Free Hidden Ability (Book 1) by Aldus Baker Page A

sister goes to some length to assure Darla that everything is well with her and her family and that writing Darla is prompted by a happy circumstance and nothing of grave concern.
    Nothing about the letter indicates the need for a personal messenger until Darla reads the word “however”. It is Darla’s least favorite word because “however” indicates that one may now ignore all information given ahead of that word. Good news, gone. Happy tidings, forgotten. And as she reads further, Darla starts to get a headache. The headache intensifies as each word of Guri’s letter makes clear the real message. Darla lays down the page she is reading, unable to continue. She places her face in her hands and waits for her mother to finish reading.
    “What is it, dear?” asks Lady Shara.
    “You’ll see,” mumbles Darla as she massages her forehead.
    “Oh,” says Lady Shara a moment later. And then, “Oh no. It can’t be.”
    “It is,” says Darla as the pounding in her head grows even stronger.
    Lady Shara starts laughing. Darla fails to find any humor in it. “Oh yes, mock me in my time of misery,” she says as she lifts her aching head to look at her mother. Lady Shara tries to stop, but only laughs harder. Darla puts her face back in her hands.
    Still laughing, Lady Shara leans over and starts to rub Darla’s back and then stands behind her to massage her shoulders.
    Darla, who is on the verge of either depression, anger or both, notices that her mother’s work on the knotted muscles in Darla’s neck seems to relieve some of the pain in her head.
    “Dear,” says Lady Shara, “I don’t mean to laugh at you. It is the absurdity of our situation that leaves my head spinning too. You’re tired. You have been working so hard. Go lie down and rest for a bit.”
    “But...”
    “Hush. I won’t let you tell me no. You will feel much better after a little rest.”
    “I’m already so far behind,” says Darla.
    “I’ll help you. And, we’ll start looking for your new assistant. Your exhaustion makes it plain that you need one,” says Lady Shara.
    “More than I need a husband,” says Darla. “What am I supposed to do, mother?”
    “You have time to think about that later. The formal proposal has not arrived yet. Guri is just trying to help prepare you for it. She knows her little sister well. I imagine this is not far from what she thought might happen.”
    “But, the messenger, he is waiting for a response,” says Darla.
    “I’ll write one and send him off with it. Right after I walk you to your room.”
    Darla let her mother guide her down the hall and see her to bed. It is like being a little girl again. If only she could recapture that feeling of knowing all is well because her parents love her. She drifts off to sleep. When she wakes, her head feels much better even though her thoughts are still in turmoil.
    Lord Merk Shrift, Guri’s husband’s cousin, is going to propose marriage to her. They have been introduced of course. It was at one of Guri’s parties last year or perhaps the year before. The year before it seems to Darla because she recalls speaking to him on at least three occasions. Darla is always careful to suppress any whims of fancy. She does not indulged in speculation about whom she might marry. The children of landed houses rarely marry for love. It is all about alliances and the mutual benefit of both families. She has no desire to enter an arranged marriage with a broken heart or unrealistic expectations. Although, as the third daughter of a middling house, she never thought she might marry a lord. Even four years after her father’s death she has difficulty accepting that she is the head of House Yen. That is why a lord would marry her. Not because she is Darla, but because she is Lady Darla Yen.

Chapter X
    The Training Hall is a large open rectangular structure. A series of wooden trusses with interlocking posts supports the roof. Jalan finds the symmetry of each truss