Sir Augustine's second daughter and second son were unable to resist the charm of the shot salmon and announced that the archery competition was temporarily suspended. As soon as the contest was aborted, the second son, Alfred Walton, immediately asked the baron's eldest son, John, to go and pick up some branches for himself. The purpose of picking up branches is naturally to use as a platform for cutting fish.

The salmon, which is actually only about 3 feet (about 0.9 meters) long, still looks very large. In order to level the whole fish, Alfred and John picked up a lot of branches of various lengths from the woods on the shore, trimmed them with a battle axe, and arranged them into a rectangle on the shore. Then Euphemia and the baron's eldest daughter, Clara, and two maids cut a lot of grass and laid it on the branches.

When everything was ready, Alfred, dressed in a linen shirt and pants, knelt on one leg in front of a homemade platform with salmon in hand and began to cut the fish. First, the scales are scraped off with a dagger, and the fins, pelvic fins, and pectoral fins are cut off, and then the blade is inserted along the gill cover, and the head is sliced off with the dagger. Then, the fish is cut in two pieces by cutting the ventral side along the middle bone of the fish, and the head is inserted into the blade of the sword to cut the dorsal side......

When the orange-red color and unusually fresh salmon meat were displayed in front of everyone, Clara, who had never seen raw fish before, already felt that her two eyes were not enough.

After putting his face close to the fresh fish and looking at it carefully several times, he looked up at Alfred again: "Elf, this is the meat of salmon?" Are you really going to eat the fish like that? ”

"Yes, Miss Clara. However, before eating, the fish needs to be cut into slices and dipped in horseradish. Alver smiled as he picked up the jar of horseradish and poured some horseradish sauce over the dissected fish.

Except for the two siblings Euphemia and Alfred, no one had ever seen this way of eating. Everyone looked at each other and didn't know what to say. Euphemia picked up a slice of sashimi from the fish, dipped it in some horseradish sauce and put it in her mouth, nodding happily as she chewed on the fresh fish.

Soon, others were intrigued by curiosity and tried to eat some sashimi. Alfred, who liked the taste of sashimi very much, after eating several slices of sashimi, said in a joking tone about his fiancé, who was about to marry his sister, "Euphemia, has it been a week since Herbert Frederick received a letter from His Royal Highness the Duke and went to the City of London?" What do you think Herbert went to London for? ”

Yuphimia, who was sitting under an ancient tree, glanced at him, "I don't know, maybe it's because His Highness asked him to be a guard." ”

"You don't know? How is this possible? Tomorrow is the Ascension Day, and the court holds canonization ceremonies, knightly jousting tournaments, and various celebrations at this time every year. ”

"Elf, you know a lot about court life, Sir Alex Ferguson told you?" Euphemia was reluctant to tell Baron Latimer about her affair with her fiancé Herbert in front of Baron Latimer's two children.

Elph looked at John and his sister Clara, who were sitting on the grass listening with relish, then turned to Euphemia and smiled, "Effie, I'm 13 years old this year, so I'm not the boy I used to be. ”

"yes, you're 13 years old, shouldn't you do something that a 13-year-old does? For example, being trained as a knight's squire. ”

Alfred laughed, "Effie, as the youngest member of the family, I naturally know my siblings better than my parents. In any case, I will be very concerned about the marriage of Herbert, the second son of the gentleman, to you. ”

Euphemia stared at her brother's smile, she felt that there must be something hidden behind her brother's smile, and smiled faintly: "Well, I can know how you plan to care about my marriage to Herbert?" ”

"Well, nothing, I'm just a little unconvinced of Herbert's knightly skills."

———————————

A week earlier, on Wednesday, Isabel Walton had received a letter from the Duke of Richmond from the City of London, and she was a little curious about the names of Herbert and Ernest that appeared in the letter. However, after thinking about it, she quickly realized that there was a certain connection between these two people and herself.

While the servants had led them out of the drawing-room, she intended to talk to them one after the other about a very good piece of news that the Duke of Richmond had mentioned in his letter. When the prospective knight Herbert Frederick stood up from his seat in the waiting area, he glanced at Ernest who was sitting beside him, "Ernest, you are your brother, do you know why Your Excellency called you and me to the parlor today?" ”

Ernest, who was sitting in the middle of his seat, did not squint, and looked straight at the wall made of large stone blocks in front of him, "Herbert, you should know this better than I do. At the very least, you've sworn allegiance to Your Highness much longer than I do. ”

"Knight, Privy Counsellor and Duke's Secretary are waiting for you." The servant stood at the door of the parlor and spoke to Herbert again.

"I see." Herb nodded, and then looked at Ernest as he straightened out his cavalry armor and sword, "I'll go see Your Excellency first, and I'll tell you any news." ”

"Your Excellency, the prospective knight Herbert Frederick is here." Isabel stood in front of the window, with her back to the door of the parlor, when she heard the words of the servant coming from behind her.

When Isabel turned around, she saw Herbert, who was heavily armed, standing solemnly about ten paces away from her, and said gently, "Quasi-knight, come and sit here." ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Herbert nodded to her again, walked straight between the two rows of vacant seats on the left and right in front of the Duke's throne, and found an empty seat near the end.

As Isabel walked past the clearing in front of him, she glanced at him and said, "Herbert, go ahead and sit." I'm sure you'll be interested in what I'm about to talk to you about. ”

After sitting in her advisor's seat, Isabel calmly watched as Herbert walked to the first empty seat on the left and sat down, graciously picking up a glass of apple and pear from the small table beside her and taking a sip.

Then, he put down his glass and looked at the would-be knight, who seemed a little overwhelmed: "Herbert, there is still a week before the annual Ascension Day, and the king will order the court to hold celebrations, knightly jousts and conferral ceremonies during the festival. ”

"Your Excellency, are you saying that after last year's rebellion, His Majesty the King will still hold a conferment ceremony this year?"

Isabel supported her right cheek with her right hand, cocked her right leg and smiled: "Well, compared to the Ascension Day, you value the conferment ceremony more, don't you?" ”

Herbert's face turned slightly red, "Your Excellency, because Miss Euphemia was... Tell me, only when I'm knighted can I ... to be able to associate with her. ”