family. We\'ve moved on, and if Keldean comes near my house, he should know what I do to trespassers.\" Muirgheal looks at Cordelia with such innocent seeming dark eyes...and gives her most wicked smile. Straightening up and looking more serious, Muirgheal says, \"He can give the knife to me, or keep it. Rhifaroth has other knives.\"

Cordelia stares back, fear flickering briefly over her face. \"I could show him my scar?\" she offers after a few seconds of silence. \"But ,\" she continues slowly, thinking, \"it seems to me that he is going to have to learn that lesson himself. Isn\'t this the second time he\'s tried to insist on seeing Rhifaroth? Third, if you count that..well, I think he went to the elven valley to try to see him. He speaks Sindarin now--did you know?\"

\"I don\'t take very kindly to being pursued,\" Muirgheal glowers. \"The lad may mean well, or ill, I don\'t care either way. I only want him to quit hunting down my family. He claims to want to do some good, yet I\'ve told him that seeing his face will not be \'good\' for my husband. Why can\'t he hear that when I say it?\" the blonde demands. The last bit causes Muir to raise a brow. \"He...speaks Sindarin? Well, while I find that language beautiful, and know a little myself...that doesn\'t win him any favors from me. He cannot speak to my husband, and that is that.\" Muir shakes her head, watching Cordelia as she speaks.

\"I can\'t say that I disagree with you, Muir. Only...will Rhifaroth? How is he faring these days anyhow?\" Cordelia pauses. \"And...does he know you and I are friends?\"

Muirgheal frowns. \"I\'m glad you agree, but Rhifaroth...I don\'t know what he would think. He\'s doing much better. He doesn\'t leave our house, our land, but he\'s fine there. He talks to me now, without whispering half the time, and he\'s watching the children today. You know he doesn\'t know you and I are friends...it would confuse him, and upset him, if he understood. But he doesn\'t know your face. Remember, that day in Combe when we saw you at your uncle\'s?\"

\"Yes, I remember,\" Cordelia says. \"But I also remember that he seemed to be starting to recall something when I hurried away--his expression changed. So that\'s why I was wondering why you want me to come for dinner.\"

Muirgheal\'s frown deepens. \"Yes, he was starting to recall something...but better if he doesn\'t. I\'ve spoken to him about you since, though, and he only asks, \'who\' or seems not to know you at all. So I think it\'s alright that you come for dinner. You\'re my friend, and if it isn\'t hurting Rhifaroth, than it should be fine...we can only try it, and see.\" Muir finally smiles again. \"Your cookie looks good.\" The blonde grins.

\"You can have it,\" Cordelia says, handing the cookie toward Muirgheal. \"I had a cookie on the wagon out to the Barrow Downs and it made me throw up. I haven\'t been able to really eat them since then.\" She nods in agreement to Muir\'s words. \"It\'s better if he doesn\'t remember, Muir, I agree. I remember it--maybe that\'s enough for both of us. Keldean hates me for it, though.\"

\"Thanks!\" Muirgheal exclaims, eyes wide in anticipation as she bites into the cookie. She listens as she munches, then asks, \"The barrow downs? You went out again? What happened?\" This is the first she\'s heard of it! She nods, somber at Cordelia\'s last. \"Keldean can hate all he wants, it won\'t change a thing. It\'s all in the past now, and I\'d as soon forget as much of it as I can. I don\'t like having it brought up over and over. I still have my beautiful family, and I\'ve got a new friend out of it all too.\" She smiles at the dark haired woman. \"That\'s all I\'d like to think of it.\"

\"Thank you, Muirgheal. I appreciate it. There are a lot of people who aren\'t going to let me forget things, I\'m afraid. And you, of all people, will. So I\'m grateful for that.\" Cordelia smiles a little.

Muirgheal returns the smile before demolishing some more of the cookie. \"So tell me about this trip to the barrow downs,\" Muir bids. \"You say you went again recently? With who?\"

\"Well you know the skeleton we found? I told the mayor about it, and he decided to investigate it. Though in truth, he was more drawn by the trinkets and gold. Anyhow,\" Cordelia continues, \"he went out to investigate, taking a few key people. Meaning half of Bree. A wagon full of folks, with food and snakcs and all sorts of things. Something in the food must have been bad, though--everyone was complainign about being dizzy or having a headache by the time we got there, and then folks started seeing ghosts and things...it was odd. I didn\'t eat much--three bites of one cookie, because I was trying to get a word in to the mayor to warn him about it being dangerous. So I got sick by the side of the wagon at one point, but I was never dizzy. And never saw things.\"

\"The mayor, more drawn by trinkets than by the promise of protecting his most upstanding citizens?\" Muirgheal sweetly feigns shock. \"Living in Archet, I suppose, is what caused me to miss this debacle. I\'m quite sorry that I did.\" Muir grins. But the part about being dizzy and seeing ghosts makes her pause in finishing the rest of her own cookie. \"Why do you think they all got sick? Frightened by our ghost stories? That couldn\'t be it...some mass illness that spread through the party?\"

Cordelia shakes her head. \"I think there was something wrong wtih the food. Maybe...the cookies?\" She looks at the cookie she\'s just handed to Muirgheal, and her expression sours. \"Because all I had was three nibbles of one cookie and I got sick. You\'d better not eat that, Muir.\"

It\'s likely more the suggestion that the cookie is bad, and not the cookie itself, that has Muirgheal suddenly green around the edges of her complexion. She drops the rest of the cookie onto the ground. \"Um...yes, well, I think I\'d better be getting on home. Don\'t want to...get sick.\" She\'s looking rather worried about it, and the reason why becomes apparent when she puts a hand on her stomach. \"I\'ll see you for dinner soon, then?\" Muirgheal asks before hurrying off to fetch her mare from the stables.

\"Sure,\" Cordelia smiles. \"I\'ll bring one of my Aunt Holly\'s cobblers--those are good and they wont\' make you turn green. Next week, then?\"

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