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“I don’t think that I’ll be able to eat ever again,” Anna said as she watched Lord Rosenkranz heartily eat the pea soup and later the sausage and kale, that they were served in the inn in the small harbor town across the sound.
“Nonsense,” he said and looked up at her. “You’ll feel better in no time. You just need a good night’s sleep and then tomorrow, you’ll be fresh again. You should at least drink something. It’s not healthy to not eat or drink when you’ve been as sick as you have.”
Anna took a small sip of the sweetened wine that she had ordered. She had not been able to touch it until now.
“How come you know so much about this?” she asked. She had considered staying in her room again the entire night, but it would only mean that she would cry her eyes out again and that she would have troubles sleeping. She could use the distraction of having to talk to someone tonight.
“When I’ve been travelling with troops across the sound, there’s always someone that gets as ill as you were. If they don’t eat, it’ll take them days to recover,” he answered in his quiet matter-of-fact way.
“I still feel like we’re on the boat and that everything is moving,” Anna said and put her spoon in her pea soup.
She ate just a little bit. She did not trust that she would not throw it up. The tap room was packed with people, and she did not want to be sick in front of them. When she was sure that she was able to keep he soup down, she cautiously took another spoonful.
“How is everything at court?” Anna asked to keep the conversation going.
She knew Lord Rosenkranz to be a man of few words. He did not say anything more than what was necessary, but Jonathan held him in high regard, and that was a greater badge of honor for Anna than anything else could have been.
“Good, I think,” Lord Rosenkranz had ordered another round of sausages and kale, that he had started eating with the same appetite as before. It seemed like the other food had not been filling at all. Anna looked at his broad shoulders and tall frame. She supposed that it would take a lot of food for him to be full.
“How’s Queen Maria and Princess Cilla?” Anna asked.
“They both seem to be well. I don’t know who King Jonathan dotes on the most,” Lord Rosenkranz said with a brief smile. “The day before last when the king summoned me, they were both there, and he was playing with the child.”
His words made Anna realize how much she missed them. Jonathan had always been like a brother to her, and she would like to see how he was as a father. Maria was, despite everything that had happened, Anna’s best friend. Little Princess Cilla had been a great surprise to them, since they thought that Maria was barren.
Anna had only seen the child a few times. A cute little girl with Jonathan’s green eyes and curly brown hair, that would probably be as dark as her mother’s when she was older.
“I’ve been away a long time,” she said, more to herself than to Lord Rosenkranz. If he meant to reply he never had the chance to do so, since someone came over to their table, bowed and said:
“Lady Harold, I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. Let me tell you how great a man, I think that he is.”
Anna looked up and saw Nicholas Lewinus stand in front of her table.
“Thank you, that’s most kind of you, Lord Lewinus,” she said. She had never liked the brown haired, slender man, that seemed to be able to navigate the politics at court and change sides just as easily as his father had done.
“You’re welcome to join our table,” Lord Lewinus said and pointed towards a table, where several noblemen that Anna recognized from her time at court sat.
“No thank you, I’m just talking to Lord Rosenkranz here and then I will go to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Rosenkranz! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Lord Lewinus said and turned towards him. Lord Rosenkranz looked at him with a look, that Anna could only interpret as disgust.
“Lewinus,” Lord Rosenkranz said and bowed his head just slightly.
“You’re welcome to join us as well,” Lord Lewinus said.
“Thank you, but no. As Lady Harold said, we have an early start tomorrow. I’m escorting Lady Harold to her estate.”
“Well, if you change your mind, you’re welcome,” Lord Lewinus said and finally left. Anna let out a sigh of relief before she had thought about it.
“I know exactly how you’re feeling,” Lord Rosenkranz said and smiled briefly. He told Anna of how Lord Lewinus had always had it too easy, when the two of them had been in the military together. Because of his father’s high status, everyone always let Lord Lewinus off the hook too easy, which had not benefitted his character at all.
Anna in return told him of how he tried to sleep with all the female servants, both at his own household and at court, and how one of them had accidentally cut him with a knife, when he made a pass at her in the kitchen, and she tried to turn him down.
“A kitchen knife?” Lord Rosenkranz said. “I bet that it was the time that he told everyone that he had been hurt in a duel. He was unable to practice with us for weeks.”
“I’ve heard that it was just a scratch,” Anna said and smiled.
Lord Rosenkranz laughed. He laughed with his mouth closed, his shoulders jumping up and down slightly and a throaty sound escaping from him from time to time. Anna could not help but smile broader. The way he laughed suited his personality were well. There was something reassuring about that.
They went to their rooms shortly after. Anna had managed to eat most of her pea soup and drink all of the sweet wine and was feeling much better by now. Lord Lewinus’ party were sitting close to the stairways, and she nodded to him when she passed him.
“I’m sorry, that you could not join us,” he said, but Anna did not respond. She was following Lord Rosenkranz up the stairs when she heard, Lord Lewinus say to his friends in a lowered voice:
“Everyone will be swarming around her now, that she has inherited the estate. But mark you my words, I’ll be sure to make her mine.”
All of his friends laughed.
“Hey, give the rest of us a break too,” one of his friends said.
“Fine,” Lord Lewinus responded, “I just hope that it isn’t that bore Rosenkranz that gets her. Anna Harold is certainly the greatest mare on the marriage market right now.”
All of the men laughed, said “Cheers” and “May the best man win.”
“You shouldn’t listen to them,” Lord Rosenkranz said, and grabbed hold of her lower arm to lead her up the stairs. Anna followed him unconsciously. He said goodbye outside of her room and Anna went in. She locked the door, but then just stood in the middle of the room.
The greatest mare on the marriage market? Anna felt like crying. Was that what all the men would think of her? Men that she needed to cooperate with and take advice from since she knew nothing about running an estate. Her father had not taught her anything, since he had figured that she would have a husband to do it for her.
Anna sat down on the edge of the bed. She would prove them all wrong. She would be able to run the estate on her own – and she decided right then and there that she would never marry anyone.