Corresponding

Chapter One

Dear Allan,

You will receive this letter by courier. It is not as fast as the pigeon but Hasan is reliable. I hope it finds you well.

Your last letter reached me three months ago. I cannot say how sorry I am to hear that Miriam is back with her husband. I did not realise that you were not officially married. It cheers me to hear that you seem philosophical and I am scarcely surprised to hear that you are not short of female company. It is wonderful, too, that you and young Liza will maintain your relationship. You have been a true father to her for so many years and I'm sure she knows that.

The storyteller nights at your tavern sound wonderful. Singing too. I trust you have not invited our beloved Earl of Bonchurch to perform? Perhaps he could contribute some lyrics?

Now to my news. It is very exciting. Yasmina is in England, in York. Last year, she met a young English physician named Matthew. He was volunteering his services in Acre as his family has associations with the Holy Land. She is madly in love and they are engaged. I thought at first that, at eighteen, she is much too young and might be making a mistake. I wished Will were alive to talk her out of it, as I am sure he would have wanted her to wait. But she convinced me. He is a good man, highly intelligent, with strong ideals and a fierce integrity. He is rather shy and extremely talented at his work. Is this starting to remind you of anyone? I believe she saw a good deal of her father in him yet I realise she loves him for his own sake, genuinely. England has always attracted her and she is more than prepared to make a home there. Perhaps she does not yet understand how it can be challenging to transplant yourself. Of course, Yasmina does not fear challenges.

So, I am coming to England. They will not be able to marry for at least six months to a year. Matthew must re-establish his practice back in York. For myself, I am not planning to stay with them. Yes, I will be in Nottingham by July! I have already arranged lodgings and am looking into opening an apothecary's shop. It is important that I am occupied. I will send a message on when I am much nearer.

Dearest Allan, thank you so much for what you wrote about Will in your last letter. Sometimes I can't believe it has been three years. The pain is not as intense. The absurd injustice of a man like Will being taken so young cannot destroy the beauty he left behind. I often think about how lucky I was to have had such a marriage...it was not perfect, not without conflict. You know about our tempers, our stubbornness. But the conflict was never petty and he was such a loving man.

Its thanks to Will that I can also admit how lucky I have been in my friends. Bassam says hello. You were always his favourite among the gang, you know. I feel strangely that this trip is coming at the right time, that it is fated.

Naturally I will understand that you will be very busy running the tavern so you must not feel you have to shepherd me around too much...after all, it is a homecoming of sorts, even if I won't be sleeping in the forest with dirty, smelly, snoring men. I have sent letters to Robin and Much. You say you haven't heard from John in a while. I do hope all is well with him and Little Little John.

The prospect of seeing you all makes me smile.

With love

Enshallah, Keep your end up

Djaq

By the way, Jasmina says she will visit. She wants to talk to you about something. She wouldn't tell me..!

Allan stroked the letter and folded it carefully, locking it in his wooden treasure box in the tavern's small office. His ex partner, Miriam had taught him to read several years ago and ,w hile he had complained at the time, he had to admit it was much more of a thrill than he thought..not quite as good as gaming, but being able to stick his nose into a new world of information, expressing the A Dale point of view in black ink for the select few..yes, it was great.

How like Djaq to declare her independence by telling him he needn't bother showing her around. In a pig's ear. He could feel a huge grin spread from ear to ear. Much performing at the Tavern talent night to a chorus of dripping vegetable missiles. He could actually see it. He wondered what was on Jamina's mind. She was a forthright, assertive young lass with a salty tongue and Allan enjoyed her company tremendously. On the last few occasions when they'd met, he had caught her watching him as he exchanged banter with Djaq. She always smiled at him as if to say she could see right through him. Like mother, like daughter. Allan leaned back in his easy chair. Will had designed it with what he called Allan's 'lazy bones moments' in mind.

He clicked his tongue at himself. Miriam had been gone for over a year and he had fallen into an affair with a feisty clever fifty something widow, Beatrice. They met now and then, at her instigation as she did not wish for another live-in-partner, having had too long and too happy a marriage and being too occupied with her grandchildren and her studies. They were good friends as much as lovers. He had not felt that anything was missing in his life yet the thought of Djaq coming to stay filled him with irrepressible excitement.

He'd been devastated by Will's death, made the disruptive trip to Acre to get to the funeral as the sole representative of the gang who did not have a pregnant partner or very young children to look after. Djaq had tried to be so brave but on the last day she'd held onto him as if she didn't want to let go. The truth was, he hadn't wanted to leave her either. If he really considered it, it was on his return that things had started to cool between Miriam and himself. A sense of distance in a relationship that had always been affectionate and companiable if not passionate. When she left, she had commented wrily: "Allan, neither of us deserves to be second best and that's what we've always been to each other, don't you think?" Her dead husband had proved to be Lazarus, not so dead after all. He had been angry and bewildered. He thought he had loved Miriam in a genuine, grown-up manner, but, although he had been lonely, felt resentful and rejected, he was not heartbroken by her departure. He wasn't quite sure what she meant by the second best remark . Well, if he'd ever neglected his partner, in true careless A Dale style, he wasn't about to repeat the mistake with the best friend he'd ever had.