This continues a story I was playing with a while ago: Wave and Source
Rowena headed for the stairs to the solar, to summon the housekeeper, Mistress Blackwood, and to start packing. The sound of horses hooves in the courtyard made her pause. Had Geoffrey returned? Had he remembered his wife after all?
She moved to the archway and saw a man in the Gransmere livery dismounting. A message from her Grandmother? How timely.
The man spotted her and strode across the space to bow before her. “Lady Rowena, I bring greetings from the Dowager Duchess of Gransmere. She has decided to pay you and your husband a visit.”
The movement and conversations around her stilled. Rowena smiled. “How delightful, when will she arrive.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Ah, then it is unfortunate she will miss my husband, he left for the city just an hour ago. I hope she won’t be too disappointed.”
The man, one of her grandmother’s preferred retainers if she remembered correctly, bowed again. “I believe she will be delighted to spend time with her favourite granddaughter.”
So, it seemed Rowena would be staying, for now. “What is the size and composition of her party?”
She was handed a list. Not her grandmother’s writing. It seemed this Gransmere servant was both educated and experienced in the ways of noble travel.
Rowena had one of the serving maids show the messenger to the kitchen, he deserved decent rest and refreshment after delivering such welcome news.
She caught the eye of one of the other maids. “Have Mistress Blackwood attend me in the Great Hall. We have visitors to prepare for, and not much time.”
The DNA of Stories 