Larkspur in Eden
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
Tckaija
One generation behind...
'Fraid I gotta agree with Dosadi.... This one reaches out and [grabs] ya.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
yep addicted I be.
Sweet!!! Thank you.
BTW what's a milch cow?
It is a term my great grandmother used to use to differentiate between her cows when they were in milk and those that were dry for the breeding season. The milch cows were in milk.
Chapter Thirteen
We were quiet after that. It wasn’t a bad quiet but it was a thoughtful one. Gid seemed to like that I tucked myself near him and the only time I stopped was when I had to steal one of my braids back from Rook who seemed to think it a game to take turns between tugging my cloak or goosing me to make me jump.
I was wiping the horse slobber from my braid yet again when Gid slowed and then swore. On alert I looked where he was glaring and the block house, only a little further ahead, was fairly vibrating from all the people milling about and talking at the top of their lungs.
“I should have known.” I looked at him waiting on an explanation. Turning to me he said, “Lurna has called all the family together that she could get on short notice. I hate this.”
“Do … do you wish to go someplace and wait them out?”
‘Hah! I would if I thought it would do any good. The whole lot of them have more staying power than a burr in a horse blanket and even more ability to be irritating. I supposed I’d better go face the music … but I’m going to tuck you somewhere away first until I can get the feel of the crowd.”
I looked at him then asked, “Is this … is this protecting me?”
Gid turned a scowl in my direction and then his face softened into a smile. “Yes, this is protecting you.”
“But it is because of me that they are upset.”
“No. Because of my choice.”
“You said I was your choice.”
“And you are … but it’s more about the act of choosing than you personally. Lurna expects us all to run everything by her first.” He started to add something then stopped.
Hesitantly I asked, “Did you run … Vaniece by her?”
‘Yeah. Yeah I did. But Lurna thought she was better as a choice for Jace. Vaniece got caught betwixt and between. I made her choose.” He shrugged. “So Lurna put her to Jace who seemed surprised but happy to have her. I made an ass of myself a time or two before I realized it was more how fast she seemed to get over me than that she got over me.”
“Ah. And … and then there was Tad.”
“Yeah. Had I known how strongly he felt I would have stepped out of the way sooner and willingly or tried to get Lurna to lay off the matchmaking with Jace. I won’t hurt Tad by telling him this but I think we are both lucky to have escaped. Vaniece seems to want way more attention than anyone has the time to give her in a house this full; more than she should need in any house. And she can’t fix brew worth spit and her cooking isn’t much better.”
Judiciously I said, “She made the tortillas for the morning meal.”
“And the only reason she can do that is because Lurna wouldn’t let up until she learned how to properly. Vaniece’s father is a merchant and widow; he hires a keeper for the house work and a cook for the kitchen. She just never had to learn apparently, she was never made to. And here now Lurna is determined to turn Vaniece into the lady of the block house even if she has to drag her into it kicking and screaming. Vaniece thought that with all the children around to share chores the burden would be very light. She had no idea how much work Lurna puts into making things run as well as they do despite the trouble all those hellions cause.”
I didn’t dare criticize but it seemed to me that if Lurna spent more time organizing the “hellions” that the chaos and resulting work wouldn’t have been anywhere near as bad as it seemed it was on my short acquaintance with it. The church orphanage had a lot of problem children as well, not just poor to no manners or the need to fight with everyone and everything but many had deformities from birth and had simply been left on the church steps or were brought back by our missionaries, but even with all of that it had run smoother than what I had witnessed this morning.
Turning to Gid I said, “Let them think I’m dim or slow. That you just wanted a woman to do for you, to work, and that since I’m quiet it suits you.”
Gid was back to scowling. “No.”
I looked at him.
“I said no and that’s the end of it. They can accept my choice or not, either way I’m not giving you up even if Lurna bays at the moon and brings every female relative birthed in the last 50 years to bear against me.”
There were a couple of male snickers coming from behind some trees and Gid move sharply between me and the group that trailed out. “Easy boy. Had no idea you were so set on the gal though I suppose we shoulda known the way Tad and Ern are trying to put Lurna off the scent that it must be something like that.” Gid just scowled.
“Aw now son, don’t be thisaway. You know Lurna only wants the best fer ya. She’s had your raising since your own Ma died.”
“I know it and that’s why I’ve been trying to be patient but this was a dirty trick. First she acts like she’s dying and Yulee has to fix the brew and cook the hash all the while facing down a houseful of savages out to get her and now we come back from business to find Lurna has set up a veritable avalanche of relatives to fall on us.”
One of the men chuckled, “Aye boy, you have my sympathies. Best ter get it done and over with and then go find a little private place to spark ter make yerself feel better.”
“Privacy?! There’s not a speck of it to be found anywhere, not even the flaming barn,” Gid barked. That only turned the men’s chuckles into true laughter.
“Ah well, best face the music anyway. Then we can all eat and drink and after drink comes drunk and after drunk comes sleep.”
“We’ve got work to do!” Gid squawked in outrage as he was lifted onto the shoulders of the other men. I simply stood there unsure what I was supposed to do. Gid called back, “Take Rook to the barn! Try and unload him and I’ll find you as soon as I can!”
Rather than lead the horse straight through I went around the back way that we had left by. It was easy enough to do since everyone’s attention was focused towards the front. Poor Rook was nearly as glad to hide out in the barn as I was. I removed the packages from his back and put them into the wagon that had been moved into the barn. Then I took off his saddle and blanket and the rest of his tack and rubbed and brushed him down. Papa had been particular about how his horses were treated and he’d taught me that God made us stewards not to do a half job but a whole one and not just a whole one but one to the best of our ability. Rook got the whole treatment … rub down, brushing, I combed his mane and tail and even treated his ears for mites when I found them. I gave him his feed portion and then stood back to admire a very contented horse.
Suddenly the barn door opened and the mop-headed trio from this morning came in. “Oh, there ya are U-Lee.” Their tone warned me as soon as I heard it so I was on guard. “Gid is in a bad way. He needs you ter come.”
I waited them out to see how far they would take their farce and when I didn’t respond in any way they got confused and said, “Well … er … um … ya see …”
I sighed and shook my head. “No. Gid told me to wait here until he came. You may now go out and tell the others they won’t be able to fool me into disobeying him.”
One of the twins sneered, “Sure of that are ya? Well, guess it’s for the best. All you’d see him doing is kissing Vaniece. It’s her he loves with his heart. He only wants you for his loins.”
I continued to look at him. “Aw wait, maybe you ain’t heard. See Gid, he’s heart broke. It’s the only reason he woulda fallen so low as to get a woman from the slave cages. And you ain’t worth that much as it is since he only paid five silvers for you.”
Calmly I told them, “He got a bargain. There was a half-price sale to entice him to take me off their hands.”
“What fer?”
“You’ll have to ask them that. Right now I have chores to see to. It’s evil to leave someone you care for all the work. Come Judgment Day God will be sure to point out the failing for everyone to see if he doesn’t get you sooner than that.”
They looked at me like I was crazy and left the barn a lot quicker than they had entered it. I looked at Rook and asked, “Was it something I said?”
Gid walked in behind the boys just in time to hear me talking to his horse. “Getting lonely in here all by yourself?”
I shrugged.
“What did those limbs of satan want?” he asked coming to check over Rook and then leaning back in surprise. “Don’t tell me they did this?”
I couldn’t stop them. My lips twitched when I answered, “It would be a lie if I did.”
I bit my bottom lip to try and stop the twitching but it had caught Gid’s attention. “What’s this? Are you really gonna smile?”
I shook my head but Gid seemed inclined to take advantage and swooped in for a kiss and tickle. “I’m not sure I want to know what it took to get you to nearly smile. But I’m going to ask anyway.”
I shook my head, lips twitching again. “They … well they aren’t quite the … the genius tricksters they believe themselves to be. I’ve been had at by those much more interested in causing harm. They’re nothing but babes in the woods and I was just thinking what their faces would look like if I were to tell them their heads are much bigger than they should be.”
Gid started chuckling and it turned into a belly laugh. “Aye … that’d be a sight for sure.” He calmed down and said, “Come walk with me? I think the worst is over. Father’s brothers are all already three-quarters soused but I would like you to meet Lurna’s brother Ned, he’s the one I told you runs the tight ship.”
I nodded but felt bound to ask, “Are you sure? They are your family.”
He placed my cloak around my shoulders and said, “They could be yours too if you can bring yourself to get to know them and they you. I know you’ve done nothing but seen their backsides up to now, but they aren’t normally quite this bad. And they’re actually tolerable in small numbers most of the time.”
With that ringing recommendation we stepped out and I noted it was cooler in the evenings than I expected for the time of year. The noise hit me like a hammer and I nearly retreated behind Gid but he put his arm around me and though I was quiet and unable to bring myself to answer many of the questions thrown at me I wasn’t actually required to as many of the questioners had a habit of answering themselves.
Gid and I were tugged this way and that but eventually we wound up at the end of a long trestle table with the man called Ned. Gid left to go get us something to drink and Ned and I were talking about books … the ones I’ve read, the ones he had read, the village library, and how new books were being printed in Yellow Rock by a man who had finally managed to duplicate a working printing press from plans salvaged from an old-city by his grandfather. For now it was mainly technical manuals and reprints of old books, but a mission not far from Yellow Rock had placed an order for several Bibles.
I was listening raptly when I felt the first sting. I brushed it away but wasn’t concerned; it was only one after all. Then there were two more, I was on the border of becoming concerned when suddenly it felt as if my leg was on fire. I jumped up and shook my skirts which were covered with large ants.
“Oh … oh … oh …” I tried not to panic. Panic was the enemy but my chest was already tightening, my throat closing up. I tried to call, “Gid!” but it barely came out in a wheeze.
I could hear laughter and Lurna half-heartedly asking someone what they had done this time. I tried calling Gid again but not even a wheeze came out.
Then Gid was there and he was calling my name and brushing the ants from me and getting stung a few times himself. That’s about when people started to realize something was wrong. An old woman came to my rescue. “The trough boy, get her to the trough.” She shouted behind her, “Someone bring me some fresh onions! Now! Lolly get my bag and bring the Echinacea out of it.”
I heard Lurna start to say something and the old woman answer sharply, “Oh for heaven’s sake woman, she can’t breathe, she must have the allergy to them.”
I don’t remember much for a while after that except struggling for air. At some point the woman told Gid, “I think the onion and the herbs stopped the worst of it but it may take her some time to draw a full breath. She needs to be watched to make sure she doesn’t need another treatment.”
A while after that I realized we were in the barn and Gid was fanning my face. He only stopped to throw something at the door and scream, “I said go away!!” I think it was his boot, I can’t be sure.
The next time I awoke it was still dark but my internal clock told me morning couldn’t be far away. I shivered. Gid was instantly aware of it. “Shhh. I know it’s a bit cool. You took a dunking in the trough and we had to strip you to find all of those little red demons; they were everywhere. Look at me Yulee, can you breathe?”
I nodded though my chest was sore like the time Aunt had stropped me there because she caught one of her men staring at me. “I’m … I’m fine,” I croaked.
“You’re not fine. But as soon as you’re able to travel we’re leaving.”
I shook my head.
“Yes. They’ll deliver the last of the supplies we bought before noonday. So long as it is no later we can be at the cabin before the sun sets.”
I gave a shuddering whisper, “Your family …”
“Some family,” he muttered in fury. “I bring you to meet them and they try and kill you.”
I patted his arm because his hands seemed to roam all over me; not in pleasure but to comfort and get comfort. “They didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know. If Miz Justine hadn’t been here, hadn’t figured out what was happening as quickly as she did …”
I patted his arm again and gladly leaned against him as my strength seemed to be waning. My voice only wanted to come in a whisper but I told him, “I’ve never been bit by so many. The regular ants don’t bother me so much, it’s only the red ants made during the Great War. Even up to four or five bites and all I get is a bad headache and sick to my stomach. I’ve …”
“… never been bit by so many. You said that. And you wouldn’t have this time either if …” He shook. The look of fury in his eyes was frightening. “They hid under the table and drizzled honey on your shoe and then dumped a box of the things they had collected earlier in the day while we were at the market; this was no spur of the moment trick, they planned this.”
I shivered and he pulled me closer. He asked, “How do you feel?”
“I can breathe.”
“Thank God,” he whispered into my hair. “Beyond that how do you feel?”
I couldn’t lie. “Tired.”
“Then sleep. I’ll watch over you.”
We were quiet after that. It wasn’t a bad quiet but it was a thoughtful one. Gid seemed to like that I tucked myself near him and the only time I stopped was when I had to steal one of my braids back from Rook who seemed to think it a game to take turns between tugging my cloak or goosing me to make me jump.
I was wiping the horse slobber from my braid yet again when Gid slowed and then swore. On alert I looked where he was glaring and the block house, only a little further ahead, was fairly vibrating from all the people milling about and talking at the top of their lungs.
“I should have known.” I looked at him waiting on an explanation. Turning to me he said, “Lurna has called all the family together that she could get on short notice. I hate this.”
“Do … do you wish to go someplace and wait them out?”
‘Hah! I would if I thought it would do any good. The whole lot of them have more staying power than a burr in a horse blanket and even more ability to be irritating. I supposed I’d better go face the music … but I’m going to tuck you somewhere away first until I can get the feel of the crowd.”
I looked at him then asked, “Is this … is this protecting me?”
Gid turned a scowl in my direction and then his face softened into a smile. “Yes, this is protecting you.”
“But it is because of me that they are upset.”
“No. Because of my choice.”
“You said I was your choice.”
“And you are … but it’s more about the act of choosing than you personally. Lurna expects us all to run everything by her first.” He started to add something then stopped.
Hesitantly I asked, “Did you run … Vaniece by her?”
‘Yeah. Yeah I did. But Lurna thought she was better as a choice for Jace. Vaniece got caught betwixt and between. I made her choose.” He shrugged. “So Lurna put her to Jace who seemed surprised but happy to have her. I made an ass of myself a time or two before I realized it was more how fast she seemed to get over me than that she got over me.”
“Ah. And … and then there was Tad.”
“Yeah. Had I known how strongly he felt I would have stepped out of the way sooner and willingly or tried to get Lurna to lay off the matchmaking with Jace. I won’t hurt Tad by telling him this but I think we are both lucky to have escaped. Vaniece seems to want way more attention than anyone has the time to give her in a house this full; more than she should need in any house. And she can’t fix brew worth spit and her cooking isn’t much better.”
Judiciously I said, “She made the tortillas for the morning meal.”
“And the only reason she can do that is because Lurna wouldn’t let up until she learned how to properly. Vaniece’s father is a merchant and widow; he hires a keeper for the house work and a cook for the kitchen. She just never had to learn apparently, she was never made to. And here now Lurna is determined to turn Vaniece into the lady of the block house even if she has to drag her into it kicking and screaming. Vaniece thought that with all the children around to share chores the burden would be very light. She had no idea how much work Lurna puts into making things run as well as they do despite the trouble all those hellions cause.”
I didn’t dare criticize but it seemed to me that if Lurna spent more time organizing the “hellions” that the chaos and resulting work wouldn’t have been anywhere near as bad as it seemed it was on my short acquaintance with it. The church orphanage had a lot of problem children as well, not just poor to no manners or the need to fight with everyone and everything but many had deformities from birth and had simply been left on the church steps or were brought back by our missionaries, but even with all of that it had run smoother than what I had witnessed this morning.
Turning to Gid I said, “Let them think I’m dim or slow. That you just wanted a woman to do for you, to work, and that since I’m quiet it suits you.”
Gid was back to scowling. “No.”
I looked at him.
“I said no and that’s the end of it. They can accept my choice or not, either way I’m not giving you up even if Lurna bays at the moon and brings every female relative birthed in the last 50 years to bear against me.”
There were a couple of male snickers coming from behind some trees and Gid move sharply between me and the group that trailed out. “Easy boy. Had no idea you were so set on the gal though I suppose we shoulda known the way Tad and Ern are trying to put Lurna off the scent that it must be something like that.” Gid just scowled.
“Aw now son, don’t be thisaway. You know Lurna only wants the best fer ya. She’s had your raising since your own Ma died.”
“I know it and that’s why I’ve been trying to be patient but this was a dirty trick. First she acts like she’s dying and Yulee has to fix the brew and cook the hash all the while facing down a houseful of savages out to get her and now we come back from business to find Lurna has set up a veritable avalanche of relatives to fall on us.”
One of the men chuckled, “Aye boy, you have my sympathies. Best ter get it done and over with and then go find a little private place to spark ter make yerself feel better.”
“Privacy?! There’s not a speck of it to be found anywhere, not even the flaming barn,” Gid barked. That only turned the men’s chuckles into true laughter.
“Ah well, best face the music anyway. Then we can all eat and drink and after drink comes drunk and after drunk comes sleep.”
“We’ve got work to do!” Gid squawked in outrage as he was lifted onto the shoulders of the other men. I simply stood there unsure what I was supposed to do. Gid called back, “Take Rook to the barn! Try and unload him and I’ll find you as soon as I can!”
Rather than lead the horse straight through I went around the back way that we had left by. It was easy enough to do since everyone’s attention was focused towards the front. Poor Rook was nearly as glad to hide out in the barn as I was. I removed the packages from his back and put them into the wagon that had been moved into the barn. Then I took off his saddle and blanket and the rest of his tack and rubbed and brushed him down. Papa had been particular about how his horses were treated and he’d taught me that God made us stewards not to do a half job but a whole one and not just a whole one but one to the best of our ability. Rook got the whole treatment … rub down, brushing, I combed his mane and tail and even treated his ears for mites when I found them. I gave him his feed portion and then stood back to admire a very contented horse.
Suddenly the barn door opened and the mop-headed trio from this morning came in. “Oh, there ya are U-Lee.” Their tone warned me as soon as I heard it so I was on guard. “Gid is in a bad way. He needs you ter come.”
I waited them out to see how far they would take their farce and when I didn’t respond in any way they got confused and said, “Well … er … um … ya see …”
I sighed and shook my head. “No. Gid told me to wait here until he came. You may now go out and tell the others they won’t be able to fool me into disobeying him.”
One of the twins sneered, “Sure of that are ya? Well, guess it’s for the best. All you’d see him doing is kissing Vaniece. It’s her he loves with his heart. He only wants you for his loins.”
I continued to look at him. “Aw wait, maybe you ain’t heard. See Gid, he’s heart broke. It’s the only reason he woulda fallen so low as to get a woman from the slave cages. And you ain’t worth that much as it is since he only paid five silvers for you.”
Calmly I told them, “He got a bargain. There was a half-price sale to entice him to take me off their hands.”
“What fer?”
“You’ll have to ask them that. Right now I have chores to see to. It’s evil to leave someone you care for all the work. Come Judgment Day God will be sure to point out the failing for everyone to see if he doesn’t get you sooner than that.”
They looked at me like I was crazy and left the barn a lot quicker than they had entered it. I looked at Rook and asked, “Was it something I said?”
Gid walked in behind the boys just in time to hear me talking to his horse. “Getting lonely in here all by yourself?”
I shrugged.
“What did those limbs of satan want?” he asked coming to check over Rook and then leaning back in surprise. “Don’t tell me they did this?”
I couldn’t stop them. My lips twitched when I answered, “It would be a lie if I did.”
I bit my bottom lip to try and stop the twitching but it had caught Gid’s attention. “What’s this? Are you really gonna smile?”
I shook my head but Gid seemed inclined to take advantage and swooped in for a kiss and tickle. “I’m not sure I want to know what it took to get you to nearly smile. But I’m going to ask anyway.”
I shook my head, lips twitching again. “They … well they aren’t quite the … the genius tricksters they believe themselves to be. I’ve been had at by those much more interested in causing harm. They’re nothing but babes in the woods and I was just thinking what their faces would look like if I were to tell them their heads are much bigger than they should be.”
Gid started chuckling and it turned into a belly laugh. “Aye … that’d be a sight for sure.” He calmed down and said, “Come walk with me? I think the worst is over. Father’s brothers are all already three-quarters soused but I would like you to meet Lurna’s brother Ned, he’s the one I told you runs the tight ship.”
I nodded but felt bound to ask, “Are you sure? They are your family.”
He placed my cloak around my shoulders and said, “They could be yours too if you can bring yourself to get to know them and they you. I know you’ve done nothing but seen their backsides up to now, but they aren’t normally quite this bad. And they’re actually tolerable in small numbers most of the time.”
With that ringing recommendation we stepped out and I noted it was cooler in the evenings than I expected for the time of year. The noise hit me like a hammer and I nearly retreated behind Gid but he put his arm around me and though I was quiet and unable to bring myself to answer many of the questions thrown at me I wasn’t actually required to as many of the questioners had a habit of answering themselves.
Gid and I were tugged this way and that but eventually we wound up at the end of a long trestle table with the man called Ned. Gid left to go get us something to drink and Ned and I were talking about books … the ones I’ve read, the ones he had read, the village library, and how new books were being printed in Yellow Rock by a man who had finally managed to duplicate a working printing press from plans salvaged from an old-city by his grandfather. For now it was mainly technical manuals and reprints of old books, but a mission not far from Yellow Rock had placed an order for several Bibles.
I was listening raptly when I felt the first sting. I brushed it away but wasn’t concerned; it was only one after all. Then there were two more, I was on the border of becoming concerned when suddenly it felt as if my leg was on fire. I jumped up and shook my skirts which were covered with large ants.
“Oh … oh … oh …” I tried not to panic. Panic was the enemy but my chest was already tightening, my throat closing up. I tried to call, “Gid!” but it barely came out in a wheeze.
I could hear laughter and Lurna half-heartedly asking someone what they had done this time. I tried calling Gid again but not even a wheeze came out.
Then Gid was there and he was calling my name and brushing the ants from me and getting stung a few times himself. That’s about when people started to realize something was wrong. An old woman came to my rescue. “The trough boy, get her to the trough.” She shouted behind her, “Someone bring me some fresh onions! Now! Lolly get my bag and bring the Echinacea out of it.”
I heard Lurna start to say something and the old woman answer sharply, “Oh for heaven’s sake woman, she can’t breathe, she must have the allergy to them.”
I don’t remember much for a while after that except struggling for air. At some point the woman told Gid, “I think the onion and the herbs stopped the worst of it but it may take her some time to draw a full breath. She needs to be watched to make sure she doesn’t need another treatment.”
A while after that I realized we were in the barn and Gid was fanning my face. He only stopped to throw something at the door and scream, “I said go away!!” I think it was his boot, I can’t be sure.
The next time I awoke it was still dark but my internal clock told me morning couldn’t be far away. I shivered. Gid was instantly aware of it. “Shhh. I know it’s a bit cool. You took a dunking in the trough and we had to strip you to find all of those little red demons; they were everywhere. Look at me Yulee, can you breathe?”
I nodded though my chest was sore like the time Aunt had stropped me there because she caught one of her men staring at me. “I’m … I’m fine,” I croaked.
“You’re not fine. But as soon as you’re able to travel we’re leaving.”
I shook my head.
“Yes. They’ll deliver the last of the supplies we bought before noonday. So long as it is no later we can be at the cabin before the sun sets.”
I gave a shuddering whisper, “Your family …”
“Some family,” he muttered in fury. “I bring you to meet them and they try and kill you.”
I patted his arm because his hands seemed to roam all over me; not in pleasure but to comfort and get comfort. “They didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know. If Miz Justine hadn’t been here, hadn’t figured out what was happening as quickly as she did …”
I patted his arm again and gladly leaned against him as my strength seemed to be waning. My voice only wanted to come in a whisper but I told him, “I’ve never been bit by so many. The regular ants don’t bother me so much, it’s only the red ants made during the Great War. Even up to four or five bites and all I get is a bad headache and sick to my stomach. I’ve …”
“… never been bit by so many. You said that. And you wouldn’t have this time either if …” He shook. The look of fury in his eyes was frightening. “They hid under the table and drizzled honey on your shoe and then dumped a box of the things they had collected earlier in the day while we were at the market; this was no spur of the moment trick, they planned this.”
I shivered and he pulled me closer. He asked, “How do you feel?”
“I can breathe.”
“Thank God,” he whispered into my hair. “Beyond that how do you feel?”
I couldn’t lie. “Tired.”
“Then sleep. I’ll watch over you.”
Ahhhh OK. New one on this country girl. 
Thanks for all the new chapters. Getting nothing done but enjoying every minute of it.
Thanks for all the new chapters. Getting nothing done but enjoying every minute of it.
Dosadi
Brown Coat
Thank you kathy
Dang ants hurt my kids a lot but not that bad, me, just the temporary sting then I'm ok.
We end up taking a shovel full from one fire ant hill and swapping it to another then back.
They don't like each other and kill each other off,
Either that or turn upside down a 2liter coke into the hill, for some reason that seems to get rid of em.
This story is great.
while a good whooping for those that hurt Yulee would not be amiss I'm eager to see them on the way to the new farm.
Ah the adventures. I seldom enjoy romances, but the way you blend PAW and romance, well it is some of my favorite.
At the moment this is my favorite, so please keep it coming.
D.
Dang ants hurt my kids a lot but not that bad, me, just the temporary sting then I'm ok.
We end up taking a shovel full from one fire ant hill and swapping it to another then back.
They don't like each other and kill each other off,
Either that or turn upside down a 2liter coke into the hill, for some reason that seems to get rid of em.
This story is great.
while a good whooping for those that hurt Yulee would not be amiss I'm eager to see them on the way to the new farm.
Ah the adventures. I seldom enjoy romances, but the way you blend PAW and romance, well it is some of my favorite.
At the moment this is my favorite, so please keep it coming.
D.
Chapter Fourteen
I woke to voices. “I don’t care Jace. I’ve been warning you and Lurna both that their wildness was turning to meanness. I won’t have them near her, not even to apologize. I don’t trust ‘em. She’s been through enough, and not just last night.”
“Tad and Ern said you got her from the slave cages.”
“Where she came from is no one’s business.”
I tried to sit up and Gid was there in half a moment. “Easy,” he said gently.
My voice would still barely go above a whisper because my chest still felt tight but I had to say, “Tell him Gid. It’s no use lying. The truth always comes out at some point. Better to face it now than later. You … you can’t be any more ashamed of it than I am.”
“I am not ashamed of it Yulee. Don’t think that.”
“If you’re not, I am. I know I didn’t have any choice Gid … but it doesn’t mean …” I stopped and sighed. “It happened. It doesn’t do any good hiding from it. My aunt was a horrible woman. A horrible and unhappy woman who took out her disappointment in life on anyone within arm’s reach. She barely grieved when her parents died and only cared to make sure that she and Mam got the exact same share of the estate right down to counting the grains in the corn barrel. She never even bothered pretending to grieve for my parents even though she and Mam were full sisters. She may not have caused my brother’s death directly but she might as well have helped it to happen. The same for Old Annie. Annie had no business being put to work moving those rocks from the trail. That rattler was longer than she was tall and as mean as Aunt Giselle.”
He brushed the hair out of my face since it took too much energy to lift my hand. “Pretty name for an ugly woman.”
“Family name according to my grandmother who claimed to be descended from some kind of people who were on a trip far from home when the Great War started. From a country called France. It was across the Lantic.”
“Everything is poison over there so they say.”
“Poison was everywhere for a few years after the Great War but places are clearing up.” I shook my head. “How did we get on a geography lesson?”
“Because you’re still loopy and need to lay back down and rest.”
“No, not until I know you’ll tell him … tell him the truth. I’m ashamed enough of that part of it. I don’t want anything more to be ashamed of, especially a lie.”
“Shhhhh. You promise me to lay here and be quiet and … and I’ll take Jace outside and tell him.”
Quietly I told him, “I’m sorry your family has to know. I’d spare you that if I could. I just can’t live a lie.”
“Hush that talk or I’ll climb up in this wagon and Jace can wait ‘til Hell freezes.”
“Don’t split with your family Gid. One day you’ll turn around and they won’t be there anymore and then nothing …”
“Didn’t I tell you to hush? Now lay down.”
I was out of energy at that point and don’t even remember obeying his words. I must have been closer to being carried off by the angels than I thought.
I finally woke for good but it wasn’t because of noise, but because of quiet. I struggled up and then stopped when I realized that it was night once again and Gid was asleep beside me. Only we were no longer in the barn behind the block house but were parked in a much smaller barn. It was confusing enough that I must have gasped or made a sound because Gid jumped awake.
“Easy there.”
“Gid? Did … did I miss something?”
He ran his hand down my back and I realized I still was unclothed. “I’d say so,” Gid said sitting up and pulling me to lean against him.
“And … and I’ve lost my clothing.”
He said, “Not lost. It’s just put away in the pack seeing as how you don’t need ‘em right now.”
I didn’t like being confused. It made it too hard to be in control of myself. And I felt doubly vulnerable in the state of undress I was in. “I … I want them.”
“Your clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Later.”
Near begging I asked, “Please.”
“Now don’t do that,” he told me while he wrapped an unfamiliar blanket around me. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. No one will see you but me. Well, Rook might take a peek but I don’t think you’d begrudge him that.”
“Gid … please!”
“Hush. I’ve already told you no. If you are dressed that means you are awake, and if that’s the case then they are going to want to come and check on you and I’m not ready for that yet.”
Nothing he said was making sense. “Where are we?”
“In Ned’s barn.”
I shook my head to clear it. “You … you said Ned’s barn.”
“Aye. And if you promise not to get upset I’ll tell you why.” I stilled and nodded my head. “Promise?” I nodded again. “Very well. Lurna and I have had a bit … a bit of a falling out you might say.”
“Oh … oh no. Because of me.”
“No, not really. You might be part of the last of it but it’s been coming on since Father died, maybe even before then. When Father was alive he understood I was different from the rest of them. He had no trouble with it, encouraged it even on occasion. He was the one that set it up so that I would go to work with Uncle Fid every summer and harvest season. Lurna never understood it, didn’t want to understand it, didn’t like me going for so long outside the village wall; she didn’t hatch me but in her eyes I was still one of her chicks. In fact she thought she knew better for me though she never went against Father’s wishes. Then he died and for a bit she was overwhelmed with grief and grieving and us older ones did what we could to make her lot easier. She was barely done birthing the last one and was in no condition to really take anything on. Problem was she wouldn’t let go and let us do our jobs. She made everything harder than it had to be, and still does. She let the kids turn into unruly hellions thinking Father would have wanted them to have fun and be free. Father would have never put up with half the pranks they play at these days. Father loved fun and noise but he never tolerated meanness or the kind of mouths some of them now have. Jace and the others, they can tolerate it better than I can but even they have started to have trouble with some of them being too out of control and trouble with Lurna not letting them be controlled or pay consequences, she’s even fussed at Ned a time or two but he just ignores her. I thought that thing with Vaniece was the worst of it so I decided I was done and would move to the farm full time. I told Lurna so but I suppose, just like always, she thought she could manage me and make me take the path she had set for me. Me actually doing what I said which was coming back with a woman of my own choosing and making real plans for moving was an unwelcome surprise for her, she thought I’d forget all about it. And when I didn’t, when I didn’t come all undone because she was so unhappy she took to her bed; and when that didn’t work she pulled that stunt with the family. But the kids must have heard her say that you and I needed a lesson that put us back in our place or something like it, least that’s what some of them said when asked where they would get the idea for what they did and why they did it.
I know you didn’t want to see this happen but this … this separation is needed. I love my family Yulee, even Lurna despite what has come about, but I can’t live with them any longer … at least not under the same roof. Jace and Tad and Ern … and even the uncles and some of the older girls understand. Heather has been out and said as much herself and that Jace even told her he knows he needs to take Vaniece in hand because she is picking up Lurna’s bad habits … or at least the ones she didn’t already have. They know I’m not cutting them off, but that I can’t breathe here anymore and need some space; that the wall doesn’t keep me safe, it pens me in.”
“But that … that doesn’t say why we’re here.”
“We’re here because Ned offered me a place for the night when he witnessed how Lurna wouldn’t leave me alone, how she kept trying to fight with me when all I wanted was some peace and a quiet place for you to recover. You don’t ever do that again Yulee. I was turned inside out with worry.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“Not try … don’t. Period. You’ve fit into my plans so neatly that when I thought to lose you all I could see was blackness when I looked at tomorrow. I don’t say that lightly. I don’t know what is happening but that is the way it is.”
I put my hand on his arm and this time it was him that shuddered. He whispered against my neck, “I need to hold you. I know you’re not ready for anything else but I need to feel you here.”
“I … I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. You could ha … oh … you mean?”
I nodded. “I’m fine. If you … mmm … if you need to hold me.”
“Well, that’s all I’m going to do … hold you I mean. I’m a man, not an animal. You just be sure and say something in case holding you is too much.”
I woke to voices. “I don’t care Jace. I’ve been warning you and Lurna both that their wildness was turning to meanness. I won’t have them near her, not even to apologize. I don’t trust ‘em. She’s been through enough, and not just last night.”
“Tad and Ern said you got her from the slave cages.”
“Where she came from is no one’s business.”
I tried to sit up and Gid was there in half a moment. “Easy,” he said gently.
My voice would still barely go above a whisper because my chest still felt tight but I had to say, “Tell him Gid. It’s no use lying. The truth always comes out at some point. Better to face it now than later. You … you can’t be any more ashamed of it than I am.”
“I am not ashamed of it Yulee. Don’t think that.”
“If you’re not, I am. I know I didn’t have any choice Gid … but it doesn’t mean …” I stopped and sighed. “It happened. It doesn’t do any good hiding from it. My aunt was a horrible woman. A horrible and unhappy woman who took out her disappointment in life on anyone within arm’s reach. She barely grieved when her parents died and only cared to make sure that she and Mam got the exact same share of the estate right down to counting the grains in the corn barrel. She never even bothered pretending to grieve for my parents even though she and Mam were full sisters. She may not have caused my brother’s death directly but she might as well have helped it to happen. The same for Old Annie. Annie had no business being put to work moving those rocks from the trail. That rattler was longer than she was tall and as mean as Aunt Giselle.”
He brushed the hair out of my face since it took too much energy to lift my hand. “Pretty name for an ugly woman.”
“Family name according to my grandmother who claimed to be descended from some kind of people who were on a trip far from home when the Great War started. From a country called France. It was across the Lantic.”
“Everything is poison over there so they say.”
“Poison was everywhere for a few years after the Great War but places are clearing up.” I shook my head. “How did we get on a geography lesson?”
“Because you’re still loopy and need to lay back down and rest.”
“No, not until I know you’ll tell him … tell him the truth. I’m ashamed enough of that part of it. I don’t want anything more to be ashamed of, especially a lie.”
“Shhhhh. You promise me to lay here and be quiet and … and I’ll take Jace outside and tell him.”
Quietly I told him, “I’m sorry your family has to know. I’d spare you that if I could. I just can’t live a lie.”
“Hush that talk or I’ll climb up in this wagon and Jace can wait ‘til Hell freezes.”
“Don’t split with your family Gid. One day you’ll turn around and they won’t be there anymore and then nothing …”
“Didn’t I tell you to hush? Now lay down.”
I was out of energy at that point and don’t even remember obeying his words. I must have been closer to being carried off by the angels than I thought.
I finally woke for good but it wasn’t because of noise, but because of quiet. I struggled up and then stopped when I realized that it was night once again and Gid was asleep beside me. Only we were no longer in the barn behind the block house but were parked in a much smaller barn. It was confusing enough that I must have gasped or made a sound because Gid jumped awake.
“Easy there.”
“Gid? Did … did I miss something?”
He ran his hand down my back and I realized I still was unclothed. “I’d say so,” Gid said sitting up and pulling me to lean against him.
“And … and I’ve lost my clothing.”
He said, “Not lost. It’s just put away in the pack seeing as how you don’t need ‘em right now.”
I didn’t like being confused. It made it too hard to be in control of myself. And I felt doubly vulnerable in the state of undress I was in. “I … I want them.”
“Your clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Later.”
Near begging I asked, “Please.”
“Now don’t do that,” he told me while he wrapped an unfamiliar blanket around me. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. No one will see you but me. Well, Rook might take a peek but I don’t think you’d begrudge him that.”
“Gid … please!”
“Hush. I’ve already told you no. If you are dressed that means you are awake, and if that’s the case then they are going to want to come and check on you and I’m not ready for that yet.”
Nothing he said was making sense. “Where are we?”
“In Ned’s barn.”
I shook my head to clear it. “You … you said Ned’s barn.”
“Aye. And if you promise not to get upset I’ll tell you why.” I stilled and nodded my head. “Promise?” I nodded again. “Very well. Lurna and I have had a bit … a bit of a falling out you might say.”
“Oh … oh no. Because of me.”
“No, not really. You might be part of the last of it but it’s been coming on since Father died, maybe even before then. When Father was alive he understood I was different from the rest of them. He had no trouble with it, encouraged it even on occasion. He was the one that set it up so that I would go to work with Uncle Fid every summer and harvest season. Lurna never understood it, didn’t want to understand it, didn’t like me going for so long outside the village wall; she didn’t hatch me but in her eyes I was still one of her chicks. In fact she thought she knew better for me though she never went against Father’s wishes. Then he died and for a bit she was overwhelmed with grief and grieving and us older ones did what we could to make her lot easier. She was barely done birthing the last one and was in no condition to really take anything on. Problem was she wouldn’t let go and let us do our jobs. She made everything harder than it had to be, and still does. She let the kids turn into unruly hellions thinking Father would have wanted them to have fun and be free. Father would have never put up with half the pranks they play at these days. Father loved fun and noise but he never tolerated meanness or the kind of mouths some of them now have. Jace and the others, they can tolerate it better than I can but even they have started to have trouble with some of them being too out of control and trouble with Lurna not letting them be controlled or pay consequences, she’s even fussed at Ned a time or two but he just ignores her. I thought that thing with Vaniece was the worst of it so I decided I was done and would move to the farm full time. I told Lurna so but I suppose, just like always, she thought she could manage me and make me take the path she had set for me. Me actually doing what I said which was coming back with a woman of my own choosing and making real plans for moving was an unwelcome surprise for her, she thought I’d forget all about it. And when I didn’t, when I didn’t come all undone because she was so unhappy she took to her bed; and when that didn’t work she pulled that stunt with the family. But the kids must have heard her say that you and I needed a lesson that put us back in our place or something like it, least that’s what some of them said when asked where they would get the idea for what they did and why they did it.
I know you didn’t want to see this happen but this … this separation is needed. I love my family Yulee, even Lurna despite what has come about, but I can’t live with them any longer … at least not under the same roof. Jace and Tad and Ern … and even the uncles and some of the older girls understand. Heather has been out and said as much herself and that Jace even told her he knows he needs to take Vaniece in hand because she is picking up Lurna’s bad habits … or at least the ones she didn’t already have. They know I’m not cutting them off, but that I can’t breathe here anymore and need some space; that the wall doesn’t keep me safe, it pens me in.”
“But that … that doesn’t say why we’re here.”
“We’re here because Ned offered me a place for the night when he witnessed how Lurna wouldn’t leave me alone, how she kept trying to fight with me when all I wanted was some peace and a quiet place for you to recover. You don’t ever do that again Yulee. I was turned inside out with worry.”
“I’ll try not to.”
“Not try … don’t. Period. You’ve fit into my plans so neatly that when I thought to lose you all I could see was blackness when I looked at tomorrow. I don’t say that lightly. I don’t know what is happening but that is the way it is.”
I put my hand on his arm and this time it was him that shuddered. He whispered against my neck, “I need to hold you. I know you’re not ready for anything else but I need to feel you here.”
“I … I’m fine.”
“No you’re not. You could ha … oh … you mean?”
I nodded. “I’m fine. If you … mmm … if you need to hold me.”
“Well, that’s all I’m going to do … hold you I mean. I’m a man, not an animal. You just be sure and say something in case holding you is too much.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Gid, these aren’t my clothes.” The woman named Justine that had tended me when I’d first had the allergic reaction had come by since she was in the area playing midwife. She checked me over then pronounced me fit to live but to avoid too much excitement for another day or two.
Gid smiled and said, “Sure they are. Heather told me so.” I just continued to look at him and he sighed. “They’re yours. I didn’t pay coin for them. They’re Heather’s, or were, and now she gifted them to you. She was once nearly as thin as you but the last two babes have turned her a bit … um … wider in places than she used to be. Her husband comes from a small family and the few females in it are even broader than she is. She wants the clothes to go to someone who’ll get some use from them and appreciate the work she put into them.”
Embarrassed but appreciative of the pretty clothes now that he’d explained I said, “I … yes … yes tell her I’m … I’m grateful.”
“I’ll leave a note for Ned to give to her as she is off to Yellow Rock for a few days to help her sister in law deal with the clean-up of a kitchen fire so we won’t be seeing her before we leave.” He insisted on helping me to tie a bodice that had a geometric pattern embroidered around the edges. When he was through “helping” he said, “There’s a morning meal in that basket as well. It’s early but Ned is already at the school.” He sighed in aggravation. “There’s been some confusion and I need to go collect some of the things we purchased from here and there. Justine said you could travel but she didn’t want you around if there is going to be another fight and there’s libel to be if I find out Lurna or any of the others had a hand in it.”
“I’m sorry Gid.”
“No reason for you to be sorry. But if you’ve an interest in it, Ned said you might like to come to the school and wait for me there. You’re as fond of books as he is and there’s also maps and other things in the school that you might enjoy looking at to pass the time.”
So it was settled.
“Ned, thanks for giving me a safe place to stash Yulee.”
I didn’t say a word but Mr. Ned said, “You stash things Gideon, not people. I am more than happy to have Yulee as my guest while you conduct your business.”
Gid did not contradict him but did grin. “Thank you either way Ned.”
Gid left quickly and Ned escorted me into the building showing me around as he went. Then we stepped into the main classroom area. “The children will likely appear curious but they will behave or I will know why not.” He hadn’t bothered to keep his voice down and a lot of eyes that had been openly staring in my direction suddenly changed direction to look at the large boards on four sides of the room.
Each wall was devoted to a different academic level. The center of the large room contained a raised dais with a podium. The children sat on stools. Lessons they did facing their board but they could turn and facing the podium for lectures.
“My dear, I must confess to an ulterior motive.” I kept my face carefully blank while he continued. “Our conversation – what time there was for it – revealed you have an extensive knowledge of history and geography. Would you mind helping me with today’s lesson?”
“Of … of course Sir, though I’m not sure what I can do to be of service.”
He smiled. “Quite easily my dear, I would like you to give independent verification to what I have been trying to instill in the children. If they only hear it from me then they are by rights going to have some concerns about the veracity of facts. By hearing it from another person raised outside of the village I hope they will see that I’m not merely discussing theories but actual events and places.”
I could see the logic to the exercise but I still hesitated, nevertheless I said, “I will do my best.”
“Very good.” Turning to the children he said, “Attend, and I want every eye and ear open.”
The children responded quickly and suddenly I felt all their eyes boring into me. I did my best to ignore the sensation but it wasn’t easy.
Ned said, “The children all know that we live on the continent that was once called North America. Are you agreed that it was once called that?”
“It is still called that by most though it sounds different in parts of the land. Some of the people from the far north call it amérique du nord and as many of you probably have heard from some of your neighbors in this land they call it América del Norte.”
“Very good. And this continent was once broken down into three countries.”
“Yes, Canada to our north, Mexico to our south, and the land we are on was called the United States of America or USA or just US for short. All three were ethnically and racially diverse but the US had the greatest diversity of races and cultures. That was one of the greatest strengths, and the greatest weakness, of the country and played a role in what happened during the Great War.”
Ned nodded. “Yes, we have studied the various causes and actions during the Great War using original documents that have been salvaged from that time period. Both the school and community libraries have a very good collection that I highly recommend that you see when time permits. However, there is a time immediately following the Great War that isn’t as well documented.”
Gathering my thoughts and reviewing what I’d been taught I said, “It is called different things but the two most common terms that I know of for that era are the Dark Days or the Era of Confusion. The Great War was only the beginning of humanity’s descent into the dark. The bombs and battles of the Great War destroyed much of the infrastructure of the leading countries of the world. There were assassinations that took out heads of state leaving chaos behind for those that had become dependent on social systems that had been in place to provide their housing, food, healers, and education. Unlike today where only the feeble and very young are helped by community and church charity, large numbers of people of all types demanded the government take care of them because they refused to be responsible for themselves and when they didn’t get what they expected or wanted, they became like the raiders we have today and destroyed anything in their path. Many countries became like wagons careening madly down a mountain trail with no driver to try and check the horses’ mad dash to the precipice. And just like that scenario, you had some countries that survived out of luck, some did go over the precipice, and some had brave men ride up and jump on to try and save what they could from the wagon by turning it in a new direction. You also had bad men who jumped into the wagon to toss off what they could steal, never meaning to save the wagon and horses at all.”
Ned agreed by saying, “An apt analogy. What happened here in North America?”
I shrugged, “All of the above.”
“How so?”
“The countries of North America, unlike many of those in places called Eastern and Western Europe which were on the other side of the large body of water called the Lantic Ocean, were large and covered a huge number of square miles. The diversity I mentioned before was also a factor though less so towards the south than in the US and Canada. The countries began to lose their … hmmm … their cohesiveness. They became more like territories loosely bound together by memory and tradition than one single country united under a governing body called a government with the same ideals as the people under them. Problems arose however when these individual territories tried to continue living in the manner they had when they had been part of one large country. Not every territory had the same number and type of resources. Some territories had too many people, some had too few. Some territories could protect themselves better because they had better armies and tools to equip their armies with. They started to fight and squabble amongst themselves even while the Great War still raged around the world. The unity that once existed was gone. And without unity the people became even more vulnerable. Wars were being fought on two or three or more fronts at one time.”
“And into this came who?”
Again I gathered my thoughts. This was important and it had been drilled into my head from the time I was old enough to hear a bedtime story. “History has come to call them the Brotherhood – definitely different from the Brothers and Sisters we have today – but in the beginning they were primarily people whose only uniting factor was religion. They came from many different countries with different ethnicities and different cultures. In ages long gone these same people had tried before to unite the world under their religion, only to call it uniting is a misnomer. It was either accept and convert – or die. In fact for most infractions they believed death was the only solution. They believed a theocracy was the only way to rule and their religious books the only law. Anything outside of their ‘only’ view was considered heresy and again death was the only remedy to restore order and balance.”
Continuing I said, “These people were united behind someone claiming to be their savior. In the end the man was destroyed by his own people when they discovered he was a charlatan set up by one sect of their religion to put them in power above the other sects but by that time it didn’t matter. They had established military and religious footholds in most of the countries around the world. They were on their way to fulfilling one of their prophecies.”
I stopped remembering the stories of bloodshed and horror that had been gathered from that time period. Ned prompted, “But we don’t live with such a system today.”
“No,” I said quietly but firmly. “Because of The Church.”
“The Church?”
“Yes. The Brotherhood had assumed that people would simply submit or they would kill them and get them out of the way. However, even though they had a great many on their side, there was also a significant underground movement fighting against them. No matter what they did they could not completely eradicate the two religions which were their antithesis. In the US, and in fact in most of this part of the world, the primary belief system was a monotheism … we believed in one God and only one God … the Supreme Creator of All. There may have been many different ceremonies for honoring Him but at the pinnacle of each was always the overriding belief in Him and His Word. The Brotherhood despised this and those that believed in the One True God rather than in the Brotherhood’s laws and prophets. They hated the light that The Church shined on the hypocrisy of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood claimed to be a people of peace and yet almost every law, every religious text, was rife with violence. Definitions and practices and beliefs were not absolutes that applied to everyone but were flexible depending on the prophet that was speaking and their ultimate goal. Anything was allowable in the pursuit of world conquest and domination so long as it was being done against someone who wasn’t one of the Brotherhood. Even within the Brotherhood there were elites and they would often fight each other. Their system was confusing; there were always exceptions to their laws as well, loopholes found for those with enough money, power, or influence.”
“First people fell so far they were nearly destroyed. Then they reached a level where they weren’t just miserable but recognized what was causing their misery and how it had come to have power over them. Then came repentance. It wasn’t just about being sorry, it was a turning away from what caused their misery … turning from the dark to the light. The Church became the banner these repentant people gathered under. They were still persecuted but that only caused their Faith to become stronger. This infuriated the Brotherhood. And this is what brought about the fall of the Brotherhood.”
“How so?” Ned asked.
The room was quiet and all the students were listening. “They underestimated the Faithful. The Brotherhood had become so corrupted by their own human desire for power and control, subjugation and sexual immorality that they couldn’t seem to grasp why, no matter what they did, more and more people left the Brotherhood and turned to The Church. The more The Church was persecuted, the more people opened their eyes and turned towards the Light. They too would seek out how a people so viciously put upon could not only survive but begin to flourish. Battles began to be fought openly. The Brotherhood had overwhelming numbers, the odds should have favored them, yet time and time and time again The Church would win by miraculous means or intervention. It took years but eventually the Brotherhood was no more. Oh, there are still enclaves here and there, but they are small and keep to themselves because people have very long memories … at least for some things. For almost five decades the people of North America lived in relative peace. Everyone was focused on recovering, rebuilding, making the land fruitful again. The Great War and then the Brotherhood had laid waste to so much. Worldwide trade and communication was for all intents and purposes nonexistent although the rare contact was made and documented though today even that no longer exists. Death by disease was rampant. Starvation was a daily concern for everyone and the earth’s weather patterns had been affected by weapons released during battles. Fresh water was difficult to come by. There was a lot of work to keep everyone busy, focused, and out of trouble.”
“Why don’t we still have a large Church network today? Why instead has the territorial militias and their outposts replaced the Church’s protectorates?”
“Because we are human. That’s no excuse, far from it, but it is a recognition of the state that we all live in. The Church, as a body and certain individuals within the body, grew arrogant. Some misused their privilege to accrue power they had no business having. Then the power was misused to hurt people. In some places it became as bad as it had been under the Brotherhood fifty and sixty years earlier. There was a backlash as people turned their back on The Church never realizing that it was men and not The Church that was turning their back on them. God had not forgotten, men had forgotten.
Then some salvagers broke into a building that should have been left buried and forgotten. In their greed and thirst for power they had opened Pandora’s Box and many new ills were literally visited upon the world on the wind. We still live with many of those mutated plagues today. My father’s entire village fell to one such plague. He was the only living soul – a babe of only a few weeks old – that still remained alive when missionaries from our village went through the area. He was taken to our community church and there he grew up.”
Shaking my head. “It was that time of so many plagues and other illnesses that cemented many people’s understanding that we had made a mockery of the chance we had been given. In retrospect those that still followed the church realized we had forged a golden calf, put it before the Lord our God. We’d been so close and we threw it all away. So now our world, and the people in it, is destined to walk in darkness for a while longer. For how long no one knows. When we children would ask the Brothers and Sisters of our Church we were told not to focus so much on how long, but to learn the lessons God put before us, to learn to appreciate what we were gifted with despite the condition of the world, and to let God decide how long we are to walk this path in the wilderness.”
I fell silent thinking of lessons and wondering if I appreciated the chance that Gid’s purchase of me offered. Ned allowed me to be contemplative. I guess it served his purpose to impress on the children our history. Then he asked, “What of the world today? You’ve seen a great deal more of it than even the elders of the Village of Riverside have and some of them are widely travelled. I understand you originally come from a place far to the east of the Peaks.”
“Gid, these aren’t my clothes.” The woman named Justine that had tended me when I’d first had the allergic reaction had come by since she was in the area playing midwife. She checked me over then pronounced me fit to live but to avoid too much excitement for another day or two.
Gid smiled and said, “Sure they are. Heather told me so.” I just continued to look at him and he sighed. “They’re yours. I didn’t pay coin for them. They’re Heather’s, or were, and now she gifted them to you. She was once nearly as thin as you but the last two babes have turned her a bit … um … wider in places than she used to be. Her husband comes from a small family and the few females in it are even broader than she is. She wants the clothes to go to someone who’ll get some use from them and appreciate the work she put into them.”
Embarrassed but appreciative of the pretty clothes now that he’d explained I said, “I … yes … yes tell her I’m … I’m grateful.”
“I’ll leave a note for Ned to give to her as she is off to Yellow Rock for a few days to help her sister in law deal with the clean-up of a kitchen fire so we won’t be seeing her before we leave.” He insisted on helping me to tie a bodice that had a geometric pattern embroidered around the edges. When he was through “helping” he said, “There’s a morning meal in that basket as well. It’s early but Ned is already at the school.” He sighed in aggravation. “There’s been some confusion and I need to go collect some of the things we purchased from here and there. Justine said you could travel but she didn’t want you around if there is going to be another fight and there’s libel to be if I find out Lurna or any of the others had a hand in it.”
“I’m sorry Gid.”
“No reason for you to be sorry. But if you’ve an interest in it, Ned said you might like to come to the school and wait for me there. You’re as fond of books as he is and there’s also maps and other things in the school that you might enjoy looking at to pass the time.”
So it was settled.
“Ned, thanks for giving me a safe place to stash Yulee.”
I didn’t say a word but Mr. Ned said, “You stash things Gideon, not people. I am more than happy to have Yulee as my guest while you conduct your business.”
Gid did not contradict him but did grin. “Thank you either way Ned.”
Gid left quickly and Ned escorted me into the building showing me around as he went. Then we stepped into the main classroom area. “The children will likely appear curious but they will behave or I will know why not.” He hadn’t bothered to keep his voice down and a lot of eyes that had been openly staring in my direction suddenly changed direction to look at the large boards on four sides of the room.
Each wall was devoted to a different academic level. The center of the large room contained a raised dais with a podium. The children sat on stools. Lessons they did facing their board but they could turn and facing the podium for lectures.
“My dear, I must confess to an ulterior motive.” I kept my face carefully blank while he continued. “Our conversation – what time there was for it – revealed you have an extensive knowledge of history and geography. Would you mind helping me with today’s lesson?”
“Of … of course Sir, though I’m not sure what I can do to be of service.”
He smiled. “Quite easily my dear, I would like you to give independent verification to what I have been trying to instill in the children. If they only hear it from me then they are by rights going to have some concerns about the veracity of facts. By hearing it from another person raised outside of the village I hope they will see that I’m not merely discussing theories but actual events and places.”
I could see the logic to the exercise but I still hesitated, nevertheless I said, “I will do my best.”
“Very good.” Turning to the children he said, “Attend, and I want every eye and ear open.”
The children responded quickly and suddenly I felt all their eyes boring into me. I did my best to ignore the sensation but it wasn’t easy.
Ned said, “The children all know that we live on the continent that was once called North America. Are you agreed that it was once called that?”
“It is still called that by most though it sounds different in parts of the land. Some of the people from the far north call it amérique du nord and as many of you probably have heard from some of your neighbors in this land they call it América del Norte.”
“Very good. And this continent was once broken down into three countries.”
“Yes, Canada to our north, Mexico to our south, and the land we are on was called the United States of America or USA or just US for short. All three were ethnically and racially diverse but the US had the greatest diversity of races and cultures. That was one of the greatest strengths, and the greatest weakness, of the country and played a role in what happened during the Great War.”
Ned nodded. “Yes, we have studied the various causes and actions during the Great War using original documents that have been salvaged from that time period. Both the school and community libraries have a very good collection that I highly recommend that you see when time permits. However, there is a time immediately following the Great War that isn’t as well documented.”
Gathering my thoughts and reviewing what I’d been taught I said, “It is called different things but the two most common terms that I know of for that era are the Dark Days or the Era of Confusion. The Great War was only the beginning of humanity’s descent into the dark. The bombs and battles of the Great War destroyed much of the infrastructure of the leading countries of the world. There were assassinations that took out heads of state leaving chaos behind for those that had become dependent on social systems that had been in place to provide their housing, food, healers, and education. Unlike today where only the feeble and very young are helped by community and church charity, large numbers of people of all types demanded the government take care of them because they refused to be responsible for themselves and when they didn’t get what they expected or wanted, they became like the raiders we have today and destroyed anything in their path. Many countries became like wagons careening madly down a mountain trail with no driver to try and check the horses’ mad dash to the precipice. And just like that scenario, you had some countries that survived out of luck, some did go over the precipice, and some had brave men ride up and jump on to try and save what they could from the wagon by turning it in a new direction. You also had bad men who jumped into the wagon to toss off what they could steal, never meaning to save the wagon and horses at all.”
Ned agreed by saying, “An apt analogy. What happened here in North America?”
I shrugged, “All of the above.”
“How so?”
“The countries of North America, unlike many of those in places called Eastern and Western Europe which were on the other side of the large body of water called the Lantic Ocean, were large and covered a huge number of square miles. The diversity I mentioned before was also a factor though less so towards the south than in the US and Canada. The countries began to lose their … hmmm … their cohesiveness. They became more like territories loosely bound together by memory and tradition than one single country united under a governing body called a government with the same ideals as the people under them. Problems arose however when these individual territories tried to continue living in the manner they had when they had been part of one large country. Not every territory had the same number and type of resources. Some territories had too many people, some had too few. Some territories could protect themselves better because they had better armies and tools to equip their armies with. They started to fight and squabble amongst themselves even while the Great War still raged around the world. The unity that once existed was gone. And without unity the people became even more vulnerable. Wars were being fought on two or three or more fronts at one time.”
“And into this came who?”
Again I gathered my thoughts. This was important and it had been drilled into my head from the time I was old enough to hear a bedtime story. “History has come to call them the Brotherhood – definitely different from the Brothers and Sisters we have today – but in the beginning they were primarily people whose only uniting factor was religion. They came from many different countries with different ethnicities and different cultures. In ages long gone these same people had tried before to unite the world under their religion, only to call it uniting is a misnomer. It was either accept and convert – or die. In fact for most infractions they believed death was the only solution. They believed a theocracy was the only way to rule and their religious books the only law. Anything outside of their ‘only’ view was considered heresy and again death was the only remedy to restore order and balance.”
Continuing I said, “These people were united behind someone claiming to be their savior. In the end the man was destroyed by his own people when they discovered he was a charlatan set up by one sect of their religion to put them in power above the other sects but by that time it didn’t matter. They had established military and religious footholds in most of the countries around the world. They were on their way to fulfilling one of their prophecies.”
I stopped remembering the stories of bloodshed and horror that had been gathered from that time period. Ned prompted, “But we don’t live with such a system today.”
“No,” I said quietly but firmly. “Because of The Church.”
“The Church?”
“Yes. The Brotherhood had assumed that people would simply submit or they would kill them and get them out of the way. However, even though they had a great many on their side, there was also a significant underground movement fighting against them. No matter what they did they could not completely eradicate the two religions which were their antithesis. In the US, and in fact in most of this part of the world, the primary belief system was a monotheism … we believed in one God and only one God … the Supreme Creator of All. There may have been many different ceremonies for honoring Him but at the pinnacle of each was always the overriding belief in Him and His Word. The Brotherhood despised this and those that believed in the One True God rather than in the Brotherhood’s laws and prophets. They hated the light that The Church shined on the hypocrisy of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood claimed to be a people of peace and yet almost every law, every religious text, was rife with violence. Definitions and practices and beliefs were not absolutes that applied to everyone but were flexible depending on the prophet that was speaking and their ultimate goal. Anything was allowable in the pursuit of world conquest and domination so long as it was being done against someone who wasn’t one of the Brotherhood. Even within the Brotherhood there were elites and they would often fight each other. Their system was confusing; there were always exceptions to their laws as well, loopholes found for those with enough money, power, or influence.”
“First people fell so far they were nearly destroyed. Then they reached a level where they weren’t just miserable but recognized what was causing their misery and how it had come to have power over them. Then came repentance. It wasn’t just about being sorry, it was a turning away from what caused their misery … turning from the dark to the light. The Church became the banner these repentant people gathered under. They were still persecuted but that only caused their Faith to become stronger. This infuriated the Brotherhood. And this is what brought about the fall of the Brotherhood.”
“How so?” Ned asked.
The room was quiet and all the students were listening. “They underestimated the Faithful. The Brotherhood had become so corrupted by their own human desire for power and control, subjugation and sexual immorality that they couldn’t seem to grasp why, no matter what they did, more and more people left the Brotherhood and turned to The Church. The more The Church was persecuted, the more people opened their eyes and turned towards the Light. They too would seek out how a people so viciously put upon could not only survive but begin to flourish. Battles began to be fought openly. The Brotherhood had overwhelming numbers, the odds should have favored them, yet time and time and time again The Church would win by miraculous means or intervention. It took years but eventually the Brotherhood was no more. Oh, there are still enclaves here and there, but they are small and keep to themselves because people have very long memories … at least for some things. For almost five decades the people of North America lived in relative peace. Everyone was focused on recovering, rebuilding, making the land fruitful again. The Great War and then the Brotherhood had laid waste to so much. Worldwide trade and communication was for all intents and purposes nonexistent although the rare contact was made and documented though today even that no longer exists. Death by disease was rampant. Starvation was a daily concern for everyone and the earth’s weather patterns had been affected by weapons released during battles. Fresh water was difficult to come by. There was a lot of work to keep everyone busy, focused, and out of trouble.”
“Why don’t we still have a large Church network today? Why instead has the territorial militias and their outposts replaced the Church’s protectorates?”
“Because we are human. That’s no excuse, far from it, but it is a recognition of the state that we all live in. The Church, as a body and certain individuals within the body, grew arrogant. Some misused their privilege to accrue power they had no business having. Then the power was misused to hurt people. In some places it became as bad as it had been under the Brotherhood fifty and sixty years earlier. There was a backlash as people turned their back on The Church never realizing that it was men and not The Church that was turning their back on them. God had not forgotten, men had forgotten.
Then some salvagers broke into a building that should have been left buried and forgotten. In their greed and thirst for power they had opened Pandora’s Box and many new ills were literally visited upon the world on the wind. We still live with many of those mutated plagues today. My father’s entire village fell to one such plague. He was the only living soul – a babe of only a few weeks old – that still remained alive when missionaries from our village went through the area. He was taken to our community church and there he grew up.”
Shaking my head. “It was that time of so many plagues and other illnesses that cemented many people’s understanding that we had made a mockery of the chance we had been given. In retrospect those that still followed the church realized we had forged a golden calf, put it before the Lord our God. We’d been so close and we threw it all away. So now our world, and the people in it, is destined to walk in darkness for a while longer. For how long no one knows. When we children would ask the Brothers and Sisters of our Church we were told not to focus so much on how long, but to learn the lessons God put before us, to learn to appreciate what we were gifted with despite the condition of the world, and to let God decide how long we are to walk this path in the wilderness.”
I fell silent thinking of lessons and wondering if I appreciated the chance that Gid’s purchase of me offered. Ned allowed me to be contemplative. I guess it served his purpose to impress on the children our history. Then he asked, “What of the world today? You’ve seen a great deal more of it than even the elders of the Village of Riverside have and some of them are widely travelled. I understand you originally come from a place far to the east of the Peaks.”
Chapter Sixteen
Pulled back to the present I nodded. “Yes, my community is … was … within a day’s ride from a large river called the Mississippi. At one time it was much closer but during the Great War some of the bombs caused an earth shaker and the big river has since changed course several times eventually settling in a different pattern than it had before the war.”
“And due to terrible circumstances you lost your parents and were placed into the care of other family and they migrated out of that area and that is how you’ve seen so much of this land.”
To myself I thought that was a polite way of saying it that allowed me to retain some dignity.
“What was it like leaving your home and traveling to the Peaks?”
I doubted he meant emotionally so I recounted what I remember of the beginning of the trip and then said, “Ages ago the land between the Mississippi River and the Peaks used to be a large prairie land. There was nothing but tall grasses for as far as the eye could see but that was when the country of the US was young and people called pioneers travelled the land looking for a place to call a home of their own; similar to those today who seek a place where they can build a homestead or clan farm away from the corrupted lands and contaminated water. Back then there were so many of these pioneers that they started congregating together in places so that the land could not hold them all. Then cities were built in the prairie land to hold all the people. The prairie lands were cross fenced creating large farms and cattle herds to feed all of the people of the large cities. Long roads and highways called interstates were built to connect the cities and the cities became larger … and larger and larger. There were so many people living in these cities that some people had to live outside them in places called suburbs and even many of those became crowded with people and became cities all of their own. Most of us today cannot even imagine the number of people that used to live and work in these places in buildings made of metal and glass that stretched high into the sky. Most of these cities are ruins and have been for over several generations but in the East there are still people living in what remains of similar places, but they are dark and terrible areas full of disease and deformities and depravities. There are some missionaries that feel the call to go into such places but few return due to falling victim to those they would seek to help. What little light they shed is often swallowed by the blackness of the hearts of the people that live there.”
Returning to the migration I said, “The land between the Mississippi and the Peaks has in great part returned to what it once was but in some places the land is still so damaged by the remains of the old-cities and from the bombs of the Great War that they are called Corrupted and if you wish to retain your place amongst the living and the sane you avoid them. I do not believe in ghosts and haunts but if such did exist, they would live in the Corrupteds.”
I saw some of the children looking at each other the same way we had when the Brothers had told this history in our classes. It was like a ghost story that caused you to shiver deliciously. “Some of the roads from the time of the Great War and before still exist, even if it is just as hard-packed shadows on the earth. Salvagers used these roads for generations and they became the barter routes. These are the roads we traveled across the Plains on. Then we came to the Peaks.”
“The Peaks are really a combination of mountain ranges that once had names that meant something to people. Today we lump them all together and call all of the ranges ‘The Peaks.’ I have travelled many roads through the Peaks and have seen evidence that there used to be many more roads and paths cut by the hands of man. The Great War and the Year of the Quakes that happened shortly afterwards during the Era of Confusion destroyed many of these man-made passages and not a few of the natural ones as well. I’ve seen what remains of the sea of ash that touches the western most foothills of the Peaks that was created when volcanoes joined the quakes. I haven’t gone as far as the west coast of this land and have no desire to, though I’ve met and listened to traders that cover those difficult routes. Huge chunks of land fell into the Cific Ocean during the Year of the Quakes and the maps left over from before the Great War no longer reflect how the coastlines really lie today. It is a rough and rugged country full of desert and destruction the closer you get to the Cific these days, and some areas are uninhabitable by neither man nor beast. Salt water from the Cific encroaches far inland via the old underground aqueducts allowing only the hardiest of plants and trees to survive.”
A bell started ringing and all of the children groaned. Ned smiled and reminded them, “It is time to go to your apprenticeships. Now children, don’t dawdle or you will receive tallies.”
After the children had filed out obediently although reluctantly and headed away, many of them stopping to ask if I would come back, Ned turned to me and said, “I know that you cannot stay but perhaps next time Gideon can bring himself to return to the Village you will grace our school with another lecture?”
“Oh Sir, I wasn’t lecturing, merely answering your questions.”
“Humility is a characteristic to be cultivated but do not let it blind you to the fact that you have a gift. I’ve rarely seen the children as rapt as they were listening to you.”
I just blinked as Ned was not a man that I could contradict no matter my personal feelings, he reminded me too much of the Brothers that had taught me back in my school days, days that I remembered with fondness and perhaps treasured all the more for the fact they had been cut short.
I was happy to help clean the classroom and set it up for the next day and afterwards Ned showed me their library and map and document collection. This is where Gid found me a short while later. When I saw him I knew instinctively what he was going to ask. “Do you feel well enough to travel?”
“I’m not normally so weak as you witnessed me being. It was just the ants. I’ve slept the sick away so it will be as you say and as soon as you say.”
“Good. And don’t look all closed like that,” when he realized I had read his mood. “The ones that count know my reasons and accept my leaving even if they don’t understand. Those that don’t, or those that refuse to, well … it will just have to be that way. Goodbyes have been said and Tad may be coming a bit sooner than summer if he can get away. His father’s cousin is a trader and has sent word that he will be traveling through in the spring. Tad may ride with him a while and see what comes of it.”
“Lurna …”
“… will have to learn to accept what she can’t change.”
Ned stepped forward and said, “I will miss you … and your Yulee though we’ve only just met … but some are meant to stay and some are meant to go. It isn’t like you are traveling to one of the coasts. You aren’t even going to be a full day’s ride away. I’ll speak with Lurna and try and bring her around.”
“I will be grateful if you can. Verna said the same thing. I don’t want to hurt Lurna, she’s been a mother to me. I just can’t do this her way any longer.”
“Then go and may God watch over you and bless you in this life you’ve chosen.”
It wasn’t quite mid-day when we headed off. I kept watching to see if Gid was covering up his sorrow but reality was that the closer to the gate we rode, the lighter the day seemed to ride on his shoulders. And once we were outside the gate and heading away from the communities and towards the foothills he actually stopped to take a deep breath and smiled.
“We’re free Yulee,” he said grinning at me.
“Hmm.”
Looking at me closely he said, “I’ve come to know that sound. It means there are words behind your lips you are keeping there.”
“I …”
“Is it you prefer the village?” he asked cautiously. “You seem to have enjoyed spending time at the school with Ned.”
I shook my head.
“Then what is it?”
Are a moment to gird my courage I asked, “Are … are you sure that there wasn’t something I could have done to make this better? I … I …”
“Back to the Lurna business are we? Look, it is what it is. I’m sorry it came to this but I’m a man. I have the right to have some say over my own future. On top of that, being hemmed in by the village and the people in it never has brought me any pleasure. Yes, living outside the wall has some dangers to it. There’s wild animals, bandits and raiders, we’ll be on our own if there’s some problem or other, and we won’t just be able to run to the shops when there’s something missing or something broken. To me the risks are still better than the alternative. I need my space and the chance for a little privacy now and again; or at least privacy from prying little eyes forever rudely in my business. The parting was inevitable.”
“Hmm.”
“Now look here Yulee¸ this isn’t the Darks. I’m not out to gather a harem of women, lead a cult, or be a war lord. I don’t want to travel all over salvaging or bartering. Nor am I an archaeologist or a philosopher that is drawn to digging into all of the old-cities and outlying areas of the spoiled zones looking for old tech or other scraps of by gone days to examine and ponder over. I don’t want to move to the east where they are building warehouses where they can produce goods on a grand scale. I just want my piece of ground and peace to live on it my way.”
After some consideration I said, “That sounds like something other than family issues.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Yes, Lurna is a painful thorn in my side at times but she isn’t the only thing I need to be free of. The village is just too full, too congested. There are just too many rules to follow all the time. I understand the need for rules when you’ve got that many people living in that small a space but there seems to be as many rules as people lately and they are starting to run at cross purposes to one another. I want to live free Yulee, or at least give it a good try.”
“Then it shall be as you say.”
“Good,” he said and for a moment we both watched the careful plodding of the oxen that pulled the wagon. Then Gid told me, “Grab that basket under your feet. Apparently you managed to impress Lolly – she’s one of the older girls and trust me, she’s hard to impress. She fixed us a basket lunch and sent along a few things that you might need in another basket that is back in the wagon. She got the idea after listening to Sabrina ring a peel over Lurna’s head about how her step daughter had nearly the same trick played on her last Founding Day and how the boys had promised not to do something like that again. Sabrina has been complaining of the boys longer than any of us and she’s threatened to kidnap them and send them to her husband who is a logger. She said he’d work the boys so hard they’d have no time for mischief unless they wanted to end up dead. Lurna is upset because she knows that Sabrina will do it too, and damn the consequences, rather than see the boys completely ruined. She values Father’s memory too much to see any of his offspring go to rack and ruin. She also got into it with Vaniece and told her that she wasn’t being a proper wife to Jace and that she’d better get over her airs and graces and get to work before Jace grew tired of her and set her aside.”
“Hmmmm.”
He nodded, “Yeah, and there’s a chest of cloth buried in the wagon someplace. Sabrina and Heather both stormed the family coffers and picked some yardage and some thread they said you’ll find useful.”
I felt somewhat overwhelmed so kept quiet so as not to deter Gid’s high spirits. As we entered the forest I heard a strange sound and realized it was coming from the back under the tarp. I twisted around to look but the tarp was securely tied down. Gid snickered, “You’ve taken forever to notice.”
“Hmmm.”
“Aren’t you the least curious?”
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Well, you’re no cat you’re my woman. So do you wish to know what you hear or not?”
“Yes please.”
“Presents.”
Having no expectations of that on top of all the other that Gid had already spoken of I said, “Ex … excuse me?”
He snickered again. “I learned today that not all of the family feels as Lurna does and most of them decided if I was going to do this crazy thing they’d at least send me on my way well provisioned. I thought it would be a year or two before I could afford it, but apparently they believe that with a woman of my own I may make it after all.”
Since that told me no more than I had known before I waited. He snickered again and said, “We have chickens, geese, ducks, and quail to keep us in eggs until cold weather sets in. And that snuffling noise you hear is the pup I was promised that was sired by Roof. If he manages to grow into his paws he’ll be even bigger than his sire. It will be a job feeding him until he is big enough to catch his own. And there’s a furball in there to help with any mice or vermin that want to enter the cabin.”
“Furball?”
“Cat. Sabrina’s house cat just had a litter a couple of months back and her whole line have been champion mousers and much sought after. And luckily the cat is dog tolerant because the pup wouldn’t stop whining until the furball climbed into the cage with him. They’ve given each other tongue baths so I doubt there will be any fighting between them. Now pull out one of those pasties, I’m starving.”
Pulled back to the present I nodded. “Yes, my community is … was … within a day’s ride from a large river called the Mississippi. At one time it was much closer but during the Great War some of the bombs caused an earth shaker and the big river has since changed course several times eventually settling in a different pattern than it had before the war.”
“And due to terrible circumstances you lost your parents and were placed into the care of other family and they migrated out of that area and that is how you’ve seen so much of this land.”
To myself I thought that was a polite way of saying it that allowed me to retain some dignity.
“What was it like leaving your home and traveling to the Peaks?”
I doubted he meant emotionally so I recounted what I remember of the beginning of the trip and then said, “Ages ago the land between the Mississippi River and the Peaks used to be a large prairie land. There was nothing but tall grasses for as far as the eye could see but that was when the country of the US was young and people called pioneers travelled the land looking for a place to call a home of their own; similar to those today who seek a place where they can build a homestead or clan farm away from the corrupted lands and contaminated water. Back then there were so many of these pioneers that they started congregating together in places so that the land could not hold them all. Then cities were built in the prairie land to hold all the people. The prairie lands were cross fenced creating large farms and cattle herds to feed all of the people of the large cities. Long roads and highways called interstates were built to connect the cities and the cities became larger … and larger and larger. There were so many people living in these cities that some people had to live outside them in places called suburbs and even many of those became crowded with people and became cities all of their own. Most of us today cannot even imagine the number of people that used to live and work in these places in buildings made of metal and glass that stretched high into the sky. Most of these cities are ruins and have been for over several generations but in the East there are still people living in what remains of similar places, but they are dark and terrible areas full of disease and deformities and depravities. There are some missionaries that feel the call to go into such places but few return due to falling victim to those they would seek to help. What little light they shed is often swallowed by the blackness of the hearts of the people that live there.”
Returning to the migration I said, “The land between the Mississippi and the Peaks has in great part returned to what it once was but in some places the land is still so damaged by the remains of the old-cities and from the bombs of the Great War that they are called Corrupted and if you wish to retain your place amongst the living and the sane you avoid them. I do not believe in ghosts and haunts but if such did exist, they would live in the Corrupteds.”
I saw some of the children looking at each other the same way we had when the Brothers had told this history in our classes. It was like a ghost story that caused you to shiver deliciously. “Some of the roads from the time of the Great War and before still exist, even if it is just as hard-packed shadows on the earth. Salvagers used these roads for generations and they became the barter routes. These are the roads we traveled across the Plains on. Then we came to the Peaks.”
“The Peaks are really a combination of mountain ranges that once had names that meant something to people. Today we lump them all together and call all of the ranges ‘The Peaks.’ I have travelled many roads through the Peaks and have seen evidence that there used to be many more roads and paths cut by the hands of man. The Great War and the Year of the Quakes that happened shortly afterwards during the Era of Confusion destroyed many of these man-made passages and not a few of the natural ones as well. I’ve seen what remains of the sea of ash that touches the western most foothills of the Peaks that was created when volcanoes joined the quakes. I haven’t gone as far as the west coast of this land and have no desire to, though I’ve met and listened to traders that cover those difficult routes. Huge chunks of land fell into the Cific Ocean during the Year of the Quakes and the maps left over from before the Great War no longer reflect how the coastlines really lie today. It is a rough and rugged country full of desert and destruction the closer you get to the Cific these days, and some areas are uninhabitable by neither man nor beast. Salt water from the Cific encroaches far inland via the old underground aqueducts allowing only the hardiest of plants and trees to survive.”
A bell started ringing and all of the children groaned. Ned smiled and reminded them, “It is time to go to your apprenticeships. Now children, don’t dawdle or you will receive tallies.”
After the children had filed out obediently although reluctantly and headed away, many of them stopping to ask if I would come back, Ned turned to me and said, “I know that you cannot stay but perhaps next time Gideon can bring himself to return to the Village you will grace our school with another lecture?”
“Oh Sir, I wasn’t lecturing, merely answering your questions.”
“Humility is a characteristic to be cultivated but do not let it blind you to the fact that you have a gift. I’ve rarely seen the children as rapt as they were listening to you.”
I just blinked as Ned was not a man that I could contradict no matter my personal feelings, he reminded me too much of the Brothers that had taught me back in my school days, days that I remembered with fondness and perhaps treasured all the more for the fact they had been cut short.
I was happy to help clean the classroom and set it up for the next day and afterwards Ned showed me their library and map and document collection. This is where Gid found me a short while later. When I saw him I knew instinctively what he was going to ask. “Do you feel well enough to travel?”
“I’m not normally so weak as you witnessed me being. It was just the ants. I’ve slept the sick away so it will be as you say and as soon as you say.”
“Good. And don’t look all closed like that,” when he realized I had read his mood. “The ones that count know my reasons and accept my leaving even if they don’t understand. Those that don’t, or those that refuse to, well … it will just have to be that way. Goodbyes have been said and Tad may be coming a bit sooner than summer if he can get away. His father’s cousin is a trader and has sent word that he will be traveling through in the spring. Tad may ride with him a while and see what comes of it.”
“Lurna …”
“… will have to learn to accept what she can’t change.”
Ned stepped forward and said, “I will miss you … and your Yulee though we’ve only just met … but some are meant to stay and some are meant to go. It isn’t like you are traveling to one of the coasts. You aren’t even going to be a full day’s ride away. I’ll speak with Lurna and try and bring her around.”
“I will be grateful if you can. Verna said the same thing. I don’t want to hurt Lurna, she’s been a mother to me. I just can’t do this her way any longer.”
“Then go and may God watch over you and bless you in this life you’ve chosen.”
It wasn’t quite mid-day when we headed off. I kept watching to see if Gid was covering up his sorrow but reality was that the closer to the gate we rode, the lighter the day seemed to ride on his shoulders. And once we were outside the gate and heading away from the communities and towards the foothills he actually stopped to take a deep breath and smiled.
“We’re free Yulee,” he said grinning at me.
“Hmm.”
Looking at me closely he said, “I’ve come to know that sound. It means there are words behind your lips you are keeping there.”
“I …”
“Is it you prefer the village?” he asked cautiously. “You seem to have enjoyed spending time at the school with Ned.”
I shook my head.
“Then what is it?”
Are a moment to gird my courage I asked, “Are … are you sure that there wasn’t something I could have done to make this better? I … I …”
“Back to the Lurna business are we? Look, it is what it is. I’m sorry it came to this but I’m a man. I have the right to have some say over my own future. On top of that, being hemmed in by the village and the people in it never has brought me any pleasure. Yes, living outside the wall has some dangers to it. There’s wild animals, bandits and raiders, we’ll be on our own if there’s some problem or other, and we won’t just be able to run to the shops when there’s something missing or something broken. To me the risks are still better than the alternative. I need my space and the chance for a little privacy now and again; or at least privacy from prying little eyes forever rudely in my business. The parting was inevitable.”
“Hmm.”
“Now look here Yulee¸ this isn’t the Darks. I’m not out to gather a harem of women, lead a cult, or be a war lord. I don’t want to travel all over salvaging or bartering. Nor am I an archaeologist or a philosopher that is drawn to digging into all of the old-cities and outlying areas of the spoiled zones looking for old tech or other scraps of by gone days to examine and ponder over. I don’t want to move to the east where they are building warehouses where they can produce goods on a grand scale. I just want my piece of ground and peace to live on it my way.”
After some consideration I said, “That sounds like something other than family issues.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Yes, Lurna is a painful thorn in my side at times but she isn’t the only thing I need to be free of. The village is just too full, too congested. There are just too many rules to follow all the time. I understand the need for rules when you’ve got that many people living in that small a space but there seems to be as many rules as people lately and they are starting to run at cross purposes to one another. I want to live free Yulee, or at least give it a good try.”
“Then it shall be as you say.”
“Good,” he said and for a moment we both watched the careful plodding of the oxen that pulled the wagon. Then Gid told me, “Grab that basket under your feet. Apparently you managed to impress Lolly – she’s one of the older girls and trust me, she’s hard to impress. She fixed us a basket lunch and sent along a few things that you might need in another basket that is back in the wagon. She got the idea after listening to Sabrina ring a peel over Lurna’s head about how her step daughter had nearly the same trick played on her last Founding Day and how the boys had promised not to do something like that again. Sabrina has been complaining of the boys longer than any of us and she’s threatened to kidnap them and send them to her husband who is a logger. She said he’d work the boys so hard they’d have no time for mischief unless they wanted to end up dead. Lurna is upset because she knows that Sabrina will do it too, and damn the consequences, rather than see the boys completely ruined. She values Father’s memory too much to see any of his offspring go to rack and ruin. She also got into it with Vaniece and told her that she wasn’t being a proper wife to Jace and that she’d better get over her airs and graces and get to work before Jace grew tired of her and set her aside.”
“Hmmmm.”
He nodded, “Yeah, and there’s a chest of cloth buried in the wagon someplace. Sabrina and Heather both stormed the family coffers and picked some yardage and some thread they said you’ll find useful.”
I felt somewhat overwhelmed so kept quiet so as not to deter Gid’s high spirits. As we entered the forest I heard a strange sound and realized it was coming from the back under the tarp. I twisted around to look but the tarp was securely tied down. Gid snickered, “You’ve taken forever to notice.”
“Hmmm.”
“Aren’t you the least curious?”
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Well, you’re no cat you’re my woman. So do you wish to know what you hear or not?”
“Yes please.”
“Presents.”
Having no expectations of that on top of all the other that Gid had already spoken of I said, “Ex … excuse me?”
He snickered again. “I learned today that not all of the family feels as Lurna does and most of them decided if I was going to do this crazy thing they’d at least send me on my way well provisioned. I thought it would be a year or two before I could afford it, but apparently they believe that with a woman of my own I may make it after all.”
Since that told me no more than I had known before I waited. He snickered again and said, “We have chickens, geese, ducks, and quail to keep us in eggs until cold weather sets in. And that snuffling noise you hear is the pup I was promised that was sired by Roof. If he manages to grow into his paws he’ll be even bigger than his sire. It will be a job feeding him until he is big enough to catch his own. And there’s a furball in there to help with any mice or vermin that want to enter the cabin.”
“Furball?”
“Cat. Sabrina’s house cat just had a litter a couple of months back and her whole line have been champion mousers and much sought after. And luckily the cat is dog tolerant because the pup wouldn’t stop whining until the furball climbed into the cage with him. They’ve given each other tongue baths so I doubt there will be any fighting between them. Now pull out one of those pasties, I’m starving.”
Dosadi
Brown Coat
I think I have worn the marks off of my F5 key
thanks for the smiles.
Sometimes I think I should have either been born back in the 1800's or maybe a couple centuries into the future.
Trading the USSA as it is becoming for the chance to live free without all the commie rules makes my heart sing.
I'm gonna go walk the dog, check the goats n chickens n other things and then run in and hit F5 again.
D.
thanks for the smiles.
Sometimes I think I should have either been born back in the 1800's or maybe a couple centuries into the future.
Trading the USSA as it is becoming for the chance to live free without all the commie rules makes my heart sing.
I'm gonna go walk the dog, check the goats n chickens n other things and then run in and hit F5 again.
D.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you Kathy, very good story for sure.
Siskiyoumom
Veteran Member
What a most pleasant story to read this Sunday eve.
I look forward to more.
I look forward to more.
ForgeCorvus
Member
You need dogs on a farm.... But a cat makes a home
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Pretty Please with a cherry on top .
.Agree, a little escape from the horrible reality of todays events would be so welcome
Wasn't sure if anyone would be interested after the way the day has gone but if you are wanting a little escapism ... well here you go. (grin)
--------------------------------------
Chapter Seventeen
It was getting late in the day when we turned into the final stretch of very old road that would lead us back to Gid’s cabin. I noticed his excitement but there seemed to be an element of humor to it as well. I kept a watch on him from the corner of my eye as in my experience the combination of the two in a boy or man usually spelled trouble of some type.
Then he stopped and I looked for the cabin. He said, “It’s around this turn and down a short lane. Keep your eyes open as I want to know your opinion of it as soon as you see it.”
My opinion? It took everything I had to keep my mouth from falling open and my seat from sliding out of the wagon. Something of my surprise must have shown on my face however as Gid howled in glee as if he had pulled off some huge prank. I turned to look at him and as calmly as my shock would allow I said, “You told me it was a cabin.”
“And it is. It’s made of logs isn’t it?”
It was … nearly a forest of them if I were to count them all up. “This … this is not a cabin.”
“Sure it is. Haven’t you ever seen a log home before?” I turned and just continued to stare at him. For his part he grinned at his great joke then said, “Stay with the wagon while I check everything out. If there’s no trouble we’ll unload and I’ll explain.”
While he went to reconnoiterer I looked at the structure in front of me. The only thing that it and what I had assumed it to be had in common was that it was indeed made of logs and it was in a forest but that is where the similarities ended. As Gid had mentioned it was made up of more than one story, three to be precise with an attic as well if he was to be believed; and at this point I would not have put much passed him. There was a foundation level that evened the ground so that the first floor had something to sit on; it was neither basement nor cellar but some hybrid that was only partially visible from the exterior. The first floor was the main entrance and had what looked like large, metal studded doors as its primary opening. A second floor rose above the first. A sharp pitched roof capped off the structure with three chimneys rising from its surface.
Gid came back before I could truly grasp what I was looking at. “I’ve got the barn open. Let’s take care of the animals and then see how much we can get unloaded before full dark. The rest will just have to wait until tomorrow.”
He pulled the wagon around to the side and I realized that the “barn” was attached to the “cabin.” He looked at me grinning. “Uncle Fid said that back in the old days this would have housed four automobiles. One day I will build a detached barn but for now you can’t beat the security this offers and it is well sealed which means that so long as it is kept clean the animal smells don’t reach into the cabin.”
I shook my head. “This is not a cabin.”
“You’ve already said that. But I say it is. That’s what we’ve always called it.”
“This … this is some kind of castle or … or …” Then I turned to him and realized with horror, “You’re a rich man. How am I ever going to get you to keep me when you can have anyone you want?”
“Ease up there Yulee,” he said as he took the basket that I had been carrying and set it to the side. “I’m not rich … at least not in the way you mean. My mother’s family is all died out in this area, so there was only me to inherit after Uncle Fid died, but when my uncle and mother were children there were a fair number of them, only few were interested in the cabin as they preferred the safety and social life to be found in the towns of the valley. How it came to be in the family was that Mother’s family gathered here during the Great War. The story goes that a couple of brothers were the hired caretakers for the place before the bombs started falling. The cabin was originally built as a hunting lodge for wealthy men though it was also used for something called ski season which happened when there was snow on the ground. Sometimes it was leased to a single family and sometimes it was leased to more than one at a time. As I understand it from the old documents businesses would sometimes lease it for parties or for a thing named training events though what those were the papers don’t say. The first and second floors could be leased separately. The foundation floor was a common area set for different uses. The interior has many spaces and rooms whose original purpose is of no use today. It has its drawbacks such as needing more fireplaces, especially on the second floor, or that the great room can be hard to heat during the coldest months. And the lighting down in the foundation level is a problem. The interior has seen a great many renovations over the years but still needs improvement. Getting this place sound enough for modern living is going to take some time and effort but I’ve chalked it out and it can be done a lot better than what it currently is.”
“But … it is … Gid …” I shook my head. “Any woman that saw this would have done everything in their power to have you. They would do anything you want, be anything you want …”
Gid made a face and snorted which said a lot about his opinion of such women. “Don’t want one that wants the cabin more than she wants me. Don’t want one that don’t appreciate freedom the way I do. I made a fool of myself once and nearly ruined my life going after such a flighty bird. Saw you, a quiet wren caged and treated cruelly. Knew you would appreciate freedom the same as I; the cabin is just the means to an end, a warm nest to share. Now enough of your senseless fears and worries; you’re mine and I mean to have you and keep you. Help to get these animals down so they can go about their business so I can show you the inside. You might not feel so disposed to be overawed when you see the mess ahead of us.”
Once the smaller animals were cared for and shut in secured areas for the night, Gid had the oxen back the wagon into one of the bays and then he unhitched them and put them in a bay of their own where they munched placidly on feed he had brought along for the purpose. Rook was a little miffed at the lack of attention but Gid told him not to act so spoiled, that he’d be worked enough in the coming days that he’d look back on this day of leisure with longing.
To me he said, “Follow me, I’ll show you where the water for the cabin comes from.”
I followed him a little way from the door yard up an incline to a large cistern. He told me sternly, “This stays covered at all times. It is very deep and there is almost no purchase on the sides to climb out with. You see the sluiceway that travels off that direction?” At my nod of obedience he said, “There’s a stream and waterfall that are fed by a spring. The sluiceway can redirect the water in two directions; to fill this cistern or to an irrigation ditch used for the house garden. Pipes from the cistern carry the water into a sand filter and then from there into a reservoir in the kitchen area.”
We entered the so-called cabin by the large, intimidating metal doors. He looked at me and grinned at my expression. “I know, they look like the village gates. They are nearly as sturdy too. You can’t leave them open in a breeze without risking them shutting on someone and doing some serious damage to flesh and bone.” He closed the doors and then lowered a heavy, wooden cross bar into slots on either side to brace against a direct attack on the door itself.
“I know it’s dark but hold on and I’ll open a couple of shutters as we go. I figure we are in for the night. The barn can be accessed through a door near the pantry. There are bars that can be thrown on the inside of the bay doors and I’ll do that in a bit so we’ll be secure on both ends. Watch your step until you get your bearings.” After he had opened a shutter there was more light. “The cat and dog are already exploring. I can see their paw prints in all the dirt underfoot.”
I looked down and around and indeed there was an unfortunate amount of filth … on the floor, on the walls, and on most of the flat surfaces that I could see. Gid saw me looking and said, “You see what I mean about it needing a woman’s touch. Let us take our packs and these baskets to the master’s bedroom and we’ll start your tour there.”
We walked into an area that was bigger than most of the houses in my village had been. He opened two of the shutters to air the collection of rooms out and to let light in. “Most of the glass still remains downstairs because the shutters stay closed most of the time though a few of the windows on the second floor are boarded over. It will take a few seasons but I’ll get the measurements and take them to the glass blowers in the village and eventually everything will be weathered in once again. Until then that is what the woven mesh is for that I purchased at the market. It won’t keep rain out but it will prevent bugs and birds from taking up residence with us inside when we have the shutters open for light. And this hay tick is fresh as of the beginning of summer. I filled it myself though it is a little lumpy. We can use the blanket and our cloaks again for tonight and tomorrow you can housekeep with the linens from the painted chest.”
Through a door he showed me an indoor privy. “This bath has its own reservoir and a small stove to heat a bucket of water over so that you won’t have to cart water in from the kitchen. And those two doors are cedar lined closets for clothing and linen storage.” He stopped and pointed to an archway opposite the privy and told me, “Through that door over there is a sitting area with its own brazier; much easier to keep warm than the Great Room during a winter storm. We’ll likely spend most of our time there or in our bed to conserve heat.”
I turned to look at him and his eyes sent a shock through me. I was still unused to his heated gaze being focused on me and me alone. He stepped close and lifted my chin. “Has this day been too much? Sabrina sent a salve for the ant bites to help with the itching. I shall put it on you before we take our rest for the evening.”
“You don’t need to bother yourself when you must be more tired than I. I will do it.”
“No. You are mine to take care of and it gives me pleasure to do so.”
He seemed to be expecting some type of reply so I whispered, “It shall be as you say.”
That seemed to satisfy him and he guided us back to the foyer where we entered and with the shutters open on a few more of the windows I looked up and realized that the ceiling was high overhead and open to the second floor. “Upstairs it is even worse so we will skip it until tomorrow. Uncle Fid used it for little else than a storage area. As I said I got rid of all of the rotted rugs and furniture but there is still enough up there that it needs to be seriously organized and gone through with a feminine hand. I know little about the textiles and whether they are reparable or need to be replaced. My mother’s room is up there and still mostly untouched.”
It sounded like Rook was coming down the stairs and we turned to find it was the pup making all of the noise. The cat was only slightly behind him and wasn’t nearly as dignified as I expected a cat to be. They twined about our legs and I bent down and lifted the cat to keep her from being trodden upon by the pup. She seemed to like that and took refuge on my shoulder leaving the pup to grumble at the unfairness. We stepped into an area that was obviously the kitchen and I looked around trying to hide my dismay.
“Aye, it’s disgusting. Uncle Fid and I did most of our cooking outside; we ate there as well. He was free to live as he wished but I’ve come to appreciate living free of fleas, bed bugs, and creepy crawlies trying to take up residence in my food. If you can set this to right you would make me happy.”
I nodded. “Mam and Grandmother would already have buckets of soapy water heating and scrub brushes laid out. I mean no disrespect but even the Sisters, used to all manner of filth from the travelers, would be scandalized at the conditions in this food area.”
Carefully dislodging the furball, Gid pulled me close. “You say nothing that I’m not already aware of. Anything will be an improvement. It is growing too dark to see but through there are the rooms that were once the laundry and some other storage area and it is now used as a pantry. The space is good sized but we’ll still need to store much that we brought below stairs. Beyond the kitchen is the Great Room and dining space. I won’t take down the shutters tonight but in the light you can see the long table that was used for family meals. Most of the matching chairs have broken or rotted over the years and now it is mainly benches that fit around it except for the chairs at either end and those need some repair, certainly the cushions are near about destroyed.”
We walked past the pantry and he showed me the stairs that led both up and down. Up was to the second floor and down was to the foundation level. “Below stairs we will need a lantern even during the day. We’ll be in and out of there enough tomorrow to satisfy any curiosity you might have. In general though there is a wine cellar, what Uncle Fid called the trophy room – I got rid of most of the moth eaten, stuffed animals after he died – and an area the family used as the armory. Were there more light the large center area would look more like a tavern than anything else as there is a bar in front of the wine cellar, a few decrepit gaming tables covered over with all manner of household flotsam, and a room where they once showed the moving pictures that were so popular before the Great War.”
“A theater.”
“What?”
“Those rooms for the movies are called theaters.” I looked at him cautiously and asked, “Have you ever seen a moving picture?”
“No.”
“I have.”
I’d startled him. “What?”
“Some of the Brothers of our church enjoyed tinkering with antique devices. Every once in a great while they actually would get a piece to work. What they called audio files were the easiest to get to work but some of the old picture files would work as well. Getting power to run the devices was an interesting academic exercise as well. Papa said it was a waste of time because it added little to make our lives better. The only exception to his opinion was when one of the Brothers built a battery that could power lights so that the surgeries at the hospital could be used day or night.”
Gid nodded. “Uncle Fid used to speak of such things as well. There are books upstairs that tell how to build batteries but it is a long, involved process that takes patience I’m not sure I have … and for sure time I don’t have to spare right now.” He yawned. “And speaking of time, we have a long day tomorrow and I would like to see our bed before I am too tired to enjoy caring for you so let us leave the rest of this until another time.”
--------------------------------------
Chapter Seventeen
It was getting late in the day when we turned into the final stretch of very old road that would lead us back to Gid’s cabin. I noticed his excitement but there seemed to be an element of humor to it as well. I kept a watch on him from the corner of my eye as in my experience the combination of the two in a boy or man usually spelled trouble of some type.
Then he stopped and I looked for the cabin. He said, “It’s around this turn and down a short lane. Keep your eyes open as I want to know your opinion of it as soon as you see it.”
My opinion? It took everything I had to keep my mouth from falling open and my seat from sliding out of the wagon. Something of my surprise must have shown on my face however as Gid howled in glee as if he had pulled off some huge prank. I turned to look at him and as calmly as my shock would allow I said, “You told me it was a cabin.”
“And it is. It’s made of logs isn’t it?”
It was … nearly a forest of them if I were to count them all up. “This … this is not a cabin.”
“Sure it is. Haven’t you ever seen a log home before?” I turned and just continued to stare at him. For his part he grinned at his great joke then said, “Stay with the wagon while I check everything out. If there’s no trouble we’ll unload and I’ll explain.”
While he went to reconnoiterer I looked at the structure in front of me. The only thing that it and what I had assumed it to be had in common was that it was indeed made of logs and it was in a forest but that is where the similarities ended. As Gid had mentioned it was made up of more than one story, three to be precise with an attic as well if he was to be believed; and at this point I would not have put much passed him. There was a foundation level that evened the ground so that the first floor had something to sit on; it was neither basement nor cellar but some hybrid that was only partially visible from the exterior. The first floor was the main entrance and had what looked like large, metal studded doors as its primary opening. A second floor rose above the first. A sharp pitched roof capped off the structure with three chimneys rising from its surface.
Gid came back before I could truly grasp what I was looking at. “I’ve got the barn open. Let’s take care of the animals and then see how much we can get unloaded before full dark. The rest will just have to wait until tomorrow.”
He pulled the wagon around to the side and I realized that the “barn” was attached to the “cabin.” He looked at me grinning. “Uncle Fid said that back in the old days this would have housed four automobiles. One day I will build a detached barn but for now you can’t beat the security this offers and it is well sealed which means that so long as it is kept clean the animal smells don’t reach into the cabin.”
I shook my head. “This is not a cabin.”
“You’ve already said that. But I say it is. That’s what we’ve always called it.”
“This … this is some kind of castle or … or …” Then I turned to him and realized with horror, “You’re a rich man. How am I ever going to get you to keep me when you can have anyone you want?”
“Ease up there Yulee,” he said as he took the basket that I had been carrying and set it to the side. “I’m not rich … at least not in the way you mean. My mother’s family is all died out in this area, so there was only me to inherit after Uncle Fid died, but when my uncle and mother were children there were a fair number of them, only few were interested in the cabin as they preferred the safety and social life to be found in the towns of the valley. How it came to be in the family was that Mother’s family gathered here during the Great War. The story goes that a couple of brothers were the hired caretakers for the place before the bombs started falling. The cabin was originally built as a hunting lodge for wealthy men though it was also used for something called ski season which happened when there was snow on the ground. Sometimes it was leased to a single family and sometimes it was leased to more than one at a time. As I understand it from the old documents businesses would sometimes lease it for parties or for a thing named training events though what those were the papers don’t say. The first and second floors could be leased separately. The foundation floor was a common area set for different uses. The interior has many spaces and rooms whose original purpose is of no use today. It has its drawbacks such as needing more fireplaces, especially on the second floor, or that the great room can be hard to heat during the coldest months. And the lighting down in the foundation level is a problem. The interior has seen a great many renovations over the years but still needs improvement. Getting this place sound enough for modern living is going to take some time and effort but I’ve chalked it out and it can be done a lot better than what it currently is.”
“But … it is … Gid …” I shook my head. “Any woman that saw this would have done everything in their power to have you. They would do anything you want, be anything you want …”
Gid made a face and snorted which said a lot about his opinion of such women. “Don’t want one that wants the cabin more than she wants me. Don’t want one that don’t appreciate freedom the way I do. I made a fool of myself once and nearly ruined my life going after such a flighty bird. Saw you, a quiet wren caged and treated cruelly. Knew you would appreciate freedom the same as I; the cabin is just the means to an end, a warm nest to share. Now enough of your senseless fears and worries; you’re mine and I mean to have you and keep you. Help to get these animals down so they can go about their business so I can show you the inside. You might not feel so disposed to be overawed when you see the mess ahead of us.”
Once the smaller animals were cared for and shut in secured areas for the night, Gid had the oxen back the wagon into one of the bays and then he unhitched them and put them in a bay of their own where they munched placidly on feed he had brought along for the purpose. Rook was a little miffed at the lack of attention but Gid told him not to act so spoiled, that he’d be worked enough in the coming days that he’d look back on this day of leisure with longing.
To me he said, “Follow me, I’ll show you where the water for the cabin comes from.”
I followed him a little way from the door yard up an incline to a large cistern. He told me sternly, “This stays covered at all times. It is very deep and there is almost no purchase on the sides to climb out with. You see the sluiceway that travels off that direction?” At my nod of obedience he said, “There’s a stream and waterfall that are fed by a spring. The sluiceway can redirect the water in two directions; to fill this cistern or to an irrigation ditch used for the house garden. Pipes from the cistern carry the water into a sand filter and then from there into a reservoir in the kitchen area.”
We entered the so-called cabin by the large, intimidating metal doors. He looked at me and grinned at my expression. “I know, they look like the village gates. They are nearly as sturdy too. You can’t leave them open in a breeze without risking them shutting on someone and doing some serious damage to flesh and bone.” He closed the doors and then lowered a heavy, wooden cross bar into slots on either side to brace against a direct attack on the door itself.
“I know it’s dark but hold on and I’ll open a couple of shutters as we go. I figure we are in for the night. The barn can be accessed through a door near the pantry. There are bars that can be thrown on the inside of the bay doors and I’ll do that in a bit so we’ll be secure on both ends. Watch your step until you get your bearings.” After he had opened a shutter there was more light. “The cat and dog are already exploring. I can see their paw prints in all the dirt underfoot.”
I looked down and around and indeed there was an unfortunate amount of filth … on the floor, on the walls, and on most of the flat surfaces that I could see. Gid saw me looking and said, “You see what I mean about it needing a woman’s touch. Let us take our packs and these baskets to the master’s bedroom and we’ll start your tour there.”
We walked into an area that was bigger than most of the houses in my village had been. He opened two of the shutters to air the collection of rooms out and to let light in. “Most of the glass still remains downstairs because the shutters stay closed most of the time though a few of the windows on the second floor are boarded over. It will take a few seasons but I’ll get the measurements and take them to the glass blowers in the village and eventually everything will be weathered in once again. Until then that is what the woven mesh is for that I purchased at the market. It won’t keep rain out but it will prevent bugs and birds from taking up residence with us inside when we have the shutters open for light. And this hay tick is fresh as of the beginning of summer. I filled it myself though it is a little lumpy. We can use the blanket and our cloaks again for tonight and tomorrow you can housekeep with the linens from the painted chest.”
Through a door he showed me an indoor privy. “This bath has its own reservoir and a small stove to heat a bucket of water over so that you won’t have to cart water in from the kitchen. And those two doors are cedar lined closets for clothing and linen storage.” He stopped and pointed to an archway opposite the privy and told me, “Through that door over there is a sitting area with its own brazier; much easier to keep warm than the Great Room during a winter storm. We’ll likely spend most of our time there or in our bed to conserve heat.”
I turned to look at him and his eyes sent a shock through me. I was still unused to his heated gaze being focused on me and me alone. He stepped close and lifted my chin. “Has this day been too much? Sabrina sent a salve for the ant bites to help with the itching. I shall put it on you before we take our rest for the evening.”
“You don’t need to bother yourself when you must be more tired than I. I will do it.”
“No. You are mine to take care of and it gives me pleasure to do so.”
He seemed to be expecting some type of reply so I whispered, “It shall be as you say.”
That seemed to satisfy him and he guided us back to the foyer where we entered and with the shutters open on a few more of the windows I looked up and realized that the ceiling was high overhead and open to the second floor. “Upstairs it is even worse so we will skip it until tomorrow. Uncle Fid used it for little else than a storage area. As I said I got rid of all of the rotted rugs and furniture but there is still enough up there that it needs to be seriously organized and gone through with a feminine hand. I know little about the textiles and whether they are reparable or need to be replaced. My mother’s room is up there and still mostly untouched.”
It sounded like Rook was coming down the stairs and we turned to find it was the pup making all of the noise. The cat was only slightly behind him and wasn’t nearly as dignified as I expected a cat to be. They twined about our legs and I bent down and lifted the cat to keep her from being trodden upon by the pup. She seemed to like that and took refuge on my shoulder leaving the pup to grumble at the unfairness. We stepped into an area that was obviously the kitchen and I looked around trying to hide my dismay.
“Aye, it’s disgusting. Uncle Fid and I did most of our cooking outside; we ate there as well. He was free to live as he wished but I’ve come to appreciate living free of fleas, bed bugs, and creepy crawlies trying to take up residence in my food. If you can set this to right you would make me happy.”
I nodded. “Mam and Grandmother would already have buckets of soapy water heating and scrub brushes laid out. I mean no disrespect but even the Sisters, used to all manner of filth from the travelers, would be scandalized at the conditions in this food area.”
Carefully dislodging the furball, Gid pulled me close. “You say nothing that I’m not already aware of. Anything will be an improvement. It is growing too dark to see but through there are the rooms that were once the laundry and some other storage area and it is now used as a pantry. The space is good sized but we’ll still need to store much that we brought below stairs. Beyond the kitchen is the Great Room and dining space. I won’t take down the shutters tonight but in the light you can see the long table that was used for family meals. Most of the matching chairs have broken or rotted over the years and now it is mainly benches that fit around it except for the chairs at either end and those need some repair, certainly the cushions are near about destroyed.”
We walked past the pantry and he showed me the stairs that led both up and down. Up was to the second floor and down was to the foundation level. “Below stairs we will need a lantern even during the day. We’ll be in and out of there enough tomorrow to satisfy any curiosity you might have. In general though there is a wine cellar, what Uncle Fid called the trophy room – I got rid of most of the moth eaten, stuffed animals after he died – and an area the family used as the armory. Were there more light the large center area would look more like a tavern than anything else as there is a bar in front of the wine cellar, a few decrepit gaming tables covered over with all manner of household flotsam, and a room where they once showed the moving pictures that were so popular before the Great War.”
“A theater.”
“What?”
“Those rooms for the movies are called theaters.” I looked at him cautiously and asked, “Have you ever seen a moving picture?”
“No.”
“I have.”
I’d startled him. “What?”
“Some of the Brothers of our church enjoyed tinkering with antique devices. Every once in a great while they actually would get a piece to work. What they called audio files were the easiest to get to work but some of the old picture files would work as well. Getting power to run the devices was an interesting academic exercise as well. Papa said it was a waste of time because it added little to make our lives better. The only exception to his opinion was when one of the Brothers built a battery that could power lights so that the surgeries at the hospital could be used day or night.”
Gid nodded. “Uncle Fid used to speak of such things as well. There are books upstairs that tell how to build batteries but it is a long, involved process that takes patience I’m not sure I have … and for sure time I don’t have to spare right now.” He yawned. “And speaking of time, we have a long day tomorrow and I would like to see our bed before I am too tired to enjoy caring for you so let us leave the rest of this until another time.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Be careful dipping that water out of the cistern.”
“Yes Gid.”
At the rate he was going with all of the “be careful” rules he was creating next he’d want me to tie a rope around my waist any time I went near the cover. It was strange to have someone that concerned about my well-being. I hope I am able to prove to him over time that I have no desire to be a burden to him.
The reason I was taking water from the cistern was because I was using so much to clean the cabin with. My primary focus today has been the kitchen and the sleeping quarters. I took a page from his story about him and his uncle cooking outside and lit a small cookfire in an old cooking pit on the patio behind the kitchen and that is where I fixed his breakfast. The chickens had given a couple of eggs and there was some yarrow not too far from the patio so I made a yarrow omelet by chopping some freshly picked yarrow, dicing some onion, and the fresh eggs. Gid stopped short when he saw it on his plate and then grinned broadly. He tried to feed me half but my stomach is still not used to large amounts of food and I put most of what he had portioned me back on his plate. He growled a bit but accepted the compromise.
While I went about my work Gid went about his which included repairing the fowl runs so that the birds could free range more and save feed. He also relieved the wagon of its load, piling its contents in the foyer until I could find a place for it.
The noonday meal could not come quickly enough for Gid who had been working hard. He was already a man that was whipcord lean with little fat to spare. Mam and the Sisters were always quick to point out that men and growing children were particularly vulnerable to poor nutrition. I knew I would need to make sure he got both protein and fat in sufficient quantities.
To that end I used my sling to bring down a few squirrels. I kept two for Gid and gave the rest of them to the pup and cat who carried them off together. To go with the fried squirrel I sautéed chickweed that I had found not too far from the cabin with a little butter that I had found in the food basket that Gid’s sisters had sent with him. I also poured Gid and I tall glasses of milk from the cow’s morning milking. When I called him to eat the noonday meal the look on his face was worth the effort that I put into setting a table.
I asked him, “I fed the pup and cat. Did I do wrong?”
With his mouth full of chickweed Gid shook his head. He swallowed and said, “No. But don’t spoil them so that they won’t hunt for themselves. Sabrina says her cats and dogs hunt together. I hope these two will take up the habit. And you need to eat more than what you have in that trencher.”
“Gid …”
“Yulee …”
We continued to eat and then I asked what had been on my mind. “Gid, I promise not to run away. May I please look around to see what other plants in addition to yarrow and chickweed I have to work with?”
He gave me a fiery look. “I told you I don’t intend to own you.”
I looked down and nodded. “But you do. I want you to know that I won’t take advantage of that.”
He sighed. “You’re stubborn.” After another brief pause he added, “But I suppose if you weren’t you wouldn’t have survived with that evil heifer for an aunt.” After a moment he said, “Yulee, look at me.” I looked up. “You mentioned that your father taught you both the sling and the bow. I’ve seen you use the sling, can you still use the bow?”
“Some,” I said before admitting “Aunt nearly beat me senseless the last time she caught me with one and she broke one of my fingers on the hand I use to draw with. That was right before … before Jubal got taken by the angels. It’s why I was so long at my chores that night. If I had been faster I would have been there to protect him.”
I sighed. The wound wasn’t old but I was beyond crying about it. Sometimes things just hurt too bad to cry. But apparently Gid didn’t know that as he was just there and holding me and though I went stiff in surprise at first the next moment I just relaxed and let him. It felt good to have someone care, or at least say they did. “I didn’t mean to bring up a bad time Yulee.” It felt strange to be tucked into his arms. I wasn’t sure that I was supposed to want it much less enjoy it the way I was. His next words though changed the directions of my thought. “It would be a helpful thing if you can still use a bow. There are animals in this forest a sling just isn’t good enough for and I can’t stand over you with a gun all day.”
I nodded. “I understand Gid. Do you have a bow? I can make one but it will take me time to find the right wood.”
He pushed me away so he could look down into my face. “You can make bows?”
“Papa said that it was no good knowing how to shoot one if I didn’t know how to take care of it first and I’d only truly appreciate taking care of a bow after I did all the work it took to make one. The community fletcher liked the first one I made so well that he had me help to make the simple bows that the boys were trained on. Papa said work was good for the soul and that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
“Well neither of us are likely to have idle hands until the snow lays deep on the ground. Come. We’ve finished the food so now is as good a time as any to show you the armory.”
I had made trenchers out of the day-old bread that was also in the food basket so there were no dishes to clean, only the spit that I had cooked the squirrels with and the skillet I had used to sauté the chickweed. While I moved them away from the coals, Gid picked up a small coal oil lamp and lit it.
My cleaning had been confined to the first floor and I had barely gotten a glance at the second floor but that was enough to realize I had my work cut out for me. Walking down below stairs was even worse. Gid looked at my carefully neutral face and grinned sheepishly. “Still think any woman would have jumped at the chance to live here?”
“If she had any sense,” I told him seriously. “Yes, there is a great deal of dirt and grime and it will be the work of a season to clean it up properly but I’ve seen no wood rot or killing mold. All of the walls and beams look sound. The doors and windows are hung and properly square and there are no weak places in the floors or stairs. I have seen no signs of damp which says the roof is as sound as the rest of the … er … cabin.”
Gid smiled. “The fields are not the only things that I have been working on for the last couple of years. And Uncle Fid used to keep me hopping with repairs and upkeep as well. He never wanted a woman on a permanent basis but he said since it seemed I did he told me I had the responsibility of having a home to bring her to once I found her.”
I caught myself reading something into the phrase “permanent basis” and quickly turned my attention to what was around me … or at least what I could see by lamp light. Without thinking first I asked, “It doesn’t need to be this dark. Are there any large mirrors upstairs?”
“A few. Why?”
“The Brothers used them below stairs to expand the light of their lamps … oh. I … I … I didn’t mean to criticize Gid.” I knew he wouldn’t hit me for being mouthy but I almost wished he would I felt so bad.
“Don’t do that … don’t cringe Yulee. It bothers me. I’ve already told you I’m not the kind to hit females.”
“I know,” I told him quietly. “That doesn’t mean I should take advantage of your forgiving nature by having a thoughtless mouth. I truly didn’t mean to be impudent.”
I jumped when he put his arm around me. “You weren’t being impudent, just the opposite and I thank you for it. You have any idea how tiring it is being the only one thinking? It’s as bad as being the only one working. And it is more worrisome. In truth I’m a bit irritated but not at you. Someone should have thought to use mirrors down here long before now. They get used in the mines outside the valley all the time to save on candles. There are scones on the wall down here that can be used but that much candle power generates a lot of heat and makes the air smoky and noisome if the wax or oil isn’t good quality.”
I nodded but I reminded myself to be more careful of getting overly familiar with Gid. It wasn’t very respectful on my part and if I knew nothing else of men – both the good ones and the bad – they lived to be respected. “You said you wished to show me your armory.”
“Aye, I did. Come here. Do you use a short bow, a long, or a compound bow?”
“I can use all three but I am best with a flatbow.”
He lifted the lamp and I saw a wall of pegboard that held many different bows, knives, short swords, and other hand to hand weapons. There were three flatbows and I picked the shortest of the three. I didn’t see any strings so out of habit reached into the pocket purse on my waist and pulled out a bow string. “I hid the ones that Wash didn’t find. I think they’ll work with this one.” I followed words with action and then pulled the string.
I let the string go back and shook my head. “I need practice and I need to limber my hand. I felt muscles pulling that I haven’t felt since Papa first taught me, especially in my draw fingers.”
“Can you hit what you’re aiming at?”
“There’s only one way to see.”
“Be careful dipping that water out of the cistern.”
“Yes Gid.”
At the rate he was going with all of the “be careful” rules he was creating next he’d want me to tie a rope around my waist any time I went near the cover. It was strange to have someone that concerned about my well-being. I hope I am able to prove to him over time that I have no desire to be a burden to him.
The reason I was taking water from the cistern was because I was using so much to clean the cabin with. My primary focus today has been the kitchen and the sleeping quarters. I took a page from his story about him and his uncle cooking outside and lit a small cookfire in an old cooking pit on the patio behind the kitchen and that is where I fixed his breakfast. The chickens had given a couple of eggs and there was some yarrow not too far from the patio so I made a yarrow omelet by chopping some freshly picked yarrow, dicing some onion, and the fresh eggs. Gid stopped short when he saw it on his plate and then grinned broadly. He tried to feed me half but my stomach is still not used to large amounts of food and I put most of what he had portioned me back on his plate. He growled a bit but accepted the compromise.
While I went about my work Gid went about his which included repairing the fowl runs so that the birds could free range more and save feed. He also relieved the wagon of its load, piling its contents in the foyer until I could find a place for it.
The noonday meal could not come quickly enough for Gid who had been working hard. He was already a man that was whipcord lean with little fat to spare. Mam and the Sisters were always quick to point out that men and growing children were particularly vulnerable to poor nutrition. I knew I would need to make sure he got both protein and fat in sufficient quantities.
To that end I used my sling to bring down a few squirrels. I kept two for Gid and gave the rest of them to the pup and cat who carried them off together. To go with the fried squirrel I sautéed chickweed that I had found not too far from the cabin with a little butter that I had found in the food basket that Gid’s sisters had sent with him. I also poured Gid and I tall glasses of milk from the cow’s morning milking. When I called him to eat the noonday meal the look on his face was worth the effort that I put into setting a table.
I asked him, “I fed the pup and cat. Did I do wrong?”
With his mouth full of chickweed Gid shook his head. He swallowed and said, “No. But don’t spoil them so that they won’t hunt for themselves. Sabrina says her cats and dogs hunt together. I hope these two will take up the habit. And you need to eat more than what you have in that trencher.”
“Gid …”
“Yulee …”
We continued to eat and then I asked what had been on my mind. “Gid, I promise not to run away. May I please look around to see what other plants in addition to yarrow and chickweed I have to work with?”
He gave me a fiery look. “I told you I don’t intend to own you.”
I looked down and nodded. “But you do. I want you to know that I won’t take advantage of that.”
He sighed. “You’re stubborn.” After another brief pause he added, “But I suppose if you weren’t you wouldn’t have survived with that evil heifer for an aunt.” After a moment he said, “Yulee, look at me.” I looked up. “You mentioned that your father taught you both the sling and the bow. I’ve seen you use the sling, can you still use the bow?”
“Some,” I said before admitting “Aunt nearly beat me senseless the last time she caught me with one and she broke one of my fingers on the hand I use to draw with. That was right before … before Jubal got taken by the angels. It’s why I was so long at my chores that night. If I had been faster I would have been there to protect him.”
I sighed. The wound wasn’t old but I was beyond crying about it. Sometimes things just hurt too bad to cry. But apparently Gid didn’t know that as he was just there and holding me and though I went stiff in surprise at first the next moment I just relaxed and let him. It felt good to have someone care, or at least say they did. “I didn’t mean to bring up a bad time Yulee.” It felt strange to be tucked into his arms. I wasn’t sure that I was supposed to want it much less enjoy it the way I was. His next words though changed the directions of my thought. “It would be a helpful thing if you can still use a bow. There are animals in this forest a sling just isn’t good enough for and I can’t stand over you with a gun all day.”
I nodded. “I understand Gid. Do you have a bow? I can make one but it will take me time to find the right wood.”
He pushed me away so he could look down into my face. “You can make bows?”
“Papa said that it was no good knowing how to shoot one if I didn’t know how to take care of it first and I’d only truly appreciate taking care of a bow after I did all the work it took to make one. The community fletcher liked the first one I made so well that he had me help to make the simple bows that the boys were trained on. Papa said work was good for the soul and that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
“Well neither of us are likely to have idle hands until the snow lays deep on the ground. Come. We’ve finished the food so now is as good a time as any to show you the armory.”
I had made trenchers out of the day-old bread that was also in the food basket so there were no dishes to clean, only the spit that I had cooked the squirrels with and the skillet I had used to sauté the chickweed. While I moved them away from the coals, Gid picked up a small coal oil lamp and lit it.
My cleaning had been confined to the first floor and I had barely gotten a glance at the second floor but that was enough to realize I had my work cut out for me. Walking down below stairs was even worse. Gid looked at my carefully neutral face and grinned sheepishly. “Still think any woman would have jumped at the chance to live here?”
“If she had any sense,” I told him seriously. “Yes, there is a great deal of dirt and grime and it will be the work of a season to clean it up properly but I’ve seen no wood rot or killing mold. All of the walls and beams look sound. The doors and windows are hung and properly square and there are no weak places in the floors or stairs. I have seen no signs of damp which says the roof is as sound as the rest of the … er … cabin.”
Gid smiled. “The fields are not the only things that I have been working on for the last couple of years. And Uncle Fid used to keep me hopping with repairs and upkeep as well. He never wanted a woman on a permanent basis but he said since it seemed I did he told me I had the responsibility of having a home to bring her to once I found her.”
I caught myself reading something into the phrase “permanent basis” and quickly turned my attention to what was around me … or at least what I could see by lamp light. Without thinking first I asked, “It doesn’t need to be this dark. Are there any large mirrors upstairs?”
“A few. Why?”
“The Brothers used them below stairs to expand the light of their lamps … oh. I … I … I didn’t mean to criticize Gid.” I knew he wouldn’t hit me for being mouthy but I almost wished he would I felt so bad.
“Don’t do that … don’t cringe Yulee. It bothers me. I’ve already told you I’m not the kind to hit females.”
“I know,” I told him quietly. “That doesn’t mean I should take advantage of your forgiving nature by having a thoughtless mouth. I truly didn’t mean to be impudent.”
I jumped when he put his arm around me. “You weren’t being impudent, just the opposite and I thank you for it. You have any idea how tiring it is being the only one thinking? It’s as bad as being the only one working. And it is more worrisome. In truth I’m a bit irritated but not at you. Someone should have thought to use mirrors down here long before now. They get used in the mines outside the valley all the time to save on candles. There are scones on the wall down here that can be used but that much candle power generates a lot of heat and makes the air smoky and noisome if the wax or oil isn’t good quality.”
I nodded but I reminded myself to be more careful of getting overly familiar with Gid. It wasn’t very respectful on my part and if I knew nothing else of men – both the good ones and the bad – they lived to be respected. “You said you wished to show me your armory.”
“Aye, I did. Come here. Do you use a short bow, a long, or a compound bow?”
“I can use all three but I am best with a flatbow.”
He lifted the lamp and I saw a wall of pegboard that held many different bows, knives, short swords, and other hand to hand weapons. There were three flatbows and I picked the shortest of the three. I didn’t see any strings so out of habit reached into the pocket purse on my waist and pulled out a bow string. “I hid the ones that Wash didn’t find. I think they’ll work with this one.” I followed words with action and then pulled the string.
I let the string go back and shook my head. “I need practice and I need to limber my hand. I felt muscles pulling that I haven’t felt since Papa first taught me, especially in my draw fingers.”
“Can you hit what you’re aiming at?”
“There’s only one way to see.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Well, for no practice that was much better than I expected. You must be quite good when you have the time to limber.”
I shrugged. “Papa was a Guard. He could have asked that the church provide our meat but he said if one of us was capable the meat that the Brothers brought in should go to feed those that couldn’t hunt for themselves. I had no brothers or male cousins so I helped Papa see to our family and that included my grandmother after my grandfather flew away with the angels.”
“No one said anything? We have women in the village that hunt, some that even enjoy hunting, but most prefer to leave it to the men. There are a few females that look down on the ones that hunt.”
“The Sisters learned to tolerate it when they found that I always took the extra that I brought in to the church kitchen. I did the same with fish I caught. Papa said being generous was no skin off our nose and prevented complaints.”
Gid chuckled. “Well, you’ll hear no complaints from me. I’m more than willing to share that duty. There is work enough for us both to get ready for winter. And seeing you shoot also means that I feel better about you roaming around. I would ask that until I can take you further afield and show you the landmarks that you stay within sight of the cabin.”
I told him, “It will be as you say.”
“Very good.”
I gathered the arrows from the target I had used, put them in the quiver I slung over my shoulder, and then took a basket and went into the woods surrounding the cabin to look and see what I could find. Immediately I spotted a veritable Eden of edible plants. The trees alone could sustain a tribe of people if managed carefully.
There were spruce trees dotting the landscape. The Brothers made a kind of unfermented beer that was a treat for Sabbath meals. When I was a small child I liked it better than candy. As I grew and Old Annie gave me lessons I learned that spruce beer helps to prevent scurvy, a great problem in some communities. In the spring time the inner bark of the spruce tree can be collected, dried, and then ground into meal for extending other grain flours.
Then there were the fir trees. The cones from the fir tree can be ground into a fine powder and mixed with lard and then cooled until it hardened. The Sisters would serve this at special meals when we had important guests or were ordaining missionaries to go out into the field. It was considered a delicacy that helped to aid in digestion with the unusually large meals and rich food served at banquets. The inner bark of the balsam fir was just as useful as the same from the spruce tree. It was gathered, dried, and ground to extend flour and meal supplies.
Douglas firs hid another treat. On hot, sunny days we children were allowed to collect and eat the white crystals of sugar that would appear on the needle tips. In our area it happened so rarely that we were given special breaks from school or chores to take advantage of the event. The needles of the Douglas fir can be used as a tea or morning brew though Papa preferred grain and seed based brew.
I spotted a grove of hemlocks and it reminded me that Wash’s head barkeep was partial to an odd meal that his woman had taught me to fix while she was down from birthing a babe. You scrape the inner bark of the trunk and then bake or steam it. When it came out and while it was still warm and soft, it would get pressed into cakes. The man ate this with fish oil most of the time but cranberries when he could get them from the northwest tribes. I tasted it and it filled the belly but glad I was he was so jealous of the mix that letting a female have any was a rare occurrence. Hemlock tea is nice when you can use fresh needles and the small branch tips can be used like a vegetable if they are cooked with meat.
When I stood on a boulder that was likely thrown there during the Dark Days when the volcanoes threw things from the sky for great distances since there was no similar type rock anywhere near to it I could see off in the distance at a lower elevation a forest of pines. I knew from their size that they were either redwood or ponderosa and by the coloring of their bark I was fairly certain they were ponderosa. The cones of the ponderosa give oil-rich seeds that are edible. The seeds can be ground into meal, and we’ve been so short of flour at times that I’ve done it, but most folks dislike the extra work and simply eat the seeds whole.
As lovely as the ponderosa’s looked they brought to mind why Wash always made sure to travel through a forest of them when he could. It was not a good memory. The bar girls made a tea from chopped needles and drank it when they thought they might be with babe so that they’d lose it. The truth of the matter is that they doctored themselves with it about once a month just to be sure. Wash forbid it being more than once a month when he lost a girl ‘cause she poisoned herself by drinking too much of the pine tea. With the ponderosa that is an easy thing to do. Even cows will abort their calves if they eat ponderosa or so the cattle drivers claimed.
Closer to the trail I was walking around the homesite I found birch trees. Just like with many other trees, the sweet inner bark could be ground into a powder to make a type of bread. But with the birch you could also add it to soups or stews as a kind of filler. The young leaves and catkins of the tree can be added for flavoring to salads, cooked vegetables, and meat dishes. The most common use of the tree however was to collect the sap during the early spring when it warmed during the day but still froze at night, and then boil that to make a syrup. We did the same when I was a child but we used maple trees. Birch syrup and maple syrup taste similar yet different and both are sweet. The few times I had seen birch syrup being made it seemed to take much more sap to make a syrup than what I remember of the maple. It was a pricey item in the Buy ‘n Sells and one Aunt Giselle refused to spend her coins on because she said it was rich man’s fare and generally only traded at places we couldn’t gain admittance to.
On a piece of escarpment in a different direction from the ponderosas I saw aspen trees. Even so far away I knew it was aspens from the white and silver color of the tree bark. The slum kids could strip a grove of aspens quicker than you would believe. They tear out the inner bark and eat it raw. And the older ones taught the younger to eat the leaf buds and young catkins as they would keep away the dreaded scurvy. I’d tried it myself once and could barely bring myself to swallow because of the bitter taste. Had I been starving I would have forced myself, but only if nothing else was available.
As I walked the land, staying in sight of the cabin, I tried to put to memory all I was seeing. I knew that Gid wanted me to be a thinking slave; he’d all but said so when we’d been below stairs, and I was determined not to disappoint him. Using the old names of the months rather than just calling seasons, we were into July. The nights grew cool in the foothills and I know for many it was time to turn their hands to preparing for harvest time. My problem was that as a traveler rather than as a steady resident, I was unsure of what and when there was to harvest in the area that the cabin was in. As far as I could remember it was not an area that Wash had ever followed the caravans into.
I recognized many plants but I did not know how long I would have access to the fresh greens and I was not sure what in this area could be set aside for the cold months. Just then I spotted fresh mulie scat. The hooves showed several of good size and the greenery in the tracks was trying to spring back up so I knew they could not be far off as I hadn’t heard anything running in the brush that surrounded me on all sides. I began to carefully track what would give us good meat and was practically on top of them before I expected to be. Their white rumps faced me and the wind was just right; they had no idea I had them in my sight.
Then it happened. Less than half a breath after I released my arrow a powerful beast leapt from the tree above the deer.
“Well, for no practice that was much better than I expected. You must be quite good when you have the time to limber.”
I shrugged. “Papa was a Guard. He could have asked that the church provide our meat but he said if one of us was capable the meat that the Brothers brought in should go to feed those that couldn’t hunt for themselves. I had no brothers or male cousins so I helped Papa see to our family and that included my grandmother after my grandfather flew away with the angels.”
“No one said anything? We have women in the village that hunt, some that even enjoy hunting, but most prefer to leave it to the men. There are a few females that look down on the ones that hunt.”
“The Sisters learned to tolerate it when they found that I always took the extra that I brought in to the church kitchen. I did the same with fish I caught. Papa said being generous was no skin off our nose and prevented complaints.”
Gid chuckled. “Well, you’ll hear no complaints from me. I’m more than willing to share that duty. There is work enough for us both to get ready for winter. And seeing you shoot also means that I feel better about you roaming around. I would ask that until I can take you further afield and show you the landmarks that you stay within sight of the cabin.”
I told him, “It will be as you say.”
“Very good.”
I gathered the arrows from the target I had used, put them in the quiver I slung over my shoulder, and then took a basket and went into the woods surrounding the cabin to look and see what I could find. Immediately I spotted a veritable Eden of edible plants. The trees alone could sustain a tribe of people if managed carefully.
There were spruce trees dotting the landscape. The Brothers made a kind of unfermented beer that was a treat for Sabbath meals. When I was a small child I liked it better than candy. As I grew and Old Annie gave me lessons I learned that spruce beer helps to prevent scurvy, a great problem in some communities. In the spring time the inner bark of the spruce tree can be collected, dried, and then ground into meal for extending other grain flours.
Then there were the fir trees. The cones from the fir tree can be ground into a fine powder and mixed with lard and then cooled until it hardened. The Sisters would serve this at special meals when we had important guests or were ordaining missionaries to go out into the field. It was considered a delicacy that helped to aid in digestion with the unusually large meals and rich food served at banquets. The inner bark of the balsam fir was just as useful as the same from the spruce tree. It was gathered, dried, and ground to extend flour and meal supplies.
Douglas firs hid another treat. On hot, sunny days we children were allowed to collect and eat the white crystals of sugar that would appear on the needle tips. In our area it happened so rarely that we were given special breaks from school or chores to take advantage of the event. The needles of the Douglas fir can be used as a tea or morning brew though Papa preferred grain and seed based brew.
I spotted a grove of hemlocks and it reminded me that Wash’s head barkeep was partial to an odd meal that his woman had taught me to fix while she was down from birthing a babe. You scrape the inner bark of the trunk and then bake or steam it. When it came out and while it was still warm and soft, it would get pressed into cakes. The man ate this with fish oil most of the time but cranberries when he could get them from the northwest tribes. I tasted it and it filled the belly but glad I was he was so jealous of the mix that letting a female have any was a rare occurrence. Hemlock tea is nice when you can use fresh needles and the small branch tips can be used like a vegetable if they are cooked with meat.
When I stood on a boulder that was likely thrown there during the Dark Days when the volcanoes threw things from the sky for great distances since there was no similar type rock anywhere near to it I could see off in the distance at a lower elevation a forest of pines. I knew from their size that they were either redwood or ponderosa and by the coloring of their bark I was fairly certain they were ponderosa. The cones of the ponderosa give oil-rich seeds that are edible. The seeds can be ground into meal, and we’ve been so short of flour at times that I’ve done it, but most folks dislike the extra work and simply eat the seeds whole.
As lovely as the ponderosa’s looked they brought to mind why Wash always made sure to travel through a forest of them when he could. It was not a good memory. The bar girls made a tea from chopped needles and drank it when they thought they might be with babe so that they’d lose it. The truth of the matter is that they doctored themselves with it about once a month just to be sure. Wash forbid it being more than once a month when he lost a girl ‘cause she poisoned herself by drinking too much of the pine tea. With the ponderosa that is an easy thing to do. Even cows will abort their calves if they eat ponderosa or so the cattle drivers claimed.
Closer to the trail I was walking around the homesite I found birch trees. Just like with many other trees, the sweet inner bark could be ground into a powder to make a type of bread. But with the birch you could also add it to soups or stews as a kind of filler. The young leaves and catkins of the tree can be added for flavoring to salads, cooked vegetables, and meat dishes. The most common use of the tree however was to collect the sap during the early spring when it warmed during the day but still froze at night, and then boil that to make a syrup. We did the same when I was a child but we used maple trees. Birch syrup and maple syrup taste similar yet different and both are sweet. The few times I had seen birch syrup being made it seemed to take much more sap to make a syrup than what I remember of the maple. It was a pricey item in the Buy ‘n Sells and one Aunt Giselle refused to spend her coins on because she said it was rich man’s fare and generally only traded at places we couldn’t gain admittance to.
On a piece of escarpment in a different direction from the ponderosas I saw aspen trees. Even so far away I knew it was aspens from the white and silver color of the tree bark. The slum kids could strip a grove of aspens quicker than you would believe. They tear out the inner bark and eat it raw. And the older ones taught the younger to eat the leaf buds and young catkins as they would keep away the dreaded scurvy. I’d tried it myself once and could barely bring myself to swallow because of the bitter taste. Had I been starving I would have forced myself, but only if nothing else was available.
As I walked the land, staying in sight of the cabin, I tried to put to memory all I was seeing. I knew that Gid wanted me to be a thinking slave; he’d all but said so when we’d been below stairs, and I was determined not to disappoint him. Using the old names of the months rather than just calling seasons, we were into July. The nights grew cool in the foothills and I know for many it was time to turn their hands to preparing for harvest time. My problem was that as a traveler rather than as a steady resident, I was unsure of what and when there was to harvest in the area that the cabin was in. As far as I could remember it was not an area that Wash had ever followed the caravans into.
I recognized many plants but I did not know how long I would have access to the fresh greens and I was not sure what in this area could be set aside for the cold months. Just then I spotted fresh mulie scat. The hooves showed several of good size and the greenery in the tracks was trying to spring back up so I knew they could not be far off as I hadn’t heard anything running in the brush that surrounded me on all sides. I began to carefully track what would give us good meat and was practically on top of them before I expected to be. Their white rumps faced me and the wind was just right; they had no idea I had them in my sight.
Then it happened. Less than half a breath after I released my arrow a powerful beast leapt from the tree above the deer.
Chapter Twenty
I am not a screamer. Screaming rarely does any good and often just makes a situation worse. But I had drawn breath and was ready to shriek before my commonsense stopped me. The cat had already broken the neck of one mulie and was eyeing the deer that I had brought down with my arrow.
It was sniffing the air and I saw its lip rise in a snarl as it turned in my direction. I was slowly trying to fit another arrow but then I was pushed to the ground and there was a blast. I came up prepared to fight with the stone knife in my hand I had been using to cut plants to put into my basket.
Seeing who I faced I dropped the knife in shock and ducked. “Easy Yulee. Did the cat …?”
I whispered, “Please Gid. I’m sorry. I … I … the knife … I didn’t know it was you … I swear it …”
Gid sighed resignedly, “All I care about is whether the cat hurt you. But you’d do me fair amount of good if you could bring yourself to stop that dem cringing.”
I peeked at the strange man in front of me who still stood with his gun aimed at the big cat. I shook my head and told him, “You’re like my father. It’ll take some getting used to. I never thought to meet another like him. I’ll … I’ll try and do as you bid me.”
“Good. Now for the last time …”
“That cat never came near me. It was thinking about it but you never gave it a chance to act.”
“Stay here,” he ordered roughly before going close to make sure the big cat was truly dead. “Jaguar. Haven’t had one in this area in years. They usually stay well to the south of us.”
“I’ve never seen a spotted cat this size before. You say it is called a jug where?”
“A jag-u-ar … jaguar. According to Uncle Fid you used to only see this kind of big cat down in Mexi territory. Then during the Dark Days and all that came after, many animals moved their territories fighting to survive the changes the war wrought, same as man was fighting to survive. Some moved in here but my great grandfather and his brothers hunted them until they were gone. Uncle Fid said there were a couple around when I was a boy but I never saw them. Something must’ve happened to push ‘em back up this way.”
I nodded. “I … well …”
“Spit it out,” Gid said as he took a rope off his belt and started to string the jaguar and the two deer into a tree.
“The drought. Maybe its prey moved out of where it used to live and it was looking for new hunting grounds.”
Not the least affronted Gid nodded, “Likely as anything else and likelier than most.” He cut the animals so that the blood could drain and finally turned and came over to me and wrapped me in his arms.
Surprised I looked up into his face. “Did … did I do wrong by trying to take the deer?”
“No.” He sighed and set me from him. “It was a good shot. I’d been tracking you, coming to ask if you wanted a walk to the stream when I noticed you’d started to track something yourself. You step awful light and I lost you for a moment or I would have been here sooner.” He shook his head. “I saw you fight back the scream and then saw what had scared you. That arrow might have worked on a mountain lion but it wouldn’t have on that jaguar.” He shook his head again. “You sure you’re ok?”
I looked at him in surprise. “Why shouldn’t I be? You’re here.”
I hadn’t meant anything beyond what I was thinking but he gave me a deep look and then backed me against a tree. “Gid?”
All he did was grunt as he started putting his hands where he was want to put them whether it was daytime or dark. He wasn’t rough but I was shaking by the time he stopped. He muttered, “Wish there was time for more but I need to get this meat back to the cabin. Will you wait here while I go back and get Rook?” I nodded, unable to look at him. He continued, “We’ll be the rest of the day dealing with the two deer and skinning the cat.”
“You … you don’t eat the … the jaguars?” I asked, thinking back on some of the cats that Wash had made me cook.
“Not this one. It has a festering sour on a rear leg. You probably didn’t see it … I didn’t until I strung it up. That’s why I hung it on a different branch than the deer. The fur is still good though and it will bring a good price in a trade unless I make it into a coat for you.”
“Oh … oh there’s no need,” I started to say, worried that I was making work for him.
He swooped in and stole my breath with another of the strange kisses that he seemed to enjoy giving and then said, “There’s every need but you’d stand out and I don’t wish to see some hunter go after you all for the sake of my vanity. We’ll get you a warm cloak but that spotted fur might …”
“If it’ll bring more in a trade then use it for that.”
He grunted but would only say, “We’ll see.” And with that he was off to get Rook. I knew he wouldn’t want me wandering far so I looked to see what else I could see to keep my mind from dwelling on the three carcasses swaying slightly as they hung well above the ground.
I was practically on top of them before I figured out what I was seeing … currants. They were just beginning to ripen and were the black kind and I was so excited to find them. Aunt Giselle had bought and sold dried currants by the pound when she could get them as they were favorites of both cooks and brewers; I’d just never seen very many fresh ones. Usually all I handled were dried currants.
I had a cloth full of the dark berries by the time Gid came back. He whistled for me and I startled Rook by appearing almost beneath his nose. “There you are,” Gid said gruffly. “Thought you’d gone off by yourself.”
I shook my head and told him quietly, “I’d not misbehave for you like that Gid.”
“No, suppose not. And don’t look so downcast. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings over it.”
“You didn’t. I just don’t want to do anything to make you think I’d do you that way.”
He sighed. “We’ll work on it; you not being so skittish and always worrying you’ll make me mad and I’ll try and learn I don’t have to watch you every second. Why don’t you go back to your berrying and let me get to work.”
“Don’t you want me to do something useful?”
“You’re already doing something useful,” he said with a wink. “I’m partial to sweets like them oat cakes you made on the trail.”
I was never sure what to make of Gid when he was like this. “I mean the mulies. Don’t you want me to do something useful with the mulies.”
He’d already gone to work on the first deer and said, “You’ll help at the cabin. I’ll whistle when I’m ready to head back.”
I knew I only had about thirty minutes so I continued picking currants but also noted the sound of water nearby. Hesitantly since I wasn’t sure he would appreciate the interruption I asked, “Gid?”
“Hmm?”
“What water is that? The water that I can hear from here?”
“That’s the stream. It’s a little higher than normal but further down there are a couple of real quiet pools. Some of those further up as well. Uncle Fid and I would go fishing in those pools when there was time. Late in the fall there’s a bit of water not too far where we can get what the locals call kokanee salmon.”
Startled I spoke before thinking. “The water goes to the ‘Cific?!”
I tried not to cringe but it was hard to break such an ingrained habit. Gid made no comment if he saw and instead asked me, “You know what kokanee is?”
“I … I know what salmon is. There’s a people group that some call the Klamath. That’s the name used for an ancient tribe of people but these Klamath take the name from a place that used to exist on the old west coast of the country. The Bards from that area say that the new Klamath descended from survivors from the years of the volcanoes and quakes. I’ve seen a few but their group is small and sickly because they lived too close to a corrupted place in the beginning and the sickness got into their blood and travels down to their children, when they have any. They are shunned for everything but their salmon trade.”
“Why’s that?”
Thinking back to what I had heard I answered, “Their children are born deformed about a quarter of the time. Those that live have a hard life and it makes them … different beyond what shows on the outside. They have no fear of death, even welcome it when it is their time. So because they have no fear they walk into the dangerous areas to fish for the salmon and even take it from the giant grizzles. It makes people … envious and then angry that they are envious of such a corrupted people.”
Ignoring the last part Gid asked me, “Grizzles? You mean grizzlies?”
I nodded. “Grizzles. Giant, mean tempered bears. I … I’ll try and remember to call them by your word for them from now on.”
“Hmm. Grizzles, grizzlies, doesn’t matter so long as we understand each other. We get ‘em around here a few times a year. I expect to have more trouble with ‘em due to the livestock. But might be able to take advantage of that. One of those ol’ bears will make a fine bed cover for winter … or a rug for a babe to roll about on.”
I nearly dropped the basket I carried. “Gid?”
“Hmm?”
“Uh … never mind.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at me and I quickly got back to pulling currants but I couldn’t hide my red face. Gid chuckled. “You might as well get used to the idea Yulee. If I’m half as fertile as my father we’ll have this place full of sprats before I’ve even got my first gray hair … and sure my dad had a head full of gray and was still banging them out.”
I could barely breathe for all the red in my face. I managed to whisper, “You’d … you’d want babes? From me?”
“From who else?”
He asked so casually and had returned to dressing the carcasses that I dared to stand up straight and look over at him. I had nothing to say. I only seemed to want to look at him. He glanced at me and saw me looking at me and smiled. My face felt odd again as it did on occasion with him. I reached up and my skin was cool to the touch but I realized my lips were smiling. Then I did have to tuck my face and look away. Gid just laughed a manly laugh and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep my composure.
I am not a screamer. Screaming rarely does any good and often just makes a situation worse. But I had drawn breath and was ready to shriek before my commonsense stopped me. The cat had already broken the neck of one mulie and was eyeing the deer that I had brought down with my arrow.
It was sniffing the air and I saw its lip rise in a snarl as it turned in my direction. I was slowly trying to fit another arrow but then I was pushed to the ground and there was a blast. I came up prepared to fight with the stone knife in my hand I had been using to cut plants to put into my basket.
Seeing who I faced I dropped the knife in shock and ducked. “Easy Yulee. Did the cat …?”
I whispered, “Please Gid. I’m sorry. I … I … the knife … I didn’t know it was you … I swear it …”
Gid sighed resignedly, “All I care about is whether the cat hurt you. But you’d do me fair amount of good if you could bring yourself to stop that dem cringing.”
I peeked at the strange man in front of me who still stood with his gun aimed at the big cat. I shook my head and told him, “You’re like my father. It’ll take some getting used to. I never thought to meet another like him. I’ll … I’ll try and do as you bid me.”
“Good. Now for the last time …”
“That cat never came near me. It was thinking about it but you never gave it a chance to act.”
“Stay here,” he ordered roughly before going close to make sure the big cat was truly dead. “Jaguar. Haven’t had one in this area in years. They usually stay well to the south of us.”
“I’ve never seen a spotted cat this size before. You say it is called a jug where?”
“A jag-u-ar … jaguar. According to Uncle Fid you used to only see this kind of big cat down in Mexi territory. Then during the Dark Days and all that came after, many animals moved their territories fighting to survive the changes the war wrought, same as man was fighting to survive. Some moved in here but my great grandfather and his brothers hunted them until they were gone. Uncle Fid said there were a couple around when I was a boy but I never saw them. Something must’ve happened to push ‘em back up this way.”
I nodded. “I … well …”
“Spit it out,” Gid said as he took a rope off his belt and started to string the jaguar and the two deer into a tree.
“The drought. Maybe its prey moved out of where it used to live and it was looking for new hunting grounds.”
Not the least affronted Gid nodded, “Likely as anything else and likelier than most.” He cut the animals so that the blood could drain and finally turned and came over to me and wrapped me in his arms.
Surprised I looked up into his face. “Did … did I do wrong by trying to take the deer?”
“No.” He sighed and set me from him. “It was a good shot. I’d been tracking you, coming to ask if you wanted a walk to the stream when I noticed you’d started to track something yourself. You step awful light and I lost you for a moment or I would have been here sooner.” He shook his head. “I saw you fight back the scream and then saw what had scared you. That arrow might have worked on a mountain lion but it wouldn’t have on that jaguar.” He shook his head again. “You sure you’re ok?”
I looked at him in surprise. “Why shouldn’t I be? You’re here.”
I hadn’t meant anything beyond what I was thinking but he gave me a deep look and then backed me against a tree. “Gid?”
All he did was grunt as he started putting his hands where he was want to put them whether it was daytime or dark. He wasn’t rough but I was shaking by the time he stopped. He muttered, “Wish there was time for more but I need to get this meat back to the cabin. Will you wait here while I go back and get Rook?” I nodded, unable to look at him. He continued, “We’ll be the rest of the day dealing with the two deer and skinning the cat.”
“You … you don’t eat the … the jaguars?” I asked, thinking back on some of the cats that Wash had made me cook.
“Not this one. It has a festering sour on a rear leg. You probably didn’t see it … I didn’t until I strung it up. That’s why I hung it on a different branch than the deer. The fur is still good though and it will bring a good price in a trade unless I make it into a coat for you.”
“Oh … oh there’s no need,” I started to say, worried that I was making work for him.
He swooped in and stole my breath with another of the strange kisses that he seemed to enjoy giving and then said, “There’s every need but you’d stand out and I don’t wish to see some hunter go after you all for the sake of my vanity. We’ll get you a warm cloak but that spotted fur might …”
“If it’ll bring more in a trade then use it for that.”
He grunted but would only say, “We’ll see.” And with that he was off to get Rook. I knew he wouldn’t want me wandering far so I looked to see what else I could see to keep my mind from dwelling on the three carcasses swaying slightly as they hung well above the ground.
I was practically on top of them before I figured out what I was seeing … currants. They were just beginning to ripen and were the black kind and I was so excited to find them. Aunt Giselle had bought and sold dried currants by the pound when she could get them as they were favorites of both cooks and brewers; I’d just never seen very many fresh ones. Usually all I handled were dried currants.
I had a cloth full of the dark berries by the time Gid came back. He whistled for me and I startled Rook by appearing almost beneath his nose. “There you are,” Gid said gruffly. “Thought you’d gone off by yourself.”
I shook my head and told him quietly, “I’d not misbehave for you like that Gid.”
“No, suppose not. And don’t look so downcast. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings over it.”
“You didn’t. I just don’t want to do anything to make you think I’d do you that way.”
He sighed. “We’ll work on it; you not being so skittish and always worrying you’ll make me mad and I’ll try and learn I don’t have to watch you every second. Why don’t you go back to your berrying and let me get to work.”
“Don’t you want me to do something useful?”
“You’re already doing something useful,” he said with a wink. “I’m partial to sweets like them oat cakes you made on the trail.”
I was never sure what to make of Gid when he was like this. “I mean the mulies. Don’t you want me to do something useful with the mulies.”
He’d already gone to work on the first deer and said, “You’ll help at the cabin. I’ll whistle when I’m ready to head back.”
I knew I only had about thirty minutes so I continued picking currants but also noted the sound of water nearby. Hesitantly since I wasn’t sure he would appreciate the interruption I asked, “Gid?”
“Hmm?”
“What water is that? The water that I can hear from here?”
“That’s the stream. It’s a little higher than normal but further down there are a couple of real quiet pools. Some of those further up as well. Uncle Fid and I would go fishing in those pools when there was time. Late in the fall there’s a bit of water not too far where we can get what the locals call kokanee salmon.”
Startled I spoke before thinking. “The water goes to the ‘Cific?!”
I tried not to cringe but it was hard to break such an ingrained habit. Gid made no comment if he saw and instead asked me, “You know what kokanee is?”
“I … I know what salmon is. There’s a people group that some call the Klamath. That’s the name used for an ancient tribe of people but these Klamath take the name from a place that used to exist on the old west coast of the country. The Bards from that area say that the new Klamath descended from survivors from the years of the volcanoes and quakes. I’ve seen a few but their group is small and sickly because they lived too close to a corrupted place in the beginning and the sickness got into their blood and travels down to their children, when they have any. They are shunned for everything but their salmon trade.”
“Why’s that?”
Thinking back to what I had heard I answered, “Their children are born deformed about a quarter of the time. Those that live have a hard life and it makes them … different beyond what shows on the outside. They have no fear of death, even welcome it when it is their time. So because they have no fear they walk into the dangerous areas to fish for the salmon and even take it from the giant grizzles. It makes people … envious and then angry that they are envious of such a corrupted people.”
Ignoring the last part Gid asked me, “Grizzles? You mean grizzlies?”
I nodded. “Grizzles. Giant, mean tempered bears. I … I’ll try and remember to call them by your word for them from now on.”
“Hmm. Grizzles, grizzlies, doesn’t matter so long as we understand each other. We get ‘em around here a few times a year. I expect to have more trouble with ‘em due to the livestock. But might be able to take advantage of that. One of those ol’ bears will make a fine bed cover for winter … or a rug for a babe to roll about on.”
I nearly dropped the basket I carried. “Gid?”
“Hmm?”
“Uh … never mind.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at me and I quickly got back to pulling currants but I couldn’t hide my red face. Gid chuckled. “You might as well get used to the idea Yulee. If I’m half as fertile as my father we’ll have this place full of sprats before I’ve even got my first gray hair … and sure my dad had a head full of gray and was still banging them out.”
I could barely breathe for all the red in my face. I managed to whisper, “You’d … you’d want babes? From me?”
“From who else?”
He asked so casually and had returned to dressing the carcasses that I dared to stand up straight and look over at him. I had nothing to say. I only seemed to want to look at him. He glanced at me and saw me looking at me and smiled. My face felt odd again as it did on occasion with him. I reached up and my skin was cool to the touch but I realized my lips were smiling. Then I did have to tuck my face and look away. Gid just laughed a manly laugh and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep my composure.
Chapter Twenty-One
SPLASH!!
“Gid!” I sputtered when I came up from under the water.
He just laughed. “Well, there’s no sense in wasting the opportunity a tub full of hot water presents us with. We can wash each other’s backs in a bit. First though …”
I had been wrapped in a drying sheet waiting my turn in the tub while my clothes soaked in another tub to get the blood out of them where it had soaked through the old leather apron I was wearing. With both of us working we managed to cut the two deer all into good strips for smoking and hang them in a sturdy stone shed built for the job. Gid was even bloodier than I since he did most of the butchering. I heated water for his bath and after he got in he’d claimed the water chilly. I had just poured in another bucket of warm water when without warning he’d snatched off the sheet I was wearing and pulled me into the tub with him. I was mortified but he wouldn’t let me stay that way. In short order he had me distracted and we were in danger of dumping water on the floor.
After a bit I shivered despite the wash water still being warm. He pulled me closer if possible and it only made me shiver more. Playing with an errant curl that had escaped the twist I had put my braid in he said, “You’ll get used to me Yulee. I’m just a man with appetites. Runs in the family on my father’s side. Thought I was more like Uncle Fid but I’m learning that I just didn’t have the right scope – or incentive,” he said with a toothy grin at me. “To explore that part of myself. Now I’ve got you … well … “ Then he left me shivering some more and by the time he’d finished the water had grown cold and we were both shivering for real.
In the night I woke up crying. “Are you sick Yulee? Did I hurt you?”
I shook my head and wiped at the wet tracks on my face mystified at their presence. “I haven’t shed a tear since the plague. Not even when …”
I shook my head and tried to apologize and tell him to go back to sleep. “We both will but there’s a story here and I’ll have it out of you. Now.”
When Gid took that tone I knew it would be easier on us both if I simply told it. “I didn’t even cry when the angels took Jubal or Old Annie. Aunt Giselle said if I did that she’d simply leave their bodies for the carrion eaters. I know they weren’t in those shells but I … I …”
Angrily Gid snapped, “More I hear about that evil heifer …” He pulled me to him and laid us both down. “You don’t have anything to fear from her anymore. Maybe your dreams know that even if your waking self can’t believe it yet and they are letting you do what you missed out on. Even if that’s not it though, don’t keep it locked away from me. If you really think God sent me to rescue you, don’t you think he means for me to do a proper job of it?” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that but I didn’t need to as he was turning me so that we fit together like spoons in the utensil box and soon enough we were both asleep once again.
I was embarrassed in the morning to wake up only to find him easing back into bed. “Oh! Gid! I swear I’ll have your morning meal …”
“Already grabbed a mug of broth off them beans you set to cook last night on the coals in the fireplace. Milk has been strained and put in the pantry and when we get up I want to see you drink a goodly bit of that before you take the cream out of it.” He startled a sharp breath from me when he ran his hands over me and said, “I can fill the sharp edges of your bones.” Then he moved his hands again then growled in my ear, “I want to see you soft and round like these bits here.”
I just held on and let him have his way. In truth it brought me comfort to know he found pleasure in me and wanted … something though I wasn’t sure what to name it. But that comfort in his pleasuring brought me guilt. I was glad that Gid hadn’t asked me what my dream had been about during the night. I didn’t know how to lie to him and didn’t want to learn how.
At some point I’d been gliding in the air. It’s the kind of feeling that tells you it’s just a dream but the telling isn’t enough to wake you up so you set out to enjoy the sensation expecting just to fall back to sleep all the way. But I didn’t and the dream took over and then I started to wonder if it was really just a plain dream or one of those waking ones I sometimes had that told me things I didn’t always want to know.
I realized I was gliding because a great black bird had me. I could feel his talons digging into my shoulders but all I could do was hang there limply because any time I moved he or his mate would peck me. Each peck grew harder and I knew if I wasn’t still they’d use their beaks to take my eyes and tongue the way Aunt Giselle had always threatened. Then we were plummeting to the ground and the giant bird released me and I fell the rest of the way, rolled, and fetched up against a pitted and scarred stone monolith of some unknown purpose left over from before the Dark Days.
I was cut up pretty bad and could barely sit up. When I finally managed it I saw shadows all around me. When I looked up and saw what the shadows belonged to I nearly screamed. It was the Sisters … all those that had died. Their faces were pock marked and oozing just like they had been before they were carted off to the dying room where from what I heard it became even worse. Each Sister had a stone and on each stone was written an evil thought I’d had for the murdering I’d had in my heart. They took those stones and threw them at my feet. “Guardsdaughter, why do you betray your upbringing. Did we not teach you better than this?”
“God took me away from those,” I cried. “He sent Gid to save me.”
“Not those,” they said pointing to the stones. “These.” Then they hefted stone tablets that somehow showed scenes of Gid and I.
I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that! Those pictures are wrong!”
“Are you saying you have not engaged in temptations of the flesh?!”
“No. I mean yes. But not like it shows in … not that … that debauchery! It wasn’t like that! Gid means to keep me! He does!! He even talks of babes!”
But it was like they didn’t hear me. Then one of the Sisters - and for some strange reason I couldn’t recognize her - grabbed me by the hair and forced me to watch as the pictures on the stones changed and grew worse and worse. And then they started showing pictures of Father and Mam all pocked and oozing and noisome and pointing at me saying it was my fault that they’d died. Pictures of me cutting Jubal out of Mam’s body only instead of crying I was cackling like a mad woman. Pictures of Jubal staring sightlessly while rain fell into his unblinking eyes and … stuff … oozed from the back of his head yet I could hear his baby voice screaming from someplace that I should have been there to stop it from happening. Pictures of Old Annie wreathing in pain as the poison took her, swelled her up, turned her black until she gasped for each breath, and with each breath she told me she’d always known I’d be the death of the family, that I’d been born with a caul over my face as an evil omen. Pictures of Aunt Giselle refusing to give me my pack so that I could not even ease Old Annie’s passing or hurry it up. Pictures of me cutting myself because if I didn’t I was going to cut Aunt Giselle’s throat and the blood that welled up from the cuts was like black ichor, poisonous to all it touched. All the while the pictures played across the tablets the Sisters called me horrible, vile names.
That’s when Gid woke me. I know the difference between a nightmare and a waking dream and what I had was a nightmare … but it was different from a regular nightmare. It was like something was attacking me. And Gid had rescued me again by waking me up when I couldn’t wake myself up.
But for all I was learning to trust him that was a dream that I could not share … not with him, not with anyone. To voice it was to give it more power. So I took it to God and he eased me so that I could sleep. But in the light of day and with Gid … well doing as Gid pleased … I caught myself turning the dream over and thinking on it once again.
Gid looked at me afterwards and asked, “Yulee, why does your mind go so far away? Do you … do you dislike my touch?”
He was running his hands gently over places that liked it. “No,” I told him honestly.
“If you don’t dislike it … then … is it … does it not … pleasure you?”
I shivered. “You ask so many questions.”
“And I like to have the ones I ask answered.”
There was a bit of steel running through those words and I shivered again. “Gid may I ask you … may I ask you …”
“Spit it out woman. And none of that cringing either.”
I sighed. “I’m confused Gid. I … I know you bought me because you needed a woman.” I felt him start to stiffen up. “Please Gid, let me get this all out before I … before I fall to cowardliness.”
“Hmmm.”
Drawing a deep breath I tried to say it all. “I know you bought me with a purpose. I thought I … I thought I understood it. I … thought I could live and be grateful for your rescue. But you’ve … you’ve turned … I mean … you say things, things I never expected to hear for my own. You said you bought me but you don’t mean to own me. You … you cared for me after the ants, when I couldn’t breathe. You … you make me feel … oh Gid, you make me feel safe when I’d forgotten what that felt like. And then you bring me to this – your home only you say it is our home. And then yesterday, you spoke of babes as if … as if you really wanted them … wanted them with me; like it was silly for me to ask if you meant with me.” I hugged myself and once again shivered even though the day had warmed and we were still under the covers. “I don’t understand Gid. I … I want to understand … but I’m so afraid only I promised myself I wouldn’t be. I figured it didn’t matter who or what the man was that bought me; that I’d live and do his bidding and be grateful no matter what. And if you’d been … well … not like you are I could have gone right on with my gratefulness and not felt a bit of guilt for any of it because that would have been all it was. Only you are you and … and … and being grateful is hard to live with. ‘Cause … oh Sisters forgive me … ‘cause I want more. I want … I want to believe what you’ve been saying and not … and not be afraid anymore that I’m misunderstanding your words. I want to feel your pleasuring and not … not feel like … like … like I shouldn’t feel what I do.”
I was feeling as out of breath as I had after the ants had bitten me. I wanted to say more. I was desperate to understand and have him understand as well. “Please don’t be mad Gid. I don’t mean to be bad.”
Rather than anger, rather than a tongue lashing for I did trust him not to hit, rather than any other thing he sat us both up and I had to grab the sheet but he took it from me. I was aghast. There we both sat, uncovered as babes.
“Now. There’s nothing between us. Nothing to hide behind. So look at me Yulee. You’ve been treated so rough I knew we’d need to go over this road more than once. Same way you know I need to know you’ll mind me and respect me and you set out to prove it can be so. But this thing … your fear … I’m going to put a period on it. Dig a grave and shove it in and cover it over then set a great big stone over it. I’ve already told you I won’t share you. I’ve already told you that you’re mine. You believe those things?”
I quickly nodded my head.
“Good. But I think your problem is that you don’t understand what I mean when I say you’re mine. First off I’ll kill any man that thinks I’ll share you … or tries to take you from me. It’s just that simple. Second, Creator willing I mean to put a babe in you. I’ve already grown partial to the idea of seeing you with a big belly and knowing I made it happen. I remember my father saying much the same but I never understood it ‘til now. But it doesn’t have to be right this day or even this season. Fact is I don’t mind it being just the two of us here in the beginning. Plus you need to put some roundness back into your body so that carrying a babe in your belly isn’t hurtful. If it is like it was for my father, once I start planting seeds you’ll be harvesting babes every year from here on out til your seasons are done.”
I could feel the heat come over my whole body. For a man he was awful free with his talk of babies and birthing and the things of a woman’s body. “Lastly, I’m gonna do my best to make sure we’re together to watch our children have children. I know that doesn’t always happen but I mean to work on it like I believe it will. I’ve a feeling that we’ve got a good life ahead of us Yulee. I’m not saying there won’t be trying times but … you’ve already eased me woman. I sleep better. I’m eating better. I’m not forever having to battle for a jot of brew or a scrap of food, you fill my plate and mug first as if it is just the way things should be. You make my plans feel possible … things I’ve always wanted. You aren’t a nag. You fell in with my plans to live outside the wall like it was a natural thing to want rather than a perverted one. That most of all is what tells me you’re the woman for me. We fit Yulee. I mean to see that we stay fit to each other and no others. So if you’re afraid of feeling ‘cause you think I’m gonna to send you off or throw you over then you’re loopy. It was too providential me finding you, I ain’t gonna risk having to go through all of that again and likely wind up with something less than I got in my hands right now.”
Maybe his words weren’t Shakespearean but they were words I could understand and believe. I launched myself into his arms with such enthusiasm that I nearly knocked us out of the bed and onto the floor. “Whoa woman!” he laughed in surprise. But he was not averse to using my enthusiasm for something he obviously enjoyed. It was midafternoon before we finally quit the bed and got dressed. There was only enough time to take care of necessary chores and see to the animals. We were both starving by the time I put the evening meal on the table and it was soon consumed. Then after a few last things were taken care of, including tiring the pup and furball out with some play so they would leave us be, we were back to bed; but it wasn’t the desperate and hectic time it had been during the day. As the sun set and coolness enveloped the cabin we simply held each other cementing a mutual bond with a common goal.
SPLASH!!
“Gid!” I sputtered when I came up from under the water.
He just laughed. “Well, there’s no sense in wasting the opportunity a tub full of hot water presents us with. We can wash each other’s backs in a bit. First though …”
I had been wrapped in a drying sheet waiting my turn in the tub while my clothes soaked in another tub to get the blood out of them where it had soaked through the old leather apron I was wearing. With both of us working we managed to cut the two deer all into good strips for smoking and hang them in a sturdy stone shed built for the job. Gid was even bloodier than I since he did most of the butchering. I heated water for his bath and after he got in he’d claimed the water chilly. I had just poured in another bucket of warm water when without warning he’d snatched off the sheet I was wearing and pulled me into the tub with him. I was mortified but he wouldn’t let me stay that way. In short order he had me distracted and we were in danger of dumping water on the floor.
After a bit I shivered despite the wash water still being warm. He pulled me closer if possible and it only made me shiver more. Playing with an errant curl that had escaped the twist I had put my braid in he said, “You’ll get used to me Yulee. I’m just a man with appetites. Runs in the family on my father’s side. Thought I was more like Uncle Fid but I’m learning that I just didn’t have the right scope – or incentive,” he said with a toothy grin at me. “To explore that part of myself. Now I’ve got you … well … “ Then he left me shivering some more and by the time he’d finished the water had grown cold and we were both shivering for real.
In the night I woke up crying. “Are you sick Yulee? Did I hurt you?”
I shook my head and wiped at the wet tracks on my face mystified at their presence. “I haven’t shed a tear since the plague. Not even when …”
I shook my head and tried to apologize and tell him to go back to sleep. “We both will but there’s a story here and I’ll have it out of you. Now.”
When Gid took that tone I knew it would be easier on us both if I simply told it. “I didn’t even cry when the angels took Jubal or Old Annie. Aunt Giselle said if I did that she’d simply leave their bodies for the carrion eaters. I know they weren’t in those shells but I … I …”
Angrily Gid snapped, “More I hear about that evil heifer …” He pulled me to him and laid us both down. “You don’t have anything to fear from her anymore. Maybe your dreams know that even if your waking self can’t believe it yet and they are letting you do what you missed out on. Even if that’s not it though, don’t keep it locked away from me. If you really think God sent me to rescue you, don’t you think he means for me to do a proper job of it?” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that but I didn’t need to as he was turning me so that we fit together like spoons in the utensil box and soon enough we were both asleep once again.
I was embarrassed in the morning to wake up only to find him easing back into bed. “Oh! Gid! I swear I’ll have your morning meal …”
“Already grabbed a mug of broth off them beans you set to cook last night on the coals in the fireplace. Milk has been strained and put in the pantry and when we get up I want to see you drink a goodly bit of that before you take the cream out of it.” He startled a sharp breath from me when he ran his hands over me and said, “I can fill the sharp edges of your bones.” Then he moved his hands again then growled in my ear, “I want to see you soft and round like these bits here.”
I just held on and let him have his way. In truth it brought me comfort to know he found pleasure in me and wanted … something though I wasn’t sure what to name it. But that comfort in his pleasuring brought me guilt. I was glad that Gid hadn’t asked me what my dream had been about during the night. I didn’t know how to lie to him and didn’t want to learn how.
At some point I’d been gliding in the air. It’s the kind of feeling that tells you it’s just a dream but the telling isn’t enough to wake you up so you set out to enjoy the sensation expecting just to fall back to sleep all the way. But I didn’t and the dream took over and then I started to wonder if it was really just a plain dream or one of those waking ones I sometimes had that told me things I didn’t always want to know.
I realized I was gliding because a great black bird had me. I could feel his talons digging into my shoulders but all I could do was hang there limply because any time I moved he or his mate would peck me. Each peck grew harder and I knew if I wasn’t still they’d use their beaks to take my eyes and tongue the way Aunt Giselle had always threatened. Then we were plummeting to the ground and the giant bird released me and I fell the rest of the way, rolled, and fetched up against a pitted and scarred stone monolith of some unknown purpose left over from before the Dark Days.
I was cut up pretty bad and could barely sit up. When I finally managed it I saw shadows all around me. When I looked up and saw what the shadows belonged to I nearly screamed. It was the Sisters … all those that had died. Their faces were pock marked and oozing just like they had been before they were carted off to the dying room where from what I heard it became even worse. Each Sister had a stone and on each stone was written an evil thought I’d had for the murdering I’d had in my heart. They took those stones and threw them at my feet. “Guardsdaughter, why do you betray your upbringing. Did we not teach you better than this?”
“God took me away from those,” I cried. “He sent Gid to save me.”
“Not those,” they said pointing to the stones. “These.” Then they hefted stone tablets that somehow showed scenes of Gid and I.
I shook my head. “It wasn’t like that! Those pictures are wrong!”
“Are you saying you have not engaged in temptations of the flesh?!”
“No. I mean yes. But not like it shows in … not that … that debauchery! It wasn’t like that! Gid means to keep me! He does!! He even talks of babes!”
But it was like they didn’t hear me. Then one of the Sisters - and for some strange reason I couldn’t recognize her - grabbed me by the hair and forced me to watch as the pictures on the stones changed and grew worse and worse. And then they started showing pictures of Father and Mam all pocked and oozing and noisome and pointing at me saying it was my fault that they’d died. Pictures of me cutting Jubal out of Mam’s body only instead of crying I was cackling like a mad woman. Pictures of Jubal staring sightlessly while rain fell into his unblinking eyes and … stuff … oozed from the back of his head yet I could hear his baby voice screaming from someplace that I should have been there to stop it from happening. Pictures of Old Annie wreathing in pain as the poison took her, swelled her up, turned her black until she gasped for each breath, and with each breath she told me she’d always known I’d be the death of the family, that I’d been born with a caul over my face as an evil omen. Pictures of Aunt Giselle refusing to give me my pack so that I could not even ease Old Annie’s passing or hurry it up. Pictures of me cutting myself because if I didn’t I was going to cut Aunt Giselle’s throat and the blood that welled up from the cuts was like black ichor, poisonous to all it touched. All the while the pictures played across the tablets the Sisters called me horrible, vile names.
That’s when Gid woke me. I know the difference between a nightmare and a waking dream and what I had was a nightmare … but it was different from a regular nightmare. It was like something was attacking me. And Gid had rescued me again by waking me up when I couldn’t wake myself up.
But for all I was learning to trust him that was a dream that I could not share … not with him, not with anyone. To voice it was to give it more power. So I took it to God and he eased me so that I could sleep. But in the light of day and with Gid … well doing as Gid pleased … I caught myself turning the dream over and thinking on it once again.
Gid looked at me afterwards and asked, “Yulee, why does your mind go so far away? Do you … do you dislike my touch?”
He was running his hands gently over places that liked it. “No,” I told him honestly.
“If you don’t dislike it … then … is it … does it not … pleasure you?”
I shivered. “You ask so many questions.”
“And I like to have the ones I ask answered.”
There was a bit of steel running through those words and I shivered again. “Gid may I ask you … may I ask you …”
“Spit it out woman. And none of that cringing either.”
I sighed. “I’m confused Gid. I … I know you bought me because you needed a woman.” I felt him start to stiffen up. “Please Gid, let me get this all out before I … before I fall to cowardliness.”
“Hmmm.”
Drawing a deep breath I tried to say it all. “I know you bought me with a purpose. I thought I … I thought I understood it. I … thought I could live and be grateful for your rescue. But you’ve … you’ve turned … I mean … you say things, things I never expected to hear for my own. You said you bought me but you don’t mean to own me. You … you cared for me after the ants, when I couldn’t breathe. You … you make me feel … oh Gid, you make me feel safe when I’d forgotten what that felt like. And then you bring me to this – your home only you say it is our home. And then yesterday, you spoke of babes as if … as if you really wanted them … wanted them with me; like it was silly for me to ask if you meant with me.” I hugged myself and once again shivered even though the day had warmed and we were still under the covers. “I don’t understand Gid. I … I want to understand … but I’m so afraid only I promised myself I wouldn’t be. I figured it didn’t matter who or what the man was that bought me; that I’d live and do his bidding and be grateful no matter what. And if you’d been … well … not like you are I could have gone right on with my gratefulness and not felt a bit of guilt for any of it because that would have been all it was. Only you are you and … and … and being grateful is hard to live with. ‘Cause … oh Sisters forgive me … ‘cause I want more. I want … I want to believe what you’ve been saying and not … and not be afraid anymore that I’m misunderstanding your words. I want to feel your pleasuring and not … not feel like … like … like I shouldn’t feel what I do.”
I was feeling as out of breath as I had after the ants had bitten me. I wanted to say more. I was desperate to understand and have him understand as well. “Please don’t be mad Gid. I don’t mean to be bad.”
Rather than anger, rather than a tongue lashing for I did trust him not to hit, rather than any other thing he sat us both up and I had to grab the sheet but he took it from me. I was aghast. There we both sat, uncovered as babes.
“Now. There’s nothing between us. Nothing to hide behind. So look at me Yulee. You’ve been treated so rough I knew we’d need to go over this road more than once. Same way you know I need to know you’ll mind me and respect me and you set out to prove it can be so. But this thing … your fear … I’m going to put a period on it. Dig a grave and shove it in and cover it over then set a great big stone over it. I’ve already told you I won’t share you. I’ve already told you that you’re mine. You believe those things?”
I quickly nodded my head.
“Good. But I think your problem is that you don’t understand what I mean when I say you’re mine. First off I’ll kill any man that thinks I’ll share you … or tries to take you from me. It’s just that simple. Second, Creator willing I mean to put a babe in you. I’ve already grown partial to the idea of seeing you with a big belly and knowing I made it happen. I remember my father saying much the same but I never understood it ‘til now. But it doesn’t have to be right this day or even this season. Fact is I don’t mind it being just the two of us here in the beginning. Plus you need to put some roundness back into your body so that carrying a babe in your belly isn’t hurtful. If it is like it was for my father, once I start planting seeds you’ll be harvesting babes every year from here on out til your seasons are done.”
I could feel the heat come over my whole body. For a man he was awful free with his talk of babies and birthing and the things of a woman’s body. “Lastly, I’m gonna do my best to make sure we’re together to watch our children have children. I know that doesn’t always happen but I mean to work on it like I believe it will. I’ve a feeling that we’ve got a good life ahead of us Yulee. I’m not saying there won’t be trying times but … you’ve already eased me woman. I sleep better. I’m eating better. I’m not forever having to battle for a jot of brew or a scrap of food, you fill my plate and mug first as if it is just the way things should be. You make my plans feel possible … things I’ve always wanted. You aren’t a nag. You fell in with my plans to live outside the wall like it was a natural thing to want rather than a perverted one. That most of all is what tells me you’re the woman for me. We fit Yulee. I mean to see that we stay fit to each other and no others. So if you’re afraid of feeling ‘cause you think I’m gonna to send you off or throw you over then you’re loopy. It was too providential me finding you, I ain’t gonna risk having to go through all of that again and likely wind up with something less than I got in my hands right now.”
Maybe his words weren’t Shakespearean but they were words I could understand and believe. I launched myself into his arms with such enthusiasm that I nearly knocked us out of the bed and onto the floor. “Whoa woman!” he laughed in surprise. But he was not averse to using my enthusiasm for something he obviously enjoyed. It was midafternoon before we finally quit the bed and got dressed. There was only enough time to take care of necessary chores and see to the animals. We were both starving by the time I put the evening meal on the table and it was soon consumed. Then after a few last things were taken care of, including tiring the pup and furball out with some play so they would leave us be, we were back to bed; but it wasn’t the desperate and hectic time it had been during the day. As the sun set and coolness enveloped the cabin we simply held each other cementing a mutual bond with a common goal.
Last edited:
naturallysweet
Has No Life - Lives on TB
thank you!
With all the evils in the news today, it's nice to have a good story to read.
With all the evils in the news today, it's nice to have a good story to read.
