Sentence The Fourhundredandfiftysixth

To Tavish, as he gazed out on the valley, with the little river babbling past, the arable land seemed unused, and he had to remind himself that this is the 13^th Century and not the 21^st and so it lacked all the common sights and sounds which he had become so used to – they were yet to come, before the scene he beheld would be parlayed into the productive farming of his own lifetime; but, he had to admit, this era held it's own ambrosial sensations – his nose twitched, as the aroma of fresh-baked

bread reached him; his mouth watered and he turned back into the kitchen where Father Boisel's wife Greta was just placing the new loaves on the table; she smiled shyly at him: she had spoken little since her new lodgers had arrived, but Tavish had heard her speak with her husband and the children, and she had a musical lilt to her voice, more of an accent than Boisel and harder for Tavish to always decipher, though he felt that after a fortnight he was better attuned to it: “Mistress Greta,” he now said, addressing her formally, for he knew instinctively that she would be startled if he used any other tone, and she smiled at him, her face lighting up in that instant, before settling into it's usual placid expression, as she waited for him to continue: “I wondered if you would teach me something from your knowledge of herbal medicine?” and he waited to hear the nuances of her reply: “well, Master Tavish, I do not consider myself a Herbalist, I have never studied, as my husbandman studies, I can read and write,” she added hastily, lest there be any doubt in his mind, “and count,” and she smiled disarmingly, holding up her fingers, “the Lord was wise to give us ten fingers and toes, for it makes arithmetic simple, but so many letters in the alphabet, I grieve for my little ones, so much to remember, to put in the right order for one word, for another, one letter out of place and Oh! the opposite meaning, or at least one very different from that intended, but, Hush! mistress, it is not your place to lecture such a learned gentleman,” and she slapped her wrist, but playfully, and Tavish, surprised and delighted by this first conversation, sat down and encouraged her to join him in a goblet of small beer and some of her own bread.