He ducked his head in understanding. “That’s what we’ll do, then.”
Her spine straightened. “Besides, I’m marrying a patroller. We should go patroller-style. Bedroll under the stars, right.” She grinned and nuzzled his neck, and said seductively, “We could bathe in the river…”
He was looking immensely seduceable, eyes crinkling in the way she so loved to see. “Bathing in the river is always good. A clean patroller is, um…”
“Unusual?” she suggested.
And she also loved the way his chest rumbled under her when he laughed deep down in it. Like a quiet earthquake. “A happy patroller,” he finished firmly.
“We could gather firewood,” she went on, her lips working upward.
His worked downward. He murmured around his kiss, “Big, big bonfire.”
“Scout for rowdy squirrels…”
“Those squirrels are a right menace.” He looked down over his nose at her, though she didn’t see how he could focus his eyes at this distance. “All three? Optimistic, Spark!”
She giggled, joyful to see his eyes so alight. He’d seemed so moody when he’d first come in.
To her aggravation, she could hear heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, Fletch or Whit, heading this way. She sighed and sat up. “Ride, then.”
“Unless we have a barker of a thunderstorm.”
“Thunder and lightning couldn’t keep me in this house one more day,” she said fervently. “It’s time for me to go on. Do you see?”
He nodded. “I’m beginning to, farmer girl. This is right for you.”
She stole one last kiss before sliding off his lap, thinking, Tomorrow we’ll be buying these kisses fair and square. Her heart melted in the tenderness of the look he gave her as, reluctantly, he let her slip out of his arm. All storms might be weathered in the safe harbor of that smile.
Chapter 19
Fawn flew through the irreducible farm chores the next morning. The milking fell to her; afterwards, waving a stick with resolute vigor, she sent the bewildered cows off to pasture at a brisk and unaccustomed trot. For practical reasons the rule about the marrying couple’s not seeing each other before the wedding was put aside till after the family breakfast, when Aunt Rose Bluefield arrived to help Mama with the food and the house, along with Fawn’s closest cousins and girlfriends Filly Bluefield and Ginger Roper to start the primping.
First came proper baths. The women went off to the well; the men were dispatched to the river. Fawn had grave doubts about leaving Dag to the mercies of her father, Fletch, and Whit for such a vulnerable enterprise, although at least the twins weren’t to follow till a long list of dirty chores had been completed. Filly and Ginger dragged her away as she was still yelling strict orders down the hill after the men about not letting Dag’s splints get wet. There followed a naked, wet, silly, and sudsy half hour by the well; Mama brought out her best scented soap for the task. Once they were back in the bedroom with Ginger and Filly starting on her hair, Fawn was relieved to hear footsteps and men’s voices through the closed door to the weaving room, Dag giving some calm instruction to Whit.
Filly and Ginger did their best, from Fawn’s dimly remembered description of what Reela had told her, to imitate Lakewalker wedding braids, although Fawn was glumly aware that her own hair was too curly and unruly to cooperate the way Lakewalkers’ long locks no doubt did. The result was creditable, anyhow, with the hair drawn up in neat thick ropes from her temples to meet at her crown, and from there allowed to spin down loose behind after its own turbulent fashion. In the little hand mirror, held out at arm’s length, Fawn’s face looked startlingly refined and grown-up, and she blinked at the strangeness. Ginger’s brother had ridden all the way to Mirror Pond this morning, four miles upriver, to get the flowers Fawn had begged of him: three not-too-crumpled white water lilies, which Ginger now bound into the knot of hair on the crown of her head.
“Mama said you could have had all of her roses you wanted,” Filly observed, tilting her head to examine the effect.
“These are more lake-ish,” said Fawn. “Dag will like them. The poor man doesn’t have any family or friends here, and is pretty much having to borrow everything farmer. I know he was pining that he couldn’t send down his Lakewalker bride-gifts till after the wedding; they’re supposed to be given beforehand, I guess.”
Filly said, “Mama wondered if no women of his own people would marry him because of his hand being maimed like that.”
Fawn, choosing to ignore the implied reflection upon herself, said only, “I shouldn’t think so. A lot of patrollers seem to get banged up, over time. Anyhow, he’s a widower.”
Ginger said, “My brother said the twins said his horse talks human to him when there’s no one around.”
Fawn snorted. “If no one’s around, how do they know?”
Ginger, considering this, conceded reluctantly, “That’s a point.”
“Besides, it’s the twins.”
Filly granted, “That’s another.” She added in regret, “So I guess they made up that story about him magicking together that glass bowl they broke, too?”
“Um. No. That one’s true,” Fawn admitted. “Mama put it away upstairs for today, so it wouldn’t risk getting knocked down again.”
A thoughtful silence followed this, while Filly poked at the curls in back to fluff them, and pushed away Fawn’s hands trying to smooth them.
“He’s so tall,” said Ginger in a newly speculative tone, “and you’re so short. I’d think he’d squash you flatter than a bug. Plus both his arms bein’ hurt. However are you two going to manage, tonight?”
“Dag’s very ingenious,” said Fawn firmly.
Filly poked her and giggled. “How would you know, eh?”
Ginger snickered. “Someone’s been samplin’, I think. What were you two doin’, out on the road together for a month like that?”
Fawn tossed her head and sniffed. “None of your business.” She couldn’t help adding smugly after a moment, “I will say, there’s no going back to farmer boys, after.” Which won some hoots, quickly muted as Nattie bustled back in.
Ginger set her a chair by Fawn’s bench, and Nattie laid out the cloth in which she’d wrapped the braided cords; she’d just delivered Dag’s to him, together with the other, surprise present.
“Did he like his wedding shirt?” Fawn asked, a bit wistful because she couldn’t very well ask Nattie How did it look on him?
“Oh, yes, lovie, he was very pleased. I’d say, even moved. He said he’d never had anything so fine in his life, and was in a wonder that we got it together so quick and secret. Though he said he was relieved for the explanation of you girls with your measurin’ strings yesterday, which had evidently been worryin’ him a bit.” She unrolled the wrap; the dark cord lay coiled in her lap, the gold beads firm and rich-looking upon the ends.
“Where is he wearing his cord? Where should I wear mine?”
“He says folks mostly wear them on the left wrist if they’re right-handed. T’other way around if not, naturally. He’s put his around his left arm above the harness, for now. He says when the time comes for the binding, he can sit down and you can stand facing him, left side to left side, and I should be able to do the tyin’ between you without too much trouble.”
“All right,” said Fawn doubtfully, trying to picture this. She stuck out her left arm and let Nattie wrap the cord several times around her wrist like a bracelet, tying the ends in a bow knot for now. The beads dangled prettily, and she twisted her hand to make them bounce on her skin. A little of her most secret self was in it, Dag said, bound in with her blood; she had to take his word.
Then it was time to get her dress on, the good green cotton, washed and carefully ironed for this; her other good dress being warm wool for winter. That Dag would remember this dress from that night in Glassforge when he had so gently and urgently removed it, unwrapping her like a gift, must be a secret between them; but she hoped he would find it a heartening s
ight. Ginger and Filly together lowered the fabric carefully over her head so as not to muss her hair or crush the lilies.
A knock sounded at the door, from someone who did not wait for permission to enter; Whit, who looked at Fawn and blinked. He opened his mouth as if to fire off one of his usual quip-insults, then appeared to think better of it and just smiled uneasily.
“Dag says, what about the weapons?” he recited, revealing himself as a messenger sent. “He seems to want to put them all on. He means, all of them, at once. He says it’s to show off what a patroller is bringing to his bride’s tent. Fletch says, no one wears weapons to a wedding, it just ain’t done. Papa says, he don’t know what should be done. So Dag says, ask Spark, and he’ll abide.”
Fawn started to answer Yes, it’s his wedding too, he should have some of his own customs, then instead said more cautiously, “Just how many weapons are we talking about, here?”
“Well, there’s that great pigsticker that he calls his war knife, for starters. Then there’s one he slips down in his boot, and another he straps on his thigh sometimes, evidently. What he wants with three knives when he only has one hand, I don’t know. Then there’s that funny bow of his, and the quiver of arrows, which also has some little knives stuck in it. He seemed a bit put out that he didn’t have a sword by him—seems there’s one he inherited from his pa back at his camp, and some ash spear or another for fighting from horseback, which he also doesn’t have here. Fortunately.”
Ginger and Filly listened to this lengthening catalog with their faces screwing up.
Whit, nodding silent agreement at them, finished, “You’d think the man would clank when he walked. You wouldn’t want a patroller to fall into water over his head on his way to his wedding, I’ll say.” His own brows rose in gruesome enthusiasm. “You suppose he’s killed anybody with that arsenal? ‘Spect he must have, sometime or another. That’s a right sobering collection of scars he has, I saw when we were down washing up. Though I suppose he’s had a long time to accumulate ’em.” He added after another contemplative moment, “Do you think he’s getting nervous ‘bout the wedding? He don’t hardly show it, but with him, how would you tell?”
With Whit as a helper, it was a wonder Dag wasn’t frenzied by now, Fawn thought tartly. “Tell him”—Fawn’s tongue hovered between yes and no, remembering just what all she had seen Dag kill with those weapons—“tell him just the war knife.” In case it was nerves and the weapons a consolation. “Tell him it can stand for the rest of them, all right? We’ll know.”
“All right.” Whit did not take himself off at once, but stood scratching his head.
“Did the shirt fit him good?” Fawn asked.
“Oh, yeah, I guess.”
“You guess? Didn’t you look? Agh! Useless to ask you, I suppose.”
“He liked it fine. Kept touchin’ it with his fingertips peekin’ out of those bandages, anyhow, like he liked the feel. But what I want explained is—you know, I had to help him button and unbutton his trousers. So how in the green world has he been managing them for the past week? ‘Cause I haven’t never seen him going around undone. And I don’t care how much of a sorcerer he is, he has to have been doin’ the necessary some time…”
“Whit,” said Fawn, “go away.”
Ginger and Filly, thinking this through, looked at Fawn’s flushing face and began to giggle like steam kettles.
“Because,” Whit, never one to take a hint, forged on, “I know it wasn’t me or Fletch or Pa, and it couldn’t have been the twins, who didn’t warm to him a bit. Suppose it could have been Nattie, but really, I think it must have been you, and how—ow!” He ended in a yelp as Nattie smacked him firmly and accurately across the knees with her cane.
“Whit, if you don’t go find yourself a chore, I’ll find you one,” she told him. “Don’t you go embarrassin’ Fawn’s patroller with all your supposing or you’ll have me to answer to, and I will be here tomorrow.”
Whit, daunted at last, took himself out, saying placatingly, “I’ll say just the knife, right.”
Outside, Fawn could hear the sounds of hoofbeats and creaking carts coming up the lane, and calls of greeting, more folks arriving. It felt very peculiar to sit still in this room waiting, instead of being out bustling around doing.
Mama came in, wiping her hands on a towel, to say, “Shep Sower and his wife just got here. They were the last. The sun’s as close to noon as makes no never mind. We could start most any time.”
“Is Dag ready? Is he all right?”
“He’s clean, and dressed neat and plain. He looks very calm and above it all, except that he’s had Whit switch out his wooden hand for his hook and back again twice now.”
Fawn considered this. “Which did he end up with?”
“Hook, last I seen.”
“Hm.” So did that mean he was getting more relaxed, to let himself be seen so by strangers, or less, to have the most useful tool and maybe-weapon ready, as it were, to hand? “Well, it’ll be over soon. I didn’t mean to put him through such an ordeal when I agreed to stop back here.”
Mama nodded to Fawn’s cousins. “You girls give us a minute.”
Nattie rose to her feet, endorsing this. “Come along, chickies, give the bride a breather with her mama.” She shepherded Fawn’s helpers out to her weaving room and closed the door quietly behind them.
Mama said, “In a few minutes, you’ll be a married woman.” Her voice was stretched somewhere between anxious and bewildered. “Sooner than I expected. Well, I never expected anything like this. We always meant to do right by you, for your wedding. This is all so quick. We’ve done more preparing for Fletch.” She frowned at this felt injustice.
“I’m glad it’s no more. This is making me nervous enough.”
“You sure about this, Fawn?”
“Today, no. All my tomorrows, yes.”
“Nattie’s kept your confidences. But, you know, if you want to change your mind, we can stop this right now. Whatever trouble you think you’re in, we could manage it somehow.”
“Mama, we’ve had this conversation. Twice. I’m not pregnant. Really and truly.”
“There are other kinds of troubles.”
“For girls, that’s the only one folks seem to care about.” She sighed. “So how many out there are saying I must be, for you to let this go forward?”
“A few,” Mama admitted.
A bunch, I’ll bet. Fawn growled. “Well, time’ll prove ‘em wrong, and I hope you’ll make them eat their words when it does, ’cause I won’t be here to.”
Mama went around behind her and fussed with her hair, which needed nothing. “I admit Dag seems a fine fellow, no, I’ll go farther, a good man, but what about his kin? Even he doesn’t vouch for your welcome where you’re going. What if they treat you bad?”
I’ll feel right at home. Fawn bit down on that one before it escaped. “I’ll deal. I dealt with bandits and mud-men and blight bogles. I can deal with relatives.” As long as they’re not my relatives.
“Is this sensible?”
“If folks were sensible, would anyone ever get married?”
Mama snorted. “I suppose not.” She added in a lower voice, “But if you start down a road you can’t see the end of, there’s a chance you’ll find some dark things along it.”
About to defend her choice for the hundredth time, Fawn paused, and said simply, “That’s true.” She stood up. “But it’s my road. Our road. I can’t stand still and keep breathin’. I’m ready.” She kissed her mama on the cheek. “Let’s go.”
Mama got in one last, inarguable maternal sigh, but followed Fawn out. They collected Nattie and Ginger and Filly along the way. Mama made a quick circuit of the kitchen, finally set aside her towel, straightened her dress, and led the way into the parlor.
The parlor was jammed, the crowd spilling over into the hall. Papa’s brother Uncle Hawk Bluefield and Aunt Rose and their son still at home; Uncle and Aunt Roper and their two youngest boys, inclu
ding the successful water-lily finder; Shep Sower and his cheery wife, always up for a free feed; Fletch and Clover and Clover’s folks and sisters and the twins, inexplicably well behaved, and Whit and Papa.
And Dag, a head above everyone but still looking very surrounded. The white shirt fit him well. There hadn’t been time for smocking or embroidery, but Nattie and Aunt Roper had come up with some dark green piping to set off the collar and cuffs and button placket. The sleeves were made generous enough to fit over his splints, and over his arm harness on the other side, with second buttons set over to tighten the cuffs later. There had been just enough of the shell buttons left to do the job. Fawn had whisked his sling away from him yesterday long enough to wash and iron it, so it didn’t look so grubby even though it was growing a bit tattered. He was wearing the tan trousers with fewer old stains and mends, also forcibly washed yesterday. His worn knife sheath, riding on his left hip, looked so much a part of him as to be almost unnoticeable despite its wicked size.
A bit of spontaneous applause broke out when Fawn appeared, which made her blush. And then Dag wasn’t looking at anything else but her, and it all made sense again. She went and stood beside him. His right arm twitched in its sling, as though he desperately wanted to hold her hand but could not. Fawn settled for sliding her foot and hip over, so that they touched along the side, a reassuring pressure. The sense of strain in the room, of everyone trying to pretend this was all right and be nice for Fawn’s sake, almost made her want them all to revert back to their normal relaxed horribleness, but not quite.
Shep Sower stepped forth, smiled, cleared his throat, and called them all to attention with a few brief, practiced words. To Fawn’s relief, he glanced at Dag and skipped over his usual dire wedding jokes, which everyone else here had likely heard often enough to recite themselves anyhow. He then read out the marriage contract; the older generation listened with attention, nodding judiciously or raising eyebrows and exchanging glances now and then. Dag, Fawn, her parents, the three adult couples, and Fletch and Clover all signed it, Nattie made her mark, and Shep signed and sealed it all.