Chapter 487: Ollie’s Virtues (Part One)
Telling Ollie’s story took over an hour, and just as they’d promised, Milo and Juni were merciless in pointing out any attempt on Ollie’s part to take less credit for something than he deserved or to downplay the difficulties of what he’d done.
During that time, the remainder of Ashlynn’s traveling companions slowly filtered into the long house once they’d completed their duties, including an eager and attentive young Emmie who seemed almost upset that Georg had taken charge of attending to Heila’s needs along with everyone else instead of summoning her to take care of her lady.
"You’ll have plenty of opportunities to wait on me when we reach the castle," Heila said with a laugh as she pulled her young squire onto the pile of cushions next to her. "For now, enjoy Georg’s cooking while you can. It’s a rare treat for him to cook for you personally."
"Now, now, little Heila," Georg said with a hearty laugh that shook his soft belly. "You know that I always save a few treats for people who are special. I saved treats for you, didn’t I? Besides, Sir Ollie helped this time. This is just as much his work as it is mine."
"You know," Ashlynn teased from her pile of cushions as she sipped a rich, full-bodied red wine that tasted earthy and slightly smoky as it slid smoothly across her tongue. In a place like this, she had no doubt that Georg had brought the bottle specifically from Nyrielle’s personal cellar, but the smile on Ashlynn’s lips when she relaxed to savor the flavor told him that it was more than worth the effort.
"I didn’t expect that you would take humility as one of your virtues, Ollie," Ashlynn said, giving the young man a look that swirled with hints of curiosity, consideration and a soft, gentle pride in the young man who had come so far from his days scrubbing pots in the Lothian kitchens. "Have you selected your others?"
"I didn’t really plan to take humility as a virtue either," the flame-haired young man said, ducking his head in embarrassment as he became the center of attention. "But Sir Thane said that if I didn’t, I wasn’t being honest with myself about who I really am."
"Big brother Thane is right," Ashlynn said with a nod. "You have to know yourself, know the kind of person you truly are and the kind of person you want to become, or you’ll fail at the very first step," she said, sharing a knowing look with Heila. "So what else have you taken as a virtue?"
Something about Ashlynn’s tone suggested that she wasn’t just making idle conversation, and Ollie realized that a moment he hadn’t expected to come for several days was already upon him. After listening to the praise heaped on him by Milo, Juni, and even Georg, and the way everyone from the Vale of Mists addressed him as ’Sir’ Ollie, Ashlynn was testing him to see if he was prepared to live up to the title.