“Yup. The fire gave them a bit of incentive and the houses up there are made of nicely seasoned logs. William thinks they’ll make nice planks.”
“So he said. I need to help him set up the saw pit.”
She glanced at him curiously. “Saw pit?”
“It takes a lot of sawing to turn a log into a pile of planks. We do it in a pit with a man on the top and another on the bottom.”
She visualized it. “Doesn’t the man on the bottom get all covered with sawdust?”
He grinned and nodded. “That he does, mum.”
“Do you think you can get it built by spring?”
He considered it as he sipped. “I do. If we can get the logs ripped into boards in the next few weeks, then we should be able to get up a frame and a roof before the snow flies.”
“Will you need to fell more trees?”
He shook his head. “I thought so originally, but there’s a lot of logs in the two houses there, and we’ve got three more empty ones that we could use if we need more seasoned wood.” He shrugged. “I’m takin’ up one whole house myself, and I could move in with the quarry men. That would free another.”
“Would you do that?”
He looked at her. “Dunno. Before this trip, I’d have said no. I like my quiet.” He shrugged and turned back to his tea. “Now? It was kinda nice having the boys around. During the summer I’m only here a few days at a time. During the winter?” He sighed. “It does get lonely at times.”
She made a small noise in agreement and sipped her tea.
After a few minutes he asked her, “What about the visions, mum?”
She glanced up. “Visions?”
He kept his gaze on the glowing embers in the hearth. “The visions. William says you have visions and that they saved us.”
She grunted and sighed. “I’m not so sure they saved us, but yup. I get them now and again when I sleep.” She looked up at him. “William thinks it’s magic.”
“Is it? Magic, I mean?”
“I dunno. Might be. But if it is, it’s nothing I have any control over. It just happens or not.” She lowered her face into her mug again. “Mostly not.”
“If it’s not magic, then what would you call it, mum?” His voice was warm and curious.
“I don’t know.” She looked up at him. “I’ve been askin’ myself that for the last two weeks. I don’t have any answers.”
They lapsed into an easy silence again.
“I thought I was goin’ mad.” She said it softly.
“Why’s that, mum?”
She gave a nervous laugh. “Well you hear about ranting old women. They live in the woods and go a little off in the head? I’ve met a few of them. Heard about a lot more.”
He nodded. “Yes, mum. It’s a pretty common tale, no doubt.”
She sipped her tea before speaking. “I thought I was turning into one of them.”
He considered her words. “I can see why, mum.” He paused and glanced at her to try to gauge her mood. “But what if they’re not ranting old women?”
He caught her by surprise and her head snapped up. “What do you mean?”
He looked away with a shrug. “What if they’re not ranting? Not crazy? What if they’re just sayin’ what they know and it sounds crazy?”
The thought was startling and she relaxed into her chair to think about it.
“I mean, think of it, mum. You live alone in a cottage in the woods, maybe. Don’t see many people. When you have a vision like this and start talkin’ about it to people who maybe don’t know you very well?”
She frowned in thought. “The people who talk to you don’t understand it, because maybe you don’t understand it either.”
Frank turned to her, leaning a shoulder against the mantle board. “So they think maybe you’re a little ’round the bend and things go downhill from there.”
She glanced up at him. “But you’re suggesting that maybe they’re having the same kinds of visions as I am?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Well, it fits. You thought you were going mad yourself, but you were able to find out that the visions were real–even helpful. I can see a lot of people gettin’ spooked by the idea and not bein’ able to check the reality. Maybe the vision wasn’t from a raven’s eye, but something different. Something they couldn’t check easily.”
She nodded slowly as she considered it. “Why old women?” She sipped her tea and asked it almost of herself.
“Well, there aren’t that many old men who live alone. We die off too quick.”
She looked at him. He was only half joking and he had some valid points. “Well, I prefer to think that old men are rare and valuable because only the good ones survive that long.”
“I’m working on that myself,” he said with a grin.
“You’re doing good so far.” The words jumped out of her mouth before she could bite down and stop them. They both blushed.
“Thank you, mum.” He sipped his tea, embarrassed, and tried to get the conversation back on track. “But what if there’s something in a woman that makes her open to this magic–this thing–whatever you want to call it–that gives you special powers?”
“That seems unfair.”
He blinked, confused. “Unfair, mum?”
“Somthing only women can do? Like a special power? The world doesn’t work like that.”
He snorted a short laugh. “Mum? You realize that’s ridiculous?”
“What?”
“Women already have special powers. They already do things men can’t. What’s one more thing?”
She snorted back. “Really? Special powers?”
He stared at her. “Mum? You may not have noticed but women have this power to create new life? There’s no man in the world can carry a baby to term.” He shrugged. “If that’s not a special power, I don’t know what is.”
“Well, of course, women give birth, Frank.” She sighed in exasperation. “That’s not something special. And it’s not somethin’ we do on our own, either. It’s just part of bein’ a woman.”
He stared at her and lifted one shoulder in defense. “Well, maybe these vision things are, too. Just part of bein’ a woman.”
She stood up to face him, unable to sit any longer. “Then why don’t all women have it? Why am I suddenly getting these things now that I’m facin’ the change?”
His face smoothed and he smiled as he looked into her face. “Maybe they do. Maybe it’s a gift from the All-Mother. Maybe you don’t lose anything at all, just trade it for somethin’ else.”
His voice felt soft in her ears and she realized that she was standing very close to him. He smelled musky from too many days on the road, and she didn’t mind. She almost lost what he was saying because of the blood rushing in her ears. When it sank in, she stepped back a pace to think. Her eyes went wide. “Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, mum. I’m just tryin’ to find a pattern here and that seems like a pretty clear pattern to me.”
“I can’t be the first.” Her objections sounded a bit shrill even to her own ears.
“You’re not. If you were then the ’crazy old woman who lives in the woods’ wouldn’t be so familiar.” He grimaced.
She sat heavily, her knees weak. “Or what if the visions drove them mad?” She looked up at him, stricken. “I don’t want to go mad.”
He squatted down to be able to look her in the eye. “You’re never going to go mad, mum. Ever.”
She met his warm, smiling gaze. “You sound fairly certain.”
“I am.”
She thought of all the Mothers she’d worked with over the years. Almost all of them were older than she was, even now. Some of them had seemed more than a little crazy at times. She had to admit to herself that she probably appeared a bit crazy at times herself. Almost all of them had alluded to magic, or showed knowledge of a subject they had no real way of knowing. Yet they did.
The thought was startling. Almost as startling as
the nearness of Frank’s sparkling brown eyes.
She cleared her throat and he looked away, then stood up and stepped back again.
“How do I learn out more?” She spoke the question aloud as much for her own benefit as actually asking Frank.
“Find more women and compare notes?”
She paused, brow furrowed in thought. “They call Gertie Pinecrest the last of the witch women. I was on my way to visit her when I got held up here.”
He nodded with pursed lips. “That sounds like a good place to start, mum.”
“But that has to wait until Spring now. It’s going to be a long winter.”
“We’ll find plenty to pass the time. And you’re not around people who think you’re crazy. Even if you’re having visions, it doesn’t matter to us.”
Her breath came a little faster as she looked up at him lounging easily by the hearth, the ruddy light of the fire painting him in a rosy light. Right at that moment she could think of a couple of things they could do to pass the time, but the thoughts so startled her that she retreated into her mug and drained it to the dregs. When she surfaced, he was placing his own empty mug on the mantle board.
“Well, I need to go check on the team, mum. Make sure things got stowed properly. I promised them an extra helping of grain when we got here.” He smiled a very charmingly boyish smile. “Thanks for the tea.”
“You’re most welcome, and thank you for the talk.”
“My pleasure, mum.” He headed for the door. “My very great pleasure.”
She walked him to the door and held it open while he climbed out onto the grassy path. He nodded his farewell and headed for the barn in the near dark of evening. She watched him go until his form faded into the shadows before closing the door and latching it.
Odd thoughts of having her woodbox filled made her giggle.
Chapter 33
Preparations
With Frank and the rest of the quarrymen back from town, the pace in the village picked up. Tanyth watched with a certain fascination as the men dug out the pit they’d used to saw the planks that built the barn and houses when the village was first established. It lay just off the path to the barn and ran the length of a small gully in the woods that appeared unremarkable.
While Jakey supervised the quarrymen on the shovel detail, William and Frank put Bester in harness and used the ox to drag the salvaged logs up to the barn. It took all day to dig out the pit and, by that time, Bester and William had fetched all the logs and stacked them for cutting. Most of the timbers were over ten feet long and were already flattened on two sides from where they’d been used for the houses.
William saw her looking at the logs and grinned. “Seems like a big pile, doesn’t it, mum?”
“That it does, William. That’s just two houses worth?”
“Aye, mum. Just the two. Although we’re thinkin’ we may take two more. With the lay of the land and where we think the foundation should go, Amber and I are thinkin’ we should give up our house and move into one of the empty houses across from you. I think Ethan and Bethany may move into one, as well.”
She shook her head in wonder. “You know, William, when I suggested you build an inn, I had no idea how much was involved.”
He laughed. “Neither did I, mum, but the nice thing about havin’ this group? Somebody knows somethin’ about anythin’ we want. Jakey came from a hard stone quarry, Ethan knows building, Harry is a good hand with the stock even though he spends most of his time in the clay. I know how to build boats and do designs but they make sure I don’t make any mistakes when I bring my boats ashore and turn them into roofs and walls.”
“You did well to pick this group then.”
He looked around at his crew. “They picked me, actually, mum. When they heard what I proposed, they all found me out and wanted to join. Most of them stuck with us, even though we lost a few. I think we’ll see more join us as the inn gets going.”
Jakey called down to the crew in the pit and they crawled out of the hole and headed to the storage room to put away their tools. He walked over to William and nodded to Tanyth.
“There’s the hole, Will. We just need to get the bracin’ in place to hold the logs and we’re ready to rip some lumber.”
“Easier the second time, huh?” He grinned at the burly quarryman.
“Oh, aye. That it is.”
“What do you think about foundation stones?”
Jakey grimaced and ran a hand over his mouth. “We need some, but I don’t know of any good rock around here to take. There’s some good granite up behind where we’re digging out the clay, but we don’t have the tools or knowledge to get it out and down where we need it.”
William nodded. “That’s what I thought, too.” He turned and looked down the path to where the inn would go. “What ya think about foundation then?”
Jakey followed his gaze and sucked air through his teeth. “That’s gonna be a heavy building. We get away with puttin’ the logs on the ground for the houses. They’ll rot out sure enough but they’re small enough we can replace the whole house if we need to.” He shook his head. “I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout that foundation ever since you said you wanted to do it and I don’t have any real good answers.”
William grunted. “I was afraid of that. What’s Ethan say?”
Jakey shrugged. “He’s got some ideas.” He raised his voice and called Ethan over.
As the younger man approached, Jakey jerked his head to where the inn would be. “Whatcha think about foundation?”
Ethan grimaced. “Full stone would be the best in this ground. Logs will rot too fast and with that much weight on ’em, I doubt the building’d stay plumb past the first good freeze.”
Jakey and William nodded. William looked him in the eye. “We don’t have stones enough to do a full foundation and we don’t have the tools or help here to cut stone. What do we do?”
Ethan squinted his eyes as if to see better. “We got coins enough to buy some?”
Jakey and William shared a glance. “Perhaps a few. Why?”
“Arletton cuts blue stone for the trade. If we got nine stone posts with footers, we could sink the footers down below frost line, use the posts to keep the building off the ground, and then build from there.”
Both men nodded. He made good sense. William looked in toward the barn. “Can the lorry wagon handle that much load?
Jakey shrugged but Ethan nodded an affirmative. “It should. I don’t think stone weighs as much as clay. Six horses should be able to haul it easy on the open road.”
William looked at Ethan. “Alright then, you know what we need. In the mornin’ I want you to head up to Arletton and arrange for them to cut it for us. Can you do that?”
Ethan shrugged. “Sure. I think so.”
“Good. Tell ’em we need it by Hunter’s Moon and we’ll send Frank to pick it up in the lorry, but they’ll have to load it for him.”
Ethan nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jakey stuck his chin up to get their attention. “Do we need stones for the hearth or ovens?”
William shook his head. “I had Frank order oven brick from Megan’s father while he was in town. It should be here in a couple of weeks. They’re sending a shipment down to Easton and they’ll drop it off on the way by.”
Jakey grinned and whistled in appreciation. “Well, my goodness. Ain’t we gettin’ fancy now. Oven brick and ever’thin’.”
Ethan snickered. “Well, from what I heard, we get an inn out here and Harry’s gonna be seein’ more of his in-laws than he might like.”
Jakey’s smile got broader. “What? They can’t come live like common folk?”
Ethan shrugged. “Somethin’ about grandkids and not wantin’ to sleep on the ground.”
William laughed at that. “How do they think they’re gonna get here? Fly?”
Ethan grinned good naturedly. “Dunno. But Harry was spittin’ all the way back so apparently it’s not just noise.
”
When the chuckling died down, William refocused the discussion. “So, we sink the posts on the corners, the middles and one in the center? Run footers and build from there?”
Ethan looked back at the empty lot, and Tanyth could practically see him measuring with his eyes. “Yea. Should be ’bout right. You gonna put a chimney up the middle?”
“’Bout two thirds back. We got stone and mortar enough for that and I got a hearthstone all picked out for it.” William turned to Jakey. “You still think you can make two fire places and the oven into one chimney?”
Jakey pursed his lips and nodded. “Oh, ya. Easier to do that than make two chimneys. Bigger base to work on. It’ll be heavy, but we can put that on the ground, give it it’s own foundation of packed rock and gravel. The All-Father knows we got enough rock and gravel.”
They chuckled and William dusted his hands together. “Guess that’s it for now.” He turned to the younger man. “See me in the morning before you leave, Ethan, and I’ll give you some coin for down payment.”
He nodded and headed off down the path toward his house.
Jakey knuckled his forehead, nodded politely to Tanyth, and followed Ethan.
William turned back to her. “You still think it’s a good idea, mum?”
She laughed. “I better. You’ve already bought the brick.”
He grinned. “We can always use the brick.” He stopped grinning and looked her in the eye. “Seriously, mum. Do you think we should?”
She leaned on her staff and raised her head, drawing a full breath of the musky fall air in through her nose. The sun was going down behind the trees and the village fairly vibrated with life. She blew the air out through her mouth. “Yes.” She turned to him. “But why is my opinion so important, William?” She jerked her chin in the direction of the houses. “This is your village. These are your people. Why does what I think matter so much?”
He smiled. “Mum? You have the benefit of age and wisdom and you’ve traveled from one end of this land to the other.” Tanyth started to snicker and waved her hand dismissively but William pressed on, his voice low, steady, and earnestly serious. “You killed to protect us and you bled from the battle. You’re a gift from the All-Mother. Your opinion matters because if you believe in us, we can believe in us.” He smiled down at her. “And if we believe we can, we will.”