Four whole days of study, nearly. It started with a book, which isn't a promising start for me, what with how little practice I've had with letters. I had thought Miss Brynleigh would just tell me all the things I needed to know. But there's just too many ways a horse can become ill or injured, far too many to memorize. So the best way to start learning is to read the book, the whole thing. You can't learn it all that way, but you can know enough to remember what's there, so you'd be able to find it in the book later when you need to. At least, that's what Miss Brynleigh told me, and set me to do nothing but read until it was done, not even the morning chores in the stables, which she would take care of herself.
That much reading is hard to keep my mind on, especially when it keeps wandering to thoughts of Beoda, and my struggles to think of how best to court her. To make sure I could focus on the reading I set myself times: just read for an hour, then a few minutes to think about other things, then back to reading. And during the rest times I had an idea that I wasn't sure was a good one, but it was at least something to try.
My reading ended a bit earlier than I expected, on the third day, when it turned out the last few pages were just what Miss Brynleigh would later tell me is called an index. It's a list of topics with page numbers, so you can find the right page no matter what you're looking for. So if your horse has a scratch near the mane, you could look under 'scratch', or under 'mane', and either way you'd find the right page. No sense in reading that, which meant I had the afternoon free to work on my idea.
I had wanted to give her flowers, but in the middle of winter there are no flowers to be picked. I'd turned over many thoughts on ways around this, like buying dried flowers, or having something like a flower made from dyed parchment, but they all cost more coin than I could spare. Rummaging around in the Chetwood, I collected the materials for the answer I came up with. In Market Square I got the other things I'd need, some twine and some ribbon, the latter thanks to a woman I met named Fredericka.
It took many hours, late into the night, trying different approaches, before I finally got something like my idea to work. The result was something like a bouquet of flowers, without any flowers. In the center was a cluster of mistletoe, shining bright green leaves and deep red berries, the only thing vibrant with life in the middle of winter. Arrayed around it dozens of maple leaves, dried in the golds and reds of autumn, moistened enough to not be brittle. These leaves were arrayed carefully, splaying outwards, to resemble the petals of an impossibly large flower, with the brightest golds at the center, transitioning to the deep reds at the outer edges. Kitchen twine held everything in place, but to hide it, a spiral of crimson and hunter green ribbon was looped, echoing the colors of the mistletoe. I tucked the bouquet into a basket to protect it and hid it under Kestrel's blanket to keep the surprise.
The next day when I saw Miss Brynleigh at the stables I was hoping that, on hearing I'd finished the book, I'd be done for now, and could head to the Cob farm to deliver the gift. Fearful that it would be a disappointment, hopeful that it might not. But it turned out that there was a whole day of teaching ahead of me. We went over the things that are too urgent to carry out from the book, like injuries, most of which we'll have to practice in the coming weeks. We talked about how to find the others in the book, and how to know when something was too serious even for that, and I should seek a proper healer. We went on until nearly dark, and I barely had time to tend to Rascal and Snow before nightfall. While at the bakery I tried to purchase one or two maple candies to give with the bouquet, but Miss Baker talked me into buying a whole basket, which is way more coin than I could spare, but if Beoda is pleased with it, it'll be worth it. Even more so if she's pleased with the bouquet too. Tomorrow morning I will find out. It'll be a nervous night.
