The gray light of morning brought pale rain with it and the tension became layered in the smell of wet wool. The cold and damp did nothing to help the situation. The quarrymen headed up the track and Sadie and Amber got their heads together to move all the children into the Mapleton house for the morning, while the menfolk slept at the Hawthornes’.
The morning crept along as life in the village went on. Children and animals needed caring for. The work of the day was merely complicated by being confined. The additional tension of watching for danger from outside was overridden by managing restive children. More than once, Tanyth saw either Sadie or Amber looking out the front door at the soggy landscape and the peeled sticks marking the corners of their future inn. Tanyth had to admit that the tiny cottages had a certain disadvantage over a large common room with a roaring hearth. As small as they were, cozy was soon replaced by cramped and Tanyth longed for the quiet solitude of the road–even in the rain.
Still, she had to admit as she sat on her rolled up bedroll and sipped her tea, there was much to be thankful for. There had been no dreams of ravens to trouble her, and there had been no attack. Of course, each of these carried an element of anxiety as well, but she refused to dwell on those.
At mid-morning, while Sadie and Amber were working on bread, Frank and Thomas came in from the barn, their clothing damp and redolent of animal. They dried themselves in front of the hearth and Amber plied them with hot tea. The conversation soon turned to the coming trip to Kleesport.
“Have you given any thought to who you’re going to take with you this trip, Frank?” Amber was frowning in concentration as she kneaded down a large ball of bread dough.
He seemed surprised by the question. “Take with me? Why would I take anybody with me?”
Sadie looked at him with a certain air of disbelief. “Well, Dandy Andy and his boyos aren’t exactly going to miss the fact that a large, slow moving lorry wagon loaded with clay is leavin’ now, are they?”
Frank shrugged. “I thought of that, but why would they bother it? If they interrupt the clay, they can’t get paid.”
“What if they steal it and sell it themselves? Along with the horses, and the wagon?”
Frank blanched and Thomas gave him a short glance out of the corner of his eye. “Didn’t think of that one?”
Frank shook his head. “No, I was thinkin’ they’d want us to get the money and bring it back to give to them.” He looked chagrined. “Never occurred to me they’d cut out the middleman.”
Amber tsked at him. “Well, think of it, foolish man.” She smiled to take the sting out. “We can’t afford to lose you.”
“Me or the clay?” He teased her back.
She rolled her bread dough into a ball and covered it with a bit of toweling to rise again before turning to him with a serious look on her face. “You. The clay, even the horses and wagon, we can replace.” She shook a finger at him. “You, you old coot, are not replaceable.”
He smiled and looked into his mug in embarrassment.
Thomas stirred and spoke up. “Jakey can send a couple of boys with you. Andy’s not going to bother a group of men.” He glanced around the hut full of women and children. “It’s not his style.”
Sadie looked at her husband curiously. “Do you know him?”
He shook his head. “No, but I know the type.”
Tanyth spoke up from her corner. “I agree. They’ll not risk getting hurt themselves when they can hit at things that won’t hit back.”
Two of the smaller children started a spat over a doll and the resultant noise and commotion drowned out further conversation on the subject but Tanyth could see that Frank was thinking about the trip. When the two children had been mollified with slices of buttered bread, the talk returned to the pending trip.
Amber turned to Frank. “Speaking of your trip, when are you leaving? I don’t have my list finished yet.”
Frank looked up. “I was hoping to leave in the morning tomorrow. A lot will depend on who will go with me.” He paused. “If anybody.”
Amber grinned at him. “Somebody is going with you, Frank. If only to run back to tell us how much trouble you’re in!”
He held up his hands in resignation. “Alright, alright. Somebody is goin’ with me, but I’m still hoping to get this settled this afternoon so I can get on the road in the mornin’.”
Amber nodded and looked at Sadie. “Can we get the list ready by then?”
Sadie shrugged. “Well, nobody’s gonna be goin’ anywhere today, between the weather and the boogie men. If we got going on it, we could probably get it done by dinner time.”
Amber saw Tanyth trying to make sense of the conversation. “We send a list to town with Frank. He gets what we need beyond the staples and brings them back to us.”
Frank grinned. “It’s somethin’ of a challenge, findin’ the stuff, but it livens things up when I go shoppin’ for fabric with the ladies.”
Tanyth admired his good humor over what must, at times, be a very trying experience for him.
His face turned serious after the general laughter died down. “This is the last run I’ll be makin’ a-fore spring so I’ll be needin’ to get enough to see us through the winter.”
“Lucky it’s a big wagon!” Thomas grinned at the older man.
Frank laughed. “Too right. This time we’ll be haulin’ back almost as much as we’re haulin’ in.”
Tanyth looked startled. “Really?”
Frank shook his head. “No, not really, mum. I’m exaggeratin’ a bit.”
Amber looked up from her mending. “Not by much he’s not. We’ll need extra grain for the animals and nearly a ton weight of flour.”
“Flour, beans, tea. Anything we don’t grow here, or make, I’ll need to bring it back.” Frank looked at Tanyth. “If you’ve got needs, mum?”
She looked uncertain. “Well, if I’m going to spend the winter here, I’ll need some supplies, but I don’t know if I have enough to pay for them all at once.”
Amber and Sadie looked up. “Are you, mum? Are you going to spend the winter with us?”
Even Frank and Thomas looked at her, hope in their eyes..
“Well, I’d feel funny leavin’ you all just now with the trouble and all.” She looked at the tea in her mug. “But I was plannin’ on gettin’ my winter supplies and such when I got to Kleesport.”
Amber and Sadie shared a glance and nodded. “You’ll need some warmer clothes, mum?”
“Yes, and some oatmeal? Rough milled oats for my morning meal. And tea. I’m beginning to run a bit low and I can’t be moochin’ off the neighbors all the time.” Her voice carried a note of uncertainty. “I don’t like livin’ on charity.”
Amber said, “Mum? You don’t ever think that here.” She gathered the gazes of Frank, Thomas, and Sadie before looking back at Tanyth, warmly welcoming but soberly serious. “We know what you’ve done for us already. You’ve paid your way for this winter, so don’t you be worryin’ about moochin’ off the neighbors.”
Tanyth was touched in a way that she hadn’t felt in many a winter. She’d always paid her way in hard coin and sometimes harder labor. She wasn’t a young woman herself, but the teachers she’d studied under were older still. Many of them lived alone and were happy for a bit of company and an extra pair of relatively younger hands to help out in the cold and dark of winter. Most of them lived simply but Tanyth earned coin by selling her herbs and poultices, and was in the habit of contributing to the general larder wherever she stayed for extended periods. For the first time in a very long time, she was being welcomed as a member of the family.
She blinked back the moisture that threatened her composure and sipped her tea while she caught her breath. “Thank you.”
Frank spoke up after clearing his throat. “You just put whatever you need on the list, mum. Tea, oatmeal, fabric, thread, needles. Anything you need, I’ll see to it that you’ll have it when I get back from Kleesport.”
Two different children starte
d squabbling and pushing and Amber clapped her hands sharply to get their attention. “You little critters behave or I’ll make you go fight outside.”
After the requisite round of “But, ma...” and “He was...” everybody settled down again. Frank and Thomas pulled on their outer clothes and headed for the door.
“We’ll just take a swing around, see if there’s anything happening out there,” Thomas said, pecking his wife on the cheek.
She nodded and pecked him back. “You watch yourself, Thomas Hawthorne.” She said it softly and there was a hint of real worry in it.
He smiled and nodded before following Frank out the door.
The morning spun to a finish after a fashion and even the children adapted to the enforced curtailment of activity. Lunch was bread and cheese toasted on sticks. Playing with the fire gave even the youngest a chance to cook her own lunch and occupied them for nearly an hour.
With full bellies, warmed by the fire, and just slightly bored from being cooped up all day, the children curled up in piles in the corners and fell asleep. Even Tanyth felt the pull of slumber as she sat on her bedroll and partook very sparingly of the general activity in the hut. She sat back out of the purposeful way of the two younger women who worked together to bake bread and keep the stew from burning on. The feeling of warmth and comfort conspired to find her nodding and napping, leaning back against the wall of the hut with nothing particular to do. Every so often she’d wake to find Amber or Sadie smiling in her direction. After the third time, she stood up.
Amber and Sadie both looked at her sudden movement. “Is everything alright, mum?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but if I sit there any longer I’m going to be napping with the children. How can I help?”
The two younger women looked at each other. “What’s wrong with napping with the children?” Amber’s clear smile made Tanyth smile back.
“Not a thing, but there’s work to do, and I’m not some grandmother to tuck in a corner and nap the day away. How can I help?”
Amber looked about the hearth. “Well, the bread’s baking and dinner is cooking. I’ve finished the mending and there’s no sense to wash clothes today.” She looked pointedly at the door.
Sadie sat up straight. “We should be working on that list for Frank. He’ll not want to wait for that, and I did say we’d have it for him tonight.” She looked at Tanyth. “Can you write, mum? You could help us with makin’ the list.”
She blinked at them. “Why, yes, of course. That sounds very good. Just show me what to do.”
Sadie looked at Amber. “I left it at the house. I’ll just pop over and pick it up.”
Amber looked shocked. “You’ll do no such thing without somebody to go with you!”
“It’s just next door, Amber. I’ll be but a minute.”
Amber was adamant so Tanyth grabbed her hat and a cloak. “I’ll go with her. It’ll be fine.”
The two women stepped out of the back door and into a damp mist–too light to be rain, too wet to be fog–and crossed the few steps to Sadie’s house. Inside Sadie found the rolled up list and a small pot of ink and a pen with a copper nib. She held up the pen for Tanyth to see. “We used to use charcoal but three winters back, Frank sweated all over the list and the charcoal ran. He had to guess what it said.” She laughed. “He brought us back proper pens and Mother Alderton made us some ink.”
“How’d he do on the guessing?”
“Well, just say that we ate a lot of gingerbread that winter and nobody got a new gingham dress.”
Tanyth laughed. “Well, gingham dresses aren’t exactly warm in winter.”
Sadie grinned. “True enough, and the gingerbread sure tasted good.”
They scampered back to the Mapleton’s without incident and settled in to working up the supply list for Frank.
After an hour of careful thought, and even more careful calculations, they finished the list and Tanyth gained new respect for the resourceful pair.
Chapter 18
Equinox
Frank brought the loaded lorry wagon down from the quarry in late afternoon and parked it behind the village in preparation for an early departure. He was excused from guard duty and Jakey teamed up with Thomas for the early shift, leaving William and one of the more senior quarrymen for the later one. The grim business of deciding which of the younger quarrymen would go with Frank and which would stay with the village boiled down to a series of arm wrestling matches, three winners earning the privilege of a ride to town and back along with a certain amount of good-natured teasing about the trouble they’d be getting into while there. Hopeful expectation filled the air, driven in part by the realization that a full day had passed without the expected attack. Everybody but Thomas, William, and Tanyth believed that the bullying had been nothing but boast.
Afternoon faded to evening and the village quickened in preparations for the celebration of the equinox, a soft drizzle petering out as sunset approached. Frank and Tanyth, as the eldest members of the village, were designated to honor the All-Mother and All-Father by presenting the harvest gifts at moonrise. Frank knew the ceremony, having fulfilled the role in three of the four prior years. Tanyth felt honored–if a bit overwhelmed–to be taking Mother Alderton’s role in the Harvest Celebration to mark the midpoint of autumn.
As the day drew to a close, Tanyth took Amber aside. “Is there something that Mother Alderton did that’s special to the village?”
Amber shook her head. “Just a simple offering in thanks for the harvest. She wasn’t much on ceremony.”
Tanyth nodded and thought about her prayer to the All-Mother while they waited in the gathering dark for the silver disk to rise above the trees. While she waited, she remembered previous Harvest Moon celebrations. Her teachers were frequently called on to thank the All-Mother and the seamed, smiling, and tanned faces from her past slipped through her mind.
At sunset, the scudding clouds broke open enough to reveal darkening sky and the whole village turned out to honor the full moon at equinox. At the first hint of silver through the trees, Frank turned to the north and sprinkled a bit of apple cider onto the ground. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Earth.” He turned and spilled a few more drops onto the ground while facing the moon rising in the east. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Air.” He turned to the south and repeated his delicate spilling. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Fire.” He turned to the west where the setting sun had already dipped below the horizon but where the clouds that had covered them all day continued to obscure the sky. He spilled a few more drops from his cup. “Thank you to the Guardian of the Water.” He closed his circle and poured out the final drops of cider and they spattered wetly on the soggy soil. “Thank you to the All-Father for the bounteous harvest and the cycle of another year.” He stepped back to give Tanyth room.
The moon continued its inexorable climb. As she stepped up, the full sheen appeared above the trees and cast her in an almost blue light as she faced the north and shook her sheaf of wheat to release a few of the grains. “Thank you to the Guardian of the North, Bones of the World, for the soil in which we grow.” Even as she turned she could feel the earth beneath her boot soles–gritty and moist, tired after a season of growing, but fecund yet and filled with potential. She shook her sheaf again as a gentle gust tossed the grains upon the ground. “Thank you to the Guardian of the East, Breath of the World, for the air that nourishes us–plant and animal alike.” Turning south she repeated the shake. “Thank you to the Guardian of the South, Soul of the World for the passion of life that renews us.” She felt the heat in her belly rising as she turned to the west, clouds breaking open to show the ruddy final glow of the sun sinking below the horizon, unseen behind tree and hill. “Thank you to the Guardian of the West, Blood of the world, for the water that let’s us flourish and grow.” She turned back to the north and shook the sheaf one last time, the final grains raining onto the damp soil. “Thank you, All-Mother, for the gifts of your body and the frui
t of your fields which nurture and keep us all the year round.” They stood there for a moment. Tanyth facing north with the villagers arrayed in a half circle behind her. Something quivered in the air and slowly subsided as the moon swam ever upwards and bathed the village in its argent light.
Tanyth turned to see them all staring at her. She looked uneasily from face to face starting with Frank’s slack-jawed expression and then scanning across the small crowd of adults and children. Their eyes were all dark and round. Some looked awed. Some looked frightened. All looked at her.
She glanced up at Frank at her side and her voice was low. “Did I do something wrong?”
Frank shook his head dumbly, his eyes wide.
Tanyth looked back across the small crowd and they seemed to be blinking and moving about, if a bit dazedly. Almost as if they were waking up.
Amber moved first. She stepped forward and curtsied. William stepped up and bowed. One by one each of the inhabitants of the village stepped forward and bowed or curtsied while Frank and Tanyth stood for the All-Father and All-Mother. Tanyth smiled and nodded, acknowledging each one down to the smallest child. When they were done, everyone sauntered off in the silvery light to find their evening meals. William, Amber, and the two children waited for Frank and Tanyth at the edge of the track to escort them to the house for dinner.
Tanyth turned to Frank once more as the last of the villagers finished their obeisance and wandered off. She held out her arm as a prompt and he took the cue and held his up under hers in proper form to escort her from the field.
She leaned in and murmured to him. “That was unusual. I’ve never seen a Harvest Moon Celebration quite like that.”
He turned his face toward her. “Me, either, mum.”
She caught his look. “What? That wasn’t the way it’s been done here before? I thought Mother Alderton did the ceremony.”
He all but laughed. “Mother Alderton wasn’t much on ceremony, mum.” He blew out a breath. “I’ve never seen–or felt–anything like that.”
She cast him a look out of the corner of her eye, but they were approaching Amber and William who turned to lead them onward and she let it drop.