The late winter had been difficult, and filled with trials: the day-to-day toil of tending to his knight's mount, and later to the more truculent steed of the lady Egris; sword practice at dawn under the same lady's tutelage; time dutifully spent at Sir Elliot's disposal, offering quiet advice and companionship as the knight continued his recovery; visits with Zinniah at the Rememdium, each of them seeking distraction in the other's company. And then there had been the wolves; hungry fangs savaging his face and arms, requiring stitches and bandages and healing salves; just as he was recovering from that, the second attack which had seen Noura mauled and Gloria maimed. More time spent at the seamstress' bedside while still attending to his other commitments. The mysterious letter, for a time, forgotten.
It's only now, perhaps months after its delivery, that he stumbles across it again, pressed between the pages of a book he had been reading then and to which he has just recently returned; he frowns at it, holds it up to the candlelight, trying to divine meaning from the sloppy loops and smudges that, perhaps, form a message. Eventually, after much studious examination, he manages to discern a word here, another there - urgent, perhaps; visit, if one squints and tilts the page thusly - just enough to scry a vague invitation, devoid of particulars. Until he takes another look at the signature, splashed incontinently across the foot of the page, and realises the identity of the sender.
* * *
He couldn't tell whether it was an invitation or a summons, and has thus erred on the side of propriety; a fresh shirt, clothes and coat freshly brushed, sturdy boots polished, iron hat blacked and buffed. Tidy, almost official seeming, his posture stuff and proper. He dares a sidelong glance for the corpulent carven effigy beside the front door, and draws a deep breath to steady his nerves. Then another.
Thus fortified, he steps forward and pushes open the door to the toyshop, letter of (presumed) invitation clutched in his hand.