Page 4 of Chivalry in the Meadow
Lilly found where the workers parked when she saw Finn’s truck and parked in near it.
“Do you need to call Finn, and let him know we’re here?” Mia asked.
“No. He left our tickets at the gate,” Lilly said. “He gets comp tickets, so he’s getting us in this way. We can act like guests, even if we’re in gowns. We’ll fit right in, once we change.”
“I’m in no hurry,” Mia said. She watched people in regular clothes heading toward the entrance. They also wore jeans, so she’d blend in wearing hers. She wasn’t ready to answer questions, as she knew nothing about the layout, not even where the restrooms were. “Are we going to have to change our clothes right away?”
“No,” Lilly said. “Since I can tell you’re not ready for that, let’s go in the front gate, use our tickets to get in, find a map, and do a general walk around. We can find out if there’s an employee gate for when we come back out to my car.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mia said. Lilly knew her so well.
They got out, grabbed their bags and started walking toward the entrance.
Mia paused at the edge of the fairground path, near the entrance, her breath catching at the sight before her.
Colorful banners snapped in the breeze overhead, each bearing a different heraldic crest of stags, lions, ravens, serpents, and bears. The sights and sounds of the banners were already awakening her imagination to step back into medieval times. Her nervousness started to give way to her growing excitement.
They stepped up to the ticket taker’s booth, gave their names, and waited, while a thin man in a brown and green costume wearing brown boots, looked in a metal box for their tickets.
Once he found the tickets and handed them over, along with a map, they headed in.
Though they had the map, they started moving down the path before them, instead of stopping to look at it, which would hold up the people behind them.
With each step, they moved deeper and deeper into a medieval looking world, leaving the modern mundane world behind.
Laughter echoed from vendor stalls lining the dirt path, mingling with the scent of roasted meats, and the sharp sweetness of mead, drifting in the air.
“I’m not hungry, but things smell good,” Mia said.
“Yes, they do,” Lilly agreed. “I’m glad we already ate though and aren’t starving for something right now. This event is bigger than I thought it would be. Looks like we’ll be doing a lot of walking this weekend.”
“Just think,” Mia said. “Back then, everyone walked everywhere, unless they had a horse, or someone to give them a ride.”
A lute trilled somewhere off to the left. Children darted past in tunics and crowns made of flowers and twisted vines.
“This is so exciting!” Mia said, her spirits lifted and a childlike wonder filling her. “Three full days of this!”
“It’s like walking into one of your romance novels,” Lilly said, nudging Mia’s shoulder.
Mia smiled. “I know.” A breeze blew Mia’s hair, and she pushed it off her face. “I keep waiting for the pages to turn.”
“In this breeze, they just might,” Lilly said.
A brown-haired man in front of them, wearing a bi-color tunic, with red on one side and green on the other, turned around and grinned, smoke still curling from the corner of his mouth, a pipe in his left hand. “Come on then, dreamers,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll want a good view of the parade.”
“Finn!” Lilly exclaimed. “I didn’t recognize you!”
“The back of me head, you mean?” he broke into a Cockney accent and gave her a bow.
Then the cousins hugged, as he kept the pipe in his hand away from her.
“Do you remember Mia?” she said.
“Of course,” he grinned. “Who could forget the girl with the beautiful green eyes and hair of fire,” he said. He gave her a bow. “Milady.”
Mia felt the blush rising in her cheeks. While not attracted to Finn in a romantic way, his cheerful, charming attention had just made her feel beautiful, embarrassed, and happy all at once.
“It’s good to see you again, Finn,” she said, “All grown up and in a happier place.” She curtseyed after she spoke, as if just remembering to return his bow. “Milord.”
