The Warrior Elf Read Online Free Page B

home,” Blair said quietly. “I was staying with a friend. She was taken away as soon as we got to the caves, and she wasn’t one of the ones Myron rescued from the dungeons. She must have been sold.”
    “All right, but if that’s not home, where is it?”
    Blair shook her head but didn’t answer.
    “Are your parents still alive?”
    With a deep sigh, Blair nodded. When she looked up, tears were gathering in her eyes. “Please don’t make me go back. I’ll do anything, go anywhere you want me to, just don’t send me back home.”
    “Let’s go for a walk,” Theresa said as she stood up. “Come on.” Once they were clear of the chapel, Theresa said, “Maybe you should tell me everything.”
    “You won’t understand.”
    “Maybe, maybe not, but I can give you my word that what you tell me will stay between us. I won’t repeat one word of it unless you want me to.”
    “You won’t tell anyone?”
    Theresa shook her head.
    “My father believes it’s his responsibility to see that all of his children are taken care of. He wants us settled down and married, especially the girls. I’m the oldest, so he wants me married first, but no one wants to marry me.”
    Theresa frowned. “Why not?”
    “Because I’m ugly. Men want attractive women for their beds.”
    Theresa’s frown deepened. “Why in the world would you say you’re ugly? There’s not a thing wrong with you.”
    Blair turned towards Theresa and pointed to a tiny crescent birth mark on her cheek. “This is what’s wrong with me. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it.”
    “Your birthmark?”
    Blair’s face turned red as she looked down. “I’m so ugly the guards wouldn’t send me to auction. They said the slavers would have to pay someone to take me. That’s why they kept me at the caves to cook for them.”
    Theresa shook her head. “They kept you there to cook for them because you’re a natural in the kitchen. I doubt they’d ever had food that good before.”
    “Cooking’s the only thing I’m good for, which is fine with me, but not with my father. He wanted to find me a husband, but no one was willing to marry me. Finally Derk said he would in exchange for some of my father’s land, but I couldn’t go through with it. He’s as old as my father and he’s mean. I’d rather go back to those caves and cook for the guards for the rest of my life than marry Derk, and if you make me go back home, I won’t have any choice.”
    Theresa sighed. “Believe it or not, the same thing happened to me.”
    “Huh?”
    “A while back my father got the notion in his head that it was time for me to be married. He set it up before he said one word to me about it. The man he picked out was nice enough, but he was my father’s age, and set in his ways. He had some definite ideas about what I would and would not be doing for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, those ideas and mine didn’t mesh, so I left, and I haven’t been back since.”
    “But you’re a sister. You had somewhere to go.”
    “I wasn’t a sister then. Didn’t even know I had healing hands.”
    “So what did you do?”
    “I joined a minstrel group and traveled with them for a while.”
    “I bet that was fun.”
    “It was, but it’s not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
    “But you’re a sister now. You have something to do that people respect. You have a place to live. I don’t have anything.”
    “Yes, you do, at least for now. You can stay with us.” Theresa put her arm around Blair’s shoulders. “No one’s going to make you marry a man you don’t want to while I’m around. And no one’s going to make you go home either. I won’t allow it. You’re a good cook, and now that everyone’s gone, we could use an extra pair of hands around the chapel.”
    Blair frowned. “I don’t know anything about herbs or illnesses. I can clean though, if that would help.”
    “You can cook,” Theresa repeated. “I’m not saying you have to