A Midsummer's Day Read Free

Sheriff’s betrothed,” Forarin called after him.
    Again the old mud-sot had a point.  It was not beyond reasonable thought that the Lord High Sheriff knew about Puck’s friendship with the Lady Anne.  As of yet, the Lord High Sheriff had not confronted him about it.  But that was bound to change, and Puck would find himself punished.  Whipped or dunked or put in the stocks.
    Until that day arrived, Puck would spend as much time as he could with the sweet Lady.
    How was it that such a Goddess as Lady Anne, the most beautiful star in all of existence, became betrothed to the vile likes of the Lord High Sheriff?  Jameson Kent worked hard to dim the bright light that she emitted.  She was a free spirit, and to crush that would be… devastating.
    Even from the culvert, Puck could see her.  Her show had ended.  She was alone, sitting on a bench beneath the stage’s roof.
    The Lady was a vision.  Half the women at festival could claim red hair, the Queen included.  But Anne’s hair shone like roses, even in the shade.  But it was her eyes…  Her eyes made her the most glorious Lady in all of creation.  It was her eyes that separated her from all humanity, and made her as ethereally beautiful as an angel in Heaven.
    They were as silver as the moon.  They glittered like stars.
    She was the only one in existence with those eyes.
    Those were the eyes that Puck dreamed about every night.
    <>
    “Pray pardon, my Lady Halloway.  Feel you well?”
    Anne opened her eyes and stretched.  She’d fallen asleep.
    A motley looking creature, bathed from head to bare toe in drying mud, lingered at the edge of the stage.  He shifted uncomfortably in the hot sun, but he would not step into the shade.
    Any other noble, a proper one Anne supposed as she stood, would be repulsed to have such a lowly person address them so openly.  But she hardly considered herself one of the uptight, boringly proper nobles of the realm.
    And Puck w as not a person to avoid.  Nor would she chastise him for being within her presence.  A mud beggar he may have been, but he had a kind heart and a gentle spirit.  He was a true and honest friend, something that could not be said about the Ladies of Court, who only sought power and privilege.
    Still, if truth was told, Puck had himself a nasty reputation for stealing kisses from the pretty young lasses on Hill Street.  But what h a rm rested in such innocent dalliances?  Anne herself could not deny the want of such attention from the young men at festival.
    “My good Master Puck,” she said with a smile, elevating the man’s status with one simple word.  “Methinks I do detect a strong lack of willing cheeks and ready lips upon the Hill Street.”  She closed the uncomfortable distance between them, stopping at the edge of the cooling shade.
    “It be the truth, my Lady Halloway.”  Puck smiled, stark white teeth showing in the center of a tanned and muddily handsome face.  “I have runnest me out of conquests.”
    “Master Puck, name me Anne.  I beg it of thee.”
    Mock shock split his surprisingly soft looking lips.  “Ne’er would I presume to name a noble Lady in such familiarity.”
    “Tush, sir.”  Anne flicked a chunk of dried mud from his hot shoulder.  “Have I not e’er been thy close friend?”
    “Your betrothed shalt have me harshly in the stocks, or part me from my crown, should he see us now,” Puck whispered into her ear, though a smile swirled in his voice.
    Anne smiled, but she took a step back.  He had a point.  She would not see him punished on her account.  “Prithee escort thee a Lady through the festival,” she said, trying not to laugh through her own absurd properness.  “The Lord High Sheriff doth quake to think me wandering by mine own self.”
    Puck gave a bow equal in graciousness and regality to that of any of the noblemen of the Court.  When he stood, they smiled at each other.
    There was no better way to break the rules of society than