A few days before Nonna visited the farm with me, a servant from Lady Yolana’s household had come to deliver a letter to her. She was playing in the garden with Ash and Berry when she received it.
“Miss Nonna Asher? I have a letter addressed to you from the Haynes household.”
“Thank you. Please tell Lady Yolana thank you as well.”
“Of course.”
She knew who it was without even looking at the sender’s name. Although there was only an M scrawled on the back of the envelope, the sole person who would send her letters through Lady Yolana was Mills.
The message skipped any formalities and got straight to the point.
I have the day off on this date. I‘ll be free until the evening unless there‘s an emergency. If that works for you, I‘ll be waiting by the pond in the plaza at noon. If you don‘t show up within an hour, I‘ll go somewhere else.
“He’ll go somewhere else if I don’t come… Hmm…”
Nonna had been looking forward to training with Mills, but when she’d asked permission to do so the night before, Jeffrey forbade it.
But now she had no way of letting Mills know she couldn’t come. She wasn’t sure if she could have Chester deliver a message for her. And asking her parents for help would likely end with Mills getting in trouble. Why had they disallowed her from doing something as simple as training with someone?
She couldn’t understand why they’d given her permission to train with Miles but not with Mills.
I bet it’s because Mills belongs to the Third Order. Well, it’s not like he asked me to join them, she thought.
Nonna had sensed from Jeffrey’s tone it would be better not to argue, so she’d reluctantly agreed, even though she wasn’t truly convinced.
“I’m the one who gets to pick who my friends are.”
For the first time in her life, Nonna decided to disobey Jeffrey.
After an extensive hand-to-hand combat training session with Miles, she left the farm before Reed arrived with the carriage.
She was dressed in a plain white shirt and black pants like a commoner would wear, and she tucked her golden braid into a loose cap as she hurried to the plaza. Mills wore a black shirt and dark-gray trousers, with his light-brown hair slicked back. This was an entirely different look from the day he’d been fending off the rebellion at the castle, wearing a knit black hat. Now he was indistinguishable from any ordinary young man.
“What should we do? Start training right away or get something to eat first?” he asked.
“Let’s eat! I want to try a place I’ve never been to before.”
“All right. I’ll take you to one of my favorite spots, then.”
Mills had assumed Nonna was a commoner, and he thought the same about Victoria, too.
He couldn’t have ever imagined a baroness might temporarily assist the Third Order and act as a body double for the crown princess.
Mills hadn’t told Mike or Lord Edward about today’s meeting. He figured they’d scold him if they found out.
It’s just training, he reasoned to himself, though he mostly only wanted to see Nonna. He unconsciously avoided acknowledging that feeling, though.
The southern quarter was where the commoners lived, and it was packed with a variety of shops. Although Nonna had lived there until she was six, she had rarely gone outside. And after Victoria took her in, Nonna had grown up in Shen and then in the nobles’ district in the eastern quarter.
Her visits to the southern quarter were limited to shopping trips on the main street with her mother. She’d never wandered around freely like this here before.
Mills led her through the alleyways of the area’s marketplace. Nonna was overflowing with excitement as they ventured deeper into the back streets.
Wow, this kebab shop looks really good!
Ooh, what smells so sweet over here?
I want to try whatever’s cooking in that pot!
The southern quarter was tightly packed with cheap restaurants that catered to laborers, and Mills took her to one of his favorite spots.
“A senior operative recommended this joint to me. It’s cheap, and they serve huge portions here. The food’s great.”
“Really?”
This was certainly the kind of place a noblewoman would never frequent, but Nonna felt her heart racing.
“Do you enjoy these sorts of places?” Mills asked.
“I love them! They’re much better than fancy ones.”
“Good, I’m glad.”
This was Mills’s first time going out to eat with a girl, so he felt genuinely relieved she liked it.
They shared a bowl of stew, some grilled meat wrapped in thin bread, and glasses of fruit juice. For dessert, they had grilled apples sprinkled with sugar.
Neither of them ate too much, mindful of the training ahead.
“All right. Let’s walk off the meal and then head to the training spot,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Mind if we take a shortcut? We’ll have to climb over a wall, though.”
“That’s fine.” Nonna suppressed a grin, trying so hard that she just ended up looking expressionless instead. She hadn’t had this much fun since leaving Shen. It was just as thrilling as her trip to the Subartu forest.
They climbed over walls at dead-end alleys, crossed through people’s backyards, and scaled more walls. But then Nonna suddenly froze.
“Mills, did you hear that?”
“Yeah, sounded like a woman screaming. Probably some deadbeat hitting his wife.”
“Aren’t we going to help?”
“What good would it do to butt in now? He’ll just do it again once we leave.”
“But…”
Another sharp, high-pitched scream echoed through the air, clearer this time.
“Stop it! Stop! Fred’s going to die!” Nonna heard the voice of a woman followed by the sound of several men laughing.
She shot a reproachful look at Mills. He sighed and said, “Fine…,” then climbed up to the second floor of the house where the scream had come from.
Nonna followed him, hopping up onto the eaves and making her way up from there.
The two of them scaled the roof of the three-story building and moved to the spot above the room where the voices were coming from. They strained their ears to hear the woman’s screams and the men’s voices.
Mills decided to ask for Nonna’s opinion. “What do you want to do?”
“Go in through the window and help her.”
“What about the Fred guy?”
“You can help him, Mills.”
“Me? All right. Do you have a weapon?”
“No, but I’ll be fine.”
“There’s no way.”
“I only tell the truth,” she said with a grin. Nonna didn’t wait for him to respond before she dropped from the roof onto the eaves above the third-floor window in one smooth motion. From there, she descended to the second-floor window, where the voices were coming from.
“Hey!” Mills called out softly to stop her, but she didn’t listen. Maybe it’s better if we go at the same time, he thought and immediately followed after her.
Nonna put her handkerchief between her teeth and pulled to tear it in half, then wrapped the scraps around her knuckles.
“If you break a window, but the frame doesn’t open, you can cover your hands like this to keep them from getting cut while you reach through the broken glass to unhook the latch.”
Chester had taught her this.
“Let’s just kick in the window and get inside. Are you ready, Mills? Three, two, one, now!”
She’d asked if he was ready but didn’t wait for his answer. She swung herself from the eaves and smashed through the window with her feet, diving into the room. Two seconds later, Mills shattered the adjacent window and followed her feetfirst.
“Who the hell are you?!”
Four men lunged at them, but Nonna and Mills took them down easily with their bare hands.
Nonna grabbed the woman’s hand, and Mills pulled the man to his feet as they made their escape. The woman was slow, and Fred was sluggish as well.
Two more men, likely accomplices of the ones they’d already taken down, appeared out of nowhere and started to chase them. Nonna and Mills turned to face them, and the men brandished knives.
Mills drew a dagger of his own, but Fred clung to him, shouting, “Don’t do it! Killing someone is a serious crime! I just need to get away!”
Nonna followed Victoria’s teachings to avoid killing unless her life was in danger, so she only knocked her opponents unconscious. But the men with the knives meant business. Mills was hindered by Fred, who clung to him, and yelled, “Let go! Get off me!”
“Look out!” the rescued woman shouted.