Jolie had moved onto Primrose's room to find the young woman already dressed and staring out her bedroom window. There was a sadness about the noblewoman's face that broke the cook's heart to see it. Primrose had told Janus before going to bed of the contents of the letter with instructions to prepare things for her departure in the morning.
While all the other times Primrose had been sent off to marry had filled Jolie's heart with worry, she felt so much worse off this time around. Before, the young woman had always had a spirit in fight in her to come back home. The cook was not so sure there was much left of that fire within her though. With Harkness' death, Primrose had become a shell of her former self. Jolie dreaded that this would be the last day she ever saw her mistress unwed.
Yet, in the blink of an eye the look was gone and the Primrose of old was smiling at the old cook. "Did he sleep well?"
Jolie smiled. It was so like her young mistress to worry about others before herself. "He was still asleep when I brought him clean clothes. I hope you don't mind I left them and let him sleep. Poor boy looked like he needed the rest," Jolie stated, continuing when it seemed that Primrose was not going to say anything more. "Why these clothes dearie?" The cook motioned her hand towards the noblewoman's attire, eyes widened in surprise at seeing something she considered quite improper.
Primrose had donned the garb of a woman of Connlaoth. Instead of a simple yet traditional dress, she had chosen a form-fitting blouse and trousers. A pair of thick-soled riding boats sat at the end of the bed as she still stood in her stocking feet. Her long flaxen hair hung wild and free down her back and across her shoulders.
"Better to ride in Jolie. Uncle wishes I make haste in my arrival and horseback is the fastest way I know of getting there short of magic. I was hoping you could do me a favor though," she said shyly, playing with a strand of her hair.
"Of course! Anything, Prim, you know that," came the whispered answer.
The noblewoman sat down at her dresser and picked up a brush, looking at the older woman through her mirror. "Would you braid my hair?"
Jolie laughed and stepped up to take the brush from Primrose. She had no done this since the girl had been small and realized as she brushed the long hair, she had missed caring for the woman. Ever since she had grown up, Primrose had been rather independent. It was small things such as this that reminded those that served her just how much they loved the one they secretly saw as sister and daughter.
In no time at all it seemed, Primrose's hair was being tied off into a thick braid that Jolie pulled to rest over the girl's shoulder. She then hugged her former ward tightly from behind and kissed her cheek. No words were spoken between the two yet the younger woman hugged her second mother back just as tightly and squeezed her eyes shut against tears that dared to fill her eyes.
Just as suddenly as they had embraced they parted and Jolie left to retrieve the breakfast rolls she had made specifically for the departing travelers. Primrose stayed longer at her dresser, staring stone-faced at her own reflection. She could not say how much time had passed before she heard the sounds of room's neighbor awake and moving about. Kicking herself to get a move on, she finally swept up her boots and was hopping into the second one as she stumbled out into the hall.