"Did you remember the part about not wandering off?" Maeve muttered.

"I didn't really ... she's just in that shop there," Eden said, nodding vaguely at it. "I went outside for some fresh air."

"You're a hundred yards away and going in the opposite direction," Maeve said quietly. In a louder voice, she said, "Would you be able to direct me to the Grand Emporium, miss?"

"Yes, madam. I'll show you," Eden said with resignation, as she turned back and prepared to retrace her steps. She'd had two minutes of freedom, if that, and hadn't got to do anything.

Once they were outside Carillo's, Maeve said, "Wait here. I'll let her know what happened while I decide what to do with you."

That sounded ominous. Eden watched Maeve stride into the store, and returned to her desultory inspection of the Yule decorations. She stared at a wooden box of six gilt suns with smiling faces until they turned into a golden blur.

Maeve marched out of Carillo's again, and gave Eden a grin. "I let her know you're with me – don't worry, she thought you were there the whole time. I'll take you shopping, if you like."

Eden gave a relieved smile. "Thanks. But shouldn't someone be watching Nurse?"

"She's as safe as castles at Carillo's," Maeve said. "It's the most respectable shop in Little Market Street. And strictly speaking, I'm only paid to guard you."

"How will she pay for her shopping?" Eden asked, as they began strolling down Little Market Street.

"I've sorted all that with old Carillo", Maeve said. "What do you want to do first?"

"Watch the puppet show and eat roast chestnuts," Eden said promptly.

"Yes to the puppet show, no to the chestnuts," Maeve replied. "My life won't be worth living if you get food poisoning from badly cooked nuts."

They stood at the back to watch the puppet show, Eden making herself taller by standing on some public steps. As Nurse May had said, the crowd was a bit boisterous, but Maeve protected Eden with her body so that nobody could touch her. 

Eden watched the puppet show with a stony face, thinking that a forbidden pleasure should surely be more enjoyable. The jokes were either too childish for her, or else rather too adult, as she didn't always know why the grown ups were laughing.

After five minutes, Maeve whispered, "Had enough?"

"Yes please," Eden said, with some relief. "All the puppets do is chase, hit, and insult each other."

"That is the general gist of it, yes," Maeve said. "I'll take you to Market Square if you'd like. There's lots of different stalls."

They walked further down Little Market Street, Maeve standing slightly behind Eden, yet able to guide her by using her voice. It took a while to get used to, because Eden had to talk to Maeve while looking straight ahead. She really gave Eden just as many instructions as Nurse May, but somehow it was more exciting following Maeve's hastily muttered safety directions to avoid this person, or stay closer to the shops.

Market Square was a large plaza that stood between Little Market Street and a broader, more impressive thoroughfare. There were side streets to the north and south of the square; these were blocked off so nobody could enter or leave by them, but Maeve said she knew how to get through if they were in a tight spot. A plain grey stone monument stood in the middle, as if marking the centre point of the compass face of the square. 

"What were you thinking of buying?" Maeve asked, gesturing at the multitude of brightly coloured stalls with their enticing displays.

"I'm not really sure," Eden said, biting her lip. "I don't know exactly what Sunbeam would like – that is, what everybody would like. Would they expect something very expensive?"

"You don't need to worry about that," Maeve assured her. "There is a very strict limit of no more than five silver coins for any one Yule present. Food, candles, and ornaments are the most common gifts, and plenty of people give something handmade, or jokes that are just meant to be silly and fun. You're not meant to take it too seriously."

Eden's face cleared at this news. "Oh I like that idea," she said. "That way nobody spends all their money for one day of the year."

"No, and it cuts down on competition, showing off, and jealousy," Maeve agreed. "Look around and see if there's anything you'd like to buy. Touch your hat with you right hand when you need my help."

At first the idea of choosing a few presents from so many market stalls was overwhelming, but after walking right around the square once, Eden felt as if she was already starting to get some ideas. Maeve had left her to shop at her own will, but she could see her doing a patrol of the area, and could attract her bodyguard's attention whenever she wished.

A market stall with a blue and white awning was doing a roaring trade in candles. After patiently waiting her turn, Eden chose a large pink rose-scented candle for Nurse Melia, and a white valerian-scented one for Nurse May. At the next stall she bought a glass box of candied fruit for Bernard, and a decorated tin of chocolates for Pip – each time, Maeve paid for her, and gave directions for the items to be delivered to Camden Palace under her own name.

Eden felt less confident about presents for Lucy's remaining brothers; she hardly knew them, and hadn't even met Roderick yet. But as she passed a stall selling carved wooden ornaments, she noticed they had decorative chess pieces that were about ten inches high. After looking through them carefully, she chose a king on his throne carved from dark ebony for Otto, and a knight on his charger made from pale boxwood for Sebastian. For Roderick, a tiny intricate mahogany box with a bronze lion face on the lid, just the right size for postage stamps.

Queen Dorothea was a puzzle. Lucy's mother seemed too important to be fobbed off with candles, and apart from wanting to stay on her good side, she had been nothing but kind to Eden. A silly joke present for a queen was out of the question. Eden rapidly rejected soaps, stationery, and a small silver swan before standing still with a pensive expression.

"Looking for a present for your granny or auntie?" asked a grey-haired woman running a crafts stall.

"Something like that," Eden said cautiously.

"I have some nice leather sewing kits for sale," the woman said. "Or perhaps you'd like to make something yourself? Can you sew, dearie?"

"Yes, I do embroidery," Eden admitted.

"Well, here are some pretty centrepieces and doilies, with patterns already marked out on them," the woman said, showing her a selection. "Not difficult if you already know how to sew."

Birds, hearts, and flowers didn't seem right for Dorothea, Eden thought. Then she saw a pale blue centrepiece with a polar bear and its cub on the arctic ice, with the northern lights in the sky above them.

"I'll take this one, please," Eden said, "and the coloured threads to go with it. Do you ... do you have anything else to make your own presents? I'd like to make something for my girl friend – that is, I mean a friend who is a girl?"

"There's an absolute craze at the moment for young girls to make strings of glass beads for each other," the woman said, reaching under the counter. "Here you go, there's several kits to choose from. Each colour means something different – pink is love, blue means loyalty, yellow is friendship, and white stands for purity. Which one do you want, dearie?"

Eden looked at them all before saying, "My friend likes the colour pink. May I have that one, please?"

"Of course you may, dearie," the woman said cheerily, as she began wrapping up Eden's purchases. "It will make a lovely little gift for the friend of your heart, and all made by your own fair hand. That will be four silver coins and six copper coins for everything."

Eden couldn't think what to buy her father and wandered around with a distracted air, until she saw an old man with pale blue eyes and a white beard sitting on a barrel, smoking a pipe. He didn't even have a stall, just a little deal wood table that he'd propped against the stone monument. He was selling seashells, scrimshaw, and driftwood carvings, but Eden's eye was drawn to a collection of wooden ships that had been placed by some astonishing means into long-necked bottles.

"However do you carve the ship while it's inside a bottle?" Eden asked.

"Don't," the old man said, taking his pipe out of his mouth. "Carve outside, slide through the neck."

"How clever! That must be awfully difficult."

"'Tis," the old man grunted. "Buy one?" He seemed to have reduced sentences to their simplest proportions.

"How much for that gorgeous schooner at the back?" Eden asked. "The one with HMS Lindensea written on it."

"Gold coin," was the response.

Her face fell. "I only have five silver coins to spend," she said.

The old man gave her a long, slow look, puffing on his pipe. "Know much about ships?" he asked.

"Not really," Eden said. "I only have a sailboat at home, but I sail and row all I can."

"Sea-going vessel?"

"Lake," Eden replied, finally succumbing to the old man's succinct style of speech.

"Ah," said the old man wisely, as if Eden had given him vitally important information with that final word. "Reckon your people know boats, alright."

He tapped his pipe on the side of the barrel, shuffled over and selected one of the smaller bottles from the table, holding it up to show her. 

"Got a nice little cutter here, the Sprightly. Came out of Sutton harbour, in the west. Sailed on her myself at one time. Can let you have it for five silver."

"Thank you, she's a beauty," Eden said gratefully. "My father will love her."

She signalled to Maeve, who came over and paid for her, directing the old man to have the bottle sent to Camden Palace.

"To the castle, eh?" said the old man, giving Maeve and Eden a shrewd look.

"Yes, we work there," Maeve said briskly. "If you take the item to the market foreman's office, they'll arrange delivery. I can give you a silver coin for your trouble."

"No trouble, madam," the old man said, wrapping the bottle very carefully and placing it in a wooden box. "You keep your silver."

He turned to Eden with a serious expression. "Miss, you must not be so free with your words. They're safe with old Ben Gosling, but you never know who else might be about. I won't say your name, little miss, but you may call on mine if you ever need to. Ben Gosling. Remember that. I'll be here every day, by this stone marker, until Yule."

"Thank you, Mr Gosling, I will," Eden said, rather startled by this sudden lexical torrent, and looking more closely at the monument in question. "Can you tell me what the stone column is for?"

"'Twas set up by the Merchants Guild, long ago," said Ben Gosling. "Dedicated to Mercury, asking his protection on all who buy and sell at the market. But if you ask me, he helps a good many else as well."

"Mercury again," said Eden thoughtfully. "This is the second time now." 

She saw that the monument had an image of the god's symbol carved into it, and a piece in Latin that would take her some time to translate.

"They do say that those who first meet by the Mercury stone will have their lives entwined for good or ill," Ben Gosling said, staring at Eden with his pale blue eyes. "Mark my words – for good or ill."

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

LINDENSEA LORE

Visitors to Camden will find many shopping opportunities in the city's historic market district, which centres on Mercury Square – known to the locals by the prosaic name Market Square. This divides the quaint and narrow Little Market Street from the more fashionable Great Market Street.

In the middle of the square is a column of grey stone dedicated to the god Mercury, the patron of merchants and trade, from which the square receives its official name. One theory is that its common name is a corruption of Marker Square, since the Mercury stone is used to mark the boundary between Little and Great Market Streets. However, it must be stressed that this is pure conjecture.

The Mercury stone is perfectly plain and unadorned, save for the god's own symbol [☿] at the top in gold leaf. Below is a Latin inscription, which, translated, reads:

By the grace of Queen Hermione the Saviour, under the auspices of The Merchants Guild and by the direction of the Lord Mayor of Camden, Sir Dunstan Merrit, was this pillar erected in the year 1227 of the Saxon Era, and thereby dedicated to Mercury as a perpetual memorial and supplication of the god's favour upon the merchants and marketers of the city, and do adjure all who pass this monument and read what is writ upon it to remember that the duty of a seller is to act with all due honesty, and the duty of a buyer is to beware.

From Camden at a Glance, City Guide Series, published by Compass Press