Beyond the King's Gate

Chapter Four

The streets were crowded with the bustle of servants and street vendors. The noise was deafening, with people bargaining, yelling, demanding. It was exhausting. Bethany followed closely to the accompanying servant. Her sister, Melissa. The list was in her hands, she looked at the list over and over. She held the task very seriously.

She was twenty years of age, older and wiser than Bethany.

Bethany stayed close as they rounded another corner and found the vendor of fish. The fish hung on hooks above the vendors table, blood dripping down below where he chopped yet another fish. And hung it to bleed out. Bethany all but let out a scream when the butcher's knife came down on the fish. Her mother said it was a natural part of life. Yet she could not help, but squirm at the sight.

"May I have a basket full of fish, about this much," she asked the vendor who stood at that stall. He looked at her and barely acknowledged her request. Unimpressed by anything. It grated Bethany's nerves how he treated her sister. Melissa was unaffected by it though, for she held her hand near the rim of the basket, showing just how much. To make sure there was no mistake. "I would like the bass, the trout.." she listed, commanding the vendor on how the fish was to be cut. Bethany tuned out. She was on the verge of dreaming up a story of living down in the village below the castle, living in one of the shacks above the stores, when a trumpet sounded chasing away the last of her dreams.

It rang through her.

A ball formed. The King was coming. Somehow that put her on edge, as if she wasn't supposed to be there and she would be caught.

They sent you here, remember? She reminded herself. Chiding herself for the childish reaction. They all stopped what they were doing and turned to face the King at arrival, everyone saluted. Cheers rang out. She heard the gallop before she dared to look. The horses followed the following precession. The King took the lead, the rest that followed behind him in a straight line. The king sat proud atop his horse. Front and center.

Then as if he read her timid feelings through the throng of people crowding her, he looked her dead in the eye. The cold blue eyes held her frozen in place. Bethany wasn't sure if he saw everything there. The truth, the lies. The moment seemed to last a lifetime. Fear rippled through her. Could he know? Did his son finally come to his senses and decided it was best they were punished? For who had known, she could have stolen from the king, then what?

It was a risk neither the castle nor the king would take.

Then by some miracle he passed quickly enough, and before she knew it he was out of sight. The crowd thinned out, as they went back to their order of business. But alas, Bethany stood still.

For fear of his return.

"Bethany, we don't have time to waste, the sun will be down soon and we have to get the supper started. Ah you foolish child!" She chided. Grabbing the basket from the vendor, who miraculously filled it in no time at all. She exchanged the coins, and dumped the basket into her hands.

For one moment, it took her breath away. The weight of the basket was almost akin to her own. Lugging forward, she wished she had different shoes for the occasion. The leather sandals bite into her flesh just above her heel.

"Can you wait?" She moaned in complaint.

"No I cannot. We have quite the walk up ahead. And all this food to carry." She motioned to the arm full of baskets and bags strapped over her shoulder. Why couldn't they send another servant to help? She didn't dare voice her question for fear of being chided again.

She always demanded too much, said her sister. A fact her mother said might have come from her. In the past her mother loved a quiet comfortable life. Until her choices put her out on the streets, for shaming the family.