At day break she heard the wagon leaving the village on the next run to get hay.
Chapter 35
First snow
The first snow of the season fell on the morning of the Hunter’s Moon. Tanyth heard the difference when she woke. There was something in the air, a quiet that didn’t match the other mornings. The gray sky with drifting flakes kept the sun from brightening the day and her hut was unnaturally dark.
She shivered as she crawled out of her bed roll and her left knee shot a twinge up her leg. Cold always made it worse and changes in the weather added sand to the ointment. She’d taken to sleeping in her socks and slipped from bed to boot without touching the floor. Her night shift–a warm flannel gown that Amber and Sadie had made for her–fell around her ankles as she stood. It helped keep the warmth close to her body, but she still slipped on a shawl before poking up the fire and adding a few sticks of wood.
When she opened the door to head for the privy, a clump of snow clung to the wood long enough to get dragged into the cottage before falling off on the step with a plump splat that sent snow flakes everywhere. Looking out, she could see that it wasn’t that much snow, but it was still coming down. She thought at once of Frank. He was due back later in the day with the blue stone footings for the inn, but he’d be waking in a camp and having to deal with snow. She didn’t envy him.
She hung by her hearth, waiting for the sound of horses. She kept worrying about his being out there on the road in the snow alone. It bothered her beyond reason. She tried several times to distract herself by working on some tinctures of rosemary that she planned for Solstice gifts but couldn’t focus on the process. She gave it up after a time, afraid that she’d make a mistake and burn the oils she was trying to extract.
By midmorning she was certain that something had happened and that she needed to do something. Her agitation made her skin feel hot and she stepped back from the fire in confusion. The room had suddenly gotten much hotter. Hot as summer. Except the room was still the same. The small fire wasn’t throwing that much heat. Her eyes widened as she realized that she was having a hot flash–her own body was causing the heat. She’d been with Mother Gilroy some ten winters back and helped the poor woman through what she called her winter of heat.
She calmed herself. Or tried to. She breathed deliberately in, held it for a moment, and then blew it out. The room wasn’t quite cold enough to see her breath, but it felt good on the fevered skin of her face and hands. She loosened her collar and flapped her shift a bit to pump some air around under her clothing. Then she thought of Frank, again. Possibly lying dead beside the road, crushed by a shifting stone in the lorry, or pinned under it, unable to get free slowly freezing to death out there in the snow.
“All-Mother, help me.” It was less prayer than disgusted grumble. She knew her mind was going full bore but she wasn’t thinking clearly at all.
She crossed to her bed, kicked off her boots, and crawled back into the bedroll. The flash was subsiding. The room was cold, and she needed to get a handle on her emotions before she did something stupid like haring down the Pike in search of a man who’d undoubtedly be driving along, huddled in his driving cloak and sipping a hot mug of tea while singing a bawdy song.
The idea of Frank singing a bawdy song made her giggle, but the warmth of her bedroll reached into her and soothed her jangled spirit. She took a deep breath of the cool air, then snuggled down into the woolen blankets and was surprised to find sleep waiting for her, ready to pounce. “All-Mother, help me.” More sigh than prayer, she wasn’t sure she’d actually said it before the wave of darkness washed over.
The snow floated down outside the tent of boughs. She crooned a bit as she roused and noted that the storm had not yet blown itself out. She puffed up her feathers a bit but was unable to get really warm. Winter was a hard season. With a loud caw, she launched herself off the limb and into the falling snow.
She snapped at a few of the flakes as she soared through them, banking sharply and winging across the village. The ground was blurry in the dim light and soft blanket of new fallen snow but she watched carefully for the small animals that might give up their lives to keep hers going. At the gap in the trees, she turned and followed man’s wide path. The exercise warmed cold muscles, but the snow obscured her vision and she found herself sailing only a few feet above the road, down in the gap between the trees and scanning for food. Looking for … something.
She heard it before she saw it. The jingle sound and a muffled rumble of hoof and wheel gave her warning enough to swoop sideways and avoid the wagon that loomed out of the curtain of snow. She cawed in alarm and circled once eying the man propped up on the seat and the horses plodding along through the snow. The man turned to look at her, the snow coating the brim of his hat and dusting across his shoulders. She dodged away through the trees. The attention of men was something to be avoided.
With a shock she realized that she’d left her own territory and turned herself toward home. It wouldn’t do to be caught here. She knew the pair who raised their young in this patch and they guarded it fiercely. The call she’d made might have alerted them so she kept silent and concentrated on moving quickly through the forest until she’d returned to her own turf.
She celebrated her return by cawing loudly three times to warn off anybody who may have thought she’d left and then she remembered the house where there were sometimes fat rabbits. She cawed once more and picked up her pace. Perhaps there’d be another rabbit today.
Tanyth felt exuberant as she broke through the surface of sleep. She crawled groggily out of her nest. It would be awhile yet, but she felt much better knowing he was safe and on his way back. She scurried to the hearth and tossed a couple more sticks onto the fire. Today she would stay home and not visit Amber or Sadie as was her wont. Solstice was coming and she needed to think of what she could make for her friends. She fanned the coals with her wing and blew on it. Her lips wouldn’t blow, there was no pucker, no give. Just the long horny bill and she realized she was still raven, or partly raven, or–
She awoke with a start and a banging in her chest. She held her hands up and looked at them. Fingers, yes. Fingers were good. She pursed her lips and blew before she dared to touch her face to see. She lifted the woolen blankets and looked down at her normal body–the cold air of the cabin washing the length of her, chilling her sweat. She pulled the blankets back down and held on to them tightly. The banging in her chest became a banging in her head and then it stopped. Her eyes flew open and her hand when to her chest to feel, but then the banging began again and she realized that it was somebody at her door.
“Mother Fairport! Mother Fairport! Are you alright?”
She opened her mouth to speak and the croak that came out scared her until she recognized her own dried throat and swallowed once to moisten it before calling again.
“I’m fine!”
She threw herself out of her bed and took one more inventory of extremities before slipping into her boots and hurrying to the door. She released the latch and swung it open to see Sadie standing there, bundled against the snow and carrying a basket over her arm.
“I’m fine. Really.” She stood back. “Come in and warm yourself, my dear.”
Sadie smiled brightly. Her cheeks were pinked by the wind and cold but she seemed energized by the snow. She came in and hurried over to stand by the side of the fire where the snow dropping off her boots and clothes would fall on the side of the hearthstone and soon evaporate.
Tanyth peeked out to see the snow fall tapering off. A ray of golden sun tried to break through the overcast. She closed the door securely, and turned to her visitor.
“When you didn’t come over after breakfast, we thought you might be under the weather, mum.” Sadie pulled down her muffler and extricated her arm from the basket.”
Tanyth pulled a couple of sticks from the woodbox and poked up the fire. “I’m fine, Sadie. Really. I just didn’t want to go out in the snow so I st
ayed close to the fire. I got drowsy and saw no good reason not to go back to bed.”
Sadie didn’t look convinced but she put the basket on the mantle board. “I brought you a couple loaves of fresh bread, mum, and there’s some cheese in there, too.” She looked around the small house and smiled. “You keep things so neat.”
Tanyth snorted. “It’s just me here and I don’t have that much to spread around.” She nodded with her head in the direction of Sadie’s house. “You’ve got your two, Thomas, all your things, all their things, and then visitors and hangers on.” She shook her head with a warm smile. “Your house is full of joy, Sadie. Joy isn’t neat.”
Sadie looked at the older woman for a moment before crossing to her and giving her a big hug and kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, mum.” Her voice was a husky whisper. “You’re welcome in my house any time, you know.”
Tanyth smiled. “Thank you, child. I’ll take you up on that, never fear. By spring you’ll be sick of seein’ me layin’ about on your hearth.”
Sadie pulled back to look her in the eye before hugging her even harder. “That will never happen, mum. Ever.”
Sadie pulled back suddenly and started bundling up. “Well, I better get back to my little house full of joy before the children decide to experiment with how well blankets burn on the hearth. We’ll be having dinner with Amber and William, if you’d like to join us, mum.”
Tanyth nodded with a smile. “Thank you, my dear. Perhaps I’ll pop over there this afternoon.”
Sadie grinned as she finished wrapping up. “Frank should be back today.”
Tanyth smiled. “Yes, and just in time.”
“Mum?” Sadie looked up confused.
Tanyth waved a hand. “Snow falling. William wanted to get the roof up before the snow.”
“Oh! This is nothing. I bet it’ll be gone by tomorrow. This time of year we get a bit of snow one day and go back to fall the next. Makes a mess, but doesn’t stay around. Hunter’s Moon is like that, but once we hit the Solstice...” She shivered dramatically. “Then the snow will get serious.” She shook her head. “No, with the foundation stones that Frank’s bringing, they’ll have a frame up within a week and a roof on by the new moon, you see if they don’t.”
Tanyth was surprised. “That fast?”
Sadie nodded with a grin. “They’re men, but they can move when they want to and there hasn’t been this much excitement here in ages.” Her musical laugh bounced off the rafters and Tanyth held the door for her while she climbed out and back into the snow.
The sun had broken through and while there were still flakes in the air, they sparkled brightly as they tumbled to earth. Sadie held out her hands to her sides, palm up. “See, mum? Almost stopped and I bet it’s half melted by nightfall.”
“I hope so! I’m not quite ready for snow yet.”
Sadie laughed again and gave a little wave as she headed back to her house, taking kicks at the snow as she walked just to see the sparkling drifts fall back to the ground.
Tanyth couldn’t help but laugh softly to herself. The terror of her waking dream had dissipated and if her vision were true then Frank should be along within a couple of hours. Remembering her vision, she frowned and stuck her head closer to the door, looking out to see if the raven had, in fact, come back. She didn’t see anything and had almost closed the door when she heard a faint thump on the roof followed by some scratching sounds. A small fall of snow cascaded down in front of the open door.
“Well, there you are.” She said it out loud wondering if the raven would hear, or understand.
She closed the door and latched it, listening to the scrabbling sound on her roof. She looked around for a moment before pulling yesterday’s bread heel from her breadbox and broke it into several pieces in the bottom of a flat basket. Her root cellar yielded one of the wild apples, and she scraped her left over oatmeal from the morning’s pot onto the side. She looked around but didn’t have anything else that looked appropriate and was leery about putting out too much.
Conscious of the rest of the village, she opened her back door and pushed the snow back from her threshold with her broom, clearing the loose snow from a small area before sliding the basket out onto the ground. “Thank you, my dear. Here’s a bit of breakfast for you in payment of your efforts. Sorry, I have no rabbit today.”
She felt strange talking to the raven and wasn’t even sure the bird could hear her, but the scrabbling sound of talons made a deliberate-sounding scratch and Tanyth saw the large bird sail out toward the tree line a few yards before turning and flying back toward the house. The raven landed on the snow a few feet from the back door and eyed her–or more probably the basket of food–but didn’t approach any closer.
With a feeling of something like awe, something like fear, she swung the door closed and clicked the latch down.
Chapter 36
Homecoming
In the middle of the afternoon, Tanyth heard the jingle of harness and the heavy tread of draft horses. She grabbed her wrap and woolen cap and ventured out into the bright sunny afternoon with staff in hand. As Sadie had predicted, the storm had cleared and the sun blazed in the afternoon sky. The snow seemed to evaporate even as she watched.
Frank saw her come out of her house. He nodded with a tip of his hat and big smile as he passed. The whole village turned out to meet him. The children broke off their snowman building in the back to come running down to see what was on the wagon. When they saw it was just a few rocks, they lost interest and went back to playing. From her vantage, Tanyth could see they were already soaked through. She didn’t envy whoever would be peeling the cold, clammy clothes from chilly bodies when the sun set.
William ran up to the building site to direct Frank and the team in the placement of the lorry wagon and after a bit of discussion, Jakey and the quarrymen hefted the heavy stones, one by one, off the bed of the wagon. Nine blocks were roughly cube shaped and about two feet on a side. Nine more were squared columns of rock some five feet long and nearly a foot across. They were all lashed to wooden handles that allowed six men to heave together to move them. As it was, six men could barely move the blocks and they didn’t move the stones far, except to pull them down off the wagon and place them near the prepared holes.
Tanyth stood with the women at the back of Amber’s house and watched the proceedings anxiously. The treacherous footing could easily result in a broken limb or worse with the heavy stones. Jakey directed and crew soon placed the stones neatly around the site.
When the crew pulled the last stone from the lorry, William climbed up beside Frank and the two men rode the wagon toward the barn while Jakey and his crew finished fiddling with the blue stones.
Amber blew out a breath as it became clear that the excitement for the day was well over. “That coulda been ugly.”
Sadie agreed with a nod. “But they really needed to get the weight off the wagon. If they’d left it sitting there the wheels would have been up to their hubs by morning.”
“I know.” Amber sighed. “Still makes me nervous, them messing about with stuff that can kill ’em.”
Megan laughed. “They’re just big excited kids. They can’t wait to play with the toys.”
Amber grinned. “Yes, well, I worry about the little kids, too.”
“What’ll they do now?” Tanyth watched the men looking at the stones and peering down the holes. The sun cast sparkles off the scuffed and muddy snow, but the crew remained at the site.
Amber pursed her lips and twitched her nose while she was thinking. “I think they’ll wait at least until tomorrow, if not the day after.”
Sadie made a humph sound. “Yeah. Probably so. I bet those holes are pretty wet on the bottom right now.”
Amber grinned. “I was thinking of them trying to get traction on the grass, but you’re probably right.”
Megan shook her head. “I bet they try to put one in today so they can use the Hunter’s Moon as the founding date.”
Amber frowned. “Does that matter?” She looked at Tanyth. “Mum?”
Tanyth shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. I’ve never been around when they started buildin’ a building before.” She thought about it. “Usually you plant on the new moon, but that’s two weeks out and I can’t imagine they’d wait that long.”
The women all stood in the warming rays of the sun, sheltered by the house and listening to the kids shrieking as they played on the other side of the village. The men stood out in the middle of the scuffed up snow and continued to mill about looking down in the holes.
“What are they doing out there?” Sadie’s exasperation was evident in her voice but she kept the volume down. “You’d think somebody out there would be looking for a cuppa tea or something, by now.”
Amber shook her head. “They’re waiting for something. Maybe William is coming back.”
Tanyth saw movement through the trees and nudged Amber. “Yep. And he’s got Bester. Looks like you were right, Megan.”
“Looks like.” She shook her head. “I was really just joking.”
They shared a quiet laugh before Amber nudged Tanyth. “Well, mum. You’d best get out there. If they’re gonna lay a stone, it would best if you blessed it.”
Tanyth started to object. She really wasn’t a holy woman to be blessing stones. She couldn’t remember ever praying more in her life than she had since arriving in the village. As she opened her mouth to say something, she saw the raven fly up out of the forest and alight in the top of the tall spruce at the edge of the wood. She thought better of her objections and walked out onto the cleared area, leaning heavily on her staff.