Page 66 of Chivalry in the Meadow
But Sir Cedric wasn’t a boy, and whatever was wrong with him seemed not of this world.
“You’ll be okay Mia,” Lilly said. “And we have Sir Alaric and Sir Elia who will look out for you too.”
“Thanks, Lilly,” Mia said.
“Always here for you, girlfriend,” Lilly said.
“You’re the best.” Mia smiled.
“Hey, want to go watch the belly dancers?” Lilly asked. “We don’t have to spend all our time around knights. There are other entertainments.”
“That sounds like fun,” Mia said. “I wonder if that’s something we would ever be able to do?”
“After they perform, we can hang back and ask them,” Lilly said. “This will be fun!”
They went to the stage where the belly dancers were to perform but they weren’t on for another hour.
“What about archery?” Mia said. “I’ve always wanted to try that.”
“Then let’s do it!” Lilly said.
Walking to the archery field, Mia said, “We’ve spent all of our time watching these knights and we’ve missed other things”
“Well, that was your big dream, girlfriend,” Lilly said. “Ever since you were a girl, you’ve wanted to meet a knight or prince charming who would whisk you away to a happy ever after. I was thinking this would give you the closest thing to it.”
“Oh, Lilly you didn’t need to make this weekend all about me?” Mia said. “The world does not revolve around me. This weekend should be about you, too.”
“Are you kidding?” Lilly said. “Do not think I wasn’t wanting a hunky knight for myself. No ma’am. I would not be turning that down.” She laughed and Mia laughed with her.
“Come on, let’s shoot some stuff. I hear that is a good stress reliever,” Lilly said.
A young man in his early twenties was manning the archery field and as he had no archer lined up it looked like they’d have his instructions all to themselves.
He’d heard Lilly and said, “Archery is a great stress reliever. And did you know that woman shot archery in medieval times? Women can be quite good at archery. It just takes practice. Care to give it a try?”
“We’d love to,” Lilly said. “Set us up, and show us how.”
“My pleasure,” he said and then he proceeded to do just that.
After twenty tries Mia’s arm was tired. And her thumb was scored with tiny little marks from the fletching of the arrow because she hadn’t known at first how to put the leather thing on that would protect her hand.
She’d started shooting while he was working with Lilly who had one hundred questions and he’d given her the go ahead but not seen that she had no protection on that hand. It wasn’t until she had shot half her arrows that he had turned, noticed her bare hand and said, “My lady! Stop! That must be painful!”
“It is,” she said. “I don’t know why anyone enjoys this.”
“First,” he gently took the bow and arrows from her and laid them down, then picked up the leather glove like looking thing that lay on the ground where it had fallen. “You must put this on, so you don’t hurt your hand. So sorry. I thought you knew when I showed Lady Lilly.”
After he got her geared up properly and shooting the right way, she finally hit the outer target once. “I’m not very good at this,” she said, disappointed in herself.
“Not bad for a beginner,” he said. “You just had a rough start. It will get easier.”
“Archery is harder than it looks,” she said.
“True, but it is easier once you know how,” he countered.
“May I watch you shoot?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said. “Happy to.”
