We Meet Again

[Marigold Thorne]

“Are you getting a new hat, too?” Marigold asked the boy from behind.

She had recognized him as soon as she and her governess had walked into the shop. It was him, that boy from Padmore Park. Mordecai Greengrass. The one who claimed to have many friends, but Marie thought that had none.

She eyed her governess, who didn’t seem to mind particularly that she was talking with another child. The boy was from a good family, after all, so there was nothing wrong with her being seen conversing with him.

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

Mordecai just looked surprised at her as she spoke to him. Luckily he had not had a nightmare this night, so he was not too scared or jumpy by her sudden voice behind him. And the soft tingle from the door opening had warned him as well. So he had just turned and looked at her with a wondering and surprised look.

"My mother insisted that I need a new set of clothes for when we visit family and friends." he replied calmly. He quickly bowed when he remembered that he should bow for a lady, he did not wanted to make his governess think he was not listening to the lessons.

  

[Marigold Thorne]

“New clothes, nice!” Marie commented with a smile. Sometimes, she couldn’t understand why boys needed new clothes. Their clothes always looked the same, after all. It seemed like a waste to buy ten different sets of similar looking clothing. But, then, boys probably thought the same about girls.

“Maybe I will buy a new dress too.” she commented with a shrug. “What colour would you suggest? I bet you can’t guess my favourite colour.”

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

Usually Mordecai was not much for new clothes, but he did not fight his mother even the slightest when she made such a decision. He trusted that she knew better than him about it. "I trust my mother and governess to know when I need new clothes and what kind of clothes." he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

When she asked him if he could guess her favorite color, and he looked closer at her, trying to see if there was something special, but he ended up clueless and just guess. "Blue - like your eyes?" he guessed and looked at her to see her reaction.

  

[Marigold Thorne]

“Does that mean that yours is green?” Marie asked the boy after she carefully decided that his eyes were green rather than blue. She rather envied people with eyes like his, that had different colours under different lights. Hers were blue no matter where she was. They were pretty, but not very special. It had to be nice to have green eyes during some occasions and blue during others.

“No, blue’s not my favourite colour.” Marigold finally said. “You have another guess.”

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

"No - I prefer a gentle summersky blue." he said, trying to explain the kind of color he preferred. He had always liked the summer - it was a nice time of the year and he could spend a lot of time outside - and the sky always seemed to be a special blue during the summer.

When she said that he could try and guess again, he just tried to think of what his mother usually wore of dresses, what colors they were. His little-sister was not the best to compare with she was not that old. "Something yellow, gold like?" he tried.

  

[Marigold Thorne]

Marie made a grimace. “I hate yellow!” It was too bright and light and silly. Golds were somewhat nice, she supposed, but only if they were added in details to other coloured colours. On its own, gold was too shiny and light.

“You have one more guess!” she said rather playfully. “It’s really not that hard! I’ll give you a hint… It’s warm.”

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

"The sun is pretty, and it's yellow." he countered back, not caring that it was actually quite a bad argument, it worked for him and he did not care about it. When she gave him a hint of what her favorite color was, he only had one idea based on the hint.

"Then I would guess red." he said and looked at her with a wondering smile. Red was warm - he guessed, but he rarely saw her mother wearing red

  

[Marigold Thorne]

“Yes!” Marigold replied enthusiastically. It took him three guesses to find it, but in the end he did. Marigold was pleased.

“My mother wore a lot of red… I think…” She couldn’t remember clearly, but she could recall in her memories red dresses and faceless women in them. One of them was surely her mother and the rest… Cousins, perhaps? She surely had many cousins in France.

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

"I rarely see my mother wearing red. I am not sure why though." he said and thought on his own mother - he could not recall seeing her in red very often, nor anyone else for that matter, but he did not say anything about that. If she wanted to wear red and remembered her mother wearing red, then he doubted that he could make her see it wrong just because he said so.

"I hope the dress will be pretty." he said with a smile.

  

[Marigold Thorne]

Mordecai’s mother was clearly not very well dressed if she didn’t like red, though Marie did not comment on it. Her governess and Aunt Mariana would be disappointed to learn that she had been rude.

“I hope so too.” Marie said. “Maybe we’ll meet again one day when I’ll wear it and you’ll be able to see.”

  

[Mordecai Greengrass]

Mordecai was not one to allow anyone to talk badly about his mother, to him there was no doubt that Benilda was one of the best persons in the entire world. However, it was not even needed which it of course it would not be when it was a young lady who was raised by a Macnair, Mordecai knew it was one of the better families.

"Maybe, we can never know." he said with a smile as he was told that he should be on his way home. "I have to go home now, I hope to see you another day Miss Thorne." he said politely as he remembered seeing his father saying goodbye to someone.