First lessons (Medieval Tale Book 1) by Lina J. Potter

Author:Lina J. Potter [Potter, Lina J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Litworld Ltd.
Published: 2018-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Plans and Needles

Lilian woke up feeling blue. Why? She tried to remember. The evening before, she had sat up drinking wine with Leif and Ingrid. The three of them had finished two pitchers. That was nothing to Leif, but the drink sat heavily in Lilian’s head. She knew how to drink, but she hadn’t eaten enough the previous evening because she was still trying to lose weight. Her method was simple: eat less and run more.

Running more was the easy part. Eating less was hard. Lily gave it her best. She avoided bread, sweets, and fatty meats, especially after six in the evening. She packed her plate with steamed vegetables and rarely put butter on anything. She could already see results. She was down to two chins (from three), and her dresses were growing looser. Lily suspected that she would never be thin, but she could at least be healthy.

She noticed that her new world had different ideals about beauty anyway. Women were expected to be plump, with wide hips for giving birth to lots and lots of babies. Lily, however, was aiming to get back to 150-pounds. Since she was five-feet-six-inches-tall, that would put her right in the range of normal—not anorexic and not an opera singer.

From the point of view of a doctor (or of a final year medical student), the problem with extra weight was not how it made her look, but how it made her feel physically. Lily was exhausted by her extra pounds, and she knew that as the years went by, it would just get worse. She didn’t want to spend her life dragging around the equivalent of a large sack of potatoes. So, she was trying to lose weight the best way she knew how: walking, horseback riding, and eating healthier food. Her willpower was holding out for now. That being said… I should have at least eaten some cheese with that wine last night.

Lily forced herself up out of bed. She opened the door to the hallway and called out for a servant to bring her hot water. Then she sat down to comb her hair. While I’m at it, why not invent the hairbrush?

She remembered hearing somewhere that people used to use boar bristles for brushes. She would have to take a close look at the pigs in the market.

***

Before the sun was much higher in the sky, Lily, Leif, Ingrid, and four other Virmans (she didn’t know their names yet) were on their way to the market. Lily and Ingrid rode horses, and the Virman men walked alongside. When they got closer to the market, the women got down. One of the Virmans stayed behind to hold the horses, and the others entered the crowd. The four men boxed in the two women so that no one could shove them. Leif strode along in front of the group and called out in a commanding voice, “Make way for the Countess of Earton!”

Ingrid was wearing a fur wrap. Lily looked at it closely.

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