The light of the morning poured in past the gaps in the curtains. I looked up and Jarion was already getting dressed. He smiled at me as I woke up.

  “Good morning beautiful,” he said.

  He walked over to me and gave me a little kiss on the forehead.

  “I didn’t want to wake you, you were sleeping so soundly.”

  “Good morning,” I mumbled.

  “Listen, I have some business I need to attend to in Pescona, but I will be back in three days. I’ll go downstairs and tell them I’ll pay for you to stay here until then. I’ll make sure they know to give you anything you want from the kitchen as well.”

  “That’s very kind you don’t have to –” I started.

  “I want to,” he interrupted me smiling. “And I want to repce your damaged dress as well.”

  “No. That I couldn’t possibly accept,” I told him.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Really, it’s no trouble at all.”

  “No!” I said firmly. “I don’t want you to pay me.”

  He looked hurt.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that.”

  He sat on the bed beside me and stroked my hair.

  “It’s fine,” I said, softened by his touch. “But don’t pay me, I’m serious. You’ve already done so much.”

  He smiled. His eyes looked like the sky on a sunny day.

  “Just do one thing for me,” he said.

  “Anything,” I replied softly.

  “Wait for me here in the evening when I return, three days from now. I want to see you again as soon as possible.”

  “Of course,” I said smiling.

  He kissed me softly and left. I y in the bed a little longer, basking in the lovely night I had just had. Then I snapped back into focus.

  I was here to find my father’s killer.

  I got up and put my linen dress on. Over it I put my mother's dress that I had brought with me. The little brown one was well and truly useless now. This time I carefully tied the ring in it’s package on to a band which went around my waist under my skirt so that it would be very hard for anyone else to find it.

  I opened the curtains to the city. The view was really lovely, like Jarion had said. You could see out over the city and all the way to the castle. Ah damn! I needed to get to the castle by morning if I wanted to find Ilia’s sister.

  As I was leaving the inn an old woman stopped me. She was wearing a grey dress, and held a broom. She grabbed my arm and whispered angrily.

  “You had better visit the temple of the Mother of Mercy for what you did st night, girl.”

  Her pale, wrinkled face contorted in disgust as she spoke. I knew that in Medora, many people were religious and opposed to sex outside of marriage. In the Midway Isnds people didn’t care so much. I winced and ran away.

  I ran out towards the castle again. My coin purse and the letter from Ilia bouncing in my pockets. I hoped I was not too te to catch the undry delivery. I arrived just in time, as I was walking in an old man was guiding a donkey pushing in the undry.

  “Hi,” I said breathlessly to the old man. “Hi, I’m here to ask about a woman that used to work in undry for the castle.”

  “Ah sure,” the old man said calmly, as he kept pulling the donkey along. “What was her name?”

  “Lena,” I said, walking along with him.

  “Ah Lena,” he replied. “Yes, she’s the manager for the undry now. Should I tell her you’ve been here to see her?”

  “Actually it’s pretty urgent. If you could take me to see her when you’re done, that would be great.”

  “That’s fine by me,” the old man said. “What is your name?”

  “Ria,” I told him. “What is yours?”

  “Garon.”

  He led the donkey in to the castle courtyard, and there to an entrance to the castle, opening into a big airy storage room. A maid opened a door and together they piled the bedsheets and curtains that they had on to shelves inside the room. I stepped in to help them as well and they gdly accepted it.

  “Over the day the maids take these sheets and distribute them across the different storage closets on the different floors as needed,” Garon expined to me.

  “Ah, I see,” I said.

  When we had loaded the sheets off the cart, we got dirty undry from the castle and loaded it on.

  After we were done, Garon sat me down in the cart on top of the canvas that covered the sheets. He himself sat on the donkey, and off we went. We travelled far through the city, going in the direction of the hills, rather than the harbour. I enjoyed the ride inside the cart, seeing new neighbourhoods.

  I chatted with Garon about our lives. I told him about the Midway Isles. He had not known much about them before. He told me about his childhood in Pelva, the rge forest region of Medora. He also told me about his children and grandchildren that still lived there. Twice a year he would visit them and give them most of money he had earned at his job. The wages in Medolina were much better than the ones in the rural regions, and you could live very cheaply at the washing house.

  Finally we even went outside the city walls, and beyond there was even more city! I was fbbergasted that any pce could be so rge.

  In the outskirts of the city, some houses were still rge, but others were small like most of the huts at home on Coconut Isnd. These small huts tended to be in bad shape though, and people in dirty, tattered clothes wandered these streets.

  We went to the outskirts of this part of town as well. By now the ride had taken around an hour and a half. I wondered if this bowed old man really did this every day. Finally we stopped at a big house, situated at a curve in a river. The house was white, with many small windows facing in all directions. The windowsills and doors were all painted a beautiful medium blue. We drove into the yard where around a dozen women in light blue linen dresses were washing in the river. We drove past them, Garon greeting the women as we passed.

  “Who’s the girl, Garon? A new employee?” one of them asked.

  “She’s got some business with Lena,” Garon simply replied.

  He drove the cart up to the door to the house, and opened the door for me. The inside was nice and clean, but not very bright. He showed me the way into a back office. There sat a woman of about fifty years of age. She had wiry grey hair, and grey eyes, and looked at me with polite disinterest.

  “Hi, my name is Lena. We’re not hiring any more washerwomen at the moment, but how can I help you.”

  “Nice to meet you, my name is Ria. It’s not concerning a job,” I said. “It’s actually very private.”

  Garon took the cue and left the room, closing the door behind us.

  The old woman furrowed her brow.

  “I don’t know you. What private matter do we have to discuss?”

  “It’s about your sister, Izzy.”

  Her face dropped.

  “Izzy disappeared twenty-four years ago,” she whispered. “What can a child like you even know about her?”

  I pulled out the letter that Ilia, whose original name was Izzy, had given me.

  “Can you read?” I asked.

  Izzy had told me that her sister could not read, but I thought it would be worth it to check.

  “Yes,” she said. “Slowly.”

  “I have a letter for you.”

  I handed her the letter from Izzy. The woman held it at a middle distance away from her face and squinted. As she read I could see her very slowly and meticulously mouth out the words. Then her eyes started to tear up, and finally the tears started to flow.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “This will take me a while.”

  “I can read it to you,” I said gently.

  She nodded.

  “Please.”

  She handed me the letter back and I read it out loud.

  Dear Lena

  This letter is from your sister, Izzy. I know this might be hard to believe, so I tried to remember some stories which only the two of us might remember. I apologize that now Ria has to know about this as well. First, I want to remind you of the time that we burned the pomegranate stained corset. Second, the time you kissed Mark the butcher’s apprentice.

  As I read this part, Lena ughed through the tears. I waited for her to be done to continue.

  I am so sorry that I had to leave all those years ago, and I am doubly sorry that I could not say goodbye or let you know that I am safe and alive. There were some circumstances that would not allow me to do it safely. Please also never tell anyone of this letter or the fact that I contacted you.

  The girl reading this letter to you is called Ria. She is a friend of mine and very dear to me. If you have the ability I would be very thankful if you could help her find a pce to stay in Medolina and some work for her to sustain herself. She’s a hard worker and won’t cause any trouble.

  I love you, Lena. I think about you every day. I cannot tell you too much about my life here, but I want you to know that I’ve been very, very, happy.

  Your sister,

  Izzy

  The woman looked at me, tears flowing down her face.

  “I thought she was dead,” she sobbed quietly. “I bmed myself every day for letting her go to that seamstress rather than trying to take care of her myself.”

  I nodded. I did not want to imagine how I would feel if Elina died.

  “Well, I will deal with my emotions in my own time,” she said sternly. “If Izzy wants me to give you a pce to stay that will be no problem at all.”

  She chuckled.

  “I don’t think she would have ever imagined just how easy that would be for me.”

  She opened the door and called out:

  “Amira, get this new girl a bed in the dormitory!”

  A young woman with light brown skin and a long bck braid came from another pce in the house. She wore the same light blue dress as the washerwomen.

  Then Lena closed the door behind her again.

  Amira looked at me wide eyed.

  “Is she all right?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I muttered.

  “What did you say to her?”

  “It’s private.”

  She gave me a strange look, but led me up the stairs in the house. She opened the room to a small dormitory with two bunk beds, four bed spaces total. The two lower bunks had very neatly tucked bedsheets in them, but the two upper ones were bare.

  “You’ll be staying in this room with me and Una. You’ll have to take an upper bunk, I’m afraid,” she said apologetically.

  “Oh, I would think those ones are nicer,” I said cheerfully.

  “No, people get tired of climbing up and down the dder after a few nights. Plus it’s boiling hot in the summer.”

  “Oh.”

  Maybe I wouldn't stay here at all, I thought. Maybe Jarion could just take care of it all for me. He seemed to be willing and able to afford to fund my stay in the city. My stomach tingled at the idea. But for the time being he had only paid for three days, so it would be safer to pick this guaranteed bed in a dormitory over an uncertain situation at the inn. I also didn’t want him to think I just saw him as a meal ticket.

  “Did you not bring anything with you?” she asked. “Do you only have the clothes you’re wearing?”

  “Oh yes I’m just keeping it in the city,” I said.

  “Oh wow, all the way out there, how are you going to get it?”

  “Ahhh, damn.”

  “I guess you can just take the cart again with Garon when he goes back to the castle in the afteernoon,” she said. “He’ll like the company. I think he gets lonely spending most of his time travelling back and forth by himself.”

  She showed me the dining hall, and the evening room where the washerwomen could spend their time together. No men were allowed inside the big house, except for old Garon.

  “And then on the st day of the week, we all take off work, and can do as we please,” she said cheerfully. “Except for the girls that are on cooking duty that day, of course, but they can take another day of the week off.”

  “You can only do as you please for one day of the week?” I said shocked.

  I sold drinks at the harbour most days, but could take a day off whenever I wanted to have fun with my friends and help my parents around the house.

  “One day a week is a lot! Most washing houses only take off on public holidays!” she said. “In fact you’re incredibly lucky to be offered a position here at the Royal Laundry, we haven’t been hiring for months.”

  “Oh, well that’s nice.”

  “The pay is good too,” she told me. “I’m saving up for a dowry for myself. I’ve been working here for two years and I’m halfway towards my goal already.”

  “Right.”

  She brought me down to see old Garon, the cart was being loaded for him to take to the castle. Our other room mate Una had come to meet me and join us for a chat.

  “I’m a bit jealous that you get to go to the castle,” Una told me. “Maybe you’ll get to see the handsome prince. I’ve heard that he’s gorgeous.”

  “I’ve seen both the prince and the Duke of Aloria,” Amira said. “I think the duke looks even better.”

  “Duke Jarion,” Una chuckled and turned to me. “Do you know who that is?”

  I didn’t want to tell these girls too much of my personal business, so I just shook my head.

  “They say he’s the best lover in all of Medora,” she giggled.

  “I wonder what his wife thinks of that title,” Amira said cheekily.

  His wife?