Chapter Text
“I saw the whole thing,” Kitty Engelbert said in her quick, chirpy way of speaking that always reminded Elizabeth of a sparrow, “I was tending the counter, and I could see the man arrive from the window. It was a nice carriage, so I noticed it right away.”
“Right,” Elizabeth nodded along, eager for the gossip. Holywell was not an interesting village most of the time, especially not for shopgirls like Kitty and farmer’s wives like Elizabeth.
Kitty looked delighted to have an audience. She leaned over like she was saying something that shouldn’t be overheard; even though Elizabeth was the only patron in the shop, and Kitty’s boss was going through inventory in the back. “He was an ordinary sort of man, though, when he got out. Not fancy looking enough to be a lord, I reckon. Nothing to look at, really. Except, I thought, what business does a man in a carriage like that have with Miss Hunith?”
“What business did he have?” Elizabeth asked.
Kitty was practically bouncing with excitement, “Well, I didn’t hear because he went inside, you see. But I talked to Will – he stopped by this morning - and you’ll never believe what he said.”
“Oh?” Elizabeth said, noting that Kitty had not, in fact, ‘seen the whole thing’ with some bemusement.
“He is a lawyer,” Kitty said, in the same tone one might have said ‘he is a unicorn’ or something equally extraordinary.
“But whatever was he there for? Surely Hunith is not in trouble?” Elizabeth asked, with some concern.
Kitty shook her head eagerly, “Will told me – and he heard it from Merlin herself so it must be true – that the lawyer was there about an inheritance. Merlin’s inheritance.”
Elizabeth’s mouth fell open in surprise, and Kitty looked gleeful at the response. The thing was that most people in Holywell grew up in the village and lived their whole lives there. It was a small, tight-knit community. Everyone knew everyone. Everyone knew everyone’s business. What everyone did not know, and had never known, was the identity of Merlin’s father. The eighteen-year-old girl used her mother’s maiden name as her own – Allen. Hunith Allen had grown up in Holywell, disappeared to look for work in London as a seamstress when she was a young woman, and returned two years later quite pregnant. She would not say a word about the child’s father to anyone.
Elizabeth had wondered, privately, if the pregnancy had been the result of force. She had always felt that it was better to let Hunith have her privacy in this matter. Not everyone shared that view – there were people who still sneered at Hunith for having a fatherless child. Merlin used to receive her fair share of barbs and jabs as well. Her bastard status had made her an easy target, and it didn’t help that Merlin was...odd.
Merlin Allen was a pretty young woman at the age of eighteen. But she had been an awkward and ungainly child and teenager. She had ears that stuck out, eyes that were a little too disconcerting, and the boniest limbs Elizabeth had ever seen. Moreover, Merlin seemed to be either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky at any given moment.
Although Elizabeth wasn’t sure how much of the stories were to be believed. It all seemed much too fantastical.
Merlin nearly drowned in a frozen pond at the age of six but been saved by five turtles that should have been hibernating.
Merlin fell off the roof while climbing with her friend Will and landed on a stack of pillows that had seemingly appeared from nowhere.
The Allen’s home flooded for no apparent reason once when Merlin was eleven, right after the neighbors had heard Hunith and Merlin having an argument.
The next year, Jeremy Corvin (a boy who liked to pull Merlin’s braid in school) had been followed by a swarm of bees for three straight days. He only got stung when he called Merlin a freak.
The butcher had once tried to cheat Hunith out of fair pay for his new shirts and for the following week every time he walked down the main street his trousers would seem to tear themselves down the back. He ended up paying Hunith what he owed her, plus the cost to repair several pairs of trousers.
When faced with all of Merlin Allen’s peculiarities, Holywell had seemed to decide that while these strange occurrences were surely being exaggerated, it was also best not to make an enemy of the girl. It helped that Merlin was quite likeable – friendly and funny and kind. So, Merlin held an odd space in the town. She was both liked and held at arm’s length. She never quite matched everyone else’s rhythm.
“So, Merlin’s father...?” Elizabeth asked Kitty. An inheritance. Goodness.
“That’s the best part,” Kitty said, “You’ll never guess...”
“Kitty, please,” Elizabeth sighed, not wanting to play games at the moment. This was a nearly two-decade old mystery after all.
Kitty pouted slightly, a look she couldn’t quite pull off because she had rather thin lips, “Will’s dead disappointed. He didn’t say so, but I could tell. He’s always been set that they’d get married, some day. Not sure what he sees in her, honestly.”
“Kitty.”
“Oh, fine. Spoilsport. They were married, in a church and everything. I don’t know how Hunith managed to keep it to herself all this time – or why she even wanted to.”
Elizabeth blinked. “Hunith and Merlin’s father? They married?”
“Yes, and we’d never have known. Except that he went and died, and Merlin...lord, Merlin Allen...oh, except that’s not her name. Emrys, that was the lord’s name. Which makes her Lady Merlin Emrys.”
Elizabeth stared at Kitty, uncomprehending. “I beg your pardon?”
Kitty’s glee had returned at the presence of Elizabeth’s shock. “He was a Baron. Lord Balinor Emrys, Baron Dynevor. He had no other children, and his marriage to Hunith was completely legal.”
“My goodness,” Elizabeth said a little breathlessly. This was certainly the most interesting thing that had happened in Holywell for as long as she had lived here. Merlin Allen – the country girl with wide smiles and a quick tongue. The girl who had been a no-name bastard just a moment ago... “That makes Merlin...a baroness?”
Kitty sighed, “Yes, can you believe it? Like a fairytale. A seamstress’ daughter becoming a lady overnight. It’s almost magical.”
Elizabeth couldn’t help but agree.