Page 45 of Waking Roslyn

“Oh, I know. I’ve seen you.”

The way her face brightened, I would have thought someone had bought her a pony. “You have?”

“Yes,” I confessed, a little embarrassed. “Actually, it was watching you and the other young lady fight that gave me the idea in the first place.”

“Really?”

I nodded.

She took a deep breath and I could practically see her swelling with joy and pride. “Well then, we should get started.” She took the staff and handed it to me. “We use wooden swords to practice so that we don’t kill each other.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Right. You’ve already been practicing with Johnny.” She nodded and then moved to face me, leaving enough space between us that even with our swords fully extended, they would not have clashed. “Let’s start with the strike from above. Did he teach you that?”

“He tried to.”

“Did he fail?”

“No, I did,” I told her with a shake of my head. “I couldn’t get myself to…”

“Attack?” she supplied.

I nodded.

“You’ll get it,” she assured me. She showed me the same motion that John had demonstrated the first day he’d tried to teach me, and I tried to imitate her.

“How long have you been practicing?” I asked.

She tried not to smirk, but it was a losing game. “Going on six years now.”

I pulled my chin back, startled. “Six years? How old were you when you started?”

“Seven,” she answered with a grin.

“So you’re only thirteen?”

“Near thirteen. How old are you, anyway?”

“Seventeen.”

She nodded in acknowledgement. “All right.” She adjusted her stance and held her sword up horizontally in front of her head. “Now you’re going to strike my sword.”

“Oh.”

“Right in the middle here, using the motion you’ve been practicing. Go ahead.”

My nerves shot up, but I shoved them down and did as she asked.

She shook her head. “Harder than that. You barely tapped my sword. Come on now.”

Gretchen turned out to be a good teacher. I felt comfortable with the move fairly quickly. Though that caused her to look at me funny. “So why couldn’t you do this with John?”

I’d been wondering the same thing and thought I had the answer. “You already have the sword up to block my blow. John just asked me to strike at him and trust that he would get his sword up in time.”

Gretchen rolled her eyes. “Sometimes he doesn’t even realize he’s showing off. It just comes naturally.”

That was a curious thought. “I don’t think he’s a show-off,” I said.