Old Women and Fresh Vegetables

Varrelle scanned the crowds. Where was that old woman? She had said she would see her at the vegetable stall, but she wasn't there yet.
It was Thursday, and Nat, Dyl, and Varrelle were in town. After having walked around for a while, they had stopped to eat, but really, the food tasted strange here. Maybe that was the old woman!! No....she realized, her heart sinking.
While they had been sitting under the trees eating some rough bread and cheese with an apple and a thin milk-type drink, otherwise known as the staple foods of the region, an old woman had come up to them, and had spoken to Varrelle as one who is an old friend.
"Deary, who are these young men? Mighty handsome for soldiers, ain't they? You are lucky to have found them." she had cackled.
"I'm sorry; I don't seem to know you." Varrelle had said somewhat coolly. After all, who was this woman, and what right did she have to speak so familiarly to her? Even as a slave, people weren't that familiar to her, and she distinctly resented it now, as a free woman.
"Ay deary, no need to get yur feathers flustered, is there? No, you may not know me, but I know YOU." she had said mysteriously.
"Varrelle, who is this woman? Need we arrest her?" Dyl had asked quickly after the woman's last statement.
"No, not just yet." she answered slowly. She wanted to ask this woman questions, and she felt that this woman had plenty of answers.
"Madame, could we talk for just a moment over here?" she asked. The questions she needed to ask Nat couldn't hear. Well, Dyl couldn't either.
Nat had been increasingly on her mind lately, and she didn't really know what to do about it. But she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. She needed to focus right now.
"Deary, your thoughts are far away." the woman mused. "Where, I wonder....."
"Never mind that." Varrelle said hurriedly. "Can we talk?"
"Meet me by the vegetable stall across from the stables when the sun reaches the middle of the sky." the woman said.
Varrelle calculated, in 45 minutes, she thought to herself.
"Alright."
Then the old woman walked away.
She still hadn't shown up, and it had been another an hour since she had talked to the woman, and she still wasn't there. Varrelle had a job to do, and she couldn't afford to wait much longer.
She leaned over to the stall-keeper.
"Sir, I was supposed to meet someone here, but I cannot wait much longer. May I leave a message for them with you?"
"Certainly." the rather paunchy man smiled
"I was supposed to meet a certain old woman here. I am not aware of her name, but I know that she will ask if I left a message with you. Please let her know that Varrelle works as a cook for the army, and that she may come to my tents at any time, and that I need to talk with her urgently."
The man raised an eyebrow curiously. "Alright, if you say so" he said
"Thank you!" she told him effusively
She ran back to where Nat, and Dyl, had been looking at some weapons.
"Come on boys!" she cried jubilantly to them. "I'll race you back to camp, and last one there has to do the dishes tonight!"
Grasping her skirts firmly, hiking them up to her knees, she ran fleetly in the direction of camp, her legs gracefully loping off, as one of the elves in a fairy tale. Nat and Dyl came to their senses and took off after her. After all, they would end up doing the dishes for the entire camp!

(once again another splendid post by the great guineagal! Hurrah!)